Modern Warfare 3: Survival Mode

The Call of Duty series has been praised these last few years as the worlds best selling video game franchise.  Which is true to an extent, yet in recent times, people have claimed that the series has lost it's bite and is slowly degrading in quality.  While personally, I don't expect Call of Duty to last much longer, I certainly do not believe that the quality is degrading.  Every game in the series has improved upon that which made the previous great; some more than others.  Well it's that time of year again, and even after a huge legal battle that that almost destroyed the series, lets see if Infinity Ward has still got it and can finish with a bang.

(While this article focuses mainly on the new Survival mode, there will be future articles regarding the Story mode and Multi-player features of the game.)  In 2008, Treyarch's "Nazi Zombie" game mode unlocked by beating the single player campaign, made a big splash as one of the most addicting game modes of the series.  The mode became so popular that more maps, and eventually a story were added.  In 2009, Infinity Ward's response to "Nazi Zombies" was something called Spec Ops, a small list of mini-missions that you could complete by yourself or with a friend; it never caught on.  In 2010 Treyarch hit a a grand slam with the shortened "Zombies" mode once again, adding more maps and weapons than before, people logged hundreds of thousands of hours into "Zombies" alone.  So once again, Infinity Ward is trying to make an even better experience, and this time, they just might have done it; introducing, Survival.

Similar at first glance, "In Survival you will fight off waves of increasingly difficult enemies as you earn XP and unlock several types of armories to expand your arsenal and Load-out customization along the way."  Only this time it's not zombies.  Starting out as simple infantrymen, the "increasingly difficult enemies" slowly go up eventually leading to enemy helicopters and the ever-feared Juggernaut.

Starting out with what appears to be a simple Five-seveN handgun, as you earn XP and level up, you will be able to purchase new weapons and attachments.  During the Survival reveal trailer, it seems that there are three kiosks spread throughout the map represented by an ever-present handgun, frag grenade, and fighter jet symbol respectively.  The first kiosk, the handgun, allows the player to purchase new weapons, including but not limited to:  Model 1887, USAS 12, M16A4, AK-47, ACR 6.8, and M60E4.  It also seems, once a weapon is purchased, the option to upgrade it becomes available.  Other weapons shown in the trailer: MP5k, UMP, G36c, Riot Shield, and two other unidentified guns.

The second kiosk, the hand grenade, allows the player to resupply and purchase equipment, including but not limited to:  Frag Grenade Refill, Flash Bang Refill, Claymore (x5), C4 (x5), Auto Turret, Auto Grenade Launcher, and Last Stand (Perk).  The "Auto Turret" is the former Sentry Gun, and the "Auto Grenade Launcher" is a new Sentry Grenade Launcher.  Coming from speculation, it seems only "Green" tier perks are present in Survival.  Other perks shown:  Sit Rep, Extreme Conditioning, and Steady Aim; strangely, when unlocked, these perks display the fighter jet symbol next to them.

The third kiosk, the fighter jet, allows the player to purchase air support, including but not limited to:  Predator missile, Delta Squad, and Riot Shield Squad.  Purchasing Delta or Riot Shield Squads allow the player to call in infantry support via helicopter.  Coming from speculation, squads seem to consist of 5 men, judging from the number of friendly arrows present on the mini map.  Also shown, AC-130 strikes via smoke.

Shown in the trailer, enemies consist of mainly infantry, with support from helicopters; however it may vary on a map to map basis.  Special enemies do appear sometimes, whether it is wave specific, or random is unknown.  Unique enemies shown include but are not necessarily limited to:  Attack dogs w/ explosives, Hazmat infantry, Little Bird helicopters, Pave Low helicopters, and Juggernauts.

Also present throughout the trailer, are at all times two white bars at the bottom left of the screen.  These appear to be mini challenges, that once completed, give instant bonuses of money; when completed a "Gold" version of the same challenge is unlocked and is worth double the reward.  It's unknown if they appear in a random or specific order.  Mini Challenges shown: Kill Streak, Flash Kills, Assists, Headshots, Quad kill, Knife streak, and Rampage.  White challenges are worth 500$, while Gold are worth 1000$.

This new game seems promising, but we'll have to wait and see come this November.  Thank you for reading, I hope to post more previews and reviews very soon.