As Modern Warfare 3‘s November release date approaches, more information has been getting consistently released regarding the title’s ever-popular multiplayer component. In an article posted on Kotaku yesterday, some particularly interesting changes were announced that will have pretty dramatic effects on MW3’s online arena. It appears that the killstreak rewards are being completely replaced in favor of a new pointstreak system.
So what does this mean? Well, while kills still go towards unlocking UAV drops and air strikes as they have before, now players will receive points which will be cashed in during the match to unleash the rewards. Getting assists and completing objectives (ie – recapturing flags, holding territories) will all contribute towards reaching point milestones at which the streak rewards can be used. To make things more complex, the streaks come in three “strike packages:” Assault, Support, and Specialist.
Each strike package builds up to the rewards in a unique way and confers its own reward types. In the case of Assault strike packages, players will build up towards streak rewards in traditional Modern Warfare fashion while building towards attack helicopters, AC 130s, and pavelows with death resetting the counter. Support strike packages will reward players with additional armor for teammates, air supply drops, and turrets. Since Support is meant to reward those players who may not be wired up like those pro-level run-and-gunners, dying will not reset the streak counter. Finally, the Specialist strike package works by having players earn more and more personal perks as points accrue – with the eighth kill awarding every possible perk. Dying, of course, takes away all of those benefits and sets players back to square one.
While most of us here at Mash Those Buttons are beginning to feel like the Call of Duty brand has really begun to stagnate, these new changes really bode well for the series as a whole. It’s good to see that Infinity Ward is still trying to refine the formula they created with CoD 4 and not just default to what is popular right now. But enough about us – what do you guys think of the new changes? Do you think it’s all for the best or do you feel MW is better off as it is? Feel free to give us a comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
[Image via Activision.]
