Modern Warfare 3 Players Criticize Riot Shields’ Exploitative Use

Modern Warfare 3 has been in the spotlight for various reasons as of late, but here’s something that didn’t get the attention it truly deserved. Two words: Riot Shields. What appears to be a fairly innocent and relatively trivial defensive weapon in the game has been the cause of a general upset in the Call of Duty community, with many calling for the item’s flat-out removal from the first-person shooter across the board.

I’ll keep saying it; Riot Shields should not have carried over
byu/RuggedTheDragon inModernWarfareIII

“It’s a cheesy primary with minimal negatives and is more effective than you realize,” writes the original poster. Like u/RuggedTheDragon taking to Reddit, there have been several other users trying to make a point in the past, but to no avail. The biggest problem with Riot Shields doesn’t spring up when it’s in use; in fact, it’s right when the player just has it equipped on their back. 

That is the thing that causes the biggest distress, considering how equipped Riot Shields block fire coming from the back, thereby protecting the wearer of the weapon just like that with no extra effort. Furthermore, some players claim that having it on lowers the hitbox as well, meaning that the player becomes harder to kill as shots start to disconnect more and more often. 

YouTuber MrSupplyDrops has highlighted the issue as well in the following video, going over the difference a Riot Shield can make for a user compared to non-users of the item. Then, there’s the same movement speed advantage with the weapon when it’s in use, meaning that you get to move around at the same pace with no limitation whatsoever, making Riot Shield abusers even more annoying to kill. 

“There should be a relative disadvantage to running a shield but there just isn’t one. It should also not be allowed in overkill loadouts. That makes it a bit too strong,” says Beowulf981. Some, on the other hand, are adamant that there are workarounds to taking down folks with Riot Shields, citing resources, such as Semtex, Drill Charge, and Grenades to be some effective solutions. 

In any case, when a squad of Riot Shield abusers team up, matches can be potentially “ruined,” since then you’re stuck trying to switch to a different loadout to counterattack these folks, especially if the players you’re up against are smart and know how to misuse the Riot Shield. Here’s hoping that Sledgehammer Games takes notice of the dispute at hand and makes a meaningful adjustment in that regard.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 came out on November 10, 2023, for both current-gen and old-gen systems, including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. eXputer reviewed the shooter and rated it 2/5, calling it “a disappointing new entry in the franchise that should never have seen the light of day.”

On a side note, if you’re a new player, here’s how to level up weapons fast in Modern Warfare 3 and get to those higher tiers of equipment on the fly.