Developer: Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4
Tested on: PS4
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Review
Call of Duty is a successful franchise that can be traced back to 2003 and which has known its ups and downs over the years. The biggest problem being the fact that the series didn’t really invent new ideas nor did something totally different in the next game to come. Well, I can honestly say, this Call of Duty is the one we’ve been waiting for.
Story
The campaign starts off with Jack Mitchell and his best friend Will Irons doing several missions for the United States Marine Corps. While they’re in Seoul, Will gets caught in an explosion by unfortunate events and so, Mitchell stays behind, alone, with his arms torn off (as he got struck by a piece of flying metal). His career is over, his best friend dead… What’s left for him? Well, Will’s father, Jonathan Irons knows how close his son and Mitchell were and decides to take care of the latter. As Irons is CEO of the Atlas Corporation (a powerful company which trains an army on its own while providing the soldiers with the most high tech gear), Mitchell soon is ready to fight again. The new target? Hades, the leader of the KVA, a group of terrorists who wish to bring the world back in a more anti-technologic state.
This is about all I can say without spoiling the story too much. Let’s just say, nothing is was it seems and there’s a far grander plot going on. It really feels like the story has been thought thoroughly through and although it isn’t the newest Bioshock Infinite story wise, the narrative was certainly not a bad one and provides enough entertainment to work your way through the campaign.
Graphics
It must be said: Advanced Warfare looks gorgeous. Making your way through all kinds of landscapes and buildings hasn’t been more enjoyable. Effects like water, gunfire and explosions make the world feel alive and it really feels like you are one of the many soldiers who are fighting this war. Actor Kevin Spacey looks almost frighteningly real while he gives you instructions.
If you’re in the field with your crew, directions and instructions are given through your helmet. Not only will you “hear” a commanding voice talking to you, there’s a huge square video feed that appears right in front of your face. Okay okay, there’s a lot of incredible tech in the future but really, putting video images right in front of me which block a quarter of the entire view might not be the best way to go.
Sound
The game offers some great sound effects and music. In Advanced Warfare, we can hear a very successful cooperation between composer Harry Gregson-Williams and the music production studio audiomachine (particularly known for their epic music).
Advanced Warfare is filled with all kinds of sound effects like breaking glass, electric lines that are crackling and even your own fist meeting the face of your adversary. They all sound like they should and enhance the immersive feeling of being a soldier in the field.
Voice acting is pretty good most of the time but some foreign accents aren’t really that convincing. To name one: Ilona’s Russian accent is quite awkward at times and sounds a bit exaggerated. Most of the voice acting is good enough though.
Gameplay
One of the newest gameplay additions in this new installment of Call of Duty must be the technologic novelties, provided by the Exo suit. Never before, the gunplay has been so divers as this time around, you can boost yourself forward and up in the air, sprint longer, summon a shield out of your arm and so on. The possibilities are endless and this certainly makes this new Call of Duty stand out from previous ones. Although the developers haven’t really touched the basics of the franchise (as they were pretty solid to start with), you can really see how hard they tried to make this COD a fresh experience.
A downside that’s very noticeable though, is that the game doesn’t seem to help you a lot with these new additions. Sometimes, the screen shows some basic explanation on how to use your powers but most of the time, you’ll have to fend for yourself. Especially in the beginning, this proves to be quite a struggle. Opening your shield while actually, you wanted to start “Overdrive” (a sort of bullet time) isn’t the most practical thing to do in the middle of a shootout.
While we are talking about impractical situations, here’s another one. In the campaign, the player has a range of different grenades in his/her arsenal and although it’s nice to have so much choice in what to throw, cycling through the grenades is mostly a pain in the ass. You’ll have to manually cycle through the grenades with the D-pad and as we all know, these seconds can make the difference in killing a whole pack of enemies at once, or dying before you even had the chance of throwing the explosive projectile. A better way of doing this should be by giving the player the option to choose a couple of grenades at the beginning of every mission so that every button has only one kind of explosive tied to it. Now it just feels very clumsy and you don’t want clumsy in such a fast first person shooter.
After having completed the campaign (which has a mildly decent length of about 6 to 7 hours), there’s enough fun to be had in the multiplayer of COD AW. Call of Duty has been known for its incredibly fast gameplay where you better grow some eyes on the back of your head. Well, now, you’ll want eyes on the back and TOP of your head as well. Thanks to the boosting powers of the Exo suit, it won’t take long before you see everyone bunny hopping around the map. It’s a great addition to the overall gameplay experience and brings something fresh and new to the playground while providing players with a lot more freedom of movement.
The multiplayer has a nice range of modes going from the usual Capture the Flag and Team Death Match to Kill Confirmed (where you need to collect the dog tags of your killed opponents) and Uplink.
Lastly, there’s the Exo Survival mode where you and your teammates will have to take it up against waves of enemies. Working together as a team is essential here to stay alive for as long as possible and it’s a pretty fun mode to play, especially with friends.
Conclusion
The newest Call of Duty succeeds in bringing new elements to the table while still using the base which made the franchise so popular in the first place. There’re a few hiccups in the game like the grenade system in the campaign and some voice acting, but overall Advanced Warfare is a very enjoyable game to play for either newcomers or veterans of the game series. This is the Call of Duty we’ve all been waiting for so long, so if you’re into fast first person shooters, then this game is the one to buy.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Review,
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