Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has a full campaign that picks up immediately where the story left off in Modern Warfare 2, but this year’s game will include the new Open Combat missions. A Call of Duty blog post reveals how these new mission types will work, and here’s everything you need to know.
Most of the missions found in Modern Warfare 3 will be the typical, linear style of play, but a handful of Open Combat missions will greatly expand the playable area, offering you more choice in how you complete your task.
During these missions you’ll still have a fixed objective, but the blog says you’ll have “endless possibilities” for completing them. In your first playthrough of an Open Combat mission, you’ll be assigned a starting loadout according to the mission’s narrative, including the Spotter Scope to better scan the environment for enemy threats, tagging enemies, locating equipment, and discovering information about points of interest.
The Spotter Scope is helpful because one of your first tasks is to seek out better gear. There’s an abundance of loot found throughout the mission area, including additional weapons, killstreaks, and armor plates, and you can scavenge this extra gear to suit your preferred playstyle. This means grabbing armor plates if you want to go in loud and start blasting or picking suppressed weapons to help you execute a stealth plan.
The freedom of these missions mean you’re not stuck on a linear path. You can find ziplines and ascenders to help you reach higher ground for a better vantage point and choose the route you want to take. You’ll have a Tac-Map to provide an overview of the objective and its location, and there’s a minimap to pinpoint items and enemies in your immediate surroundings.
The minimap also provides the enemy’s current alert level. When you’ve been seen, the borders will turn yellow, indicating that they are aware of something in the vicinity without knowing your exact location. If spotted, the borders will turn red to confirm they know where you are. At this time, an enemy may even trigger an alarm for reinforcements.
If you find yourself outnumbered and overwhelmed, you can retreat into the environment, using an ascender and parachute to quickly get out of view. The blog says that if the enemy loses sight of you for long enough, they will eventually stop their direct pursuit and resort to searching the nearby vicinity for you.
Once you’ve completed an Open Combat mission, you can replay the mission and customize your starting loadout based on the weapons and items you found in your previous playthrough.
Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10, but you can play the campaign as early as November 2 with a digital preorder. Here you can find all the preload and start times for the early access period and the full release of Modern Warfare 3.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
