Activision have finally released all the information you wanted to know about the multiplayer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, alongside with a few new screenshots. As seen in the first trailer, the fast paced action is still there, along with some new features.
The first and most prominent change is the replacement of the “killstreaks” with “pointstreaks”. Kills are no longer the only method by which you build up your score and xp gain, now also completing objectives adds to that, even kill assists will help you build up your streak, so we can assume kill stealing will be less of a problem.
Pointstreaks are divided into three categories called “Strike Packages”, which players will be able to choose from to fit the style of play they prefer. The three categories are: Assault, Support and Specialist; each granting a different set of perks and skills.
Assault: with this package you’ll be earning the big guns as you play. A player who chooses this package will get access to assault helicopters, Predator missiles, mortars, Juggernaut suits and other skills designed to help him kill as many other players as he can before he inevitably bites the dust himself, which will reset his pointstreak.
Support: this package is more suited for those who like to buff their team, allowing them to equip their team mates with armoured vests, bomb disposal robots which carry machine guns, spy planes or precision air strikes, and even booby-trapped supply drops, whichi will blowup when an enemy attempts to pick them up. This package will NOT reset on death, so you can jump to the front lines without worrying that you’ll lose your streak progress.
Specialist: this package grants the player perks instead of skills and as with the assault, the streak is reset on death. Here you have a few of the perks that will be available:
- Recon – Enemies damaged from explosives will show up on the mini-map.
- Blind Eye – Helicopter gunships and automated machine guns will not fire at you.
- Assassin – The player will be invisible to UAVs, Predator missiles, thermal vision and heart beat detectors.
- Quickdraw – Faster to aim down sights.
- Stalker – faster movement speed while aiming down sights.
- Marksman – Able to identify targets from greater range than normal.
Some perks will not be returning in Modern Warfare 3, among them are Commando, Nuke, One Man Army and Last Stand.
Another change is in how players will be upgrading their weapons. Now, the more a player will use a specific weapon, the better that weapons statistics will be and the more add-ons will be available for it. These upgrades include higher accuracy and less recoil per shot. Modern Warfare 3 will offer player from over 40 weapons to choose from, all based on real life weapons which are in use today in armies around the world.
Finally, you’d probably like to hear about the new game modes which will be available with the ones from the previous games. Well, there will be two new modes which go by the names of Kill Confirm and Team Defender. The first is a sort of Team Deathmatch where you will have to collect an enemy’s dog tags to get points for the kill. The second mode will be a sort of King of the Hill style play, where each team needs to capture a flag and hold onto it for a certain duration of time in order to collect points.
There will also be added modes for private matches:
- Infection – The infected try to kill other players and by doing so turning them over to their side
- Drop Zone – Control of the drop zone by your team will grant your team points and supplies.
- Team Juggernaut – A Team Deathmatch game played in Juggernaut suits.
- Juggernaut – One player in a Juggernaut against the rest. The person who kills the Juggernaut gets the suit for himself and becomes the enemy of everyone else.
- Gun Game – Your goal is to be the first to attain a domination with each weapon.
- One in the Chamber – Only way to get more ammo here is to kill people. The winner is the last man standing.
All the stuff mentioned here you will be able to experience yourself once the game releases on November 8th for the XBox 360, PS3 and the PC.
