Video Game / Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

This page assumes you have played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, all spoilers for both games' singleplayer campaign and Spec Ops missions will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"Never bury your enemies alive."

"The ultimate threat awaits."

The one to celebrate twenty years of staying frosty.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is the twentieth overall entry in the Call of Duty series, and the third entry in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) series, a Continuity Reboot of the original Modern Warfare trilogy.

It's been a year since Task Force 141 took down Iranian Quds Force Major Hassan Zyani and prevented him from using America's weapons against them. Peace isn't on the horizon, however, as a Russian Ultranationalist PMC group known as the Konni Group has surfaced, breaking their leader Vladimir Makarov out of a gulag after four years of imprisonment. Seeking to restore Russia to its former glory, Makarov and his unit begin a campaign of terror, starting with an invasion of Urzikstan. Task Force 141 knows Makarov all too well, though, and commence their own mission to bring him to justice before he can spark a full-on war with the west. Along the way, they'll have to contend with the fallout of their ill-fated partnership with Shadow Company...

In addition to the franchise-standard multiplayer suite, which includes all 16 maps from the original Modern Warfare 2, MWIII also includes its own take on the series' Zombies mode in place of the previous game's co-op missions. This time, Zombies sees players drop into the Urzikstani desert, working together to survive the undead hordes in an open-world experience similar to Outbreak in Black Ops Cold War, as well as DMZ in MWII. The Urzikstan map is also set to be incorporated into Warzone, as a replacement for MWII's Al Mazrah map.

It was first teased on August 7th, 2023, was officially revealed via the Warzone 2.0 Shadow Siege event on August 17th, and was released on November 10th on the same platforms as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC). The reveal trailer can be found here while the reveal of the character Makarov can be found here.

Not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from 2011.

---

This video game provides examples of:

• A.K.A.-47: Perhaps the most egregious example in the series to date, as not only are the names fictional, but the game leans more heavily on fictionalizing aspects of the weapons. The Scorpion Evo 3, though correctly named in the gameplay demo, is now the "Rival-9"; the SVA 545 is comparable to the AN-94 gameplay-wise but is modeled as more or less an AN-94 barrel and gas piston mated to a regular AK-74 receiver with some elements of the Type 81 (the magazine shifted forward, rather than having the mag release meet the trigger guard); the venerated ACR is now the "MCW" for its regular version and the "Sidewinder" for a .450 Bushmaster conversion; and the AMR-9 is a Model 635/991 hybrid with a fictional handguard extension for mounting lasers and lights. Even the CZ 805 BREN went through two names, called the "Draekur-556" in the campaign premiere before being renamed again to "MTZ-556" for the released game. Weapon blueprints can be named with more accurate names, averting this trope if the player cares enough to research the correct names.
• All There in the Manual: How Alex is still alive after his apparent death at the end of the first Modern Warfare, and how Graves is still alive after the Climax Boss fight you had with him at the end of Modern Warfare II and why Farah trusts him, are all covered in Warzone's multiplayer seasonal content which many players may be unfamiliar with.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Done in spades with the playable cast, although there are still some familiar faces. The very first mission of the game has you playing as Makarov's eventual right-hand man, Andrei Nolan. Later on, you take control of Captain Price for first time in the campaign, and even Laswell.
• Art Evolution: As time went on, more and more deluxe skins were outright silly, futuristic, out-of-genre, or unrealistic; compare the Mythology Gag remake of E3N being more like modern-day armor that only suggests a robotic aesthetic to later skins that are robots, like the Cyber Junkie or Scorpio Scout skins, the crossovers with shows like The Boys that has an aesthetic subverting that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Warhammer 40,000's over-the-top mashup of every sci-fi work there ever was, or even celebrities like Nicki Minaj or Snoop Dogg.
• Artifact Title: Played with in terms of the map "Skidrow". While "skidrow" is slang for any sort of run-down urban area, the original Skidrow map was based on the real-life neighborhood in Los Angeles named "Skid Row". The remastered version in this game places it in New York City.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: Ghost identifies a green Deadly Gas (the same from Warzone) as concentrated sarin. However, sarin is a colorless, odorless nerve agent and doesn't cause people's faces to melt off like say, Nova-6.
• Artistic License – Military:
  • The MCW 6.8 rifle was claimed during the beta to be chambered in the MCX Spear's .277 Fury round (a full-power battle rifle cartridge) rather than the intermediate 6.8x43mm Remington SPC cartridge that was offered as an option for the real-life ACR. The released game changed this... to "6.8mm Wraith", equivalent to the 6.8mm TVCM used by the RM277 (the "Cronen Squall" of MWII), which is still closer to a battle rifle cartridge (same length as 7.62mm NATO). This is also all in spite of that the model is still visibly using a magazine of STANAG dimensions, which is far too small to carry either of these larger .277 cartridges.
  • The TAQ Eradicator (based on the FN HAMR) is actually a 7.62mm SCAR-H with a drum magazine, while the real HAMR is chambered in 5.56mm, much like the HAMR's first appearance in Black Ops II.
  • The most serious offender however is the Longbow sniper rifle, which is actually a bolt-action 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov rifle. No such configuration exists in any real-life AK, with its closest approximation, the Ukrainian Gopak, being straight-pull bolt action. Partially justified in-game by its description, which describes it as "heavily modified".
  • The TAQ Evolvere has a top-open feed cover typical of most machine gun designs, instead of the side-open feed cover unique to the FN EVOLYS, which the Evolvere is based on.
• Bittersweet Ending: Makarov's plans are foiled and his army has taken a crippling blow. The ULF’s terrorist designation is cleared during a Congressional hearing, and General Shepherd’s treachery against Task Force 141 is finally brought to light. However, Soap is killed by Makarov, who manages to escape to fight another day, which causes Price to finally take care of Shepherd.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • For the first time in twenty years the direct sequel to a Call of Duty game is being released as the next overall installment in the series to its canonical predecessor. This also marks the first time a Modern Warfare game was developed primarily by a studio other than Infinity Ward (Sledgehammer Games also developed the original Modern Warfare 3, but only completing the unfinished development left by Infinity Ward after the leadership and many of the developers defected or were fired from from the company), as well as the first time a Modern Warfare title has a Zombies mode.
  • On a much smaller note, this is the first time a proper rifle-length G36 appears in a Call of Duty game, as previously only its subcarbine (G36C) and machine gun (MG36, or rather a G36K dressed up as one) siblings have appeared, although the Holger-26 machine gun in Modern Warfare I can be modified into a G36 through the Gunsmith system.
• Continuity Nod: The teaser trailer repeats Price's assertion of "cutting heads off snakes" and Makarov "not [being] new".
• Continuity Snarl: The "Flashpoint" level is a flashback to one of Task Force 141's earliest operations, but is stated at the beginning to be set on April 6th, 2019, which would place it about seven months before TF141 was even formed in this continuity - it didn't happen until after the 2019 Modern Warfare's campaign, which took place from October 25th to November 4th of that year.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Many of the levels in the single player campaign are rather obviously environments taken from the Verdansk map in Warzone, though some of these are justified by certain levels taking place in Verdansk.
• Enemy Mine: TF 141, Shepherd, and Shadow Company begrudgingly join forces to take down Makarov. While critical to destroying Konni in Urzikstan, any cooperation afterwards ends. Even Farah and the ULF end their decade-long partnership with Shepherd after realizing how much he's willing to lie to save his own skin.
• Everything Is 3D-Printed in the Future: By default, all the Aftermarket Parts and conversions are almost entirely textured as 3D-printed plastic or carbon fiber, even when they are made out of metal or injection-molded plastic in reality or where 3D printing wouldn't make sense (i.e. machine gun receivers).
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the first level, you're a member of a special ops team infiltrating a Russian prison, similar to a level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However, your teammates seem remarkably uncaring about civilian casualties—while they warn you not to shoot the other prisoners, they justify it when it happens by saying "A dead prisoner can't riot"—when, in most cases, the level will end if you shoot a civilian. In fact, you're playing as a member of Konni group, breaking Makarov out.
• Gangsta Style: Tactical Stance is a new aiming mechanic between hipfire and aiming down sights, where the player braces the weapon at an angle but does not aim down the sights. Faster than ADS, more precise than hipfire.
• Guns Do Not Work That Way:
  • The BP50 (FN F2000), same as it was in Vanguard, has a hole in the stock where the fire control group should be.
  • While double-barreled rifle concepts do exist in reality, they are essentially two (or more) guns combined into a single receiver. The various double-barreled Aftermarket Parts depicts them feeding from the same magazine, which would be mechanically impossible.
  • The "JAK Burnout Kit" for the Holger 26 (G36K) gives it a blistering rate of fire that also sets the gun on fire after 20 rounds. Not only would it take much more sustained fire to heat a barrel to where it starts glowing, but no one in their right mind would want to intentionally do so. The heating is also completely cosmetic and the gun instantly cools upon ceasing fire, with no damage to barrel, gun, or operator.
• Gunship Rescue: Just like in the previous game, you take control of a Shadow Company AC-130 in the penultimate level while Task Force 141 storms the hangers for Makarov's chemicals, with the standard armaments plus countermeasures against missiles.
• Heavily Armored Mook:
  • Armored enemies make a return from Modern Warfare II, though you have access to various advantages such as armor-piercing bullets or higher-caliber machineguns to make killing them a bit easier.
  • Shield-Bearing Mook enemies make a return, however unlike previous games in the series most of them now wear body armor, making them even harder to bring down.
  • Similar to Modern Warfare (2019), Black Ops: Cold War, and Vanguard, Juggernaut-type enemies appear in the single-player campaign, with two appearing at various points in "Payload", and a pair of them serving as a Final Boss fight of sorts towards the end of the final mission. They're about 50% more durable than they were in Modern Warfare (2019), though you can break their helmets with concentrated fire to kill them with a headshot.
  • Andrei Nolan is noted as wearing heavy armor in "Highrise", so you can shoot him all you want when chasing him without worrying about failing the mission to capture him alive. At the end of the chase you corner him and he ends up accidentally blasting himself with a smoke grenade when you try to get close.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: TF 141 more often than not go without helmets, compared to previous titles. A typical ballistic helmet would have saved Soap's life in the last mission from a close-range pistol round.
• Impersonating an Officer: The mission "Flashpoint" has SAS fight against Inner Circle members who impersonate Verdansk police officers to massacre civilians.
• Just Train Wrong: The second half of the final mission takes place at a maintenance point somewhere in the Channel Tunnel and has trains passing through the area that can run you or your enemies over. There are much more trains going through the area in-game (roughly one every 30 seconds in either direction) than go through the real-life Channel Tunnel (400 per day on a normal day, which average to one train in either direction every 3 minutes and a half).
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Makarov's reveal is of him inside a Russian prison. However, given the events of the previous game and his relevance in this game, it appears he maintains good control and communications with his ultranationalist partners while inside prison. The fact he's allowed to wear a nice suit instead of the prison outfits the other gulag prisoners have to wear, and has ready access to cigarettes, also implies he's receiving favorable treatment as a result of his influence.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Although every Call of Duty since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) has been built on that game's engine and assets (notably all sharing similar-feeling gunplay and movement, just with different weapons, historical setting, tweaked character health/accuracy, etc), Modern Warfare III is by far the most noticeable example of a Mission Pack Sequel, heavily re-using assets from Modern Warfare II and Warzone. In fact it was originally supposed to be a DLC campaign for Modern Warfare II before Activision told Sledgehammer Games to expand it into a full stand-alone game.
• Moody Trailer Cover Song: The trailer is scored to an ominous version of Blue Öyster Cult "(Don't Fear) the Reaper", underscoring the higher stakes in the story now that Makarov is making his moves to start another global war.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The "wavelength" effect of the title screen is evocative of the original Modern Warfare 3 title screen, and even starts off with the iconic green color scheme.
  • The beginning of the game has a team of soldiers infiltrate a gulag in order to spring a Prisoner 627, a reference to Task Force 141 rescuing Captain Price from a gulag in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However, rather than Price they're rescuing, it's Makarov.
  • During the final mission, you can find (and pet) a dog called Riley, which was the name of the dog in Call of Duty: Ghosts.
  • Both the final missions of this game and the original Modern Warfare 3 feature Makarov poised to deliver a Coup de Grâce upon an immobilized Price only to be interrupted by Price's squadmate wounding him, forcing him to shoot them dead in retaliation.
  • Ghost appears at the end of the flashback mission dressed as his 2009 counterpart did: a balaclava with the original skull design, a headset, red-tinted sunglasses, and a gray hoodie.
  • One of the Blackcell operators, Arthur, is more-or-less someone wearing a FTL rig, down to the circuits crossing his arms.
  • One of the Operators gets a skin heavily based on Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare's Ethan, a robot.
  • The Warden aftermarket kit for the Lockwood turns it into dual-wielded lever-action shotguns, a reference to the infamously overpowered dual 1887s from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
  • Several Season 3 additions reference Sledgehammer's earlier Advanced Warfare installment. The MORS railgun and Bal-27 assault rifle arrive in the game from Advanced Warfare's arsenal while the "JAK Atlas" aftermarket kit for the AMR9 rechambers it for 5.56x45 and changes the full-auto setting on the fire selector to five-round burst, which is the same functionality that the weapon of the same name in Advanced Warfare had. The name of the kit likely references the Atlas Corporation.
  • Along with Development Gag: there was a Zombies mode proposed for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), which even received concept art and focused on soldiers (either Barkov's gang or the US Military) weaponising zombies; here, the Zombies mode revolves around the cast from 2019 trying to prevent Zakhaev from weaponising Aetherium and zombies.
• Never Found the Body: In "Danger Close", Shadow's gunship takes down a helicopter assumed to be carrying Makarov, and Shepherd and Graves are quick to declare him dead despite TF 141 not being able to find the body. Of course, he's revealed to be alive the very next mission. Graves himself is revealed to have pulled off the exact same trick in the previous game, so he should really know better.
• Nostalgia Level: MW III's launch lineup of 6-on-6 multiplayer maps is entirely comprised of remade maps taken from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which includes locations such as the ever-popular Terminal, Favela, and Scrapyard (last seen in the 2019 Modern Warfare).
• Old Save Bonus: Any unlocked content originating from Modern Warfare II's multiplayer or Warzone 2.0 (paid or otherwise) is also available in III — including operators, weapons/attachments, skins, etc. (with some exceptions). New players for III have to unlock content from II via unlock challenges.
• Present Day: As with the previous two games, the campaign begins on the same day the game released, November 10th, 2023, and takes place over the following week, with the exception of a single flashback mission to 2019.
• Recycled Title: Like Modern Warfare II before it this game's title is shared with a previous game in the series (in this case the 2011 installment) and the logo employs a Roman numeral to differentiate itself.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Codasaurus pack turns Riptide into a velociraptor taken out of Jurassic Park. He also carries around a baby (dinosaur) kept in a small pod filled with amber liquid.
  • The "John Doe" operator is a sludge-covered skeleton in Vietnam-era combat gear.
  • The Cyber Junkie pack for Swagger turns him into a geared-up robot with the aesthetics of Titanfall; fitting, given Titanfall and Titanfall 2 were made by Infinity Ward shortly after leaving Call of Duty and Activision due to a number of fights during the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
  • The Killer Serial Creep turns Swagger into a mishmash of various Batman enemies: he wears the Army surplus outfit and glasses of The Batman (2022)s incarnation of the Riddler, has filthy bright-red lipstick like The Dark Knights version of the Joker, and his head is wrapped up in bandages, much like the Calendar Killer from The Long Halloween and Hush, one of Batman's newest archnemeses.
  • Izanagi's getup, a purple skintight top that shows off her hips, is patterned on Street Fighter IV's Juri Han.
• Spotting the Thread: During the flashback mission at Verdansk stadium, you enter a room full of paramedics. They will tell you that security let them in before asking you to help a victim. If you're clever enough to remember being told at the start of the mission that first responders will not enter until the scene is clear, then that should clue you in they're Inner Circle posing as paramedics, and you can shoot at them with no penalty (or wait for Price to tell you). Otherwise, if you do help the paramedic, they will pull their guns out and ambush you, and you have to kill them quick.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Price ends up blaming himself for stopping Soap from executing Makarov when they first apprehended him, believing that so much death and destruction could have been avoided otherwise. This is what pushes him to avert this trope by assassinating General Shepherd the first chance he gets.
• You Have Failed Me: Makarov publicly "relieves" Ivan of his position as second-in-command of Konni Group for not following his plan to the letter, promoting Andrei Nolan to his place.