I’m sure there are a lot of you who were in the same position as me when it came to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Sceptical, wary, not getting too carried away with it!? In recent years the Call of Duty series had gone completely off the boil for me. I didn’t care for it anymore, I was just bored of it. It needed freshening up, it needed a new coat of paint, it needed to feel like a new game again.
With each passing month following the announcement of Advanced Warfare, I’d been keeping my eye on it closely. Hoping, wanting it to get better, wanting to feel like I wanted it, like I was excited for it. At times it peeked my interest, but it would soon dissipate and leave me feeling indifferent.
Then along came November 2nd, everyone and his brother was playing it on Twitch, the reviews were starting to roll in, and they were positive… for the most part.
That little niggling feeling in the back of my mind was returning, that need, that want to play Call of Duty again. With each comment, each highlight video, each stream increasing my need to play it… It was back, I had the Call of Duty bug again. I wanted it.
Luckily for me, a local supermarket were doing a pretty good deal on it, and I was able to pick it up for a lot less than the RRP. It was a no brainer! Now all I had to do was wait, wait for the install, wait for the working day to end.
Having been absent from the Call of Duty universe for a while I didn’t want to jump straight in to the multiplayer (usually where I’d spend most of my time, previously), so I started out with the campaign.
First things first, the visuals have received a big overhaul, with a completely new engine – let’s be honest, it needed it. The character models look fantastic, in fact the visuals all around look great.
You take on the role of Private Jack Mitchell of the US Marine Corps participating in a conflict in South Korea. You get injured during combat losing your arm and are discharged from the military. You are then approached by Atlas Corporation CEO Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey) who gives you the option to return to the battlefield.
Atlas Corporation are the world’s largest and most powerful private military force, with cutting edge technology. They are able to give Mitchell a prosthetic arm which allows him to return to duty under Atlas Corporation. From here on out, it’s your pretty standard ‘stop this terrorist’ type stuff. But the way that it’s executed is great. The technology and all the gadgets available are brilliant, and really make you feel like a super solider fighting a futuristic war.
The Exo suit is the main gadget. As it sounds, it’s an armoured suit that allows you to run faster, jump higher, and generally just be a lot more badass. It’s movement is what has really added something new to the franchise. A little like Titanfall, you are able to boost around the map, allowing double jumps, dashes sideways and backwards, it brings a nice new perspective to the gameplay and so far I really like the addition of the Exo suit.
I’ve done around five campaign missions so far, and have really enjoyed every minute of it. Actually no that’s not true, the only bit I didn’t like was the really long ‘training’ missions. Seriously they seemed to go on for ages, and I know they’re there to set up a story and provide some back ground, but quite honestly that could’ve all been done with one cut scene, it’s only a small gripe though in what has so far been a great experience on my return to the series.
You can’t play Call of Duty without playing some multiplayer though. So after a few hours of single player, I decided to hope online to see how bad I would be. Turns out, not too bad. I managed to finish my first TDM with 14/5 KD ratio. Pretty decent I thought.
On the multiplayer side, you have your usual suspects for custom classes, bundles of weapons and perks available, and the pick 13. Pick 13 if you don’t know allows you to mix up what you want your class to have in its arsenal, and you can pick up to 13 options. Whether it be extra grenades, more attachments on your gun, or extra perks, there are hundreds of options and combinations you can choose.
I only really played TDM and a couple of rounds of Domination, but I liked what I played. Sure the game still feels pretty arcadey, but it was fun, and fun was what I wanted from it.
All in all, I’m impressed with what I consider to be the first real Next(current) gen Call of Duty game. If you were at all feeling like I did about the game, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.
– Will
