It’s been one year folks. A year since we were introduced with the steaming pile that was Call of Duty: Ghosts. A year since I pretty much told myself that I would never touch Call of Duty again. And yet, here we are, a year later and, like an amnesiac with a tendency for masochism, I’m playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
After playing through the entirety of the single player campaign, I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a good game. There is a plethora of shooters in the world, but Call of Duty is one of the few that really thrives on doing the same thing over and over again. So what sets Advanced Warfare apart from the rest? Hit the jump and read on.
Context
Currently, Call of Duty is a series that is best known for it’s highly addictive multiplayer and for being cited as the cause of shootings in real life because it is “a violent video game”. Honestly, as far as video games go, Call of Duty is no where near the worst (I’m looking at you literally anything made by Rockstar). But despite that, Call of Duty (or CoD) tends to be a punching bag for any sort of criticism launched at video games.
The Call of Duty franchise is arguably most hated and loved series of all time. Every year it sells millions of copies and is often the best selling game of the year. Although, the last few iterations of CoD have been experiencing a dip in sales, it still manages to be one the most hyped and talked about games.
The first game in the franchise that really catapulted Call of Duty into the lime-light as the definitive modern military shooter was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Back in 2006, when Modern Warfare came out, there was an abundance of WWII first-person shooters. The video game market was essentially over-saturated with WWII first-person shooters, in fact Call of Duty was one of the better WWII FPS franchises at the time. Around the time when the market was getting tired of WWII shooters, Modern Warfare exploded onto the scene and changed the landscape for shooters from then on.
So here we are, almost ten years after the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision has finally released Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Developer Sledgehammer games, the team that helped make Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 a thing, joins Infinity Ward and Treyarch as the third team tasked to solely create Call of Duty games.
Advanced Warfare takes cues from Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and adopts a futuristic setting, as opposed to Call of Duty: Ghosts taking place a few years in the future with way less technological advances. The most notable difference between Advanced Warfare and the all other Call of Duties is the introduction of “Exo Suits”, which are essentially exoskeletons that apparently everybody has access to.
What I liked
The main thing that really turned me off of Ghosts was the nonsensical story that was fun to play, like the dog level or space sequences. It seriously felt like the many locations you visit in Ghosts were chosen via darts and it just felt forced. With Advanced Warfare however, the story was enjoyable and it at least made sense, despite it’s cookie cutter nature. You primarily play as a solider of a private military company, a mercenary army if you will. With that simple stipulation, the fact that you and your squad conduct missions all around the world is something that’s easily believable. It feels as though the writers were paying attention to previous iterations of Call of Duty and tried something a little different from the usual formula.
Although, I’ll fully admit that the story is fairly generic (I called every twist that happened before they happened), it was a still a fun experience. Having access to an Exo Suit, however, was by far the best part of the whole story. Usually, during Call of Duty’s campaign, I feel like a dude that’s very lucky and really good at shooting. But with an exo suit, I felt like a straight up super powered individual. “Oh what’s that? You and five of your friends ambushed me? No worries, I’m going to slow down time and take you all out before you can fire a single shot!” “Oh, you’re on the second floor? No worries, I’m just going to boost jump up there and punch you so hard you’re going to hit the wall that’s ten feet behind you as though I was endowed with the strength of the goddam Incredible Hulk!”
Exo suits are hands down the best part of the entire game, as they are a complete departure from the usual style of gameplay that the series is known for. The core mechanics are essentially unchanged, but there are a few tweaks here and there that freshen up the experience as a whole. For one, your character will automatically climb up a ledge if you hold forward and jump towards it. Another is that characters no longer throw grenades, they shoot them from a wrist mounted cannon. Though this is mainly an aesthetic change, Although the futuristic elements are only aesthetic, they feel new.
While in single-player, multiplayer, or in exo-survival mode the feeling of being something more than just a normal soldier is intoxicating. Whenever the exo-suit is disabled, you immediately feel weak when you fight against enemies who can boost jump and air dash circles around you. Granted, whenever you wanted to fight on even ground with other other de-powered enemies, you could always check out the “Classic” playlists. On a side-note, character customization returns in this iteration of Call of Duty. You’re able to pick a template of pre-made characters, both male and female, and customize the dear they wear. The more you play the game, the more pieces of gear you can collect to customize your characters further. Also, you’ll randomly unlock timed pieces of gear that are only available for a handful of games. When time runs out, they disappear from your inventory.
As always, there are a ton of different multiplayer modes to dig into in Advanced Warfare. Modes such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed all make a return, along with new modes: Uplink and Momentum. In addition to those new modes another new mode, Search and Rescue, adds to the plethora of multiplayer modes to play. This mode is a mixture of Search and Destroy and Kill Confirmed where every time a player is killed they drop dog tags that could either be retrieved by teammates, which revives the downed player, or by an enemy, which eliminates that player for the round.
Since, we’re talking about Call of Duty, I think I pretty much have to talk about my favorite weapons in the game. Oddly enough, considering this is a futuristic game, my favorite weapons seem rather low tech. More often than not, I would resort to using a handgun that only has one one bullet in it and a semi-automatic rifle that is specifically for people who prefer precision shooting.
What I didn’t like
I mentioned this earlier, but I called every “twist” in Advanced Warfare’s plot. The often times generic writing is much more preferable compared to the utterly ridiculous and usually ham-fisted lessons the game apparently tries to convey. Let’s be real guys, if you work for the biggest (and apparently only) private military company in the world, and it’s run by a single dude, the story can only end one of two ways.
Also, can we please do away with quick time events (QTE) for situations that really don’t need to be interactive? This was a big thing when the game first came out, but I have to mention it here as well. There is literally a part, very early in the story, where you have to hold down a button to “show your respects” at a funeral. This little attempt at immersion is completely unnecessary and really destroys any hope of actually taking the game seriously. Also, if you’re ever in a situation where you could either cut off your arm or stab a dude, just stab the dude.
Ridiculous story moments aside, let’s talk about the problems multiplayer has. First off, I don’t understand the thought process behind what pieces of equipment you unlock at a given level. Second, a majority of Exo-abilities seem entirely irrelevant. I can see the implementation of some of them, but others just seem like a cool idea that wasn’t executed properly. For instance, there’s an ability called “Exo-ping” which, in theory, is meant to be used as a counter-measure for the blast suppressor perk. But the battery drains way too quickly and there’s no way to recharge it unless you die.
Back to weird thought processes. I assume the developers figured that they’d make the first few guns great so non-Call of Duty veterans could jump in easily and let them feel like they can compete with the best of them. But the only problem is that the first two rifles are so good everyone uses them. At least the majority of people I’ve seen online think so, since most of them use those same two guns. Even I considered to not bother trying the other guns out. And it seems. In addition to that, the first submachine gun is basically a rifle as well. The second sniper rifle you unlock is undoubtedly better than the other three sniper rifles. And much to my chagrin, there are only four side-arm options, and all but one look, feel, and sound weak.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Advanced Warfare is the extremely weak “Exo-Survival” mode. In most Call of Duty games since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare there has been a co-op mode that helped boost the longevity of the games and offer an experience that pit you and your friends against A.I. controlled enemies. This is where the infamous zombie mode came from. However, Exo-survival mode is a tedious slog through wave after wave of exo-powered enemies and drones. The general feeling of tension and desperation that’s present in past horde modes (zombie mode) is gone.
The worst part about Exo-survival mode is that there is a zombie mode embedded within it. However, if you want to play that zombie mode you have clear three tiers of Exo-survival before the final map is unlocked. Then, once you play on this final map, you need to survive up until the 10th round. After that, you’ll trigger a cutscene that ends with all of your enemies turning into zombies. From here on out, Exo-survival mode turns into zombie mode. Sadly, it runs on a timer so you can’t really enjoy the endless hordes of the undead like you could in the past. But don’t fret, you can play an actual zombie mode when it’s released as DLC, which is just the worst.
Final Thoughts
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a step in the right direction for the franchise. Sledgehammer games went above and beyond my expectations, which frankly wasn’t that hard considering how much I hated it’s predecessor, Call of Duty: Ghosts. For a year I thought there was no way I’d ever be interested in another Call of Duty game, but I was pleased to find that Advanced Warfare scratched every itch I had when it came to a fast-paced arcade shooter.
I once wanted to play Call of Duty professionally back when my friends and I played Modern Warfare 2 every night. But nowadays, I have zero aspirations to want to play the game seriously. And honestly, I have more fun with the game because of that. I no longer get upset if I do particularly poorly during a multiplayer match because hey, it’s just a game. If you’re looking for a fun shooter this holiday season, you probably won’t go wrong if you picked up Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is available now for PC, PS3, PS4 (played), XBOX 360, and XBOX ONE.
