“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” is unquestionably the biggest game to come out this year, and thanks to a copy from its publisher, Activision, I had a chance to see for myself just why that is for this week’s Game Freak.

In the past, “Modern Warfare” games had never been that exciting. For me, action or role-playing games were far more worthwhile, offering decent stories and terrific gameplay.

To be the best game of the year, a poorly written “Modern Warfare” story wasn’t going to cut it. But I’m glad to say that isn’t an issue this time around.

Infinity Ward, the developer, finally got it right. The story wasn’t mind-blowing, but it was engaging and made the player care about the characters. Deaths meant something, and there was a lot at stake in the overall plot. It was a bit challenging at times too, and mixed up the typical first-person shooter aspect with plenty of different styles of gameplay.

For once, the campaign of a “Modern Warfare” game carried its weight. But again, not many people play the campaign. The important part is the multiplayer.

As “Modern Warfare 3” started gathering reviews, some critics claimed that the multiplayer was essentially the same as “Modern Warfare 2” with a few cosmetic changes and some different maps. If a person thinks that, they’ve either a) never played it or b) don’t understand the nuances of video games and should keep quiet.

Yes, on the surface the multiplayer doesn’t look like it’s changed much, but that’s because the play style hasn’t had to. The point is still to shoot the other player until they die, so what did critics expect, the addition of swords? There are still levels to be gained, which unlocks various guns, perks, and kill streak rewards, but the slight changes that were made radiate genius and improve overall gameplay.

First, players are finally rewarded for using their favorite gun. Sure, completing challenges with a weapon helped a player level up in the past, but now it unlocks more for the gun. The introduction of weapon levels is probably my favorite addition, and helps players customize their loadout even more.

The perks are a bit more exciting than in the past too, with the addition of some that solve the game’s issues, like taking away shotguns as a primary weapon. Unlock the Overkill perk and the player can carry both.

They do more than solve problems though – they’re just generally good, and there are a lot of new perks.

Killstreaks are the next best improvement, and look almost entirely different than in past games. The reviled instant winning Nuke is gone but it’s been replaced with other ingenious additions.

Bringing back the Juggernaut perk from the original “Modern Warfare” as a killstreak reward was genius. The osprey gunner is fun too, combining deadly firepower with helpful care packages. Finally, to round off the list of fun rewards, the assault drone is probably the best, cheapest reward, requiring only 10 kills in a row.

There’s more to what makes these streaks awesome than the rewards, though. The really defining and ground-breaking characteristic is in the ability to choose between the assault, support and specialist strike packages.

Each one, as the name sounds, is best suited for a different thing. Assault is for the Rambo in everyone and support is for the Bond types. Specialist is entirely unique in that instead of killstreaks for rewards, a player gets extra perks that continue to build on each other.

To make them better, rewards now work in a cycle instead of coming to a dead end like in the past. After obtaining the highest kill streak, the counter starts over and the player can get their first one again, and so on and so forth forever, theoretically. The killstreak counter for support doesn’t even restart when the player dies, meaning it’s simple to get rewards.

As usual, some maps are worse than others, but for the most part it’s a diverse, solid bunch. It’s also sort of fun to watch everyone find the spots in the early stages of the game’s release, because by this point, everyone knew where to look in “Modern Warfare 2.”

Overall, “Modern Warfare 3” finally earned the attention it gets. With 1.4 million simultaneous online users at any given time, according to a press release by Activision, the popularity of this game is undeniable. Now it’s finally deserved.

— Jason Krell is a junior studying creative writing and Italian. He can be reached at arts@wildcat.arizona.edu.