Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review - Playing It Safe

In the world of gaming, at least for the past seven years, players have been able to count on November bringing the newest iteration of the Call of Duty series. From World War II, to Vietnam, Cuba, war torn African nations, to the Middle East, and even American soil, Call of Duty has taken millions of players through time and space to fight and win against insurmountable odds. However, this yearly release cycle has come at a cost.

While Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was seen as being an innovator in both its campaign and multiplayer modes, the sad truth is that developers inspired by that now classic game have taken first-person shooters beyond that formula and now the Call of Duty series is seen by many to be stagnate and a caricature of first-person shooter tropes. After the general disappointment of last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, caution seems to be the consensus among players. Can this, the first in the Call of Duty series made specifically with next-gen consoles in mind, revitalize the ailing franchise? The answer is: sort of.

The Motivation

The campaigns in most recent Call of Duty games have been criticized as being “tacked on” and lacking the appeal of the earlier entries in the series. Sledgehammer Games has tried to rectify those feelings by putting quite a bit of effort into Advanced Warfare’s single-player mode. However, the results can be a bit odd at times. The story is set in 2054, in which players take on the role of Jack Mitchell (whose name I immediately forgot), a Private in the U.S. Marine Corps, deploying as part of the effort to throw back the North Korean forces invading Seoul. Due to some extremely unfortunate circumstances Private Mitchell is forced to retire from the military, at which point he is approached by his squad mate’s father, CEO of Atlas Corporation (Jonathan Irons as played by Kevin Spacey) to work for him as a private military contractor.

.

As with all Call of Duty campaigns players must suspend a bit of disbelief to truly enjoy the ride. This entry is no different, and the player character is still a unstoppable force of nature, killing everything in his path. However, the campaign seems to have missed quite a few opportunities as far as narrative and innovation go. There are several scenes throughout the campaign that tried very hard to be poignant and evoke emotion (including the famous “Press “A” to Pay Your Respects” scene) that just seemed out of place. Most of these scenes centered around characters that didn’t get enough screen time for gamers to form an emotional bond with, thus wasting the opportunity to form a memorable event. Kevin Spacey’s character in particular seemed to be erratically written, as if the producers just told him to improvise his entire performance.

As with all Call of Duty campaigns players must suspend a bit of disbelief to truly enjoy the ride.

In addition, although there were quite a few deviations from the standard Call of Duty formula, it seemed as though the developers were afraid to deviate too far and risk alienating the Call of Duty fanbase. A few great vehicle sequences ended up being much too short, and the random injection of the stealth aspects, while welcome and interesting, seemed out of place compared to the rest of the game. The worst part about it is that those new sequences played beautifully and it would have been nice if more of them were included to break up what was a mostly formulaic corridor shooter.

All My Friends Wear Metal Suits

The real seller of Call of Duty is the multiplayer, and this is where Advanced Warfare shines. This entry in the series marks a return to form. Gone are the overwhelming plethora of killstreaks and odd unlockable progression of Ghosts, and in its place is a well-balanced leveling system reminiscent of the first two Modern Warfares. New guns are unlocked at certain levels, and accessories are unlocked by completing challenges with their respective weapons. The return to simplicity is a welcome change as it allows players to set goals and follow through.

Killstreaks have moved to a point-based system, where each kill or medal awards a set amount of points which will count towards a killstreak, to be upgraded at the expense of having to earn more points to unlock them. Perks have also been given a much milder makeover, and are a bit less limited in the advantage they give the player. Firearms are fairly well-balanced, and the inclusion of a virtual firing range allows players to try different loadouts without having to enter a multiplayer match. The addition of the Exoskeleton and its power adds another factor to multiplayer strategy, but while they add some new assets to player maneuverability with the new ability to double jump and dodge with the suit’s rockets, it’s not enough of a difference keep it feeling like another annual Call of Duty release.

The addition of the Exoskeleton and its powers adds another factor to multiplayer strategy.

While the multiplayer is an improvement over Ghost’s, it’s not without fault. The respawn system can be a bit finnicky, with players sometimes unfairly spawning right in front of their enemies and a few balancing issues with firearms. With a few patches, these issues could be solved and Advanced Warfare could be seen as a great refinement of the Call of Duty multiplayer formula as it brings back the things that made the series’s multiplayer so addictive while keeping many of the improvements that were introduced as the series went on. However, players looking for innovation will not find it here.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

One huge criticism the previous few Call of Duty games generally fell victim to was the fact that their color palettes consisted of almost exclusively greys, browns, blacks, and olive greens. Advanced Warfare eschews this by taking players through levels with vastly varying colors and brightnesses. The overall sharpness and fluidity, along with the great textures, make this Call of Duty feel like it’s truly next-gen.

The sound was great as is standard with Call of Duty, the firearms all had unique and realistic reports, and the voice acting was fairly good, although it could be a bit hamfisted at times. Framerate was a fairly consistent 60fps on the Xbox One due to its dynamic scaling feature (confirmed on campaign only, multiplayer results still pending) in which during resource intensive scenes the resolution scales down to around 1360×1080 instead of true 1080p (1920×1080) to preserve framerate. Although on paper this is quite the drop in visual fidelity, it usually happens when players are concentrating on an intense firefight and is a bit hard to notice if it isn’t looked for.

Conclusion

Advanced Warfare was quite the pleasant surprise when it was unveiled. With the franchise starting to feel very weary with the release of Ghosts, it was assumed that this entry would follow much the same course. Sledgehammer Games has taken its chance to return the series to form which resulted in a very fun game in both campaign and multiplayer, with the benefits of a faster paced experience thanks to the Exoskeleton. Taking the series back to its roots is a great start in the right direction for the hitherto stagnated series, but is it really enough?

Advanced Warfare has a few new tricks up its sleeve, but seems content in reminiscing about the past, not pointing towards the future. That may have gotten the franchise through another year, but it fails to innovate or deviate from the standard Call of Duty formula in any substantial manner. The fact is, even if a game is done very well, which Advanced Warfare certainly is, one can only be so excited to do the same thing they’ve done before, albeit with some extra maneuvers thrown in. Hopefully, the success of Advanced Warfare will spur Sledgehammer and Activision to throw caution to the wind and take the next release of Call of Duty to new territory in both gameplay and subject matter.