Modern Warfare 3 players are not happy with its short campaign
"I honestly preferred WWII's campaign, and that one SUCKED."
Modern Warfare 3 players with early access to Call of Duty's latest instalment have taken to social media to share their dismay – and outrage – about the shooter's campaign.
Although the first-person shooter doesn't formally release until 10th November, some players who've forked out for the shooter's pricier digital editions can play the campaign early via "early access".
"I played one hour of campaign and got my refund," announced one player. "And I think you should too if you feel the same way I felt. This was a couple lacklustre raid episodes out together; having just finished COD Remastered recently this game failed to capture what it means to be in a campaign, and if this is how it all begins then I’m sorry, MW3 does not redeem itself from the shitshow MW2 caused at launch and somehow continues to make fun of my wallet. I’ll be holding off on touching this game until something positive comes back from this community. Peace."
"What a slap in the face, I am shocked and appalled," added one unhappy player. "The writing was on the wall this entire time if you really think about it. I will admit we had about two or three missions that really stood out. That open combat garbage though? If this is the direction of campaign going forward, this is officially the death of CoD.
"Feels like all they care about is focusing on developing a new warzone map and shoving every experience into it."
I played 1 hour of campaign and got my refund.
byu/recover8888 inModernWarfareIII
"This is without a doubt the single worst and most insulting CoD campaign I have ever played, and everyone who worked on this portion of the game should be ashamed of themselves for sending it out, and ACTIVISION THEMSELVES should be ashamed for doing this to the franchise," insisted another. "You've completely shit on all of the OG characters AND the new ones. I honestly preferred WWII's campaign, and that one SUCKED.
"Can't wait for the final sales numbers, it'll be good for a laugh either way. Thank f*ck I didn't pay money for this."
"Bobby Kotick got the last laugh on his way out. He’s such a douche," someone said by way of reply.
Other complaints take aim at the game's combat mechanics, such as this player, who says they missed "one out of five shots" because they couldn't see the middle of the sight.
It's also led some players to believe that to ameliorate the backlash, Activision is posting identical reviews to bolster its poor reception.
Several members of the Xbox community have labelled this marketing stunt "vomit-inducing" and "unacceptable", whilst others have joked that Microsoft is putting its recent, record-breaking, acquisition of Activision Blizzard King to good use, and we should expect to see Candy Crush preloaded on consoles in the near future.
As a general point, Microsoft deployed similar pop-up ad tactics for both Starfield and Forza Motorsport earlier this year, so perhaps full-screen marketing like this is going to be the norm going forward.