MW3has been in a strange position since its reveal and launch, as it’s become the butt of numerous jokes and harsh criticisms. Most notably,Christopher Judge roasted the game’s campaignportion during his speech at The Game Awards last December.
The core of the argument is many felt it would’ve been better received as an expansion to last year’s title, not a $70 package. However, that’s not the timeline we live in, and claims of reskinned DLC will forever stick to this title’s legacy.
Oddly enough, this isn’t the first CoD title to receive the “reskinned DLC label.” Funnily enough, it was the game of the same title over a decade ago that fought these accusations.
MW3 meme describes fan sentiment from over a decade ago
In all fairness, 2009’s MW2 raised the bar absurdly high for Call of Duty, introducing Killstreaks, weapon customization, and many more features that would become staples of the franchise. Surpassing that was an otherwordly task that no title could perform, but MW3 did fine for itself.
Fast forward 12 years, and this version of MW3 has fans feeling the same way.A post on the MW3 subreddit said: “This aged well,” with a meme from nearly a decade ago, where a player uses an expo marker to write a three on MW2’s disc, basically sharing how they felt about both titles.
This year’s issue feels a bit more complex, with the Carry Forward system and 16 maps from 2009’s MW2 doing more harm than good for the game’s overall narrative. There’s also the ordeal that it was rumored to be DLC before its announcement until it pivoted into a full title.
John Esposito was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in Call of Duty, Valorant, and other first-person shooter games. He also has bylines at GameRant, Twinfinite, and Jaxon, covering everything related to gaming.
