Call of Duty Fans Insist Modern Warfare 3 is DLC-in-Disguise Amid Early Access

For a full year fans have heard how Modern Warfare 3 was allegedly conceived as Modern Warfare 2 DLC, and now that the game is in Early Access, players are doubling down on the claim that it never reached standalone status.

Call of Duty’s annual release cycle has been a big deal since the halcyon days of the mid-2000s. Every game since Call of Duty 3 has been delivered on an impressive yearly turnaround, establishing an unmatched tradition in the FPS market. Early rumors suggested Modern Warfare 2 would end this cycle and deliver a multiyear experience. While Activision has repeatedly insisted that MW3 is a premium release, a shockingly short campaign has only added more fuel to the fires of speculation.

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Call of Duty Fans Double Down on MW3 Being “Overpriced” DLC

It didn’t take long at all for unhappy players to start spreading the word of warning about Modern Warfare 3’s campaign. Three hours of gameplay is all it takes to experience the whole thing, and for a game that carries a $70 price tag (or more if you bought the Vault edition), there are many unhappy customers.

Call of Duty World Champion Tyler “TeeP” Polchow was one of the first to sound the alarms. “I give the new CoD campaign 3/10, one for each hour of gameplay,” he posted. “Underwhelmed with the campaign but excited for [Multiplayer] and [Warzone].”

His disappointment was echoed by superstar content creator Jack “CouRage” Dunlop, who called for campaigns to be scrapped in favor of more development time for the other game modes. Other fans have taken to social media to share their scathing reviews, and it all paints a pretty rough picture of the game.

One Redditor on the MW3 subreddit labeled this campaign a “middle finger to all fans of the series”, and insisted Sledgehammer Games was lazy in their effort, with other fans pointing at the lackluster length as further proof of the side content theory. Comments such as “clearly DLC” and “$70 Filler”

I’m a noted Call of Duty apologist, but this is pushing the line even for me. Just like TeeP, I’m still excited about the prospect of Multiplayer and Warzone, but missing the mark on what’s been a good storyline through two games is certainly deflating.

I genuinely hope everything else delivers on the potential we saw during the Open Beta and at Call of Duty Next. There was so much to get excited about, but any more letdowns could totally crush that early momentum.