Modern Warfare 3 Zombies review: Thrilling fights, immersive visuals, and a whole lot of fun

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) Zombies arrived as a part of the main title. After all the hype that the developers created in October 2023's COD NEXT event, it got me excited to finally access this new playlist. With much skepticism, I dove into it. It played out to be a better iteration of DMZ with more fun things to do.

Although MW3’s Campaign mode failed to impress the community, Modern Warfare 3 Zombies (MWZ) managed to pick up a lot of the slack with its improvised open-world survival experience. I will attempt to provide a thorough review of the MW3 Zombies mode in this article for you to be prepared when you hop into a session - be it solo or with a squad.

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies - First impression

Modern Warfare 3 playlist screen (Image via Activision)

As excited as I was to play MW3’s Zombies mode for the first time, I had to jump through multiple “Update Requires Restart” hoops before it let me get into the lobby screen. That left a bad taste, but it was understandable considering the fresh release of the game.

My expectations were average at best after watching the hype around this new Zombies mode throughout all the teasers and trailers that boasted a survival experience like no other. However, I was quite surprised when the lobby screen loaded, and greeted me with a quick tour and a clean User Interface (UI). The buttons felt snappy and had fewer unwanted animations.

The excitement to play this new mode grew further as I invited some friends over and prepped to drop into my first Zombies session. As soon as the spawn cinematics ended, I sprung toward the nearest cluster of monsters and started a killing fest. But soon, it became a boring task that was simply a senseless waste of ammunition.

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies Urzikstan (Image via Activision)

The visuals looked amazing, but I do prefer brighter maps over darker ones (unless it's a limited-time event) - or just sprinkle some native highlights for the enemy monsters (maybe?).

The first session will also be your first time on the grounds of Urzikstan, which is a crucial thing as the same will be available in Warzone as a battle royale arena. But it felt redundant to have an entire map infected, considering that the original zombie modes were simply infinite waves of monsters with increasing strength and numbers.

Since it is an open-map mode, you can simply choose to run away from stronger monsters instead of losing all your collected items. I was forced to flee for the first time as I mindlessly glided over to the inner zones and was welcomed by a three-headed monstrosity, the Mega Abomination, that shot out energy beams from its mouth.

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies spawn area (Image via Activision)

I did not make it out of that session in one piece, and exfil became a luxury I could only dream about. It was fun having to deal with the consequences of not being prepared for the big bads on the map. I feel that this iteration of Zombies has turned into a strategic slaughter from a simple point-shoot-reload-repeat in the prequels, and I am all for it.

Starting from normal zombies to lightly armored and heavy-armored ones, each enemy presented a linear rise in difficulty. The boss monsters like Manglers, Mimics, Disciples, and Hellhounds raise the bar and can make surviving their attacks tough. All of this combined will make you realize why the “Squad Fill” option is always on by default.

Fast forward to the exfil zone, I got a pretty good idea about the type of monsters I would have to face and the necessary firepower needed to decimate them.

So much to do, so little time

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies lobby menu (Image via Activision)

There is an astounding number of things that you can do in Modern Warfare 3 Zombies. The list of missions that you can take up is neatly divided into different tiers, but it looks like a trick to create an illusion of having more playable content. This is primarily because the objectives are mostly easy and you can breeze through them quickly. The only time-consuming factor of this mode is traveling from one point to another.

I had a choice to either explore or participate in gunfights, which made sense considering the size of the map. But it soon becomes troublesome when you have just 45 minutes to do it all or perish in the Aether Storm later.

Regardless, the number of missions is greater than what the campaign offers. The map’s division is favorable to both new and seasoned players, with tougher enemies spawning towards the center and weaker ones outside. There are several weapons that you can utilize and even more Zombies mode-exclusive items and equipment to deal with tricky situations.

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies Mission Select screen (Image via Activision)

However, the mission completions lacked the feeling of accomplishment, and the rewards were lackluster most of the time. It felt shallow, especially since all the useful items like Ammo Mods are only provided because you will need them to complete other mission objectives. Instead, I prefered to look through risky areas for a lucky jackpot to get an unexpectedly great weapon or item.

The upgrade systems through Pack-a-Punch worked well throughout the map to augment weapons and create higher damage outputs. That, combined with single-use items like Death Perception, Quick Revive, Elemental Pop, and other Perk-a-Colas, provided a fresh gunfight experience than selecting from the repetitive vests, gloves, boots, and perks.

The curated campaign mission, Extraction at the end of Act 1, was a nice touch to introduce Dr. Jansen to the lore and lay down the foundation for Act 2, Mother of Invention. A story is woven into the objectives and has, so far, maintained a steady pace.

Movement and gunplay

There are no unique movement or gunfight mechanics in this mode. I slide-cancelled for most of the time, but it seemed unnecessary in the outermost low-threat areas. One thing that I did like about the fights is that you cannot actually run out of ammo when fighting off a horde. Killing the zombies was easily the best way for me to refill my bag with a bunch of ammo and plates to waste on other occasions.

In terms of perks, there seem to be no limitations, and you can have all nine at the same time. The Wonder Weapons being linked to rare schematics is a nice way to balance the power scales and maintain their special grade status.

SHG carried over the assimilation feature to help players create a bigger party (six players max) instead of the Trio that can queue into a lobby. However, maybe the squad size can be increased to four in the future, as some of the inner circle challenges are quite difficult and can be excruciating for just three players.

The desolate iteration of Urzikstan and accompanying visuals

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies Urzikstan destroyed terrain (Image via Activision)

Activision’s commitment to consistently adding blood and gore in such modes feels on point for Modern Warfare 3 Zombies. Considering the recent visual changes that came to MW2 and Warzone in The Haunting Event, Zombies is quite vivid and has almost everything that one would imagine in a monster-infested world.

“Almost everything” because I personally would love to see a slight bump in the number of vehicles spawning on the map other than the mercenary ones. Traveling from one end to the other quite literally turns the session into a running simulator.

Aether Nests could have been more challenging and bigger in scale to make it worth equipping a gas mask. When it was announced, I guess I expected to enter a massive mansion with nasty cysts on the walls and roofs, and have everything inside trying to constantly kill me.

Once again, Urzikstan looks absolutely spectacular with the zombie makeover, and has distinct features that truly showcase the mode's lethal nature. Of course, the map will not look the same in Warzone, but it's nice to know the terrain and layout beforehand.

Performance on PC and optimization

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies performance (Image via Activision)

Optimization is one of the key factors in multiplayer games if it wishes to cater to a large community with variable specifications. I installed Modern Warfare 3 on an HDD and ran it on an RTX 3060 Ti, Ryzen 5 3600, and 16 GB RAM. To my surprise, the open-world mode held out better than its multiplayer counterpart.

While I suffered severe frame drops in the multiplayer, this one provided me with a stable three-digit FPS count on custom settings. I did sacrifice some visual effects, but the game still looked great and almost made me like the darker shade of the map. At this point, I encountered a few minor server issues that I noticed, and I really wanted to criticize the game right then.

The FPS takes a hit once you get into the red circle and fight against the bosses while activating all the perks you can. But I wouldn’t entirely blame the game for it, as user hardware can play a major role in this.

Overall, the performance of this mode on PC is good enough to run on decent gaming rigs that meet the recommended requirements.

In Conclusion

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies review conclusion (Image via Activision)

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies has almost everything that the developers promised to deliver. A few more polished updates in the future can probably fine-tune it to cross the final Ts and dot the Is.

Modern Warfare 3 Zombies changed my perception of survival games, something that DMZ could never do. For a player like me who thrives on fast-paced gameplay and quick matches, I thoroughly enjoyed every second on Urzikstan. I truly hope that Activision continues this venture with new missions and expansions because it has the potential to be a standalone storyline.