After getting to grips with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s Spec Ops Mission Mode and experiencing the game’s extremely refined and very impressive combat, I moved over one station at Activision’s press booth at gamescom 2011 to have a look at the game’s Survival Mode, which at first may seem like a regular wave-based co-operative mode in which you defend yourself from streams of enemies, but soon turns out to be something much more.

To begin with, all levels in Modern Warfare 3’s Survival Mode use the game’s already-built multiplayer maps, but will be used for a very different purpose in this particular game type – two-player co-operative play. You and your team-mate will need to use deft strategy to fight back against the hordes of enemy soldiers, and starting out with only a pistol, you’ll be able to gradually pick up better and more powerful weapons dropped by enemies you take down.

Or you could just use the three different armouries available in Survival to buy new weapons, equipment and special abilities.

While you could survive a few waves, or rounds, of enemies with your standard load-out of weapons picked up from enemies, you definitely won’t live much longer than that as your foes soon become better armoured, larger in number and more… metallic, as helicopters are soon called in to rip you to shreds – you’ll soon be calling for support of your own from your co-op player to help revive you.

How can you go about defending yourself against these increasingly powerful and numerous foes? How will you and your co-op buddy ever stand a chance of surviving any amount of enemy waves when a helicopter is raining rounds down at your head, heavily protected soldiers plod towards you toting a powerful shotgun and a half-dozen more nimble enemies take pot shots at you while ducking and rolling behind cover?

With armouries, that’s how.

In the level I played, there were three boxes scattered around the play area – a Weapon Armoury, an Equipment Armoury and Air Strikes. Weapon armouries are used to buy new weapons (…), upgrade those weapons and refill your ammo, while Equipment armouries are where you can buy armoured vests and grenades (explosive and flash), as well as other special items like a moveable sentry turret that you’re able to place anywhere you like. Lastly there’s the Air Strike box of tricks where you can buy the opportunity to call in air support, resulting in the appearance of a handful of riot shield wielding soldiers to help protect you. The Air Strike box also lets you call in airstrikes (…), but at a hefty price.

You earn currency to buy all of these fancy things by taking down enemies during a wave, as well as performing well during that wave (achieving headshots, for example), but in the demo my playing partner was able to give me money to help me afford the finer things in Survival Mode life, such as sentries and air support. It wasn’t clear if the ability to send cash to your fellow co-op player will be included in the final game, but it seemed like a nice, natural addition so it never even entered my mind to ask if wouldn’t be!

If you’re wondering how a few pick-up boxes may add any semblance of strategy and excitement to the fast-paced, wave-based, adrenaline-encased first-person action of Survival Mode in Modern Warfare 3, it should be explained that you’re only able to buy new weapons, equipment, ammo and air strike abilities in-between waves which makes for a mad dash around the level to get to the appropriate box and buy what you want and need.

Additionally, with equipment like the sentry, you’re able to buy and place a turret wherever you please, and with two players you can buy two sentries, set them up in the desired orientation, and hole up in a corner and let the sentries destroy any enemy that dares get close. The same thing goes with the air support ability – find a safe and secluded area, call in the air support with the press of a d-pad button and let your private bodyguards defend you against the onslaught of oncoming enemies.

After only roughly fifteen minutes of play time, it’s obvious that Survival Mode for Modern Warfare 3 is going to be a very popular game mode for players looking for some substantial co-operative action. It’s very easy to drop into a match with a friend and slowly ramp up from the less difficult enemies to the more powerful soldiers, and the option to upgrade your weapons, buy armour, refill your ammo and resupply your stock of grenades in-between waves of enemies is a great way of encouraging players to think ahead and lay plans for their line of defence and area of offence - after playing the same map a number of times, you’ll soon know what challenges lie ahead and how to plan for them, as well as how to score even more points with subsequent playthroughs.

Another meaty addition to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 package! This blockbuster is looking more and more exciting with every new reveal!