It’s been over a month since Robert Bowling teased about a Spec Ops trailer they were working on. A lot of people, including members of the games media has been asking, and asking Robert Bowling when the trailer would be released, after many tries – There was no trailer in sight. Players from all around the world has been awaiting the trailer after much hype by Mr. Bowling. Until today.
Without warning, without an ETA to work with, Robert Bowling surprised the world with a new trailer of Modern Warfare 3. But it’s not about the multiplayer portion of MW3, instead, it’s the world premiere of the Survival Mode! Spec Ops has been tweaked, flipped upside down, built from the ground up to bring an exciting twist to Survival Modes.
I’ll start with the first thing you see, this is what you read when the trailer boots up:
Survival
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.
Unlock new upgrades and missions as you gain XP and increase in level throughout the Survival Experience. Survival challenges along with leaderboards allow you to compete against your friends and prove once and for all, who is the best soldier.
The introduction fades away and goes into the trailer.
Call of Duty: MW3 features an expanded and an evolved survival mode within Spec Ops. What started out as a lime version of survival mode evolved into it’s own ‘life’ as Robert calls it.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the HUD seems different in the Spec Ops Survival Mode. One of the most notable is that your Spec Ops cash has a meter of its own. There seems to be two and I’m not sure what they are. I see different types of cash indicators throughout the entire trailer: KillStreak, Rampage, Flash Kill, and HeadShots just to name a few. I can only assume that if you rack up enough action, you get more cash. More money. The number below the indicators is obviously the total cash you’ve gathered from your actions.
The other thing you’ll notice is that there are new indicators – they tell you where the nearest weapon or item which includes grenades. These are usually inside armories, these indicators tell you which type of armory is close by. Now, don’t get confused because when a grenade drops, or someone throws a grenade at you, you’re probably still going to find that white grenade indicator that has been there since COD4. These indicators are not limited to just weapons, or items – it will tell you where your killstreak reward is.
The HUD has been seeing some changes in the way you know what you got, and how you got it. For example, every kill will show XP as always, but it’s green now. Not the typical yellow. You’ll also notice a armor indicator, too. Every time you get a KillStreak, you will know how much cash you got. I’m guessing the higher the KillStreak, the more cash you earn, just like you do with KillStreak rewards. Speaking of KillStreaks, is it just me, or are KillStreaks in Spec Ops Survival are more dangerous, more explosive, and crazier than any killstreak we’ve seen so far? At one point of the trailer, the gunship throws like a hundred bombs into the ground with all this craziness in the area. Such intensity!
When you get to an armory, you’ll have a bunch of choices for which weapon or item you’d like to buy. It shows how much you have, and how much you can afford once you buy an item. By now, you’ll notice a Purple Smoke, this is the Air Support Marker. It is much like MW2’s Red Smoke which is a marker that drops a care package at the location of your choice.
You’ll come to a bunch of gameplay footage from Spec Ops then you’ll see a camera angle that is actually a Missile Drone. Predator Missile exists in MW3, but the camera that was used looks entirely different from the camera that was used for MW2’s Predator Missile. Oh, and Riot Shield returns! Whee!
By the end of the trailer, we’re treated to the world’s first look at MW3 Multiplayer! As you can see, the HUD looks changed, so this is actually a teaser for MW3’s multiplayer. The map UAV looks more detailed this time around. Three things revealed so far: The weapon that’s being held is an FNG9. Secondly, KillStreaks looks like they’re being overhauled. Instead of gunning for kills to earn this killstreak, you’re earning it via XP. Finally, Juggernaut has been confirmed as a KillStreak. It’s no longer a perk, it’s now a KillStreak.
Are you ready for Call of Duty XP, when they finally show off MW3’s multiplayer!? I bet you are!