Everything revealed about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III so far

There's no doubt that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were the two games that truly made CoD the giant franchise it is today, so it's understandable that the first full trailer we got from this year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (again, not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) heavily implied the game would draw a lot of inspiration from MW2. Not just in a few of its single-player campaign missions.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be all about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 nostalgia when it launches on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series on the 10th of November. Tonight's trailer starts by showing what's basically a new interpretation of 2009's The Gulag mission before showing glimpses of the new No Russian sequence and other moments bringing back memories to beloved classics. Not that they'll play out in a similar way, as Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward have announced some interesting ideas.

The most fundamental one is that parts of the campaign will be so-called Open Combat Missions. These are exactly like they sound like: missions set in more open areas, allowing us to choose our own way of completing them. We've seen Call of Duty tinker with this before, like in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Desperate Measures mission and kind of last year's Recon by Fire, but these will apparently take player freedom to another level.

This nostalgia is nothing compared to what awaits us in the multiplayer. The 16 maps available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III at launch are all remade versions of Modern Warfare 2 maps. That means we can look forward to prettier, modernized versions of Afghan, Derail, Estate, Favela, Karachi, Highrise, Invasion, Quarry, Rundown, Rust, Scrapyard, Skidrow, Sub Base, Terminal, Underpass and Wasteland. While they have been tweaked to make them better for new mechanics, some classic elements are also making their return. These include a classic minimap that shows enemies as red dots when they fire without a suppressor, map voting, slide cancelling and all perks being available at the start of a match.

One new mechanic it'll be interesting to hear players' opinions of in the beta is the "Tactical Stance": a middle-ground between hip-fire and aiming down sights. Here's how the developers explain it:

• The operator unshoulders the weapon and holds it in a canted firing position.


• You can toggle in and out of Tac-Stance dynamically while aiming down sights.


• Tac-Stance trades precise accuracy for improved mobility and handling.


• Some spread to your firing will occur, best described as a middle ground between full ADS and hipfire.


• It is designed to be used in aggressive, close-quarter combat situations.


• By default, you fire in Tac-Stance while Sliding.

We'll also get a new 3v3v3 mode called Cutthroat, but the developers will share more information about that later.

We're as usual also promised further improvements to create-a-class and Gunsmith, as well as the previously reported option to bring almost everything from last year's Modern Warfare II into MWIII.

Unlike Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III won't have Spec-Ops. Treyarch will instead make a new Zombies experience, and it sounds massive. In fact, Modern Warfare Zombies will have the co-op mode's biggest map ever, giving us room to slaughter undead, complete missions and find Easter eggs across different regions.

Sound tempting? Then it's worth noting that everyone pre-ordering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, not just those buying one of the special editions, will get early access to the yet to be officially dated open beta and access to the campaign a week before the full game launches.

How does this sound to you so far?