Game Review (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Content Drop: July)

Better late than never -- a little over a week ago, the July Content Drop came out with the likes of multiplayer maps Decommission and Offshore, and the Spec Ops Mission Vertigo. The Modern Warfare 2 map Terminal also came out this month, but as it isn't considered part of ELITE's content, I won't include it in this review. First, the achievements for this month...

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Complete Vertigo on any difficulty - 15G
Complete Vertigo on Veteran - 20G
Kill all Juggernauts after they land on Veteran - 25G
Destroy all helicopters in Vertigo - 15G
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When I initially saw the picture of Vertigo, I wondered why they chose that to be a Spec Ops map rather than a multiplayer map ... and I STILL wonder that. It's a nice night time map that takes place on top of what I believe is a hotel. After time on the roof, you rappel down to the outside main entrance and fight some enemies. It's a really cool mission, really. The achievements are all easy with the exception of one -- beating the mission on Veteran. I'd say this mission is as hard or harder than last month's Arctic Recon mission. The other two achievements (since you get both 'Complete Vertigo on...' achievements when you do it on Veteran) are pretty easy. The Juggernaut one is simple so long as you play with two people... one person throws a flash, and the other unloads with a Pecheneg. Voila, you win. The helicopters one can easily be done if you go on the easiest difficulty BY YOURSELF. I got that achievement my first try. Not a super awesome mission, but it looks nice. 3.5/5

Decommission's a map that looks quite a lot like the Spec Ops mission Smack Down... not exactly, but it certainly resembles it. It's a medium/small sized map that is, frankly, overly frantic on game modes like Domination. The capture points are very close, and it's hard to keep more than one flag held down at a time. Because of the size of this map, you'll find yourself getting spawn killed and spawn killing others quite often. If you can get past that though, Decommission is actually a pretty fun map... which surprised me. When I did my first run through in a custom match by myself, I was expecting it to be a dud. Thankfully, it isn't. 3.75/5

If you played Ghost Recon Future Soldier, you'll recognize the feel of Offshore. It takes place on some sort of rig in the ocean. The size of this map is shockingly gargantuan due to its several floors, stair cases, twists, and turns. Normally I despise large maps, but Offshore makes for some entertaining games, especially with objective game types. Because of its size and numerous corners, there aren't many places people are willing to camp, so if you hate campers -- who doesn't? -- you'll likely approve of Offshore. 4/5

Overall, July is a pretty good drop. Maybe I've just desperately been missing real, true multiplayer maps, but these ones seem to play well. While I'm disgruntled with Infinity Ward for not making Vertigo a multiplayer map, Decommission and Offshore are both solid enough to make me be okay with that decision.

3.75/5