There were a lot of hot announcements at The Game Awards 2023, but the biggest burn was reserved for the length of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s campaign. Kratos actor Christopher Judge didn’t mince words, jesting that his 7-minute and 59-second acceptance speech at the Game Awards 2022 lasted longer than CoD‘s campaign. Though that’s an exaggeration, you can speedrun MW3‘s campaign in just a couple of hours. Even if you take your time, the game will treat you to an abrupt ending in five hours or less. Many CoD fans understandably have some hard feelings about that. Watching Kratos roast the campaign was a bit of sweet karma.
Kratos Roasts Modern Warfare 3’s Short Campaign
In 2022, Judge won the award for Best Performance for his role as Kratos in God of War Ragnarök. His acceptance speech wasn’t only the longest in Game Awards history. It was also longer than Greer Garson’s record-setting Academy Awards speech. Judge certainly seemed pleased with himself about the joke, and The Game Awards isn’t exactly a new venue for some friendly ribbing. Whether the Modern Warfare devs find his burn quite as funny is another question. To be fair, Call of Duty is one of the most successful shooter franchises of all time. When a AAA studio spends so much money on a campaign with a shorter runtime than The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s only fair to poke fun.
Players criticized Modern Warfare 3 not only for its brief campaign but also for its Open Combat Missions. They’re essentially just the free-to-play DMZ mode with extra dialogue, after all. Combine that with the scarcity of action scenes and Quick Time Events compared to previous CoD games, and it’s easy to see Judge’s point. Even though Judge was kidding, the audience reaction suggests that he wasn’t the only one who’s been stewing on the brief length of MW3‘s campaign. The Kratos actor roasting MW3 carries a special sting, considering Ragnarök is getting an entire DLC for free soon, increasing its own playtime that much more.
