The praise for MW2's campaign at the time was largely exaggerated. Modern Warfare had a lot of memorable campaign moments, and people remembered the shock of the nuclear explosion and what happened with the main character. So they took the wrong message out of it, made a nonsensical storyline where every half an hour your main character dies some "unpredictable death". By the 3rd or 4th it pulls it just becomes so fucking predictable, you're totally expecting the game to murder your character at the end of every mission, and indeed like half the time you're right. If 1 had some impact and punch, 2 felt like "let's max out the shocks and explosions". It was nowhere near as good or fresh and MW1, and while it had its moments (No Russian being the most obvious one), it felt like an expansion pack made by somebody who had no subtlety whatsoever.
As for MW3, it didn't have the memorable parts of MW1-2 but it least it partially stepped away from the overkill of deaths and shocks of MW2. It just felt like a more coherent package, with lesser heights but also far less lows and clichés. Infinity Ward's best campaign however is Infinite Warfare in my opinion: surprisingly ambitious and original, and very impactful overall. The final mission is one of the best missions in the history of the franchise.
