YMMV / Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

• Abridged Arena Array: Dome. Other maps tend to get middling votes in, but Dome easily gets 5+ votes if it's a selectable map for the next round. It's essentially the Modern Warfare equivalent of Nuketown for being tiny yet open. Failing that, it's the ported version of Terminal from 2, which gets almost as many votes if it's up against anything except Dome.
• Ass Pull: The Russian military having enough might to invade all of Europe simultaneously within only three months of pulling out of a full-scale invasion of the U.S.. The game handwaves this by saying that Makarov's chemical attacks had weakened the local defenses sufficiently enough, thereby allowing ground forces to casually roll in and occupy the capital cities (never mind that real-life militaries are already equipped and trained against chemical weapons). However, even with the series' own Alternate History implying that the Ultranationalists have the largest military force on Earth ^note which contradicts a line in MW2 wherein Shepherd says that America has "the largest military force known to man" (though that could just be an overstatement which would not be out-of-character on his part), their over-abundance of resources and manpower directly conflicts with the losses they were already shown to have sustained in their war with the U.S.. MW2 made a big deal of showing how their resources were stretched pathetically thin, with their soldiers needing to loot local homes and military bases for supplies (e.g., they're shown using stolen American Javelins to attack the evac site at the Washington monument), and it is implied that the nuke which Price detonated over Washington D.C. had destroyed much of their air force. Then 3 begins with them being forced to call off the invasion after Team Metal hijacks their commanding submarine and uses its missiles to wipe out a substantial portion of their Navy. Even if one concedes that the forces which occupy Europe are explicitly stated to be ground forces (rather than air or sea-based forces), that still doesn't explain how they have suddenly amassed enough tanks and well-trained soldiers to occupy and repress survivors in every capital city and military base in the entire continent of Europe, especially given how many of their soldiers you've been killing over the past two games. It also doesn't explain how they managed to make it all the way from their border to Paris in only a day. Zero Punctuation in particular had a lot of fun with this:
  Yahtzee: Now I've never invaded Europe except for that one time, but I would think that's a project you might want to stagger out a bit if you haven't forged an alliance with any galactic empires lately! [...] Presumably while waiting for the order, large groups of Russian soldiers were all camped outside each European city disguised as trees.
• Best Level Ever: The game has quite a few great levels, from taking on Ultranationalist commandos in India with the mood all perfectly set by a fantastic opening cutscene, to sneaking in Russian-occupied Prague assisted by Kamarov and freedom fighters. But none quite stand out as much as the absolute power trip that is the final mission: "Dust to Dust". Playing as Price with assistance on ground from Yuri and intel from Nikolai, you storm the hotel in which Makarov is hiding whilst mowing down what remains of his Ultranationalist Inner Circle. The thing is, you're decked out in juggernaut armor and LMGs—you take far more damage here and only go back to normal halfway through. It's a nice bone thrown to the player after Makarov and his men have killed so many of your allies and civilians. Finally, when you get to the end of the level, you at last get to kill the bastard by wrapping a cable around his neck and plunging him to a painful death by hanging.
  Objective Completed.
• Catharsis Factor: Given that Makarov lead the airport massacre, caused World War III, detonated the nuke that kill 30,000 soldiers, and killed Soap, it’s very satisfying to give Makarov his slow death.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Disappointing Last Level: Though the final level where you get to mow down the Inner Circle in a Juggernaut suit is widely agreed to be one of the best levels in the entire trilogy, the second half of the campaign is considered rushed and anti-climactic, as the number of levels which rehash familiar concepts and assets from earlier in the trilogy begin to outnumber those with new and original mechanics (clearly a result of the game's Troubled Production). For starters, the two missions set in Germany are highly evocative of the Washington D.C. levels in Modern Warfare 2 (complete with an In Medias Res sequence of the player character looking at their hands in slow-motion), and "Iron Lady" has an AC-130 segment which is widely seen as weaker than that in the first Modern Warfare.^note Which is Hilarious in Hindsight given that the reason MW2 had no AC-130 level was specifically because the devs thought it would pale in comparison to that of MW1. "Eye of the Storm" and "Blood Brothers" are an admitted retread of "All Ghillied Up" and "One Shot, One Kill", but are still positively regarded due to the former's tragic atmosphere and the latter being the game's Wham Episode. "Stronghold" is likewise seen as an enjoyable, stealth-based remix of "The Gulag", but would perhaps be more fondly regarded had the aforementioned "Eye of the Storm"—which is also stealth-based—not happened only two levels ago. Lastly, while "Down the Rabbit Hole" does provide a serviceable denouement to the story, it is still an obvious rehash of "No Fighting in the War Room" with a Predator UAV sequence lifted straight from the second half of MW2's "Contingency".
• Goddamned Bats:
  • The chemical troops in Survival mode. They're no tougher than regular soldiers and poorly armed, but their gas clouds slow you down, and they plant gas claymores that will often hit you and slow you at the worst possible moments.
  • In the same vein: claymore specialists. Like chemical troopers, they're not well-armed or armored, but they leave surprises lying around the map which you likely won't notice while running away from Juggernauts and bomb-dogs. They're not powerful enough to kill you outright unless you're already wounded, but setting off one while getting shot at is a death sentence, and their mere presence on the map will leave you very paranoid.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The scenery of the Russian Invasion of Europe—especially the Czech Republic; right down to the execution of civilians and the survivors forming a resistance—now hits much harder in light of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, during which Russian forces have committed various war crimes resulting in many civilian deaths and is generally seen as the first international conflict to hit Europe since the Yugoslav Wars, prompting numerous Ukrainian civilians to join their military and fight off the invasion. Fortunately for the Ukrainians, Russian forces encountered extreme difficulties and failed to subdue its relatively weaker neighbor (with two years and several hundreds of thousands of casualties having passed without them taking a single major city), while this game has them conquering half of Europe off-screen in a matter of days.
  • The DLC Special Ops mission "Arctic Recon" has you storming a Slava-class missile cruiser, planting beacons to guide cruise missiles in to sink it. Fast forward to 2022, and Moskva (formerly Slava), the lead ship of the Slava-class, was sunk by two anti-ship cruise missiles.
  • In the sixth mission, "Back On The Grid," Price tells Soap to "try not to die this time". Guess what happens later in the story...
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Bruce Greenwood, who voices Overlord in this game, had previously acted as one of the inept National Guardsmen in First Blood, the first film in the Rambo films; the Action Hero Rambo himself would later appear as an optional Player Character in the multiplayer mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone.
  • Back when the game was released, it was subject to heavy criticism and review-bombed on Metacritic for being a Mission-Pack Sequel, a sentiment which was not helped by how a lot of non-fans had become fatigued by the Call of Duty craze. However, the game still rated highly with critics and once again managed to set record-breaking sales. Come 2023, another game with the same namesake yet set in a different universe has been even more negatively received by players and critics alike. And as the cherry on top, said game ends on a Sequel Hook whereas this game is a proper Grand Finale for the Modern Warfare sub-story before it was rebooted in 2019.
• Inferred Holocaust: Russia's miraculous performance in Europe—being able to overrun all of the continent up to Paris—is attributed to chemical weapons being deployed liberally against the capital cities and military bases (never mind the fact that modern militaries are equipped and drilled against such). Try not to think too much about what happened to the civilians in cities like Berlin, Brussels or Warsaw.
• Narm Charm:
  • Despite the supposed silliness of the extent of Makarov's villainy in this game, one can't deny how well it depicts someone who goes from random mook to a straight-up world threat.
  • In "Mind the Gap," after the train crashes under Westminster and you and your teammate are left to fight your way through the remaining baddies alone, Wallcroft says: "Come on, mate! Let's give these bastards a proper British welcome!" It sounds hilarious on paper, but the sheer awe of the level, combined with Craig Fairbrass' outstanding line delivery which perfectly balances thrill and fear with anger and exasperation over the loss of several fellow S.A.S. members in the train crash turn what would otherwise be a Narmful line into quite an awesome moment.
  • The Exploding Truck in Davis Family Vacation is seen as hilariously abrupt by many, but that is just how terrorist attacks play out from the perspective of a civilian.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Lag compensation. Infinity Ward did managed to remedy this somewhat by slowly patching it to better recreate the feel of MW1 and 2, by then, it was too little, too late, and the majority of players had already moved on.
  • The spawns in multiplayer are absolutely atrocious. It is entirely possible for another player to spawn right behind you immediately after if you kill them—this is called "revenge spawning."
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: The game on Veteran difficulty is insane compared to the second game. Not only can you survive much less damage, but enemies are suddenly psychic and have superhuman reflexes and perfect aim. The only concession is that they're not constantly spamming you with 6 grenades at the same time like in Call of Duty: World at War.
• Sequelitis: Though still wildly successful upon release, MW3 is generally seen as a bit of a letdown compared to its predecessors. Admittedly, much of this is a case of Tough Act to Follow since MW1 and 2 were runaway hits which would define the FPS genre for years, but even fans of this game generally concede that much of its gameplay and various setpieces—particularly in the later half of the campaign—are overly derivative of missions from MW1 and 2. Story-wise, Makarov's villainy, the tighter focus on the now-disavowed TF-141 trying to thwart Makarov via covert ops, the return of the Russian loyalists and greater focus on the ongoing turmoil within the Ultranationalist movement are widely applauded, as is its more somber narrative which graphically showcases the true cost of war. The fact that the game neatly ties up its plot threads and doesn't continue the Modern Warfare tradition of ending on a cliffhanger is also commended. However, the implausibility of Russia having enough manpower to invade all of Europe within only three months of pulling out of a full-scale war with the U.S. is broadly derided, as is the game's drab color palette, more standard America Saves the Day tone and rushed ending which sees the entire Russian-NATO war being resolved in a single pre-mission cutscene. The multiplayer and Spec Ops missions aren't seen as much of an improvement over those in MW2 either, although Survival Mode is considered a worthy addition.
• Take That, Audience!: To the Moral Guardians and other such players, the alternative ending to "Mind The Gap" can be seen as this. There was widespread controversy directed at the franchise after the previous game's "No Russian", and both it and Mind The Gap gave players the option to skip their upsetting content. However, unlike "No Russian," this has an effect on the story—If the skip is chosen, "Davis Family Vacation" does not take place, and the otherwise empty van which the SAS stopped blows up, killing all but Wallcroft and maybe Burns (you). So in saving a family of 3, including a little girl, you just killed around 10 SAS soldiers instead. Well done…
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The previous game's American campaign ended with the cast speculating when they'd go to Moscow, the the implication that they would stoop to Russia's level when they invaded. Instead, we're just treated to more of Russia invading other countries before its Reasonable Authority Figure leader is rescued and the Russian Ultranationalist leadership gets off scot-free.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Russia in this game is depicted as both a military superpower able to convincingly challenge NATO and a semi-reasonable actor that, could the renegades be disposed with, would be on the path to peace and cooperation with the West. Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and especially its escalation of it in 2022, showcased a very embarrassing military performance on its part and caused the USA-EU bloc to go full-hog on sanctions that severed almost all of their pre-war economic relations, dating both images firmly to the early 2010s when the game was made.
• Vindicated by History: Upon release, despite beating the record-breaking sales set by the franchise since Modern Warfare 2, a lot of the playerbase had become more vocally fatigued by the traditional Call of Duty formula—not helped by Modern Warfare 3 looking and playing too similarly to its predecessor while its rival series had an installment released around the same time which looked like a breath of fresh air by comparison. This left 3 with an unfortunate reputation as the black sheep among the Modern Warfare trilogy, especially when comparing it to the previous games or its immediate successor which enjoyed a much more celebrated fan-favorite status. However, revisits to this game in the latter part of the decade—both in its more-or-less immediate aftermath with Call of Duty: Ghosts having no returning or memorable characters and a story cut short due to negative fan reception, and especially in the wake of the 2019 reboot being even more divisive in its writing and characters—led to renewed appreciation and a more dedicated fanbase keeping its multiplayer alive. It helps that this is one of the few games in the franchise to conclude its plot nicely, rather than continuing the first Modern Warfare tradition of a Downer Ending, unsatisfying ending, or an ending which raises more questions than answers, something which was sadly played completely straight with the rebooted threequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, which is among the most critically panned campaigns in the franchise's history.

---