Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ‘Iron Lady’ Gameplay Preview

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releasing in under a month, Activision invited us to London to check out some new gameplay from the single player campaign.

Last time we went to check out Modern Warfare 3’s single player, we were shown the ‘Black Tuesday’ and ‘Mind the Gap’ missions, set in New York and London. This time around, we are in Paris, for a mission called ‘Iron Lady’ where we got to see how the game is shaping up before the big November 8th release day.

Sledgehammer Games co-founder Glen Schofield was on hand at the event to talk us through the game a little bit. He spoke the games ambitious attempt to encapsulate a truly global conflict, saying that the “urban areas meant a re-worked engine.” He also said that it will not be a game where the US forces would be saving the world, but they will be working alongside the special forces in some of the countries in the game. That means in the ‘Iron Lady’ mission, Delta Force are working with France’s GIGN — the French special forces.

We were dropped into the action as it was played by an Activision staffer, where Delta Force is on the streets of Paris. Delta Force needs to infiltrate a courtyard and its surrounding buildings in order to capture a High-Value Target (HVT) and extract him from the city, in what is the tenth mission in Modern Warfare 3.

Delta Force is on the ground in Paris, a US helicopter has just crashed into the ground, and things are getting pretty heavy for the troops on the ground. Straight away, the play goes into the skies, as air support is needed to take out the heavy weapons on the ground keeping Delta Force pinned back. Into the familiar AC-130 we go, but for Modern Warfare 3, things have been shaken up quite a bit.

Straight away, it is apparent that there has been major graphical changes to Modern Warfare 3, as players use the AC-130’s Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) the action on the ground is a lot clearer, meaning that you can strike with pinpoint accuracy as troops drop coloured smoke on the ground below to help pick out targets.

Weapons on board the AC-130 have remained pretty much the same with the usual 20mm, 40mm and 125mm cannons all available. What is different, is what players see once they have been fired. The camera zooms closer to the ground as players fire, meaning a closer look at the damage caused by the bigger cannons. There is a lot more radio contact this time around, which adds to the feeling of desperation outlined in the single player trailer that launched last week. To add to an already frantic mission, jet fighters are called in to finish off the tanks on the ground and blast open the courtyard area so Delta Force can get inside. The final act in the AC-130 is to take out some choppers that are firing at allied troops, all while keeping an eye on the ground action via the camera in the top right of the screen, which looks fantastic.

The transition to the action on the ground is seamless, and here players get to see the details of a shattered, war-torn Paris as they guide Delta Force’s Westbrook through the courtyard. There is a nice little sniping section at the beginning of this part of the mission, and sniping has been given something of a overhaul for Modern Warfare 3. The impact of a bullet is much more apparent, and enemy soldiers are animated in far greater detail than before. So much so, that everyone in the room, including myself, sat up as if to say “that was pretty awesome, wasn’t it?”

As Delta Force fight through the Paris courtyard, more of the enemy animation is shown as players shoot, stab and throw grenades at them. It’s not just the large set-pieces that have been worked on for Modern Warfare 3; gunplay looks refreshed, and has a new weight to it that we haven’t seen in Call of Duty games before. Another thing we got to see was destruction, which has a heavier presence in Modern Warfare 3. Towards the end of the courtyard, there is a machine gun emplacement that players can use to take out the enemies in the buildings to the left and right of the player. As players fire at a balcony holding enemy troops, the machine gun tears through the concrete, leaving enemies fully exposed to they can be taken out with one left-to-right spray of the machine gun. More destruction is not only welcome for Modern Warfare 3, it also seems fitting, taking into account the tone of the campaign and the global conflict that is going on.

After the machine gun is used to take out the remaining troops, Delta Force advances towards a blockade and Air Support is called in to clear the way to bring the demo to an end. It’s just one of the many cinematic moments we can look forward to in Modern Warfare 3, and they all look a lot better than the previous outings.

We didn’t get much information about the game’s story, and it would seem that Activision is keeping a firm lid on that until the game is released. Gameplay wise, Modern Warfare 3 is shaping up well. Better graphics, a clearly re-worked engine and massive cinematics taking place in iconic locations is a pretty good foundation for what is set to be one of the biggest releases in the history of console gaming. We’re looking forward to it.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releases November 8 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.