Though Call of Duty Elite members received it last week, today marks the official release for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s new Face Off mode, and so we thought it best to give a few impressions on the multiplayer shooter’s new, more intimate offering.
For those that might not know, Face Off allows teams of two or three, or just a single player, to do battle with opposing forces of the same number. It was initially going to be a 1v1 or 2v2 mode, but 3v3 was introduced into the Elite playlist perhaps just to test the waters.
Of course, the maps included with Modern Warfare 3, and those that have released as DLC, were not built with smaller player numbers in mind so Infinity Ward has hand-crafted four new maps to accompany Face Off. The first two, Aground and Erosion, were released for free (to Xbox 360 players) last Tuesday, but the other two, Getaway and Lookout, are included as part of Content Collection #2, which hits the Xbox Live Marketplace for non-Elite members tomorrow.
Each map carries that signature Infinity Ward design sensibility, only on a smaller scale, and with much longer sight lines. Gameplay is still kill or be killed, with the winning total lowered from the typical 7500.
At first, players might find themselves overwhelmed by the prevalence of snipers, but all types of Modern Warfare 3 players will find ways to succeed. Aground is a particularly difficult map to find early success on, but teams that can work the sight lines to their advantage can make quick work of the competition. It all boils down to how familiar a player is with their teammate and how well they can communicate with them.
In fact, Face Off is the perfect mode for Call of Duty players who like to connect with a single friend and wage war on the Modern Warfare 3 battlefields. Lone Wolfs might still enjoy the experience of Face Off, but they will typically fall prey to a lot of traps. The tactics involved when two players can call out enemies and stick together is something that the Call of Duty franchise has been sorely devoid of, but working together is key for Face Off.
There will still be tons of those nagging Modern Warfare 3 issues – extreme campers are a particular nuisance when fewer players are involved – but ultimately this new addition is both fresh and invigorating. Like anything relating to Call of Duty it will have its naysayers, but ultimately this new mode shows that Infinity Ward is willing to prolong the length of their franchise between iterations, and to keep the players happy. If you’re curious to see if Face Off might be the mode for you just hop onto Xbox Live and download the first two maps for free.
Have you had a chance to check out Face Off, the new mode for Modern Warfare 3? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Modern Warfare 3‘s Content Collection #2 is available now for all Xbox 360 players.
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Remember Cage Match from MW2? I do, and i remember the reason it was taken off the playlist aswell. There were too many people wanting to boost by headshooting each other, everytime there was a loading screen you would get a message ‘wanna boost’.
I am shocked they have added it but time will tell, they cannot take it off because it has been paid for so if it gets overwhelmed with boosters they only have themselves to blame.
I really thought the elite service would bring diverse DLC, all we got was spec op missions that i will never play again, not to mention im a ps3 player so i wasted my money because we dont even get any news about it, we werent even told until xbox got the first dlc that we wont be getting it until a month later and the normal xbox users got all maps before we elite subs got the last batch of the collection. I may get it next year but only if that Activision Microsoft deal isnt renewed. Went a bit off topic but whatever…
I know, I hate the way DLC gets released. Paying PS3 Elite Premium members get all the DLC a month after regular Xbox 360 players get the DLC. This just shows Activision’s quality of fan service, or lack thereof. They don’t even reward players who pay $50 per year for a stupid stat tracker. Normally, when people pay money for an extra/optional service on a yearly (or monthly) basis, a company rewards those people rather than the people who don’t pay for that extra service. Activision has bad business practices.
I understand your point but personally speaking I think XBOX should get the month in advance because XBOX gamers have to pay for two crappy subscriptions instead of one. Btw Microsoft paid for earlier DLC because they realized they needed an edge over PSN it’s not really Activisions fault if anything it’s Microsofts fault.
Xbox gamers having to pay for Xbox Live doesn’t have anything to do with paying for CoD Elite. They’re unrelated. Activision shouldn’t feel sorry for Xbox gamers. Also, I was already aware that Microsoft pays Activision to release DLC for Xbox first. However, both Microsoft and Activision are to blame for this stupid release schedule. Activision didn’t have to accept Microsoft’s payments, but they did. Plus, Activision could’ve modified the DLC release schedule to make it more fair for paying PS3 CoD Elite Premium members by releasing DLC for Xbox Elite Premium members first, then PS3 and PC Elite members, then regular Xbox gamers, then regular PS3 and PC gamers. That’s much more fair.
who would’ve thought this would be a haven for booster and campers…
I don’t think this will be a haven for boosters and campers if they implemented the same type of multiplayer coding as gears. In gears they prevented boosting by only alowing you to join your friends team not the opposite team.
I completly agree that Xbox getting the dlc a month earlier is crap. That and unless you preordered the Elite membership you did get a bounes as a founder (not really sure what the is). Activision should release the DLC for PSN Elite memmbers earlier. Not only would that make the existing Elite members hapy but it would also get new elite members.
I personally am very disapoointed with Activision releasing the dlc on XBOX sooner and not having a better perks for being a Elite member.