Over the years I think a lot of gamers have felt the
fatigue of the Call of Duty series because they come out annually with little
to no change, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the latest game
in the series Advanced Warfare from the guys at Sledgehammer Games in
conjunction with High Moon and Raven Software.
The campaign’s story is that you play as Private
Jack Mitchell played by Troy Baker who seems to be in every game at the moment,
but I digress. You first start out in the marines pushing back the North
Koreans out of Sol South Korea and then you are then injured and are given a
second chance by the PMC Atlas. The president and ceo Johnathan Irons played by
Kevin Spacey hires you and gives you advanced prosthetics so you can fight for
his army. Yeah the story isn’t special and the twists you can see from a mile
off, but it’s presented so well with its direction and graphics with the facial
animation which are fantastic that it will hook you.
The campaign took me around 7 hours to finish and
that was even on the veteran difficulty and it wasn’t particularly hard but
that maybe because I upgraded my exo to the max by the end of it that I was
able to with stand a lot of gun fire and sprint fast. That isn’t say that you
won’t go up against tougher enemies because you will you’ll get soldiers in
harder armour and other mercs in mech suits that are equipped with mini-guns
and missiles, let’s just say that the campaign gets more intense in the later
stages. In the campaign you’ll do little challenges that will award you with
skill points you can upgrade certain elements for your exo such as increase
reloading speed or sprint etc. but unfortunately it’s a bit bare bones and
except for the reloading I don’t really notice the upgrades in practise.
The graphics are amazing especially on the current
gen machines (PS4, Xbox One) they are nearly bridging on photorealistic and you
can tell who the actors are and you will recognise some of them especially
Kevin Spacey he has been put in the game fully. The production value from the
graphics and voice actors are high it’s paced like a blockbuster movie. The
game runs at a native 1080p on the PS4 and runs at 60 frames per second for the
most part it does stutter in some cutscenes, but in gameplay I’ve not noticed
any notable frame rate drops it performs really well most of the time.
Gameplay is similar to other COD games especially in
the campaign but you have the added exo-suit but unfortunately it is used in
the scripted events in the campaign which Call of Duty is known for. In
multiplayer on the other hand the exo-suit comes into to its own because
instead of camping in corners and sniping in this game, players will be running
around the map dodging shots and out smarting you in gunfights. It makes it
immediately fresh compared to the stilted gameplay of the other games it has
feeling of the old school shooters such as Quake and Unreal Tournament where it’s
all about map control and not your loadout.
The multiplayer still has the standard slew of perks
and different equipment although there are some interesting weapons as the game
is set from 2054 onwards so get a laser heavy weapon and a portable rail gun as
a pistol which is a one shot kill (mostly),
The variable grenades are interesting where you get
3 or 4 grenades in one which can range from stun, EMP and frag. You can get different exo abilities
which can vary from silent footsteps, a shield or speeding up your run speed
which all run on a battery which regenerate over time. Pick 10 system returns from Black Ops 2 in the form of Pick 13 where you can equip 13 weapons, perks and abilties which is always usefula and a great way to plan the perfect loadout
You can customise the look of avatar for the online
mode where you can give him or her ostentatious exo-suits which you can unlock
more through loot drops. Loot drops are new to the series these are similar to
free to play games such as Warface or Blacklight Retribution, but like those
game you’ll have a time limit to use the special weapons and clothing items. On
the other hand though these drops have special abilities such as your first few
bullets may do more damage, but take a penalty maybe with slower fire rate with
the first few shots, let’s just say if you can keep them it would make the game
unbalanced.
The game modes aren’t terribly inventive except for
a couple such as Uplink where you have to take a satellite to enemy base and throw
it into the uplink, think of it as a faster pace version of Giff ball or American
Football. It makes you think on your toes because once you’re in possession of
the satellite you can’t use your weapons but you can turn the tables on your
enemies by throwing it at them to make them catching it and you can then gun
them down. In general though the game modes are the usual Team Deathmatch,
domination etc. but with the added exo abilities it adds a sense of verticality
and new strategy to the game.
Overall this is the first Call of Duty game that I’ve
enjoyed in years and is an excellent first attempted from the guys at
Sledgehammer Games for their first standalone COD game, if you have a PS4, Xbox
One or PC give this game ago I have played it on the last gen and it does not
perform as well and the graphics (obviously) are not as well optimised. If you’re
looking to play on your current gen machine give this game a go because it may
surprise you.
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