Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is the third entry in the rebooted Modern Warfare saga, and it is the first one that feels assembled rather than designed. Sledgehammer Games developed it. Activision published it. It arrived on November 10, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, as the twentieth main installment of the Call of Duty series. It is also, by the studio’s own history, an expansion pack that got promoted into a release.
That promotion is the whole story of this game. After wrapping Call of Duty: Vanguard in 2021, Sledgehammer was assigned by Activision to build an expansion for Modern Warfare II. The expansion became a full, standalone title. You can feel the seam. The campaign is short and uneven, the multiplayer is a deliberate retreat to 2009, and the Zombies mode is the most interesting thing in the package.
Trailer, via Call of Duty.
Makarov Walks Out of a Kastovian Prison
The single-player story picks up in 2023. Vladimir Makarov, a Russian ultranationalist and terrorist, has spent years in a Kastovian penal complex after being captured following a devastating attack in Verdansk. Operatives of the Konni Group storm the prison and break him free. Makarov resumes his campaign of terror immediately, scheming to ignite a third World War and reshape the global order through calculated atrocities.
CIA station chief Kate Laswell alerts Captain John Price. Price rallies Task Force 141 — Soap, Ghost, and Gaz among them — to hunt Makarov down before his plans unfold. As Makarov sets a chain of attacks in motion across the globe, 141 must forge uneasy alliances and race across continents to stop him.
That is a strong spine for a campaign. The problem is how Modern Warfare III spends it.
Open Combat Missions Trade Spectacle for Choice
The campaign mixes linear missions with open-world missions called “Open Combat Missions.” In these, players have more freedom to choose how they approach designated objectives, picking between open combat and stealth or ambush tactics. An on-screen map shows the area, including a tactical map that outlines objectives and usual equipment. Caches of weapons, gear, and specialized equipment sit on hand.
Enemies react during these missions. They search for players who break contact, and they call in reinforcements as their numbers drop in combat. It is a genuine design idea, and it is the most ambitious thing the campaign attempts.
It is also where the campaign thins out. Open Combat Missions replace the tightly staged set pieces that usually carry a Call of Duty story. What you get instead is a sandbox with objectives pinned to it. The freedom is real. The drama is not.
Sixteen Maps From 2009, and a Working Minimap
Multiplayer is the part of Modern Warfare III that knows exactly what it is. All sixteen maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) are available to play on, with the added ability to vote for maps in a matchmade lobby — a feature absent from some recent titles. Player health is increased for a longer “time-to-kill.” The “red dot” minimap that was missing from Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) returns, letting players see enemies on radar when they fire a weapon without a suppressor.
Slide canceling is back. Classic modes like “Kill Confirmed” and “Hardpoint” return alongside a new mode called “Cutthroat,” where three teams of three players go head to head. There is a 32v32 “Ground War” mode with dedicated maps, and “War” mode returns from Call of Duty: WWII (2017).
The game also runs moderation powered by artificial intelligence, listening in on in-game interactions and immediately reporting overly toxic behavior. That last item deserves more attention than it usually gets.
Here is what ships at launch and what is promised later:
- Sixteen maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) at launch
- At least twelve more maps coming after launch
- A Carry Forward system that keeps progression and inventory from Modern Warfare II
- Zombies mode, with the largest zombie map to date
Zombies Is the Biggest Swing
The cooperative Zombies mode is co-created by Treyarch, the studio behind the Black Ops sub-series, and it is an open world. It is also the largest zombie map to date. That combination — Treyarch, open world, biggest map — is the most promising sentence anyone can write about this game.
It is also the mode most likely to be undersold by everything around it. Zombies has always been Call of Duty’s strangest and most durable experiment, and handing it an open world is a bigger creative risk than anything the campaign attempts. The campaign plays safe with a formula it then abandons. Zombies does the opposite.
A Sequel Is Already Scheduled
Modern Warfare III received mixed reviews on release, with criticism aimed at its campaign. It became the second best-selling title of 2023 in the United States, behind Hogwarts Legacy. A sequel, developed by Infinity Ward and titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, is scheduled for release in October 2026.
Read those two facts together. The campaign was the most criticized part of the game, and the game still sold like this. That tells you what the audience is actually buying, and it is not the story mode.
It also tells you what the Carry Forward system is really for. Letting players keep progression and inventory from Modern Warfare II is not a convenience feature. It is a retention mechanism, and it works. The people who stayed with Modern Warfare II had a reason to show up on day one, and they did.
What the 8.1 Actually Measures
Modern Warfare III is a compilation with a campaign attached. The multiplayer is the strongest argument for it: sixteen maps from 2009, a functioning red dot minimap, longer time-to-kill, map voting, and slide cancel. That is a clear, deliberate answer to what players said they wanted, and it is the right answer.
The campaign is the weakest argument. Open Combat Missions are a real idea, but they arrive in place of the set pieces that make a Call of Duty story worth telling. Makarov is a strong villain and the Kastovian prison break is a strong opening. The game does not build on either.
Zombies is the part worth watching. Treyarch building an open world with the largest zombie map to date is the one place this package takes a genuine swing, and it is the reason to keep the disc in the console after the campaign ends.
The score sits where it does because the multiplayer and Zombies carry a campaign that does not carry itself. That is a fair trade for the price of admission, but it is not a full sequel’s worth of ambition. The next one arrives in October 2026 from Infinity Ward, and the question it has to answer is whether the campaign gets rebuilt or gets left behind again.
Key facts
- Release date: November 10, 2023
- Developer: Sledgehammer Games
- Publisher: Activision
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
- Series position: twentieth main installment; third in the rebooted Modern Warfare sub-series
- Modes: single player, multiplayer, cooperative
- Launch maps: 16 from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
- Post-launch maps: at least 12
- 2023 U.S. sales rank: second, behind Hogwarts Legacy
- Sequel: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, from Infinity Ward, scheduled for October 2026
- Score: 8.1 of 10
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
