Summary
TheCall of Dutyfranchise has had some great characters over the last 20 years. While the first threeCall of Dutygames weren’t without a handful of fun personalities, it wasCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfarethat delivered the first truly memorable cast of characters, with Captain Price being one of the clear standouts. Then the ball kept rolling with2009’sModern Warfare 2, which introduced Ghost and gave Soap a more prominent role, along with including new villains like Makarov and General Shepherd. And while theBlack Opsseries definitely has its own set of iconic legacy characters, they’re arguably not as beloved as that originalModern Warfarecrew, and it makes complete sense whyCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3would want to capitalize on that.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3brings the whole band back together in a pretty big way. Along with the entirety ofTask Force 141,Modern Warfare 3also brings Shepherd, Makarov, Nikolai, and even Yuri to the table. But doubling down on legacy characters is a double-edged sword, and while it’s great to see them all back together again inCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it does end up pushing some newer characters to the sidelines, and that’s especially true with Farah.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Pushes Farah to the Sidelines
Farah Has Become a Modern Call of Duty Mainstay
Introduced in2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfarereboot, Farah Karim has quickly become one of the most popular characters inCall of Dutyhistory. Though it was certainly a risk,Modern Warfarespends a good portion of its missions centered around Farah and her own personal fight with the Russian oppressors in her homeland of Urzikstan, and her character is all the better for it, with players gradually learning more about her tragic backstory and her impressive resolve. Infinity Ward also made a smart choice by tying a legacy character like Captain Price into Farah’s backstory, giving quite a bit of fan-service to those who became fully invested in Farah’s story.
One of the biggest highlights of Farah Karim’s character in theModern Warfareseries is her excellent performance courtesy of Claudia Doumit, best known for her work onThe Boysand nowGen V.
Before release, fans were pretty vocal about their desire to see Farah return in last year’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and she did exactly that. While Farah didn’t get too much to do inModern Warfare 2’s campaign, her brief appearance was pretty memorable, making the character feel like a major player in the game’s story and universe, and one that would surely appear in the near future to assist Task Force 141 again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gives Farah the Grunt Work
A good portion ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s campaign revolves around Urzikstan and the ULF, so naturally, it makes sense that Farah would be a main player in the story once more. However, while Farah does appear several times throughoutModern Warfare 3’s campaign, she really doesn’t get all that much to do, and what she does get doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the overarching story at all. It also doesn’t help that Farah is the main playable character in most of the game’s Open Combat Missions, which are proving to be one of the game’s most controversial aspects.
The latest big campaign gimmick,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s Open Combat Missionsare widely regarded as some of the laziest levels in franchise history. Rather than have a strict set of linear goals and action set-pieces, these Open Combat Missions let players tackle some barebones objectives in any order, with a variety of different playstyles. While that sounds good on paper, it’s a premise that isn’t executed well at all, with some frankly boring gameplay, lackluster objectives, minimal story beats, and repetitive level design, with most of these missions just taking place inside previously seenWarzonelocations. It’s genuinely unfair that Farah is the character most associated with these disappointing levels.
