Modern Warfare 3 players split over stealth mission’s “bad design oversight”

The Deep Cover mission in Modern Warfare 3’s campaign has proven divisive with some players being upset over an insta-kill mechanic that forces a stealthy playstyle.

The campaign for MW3 hasn’t been received too well with its fifteen missions not being deemed long enough by many.

Criticisms have included describing it as just “Warzone with cutscenes,” while others have targeted its game-breaking bugs, although Sledgehammer Games has largely addressed those.

Now another critique has arrived with one particular mission upsetting players who are irritated at how linear it is, but not everyone agrees that this “design oversight,” is a bad thing.

MW3 campaign mission’s linear design leaves community split

Content creator ProBorn tweeted: “ok I can’t even explain in words how bad this design oversight is in MW3,” accompanied by a video showcasing one section of the Deep Cover mission.

In the video, ProReborn fails the objective by revealing himself to the enemy forces. He then gets into cover and waits for the guards to push him only to get instantly downed and fail the mission. The content creator described this outcome as the “worst scripted thing I’ve ever seen in a video game.”

This is a scripted fail designed to punish players for not playing stealthily and staying out of sight. Although it’s in line with the mission’s design, not everyone appreciates such a linear approach.

One reply read: “Out of all the missions, this singular moment was so bad. I love the campaign EXCEPT this part. I died following the rules, trying it differently, moving slower, faster, no matter what I did soon as the second one saw me everyone knew I was there I thought this was a glitch.”

“Easily could’ve been ‘mission failed you alerted the base’ I feel like the killing you part is so unnecessary,” another annoyed player responded questioning why Sledgehammer took such a jarring approach.

However, not everyone agreed that this was a problem with a few comments putting the onus on ProReborn instead.

These replies included “Maybe play the mission as intended? This isnt open combat,” and “I mean thats not how that specific mission is intended, so yea id say that was obvious it would do that, the objective is to go completely undetected, why create an issue where there is none.”

Scripted fails like this are not unique to Modern Warfare 3 with every Call of Duty campaign featuring them to some degree. Even so, it’s clear that not all players think they should be in MW3.