WW2 #31: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
Better than the others but still pointless
This review was originally posted to Twitter on February 25, 2020
Initial release: November 8, 2011
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: n-Space
After the shitshow that was the first two Modern Warfare DS games, one could be forgiven for assuming that the third colon cancer-riddled title would be more of the same. and yet somehow Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Defiance isn’t as bad as the others. That’s not to say it’s a significant improvement. But it’s an incremental one.
Graphically the game looks better than ever, making better use of the limited hardware of the DS. The game feels more dynamic, too; it’s not as stale and lifeless as the first two. One of the biggest upgrades is that they finally give you the option to use the face buttons to look up and down rather than the stylus. The stylus mode also brings back the double-tap for ADS or you can hit the button like in Mobilized. So, you have options. Even better, the game’s plot, such as it is, actually has something to do with the main games (and serves as a sort of prequel to the main Modern Warfare 3.) It’s still NPCs you don’t care about and missions that don’t matter, but they’re relatively fun for the most part. The music is pretty nice; a mix of bombastic traditonalist orchestral stuff with some pretty good post-rock chords to add a bit of spice to a series that mostly relies on electronica to make it feel modern. It’s a nice touch, even if there’s a very limited number of songs.
So you might be thinking, how is this game only a little better than its heart-shittingly awful predecessors?
Well… in spite of all the improvements, there’s a serious lack of polish to this game that I find infuriating. Scripting errors abound — I’ve often had to reload my save just to force my NPC buddies to move. The minigames are even worse — the number pad hacking returns, with even less time to do it in. The AC-130 missions have gotten progressively shittier and they hit the nadir here. There’s a lot of little moments where it’s not clear what to do next because the gameplay suddenly changes with no warning and no instructions. Early on I died repeatedly when the perspective suddenly changed to a remote bomb that I didn’t know how to control. Even with traditional face button control, you still need the stylus for everything from interacting with things to the minigames. And while the stylus offers better control, the hit detection is… nearly nonexistent. So you have options… but those options aren’t great.
The game also imposes situations where you have to rush to accomplish something in an extremely tight window, a matter of seconds, and it’s not always clear what it is. The finale is the worst: rush into a crowd of enemies, grab an RPG and take down a helicopter. In five seconds.
So while at the end of the day this game is less awful than the other two DS games, it’s still not something I would recommend unless you really like Call of Duty. And if you do, why not play the actual Modern Warfare 3 instead?
