Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Fans Slam New Armory Unlocks Feature: "Worse Than Mobile Games"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans are angered by a new feature known as Armory Unlocks. The Call of Duty series is a non-stop machine that has been pumping out new games for 20 years. For a while, innovation was very possible albeit sometimes controversial among fans. We saw the series go from modern/historical settings to the far-flung future with wall-running, jetpacks, space battles, and more. Ultimately, the series went back to basics and is now back trying to figure out how to innovate upon material that has existed for many, many years now. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but it does seem to lead to some changes that are done for the sake of change and upset fans.

The latest example is in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and they're called Armory Unlocks. Most people are familiar with how Call of Duty's progression works, you play enough matches, you level up, you unlock new weapons and gear for your loadout. Simple enough, right? Not this year. Once you hit level 25, a large amount of unlocks including killstreaks, guns, and even grenades become relegated to "Armory Unlocks". To earn these unlocks, players must complete 3 daily challenges per unlock. If you want the semtex, it will require you to do 3 of these daily challenges. The problem is, if that wasn't annoying enough already, there are only 9 daily challenges available every day. This means you'd have to keep coming back for days, if not weeks, to unlock everything. While one could argue it would be a good thing to make sure players can't unlock everything in a weekend, it's not great to put up a wall in front of them and actively stop them from progressing. 

This feature has drawn a lot of criticism from Modern Warfare 3 players online with some comparing it to the shady systems of a mobile game. YouTuber StoneMountain64 also noted that one of his daily challenges required him to use flashbangs, something that you can't get without Armory Unlocks. Thankfully, there are pre-made default classes that have these, but it is still a strange situation that may suggest not much thought was put into how the system would work. It was also claimed that some challenges were not tracking correctly, therefore hindering any progress players were making.

Make it make sense. pic.twitter.com/VcLhDvENue

— Mutahar (@OrdinaryGamers) November 11, 2023

I MUST be missing something with this armory unlock system in MW3, right?

My 1st daily mission to unlock flashbangs, requires me to FLASH 2 people with the item I'm TRYING TO UNLOCK and cannot even use.

How do I do this?@CallofDuty @SHGames pic.twitter.com/mflDPydaho

— StoneMountain (@StoneMountain64) November 10, 2023

The new Armory Unlock method is going to be terrible for the average player, and is only in the game to force players to play more.

It's not a grind, there's nothing cool about it, and it's not exciting to unlock these items.

It's over 40 in-game hours wasted.

— Expel (@iamExpel) November 10, 2023

The bug with Daily Challenges needs to be the #1 thing addressed right now @SHGames

So many items are locked behind these armory unlocks, but right now I can’t unlock anything I want because my daily missions don’t track.

— Loochy (@LoochyTV) November 10, 2023

This armory unlock / daily challenge thing is terrible, the challenges should refresh way more often if they want it to be efficient and not frustrating to just wait for refreshing

— Warzone Loadout – CODMunity (@Warzone_Loadout) November 10, 2023

There is a way to counter the Armory Unlocks, however. You can go into Zombies, find the gear you want, and extract with it to keep it. The new system is drawing enough ire from fans that it wouldn't be shocking if Sledgehammer Games makes some adjustments. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but it doesn't seem to be a feature that is going over well with fans and seems a bit redundant if you can just circumvent it in Zombies.