Another year means another Call of Duty game.
This time around, players are getting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. With development led by Sledgehammer Games, this is a direct sequel to last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which had development led by Infinity Ward.
While reports originally indicated that this year's Call of Duty would be more akin to an expansion, Activision has, in fact, released this game as a full entry in the franchise, complete with multiplayer, a new Zombies mode, and a new campaign.
This campaign continues the story of Task Force 141 and the machinations of Makarov. We've got all the details you need to know about the missions in the game and how long it'll take to complete them.
List of missions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
You'll find the full list of missions in the campaign below. I've marked the missions as "Regular" or "Open Combat" to provide clear differentiation.
- Operation 627 - Regular Mission
- Precious Cargo - Open Combat Mission
- Reactor- Open Combat Mission
- Payload - Regular Mission
- Deep Cover - Regular Mission
- Passenger - Regular Mission
- Crash Site - Open Combat Mission
- Flashpoint - Regular Mission
- Oligarch - Open Combat Mission
- Highrise - Open Combat Mission
- Frozen Tundra - Regular Mission
- Gora Dam - Open Combat Mission
- Danger Close - Regular Mission
- Trojan Horse - Regular Mission
How long is the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 campaign?
Most Call of Duty campaigns are not super long, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is no exception. In fact, it's one of the shortest campaigns in the franchise. On regular difficulty, it'll probably take you around 4 hours to play through the story, including watching the cutscenes. Of course, if you play on a higher difficulty like Hardened or especially Veteran, you can likely tack on a couple of extra hours as there may be parts you struggle at and have to try repeatedly.
The short length of this game is possibly explained by the fact it was reportedly originally going to be an expansion before being pushed into a full Call of Duty title. The shorter development length and shorter campaign length would possibly have been explained by being a smaller purchase, as an add-on or standalone.
What are Open Combat Missions?
Open Combat Missions are a new format for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. While the regular missions play out similarly to the levels in past Call of Duty games, Open Combat Missions drop players into an area and have them figure out how to complete their objectives. This could mean finding intel, making your way up a building, or destroying specific aircraft.
Open Combat Missions also reuse a lot of assets from the free-to-play battle royale, Call of Duty: Warzone. Players can customize their loadouts with guns and equipment they find throughout the level. This means that even if you die and start back at the beginning, you'll be able to jump back in with anything you've found.
Full experience inbound
While the campaign was available in early access for anyone who preordered the game, the full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 experience is coming on Nov. 10, 2023. This includes remade maps from the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and a new Zombies mode created by Treyarch, the studio that leads the Black Ops sub-series in Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. Microsoft finalized its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, meaning Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is technically an Xbox first-party game.
Despite this, it's not launching into Xbox Game Pass, as the teams still need more time to integrate, a process that's taking longer than when Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of publisher Bethesda Softworks.
Microsoft has also made it abundantly clear that the Call of Duty franchise will remain multiplatform for the foreseeable future, signing agreements to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for the next ten years, as well as starting the process of bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms.
