Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Review
Suit up for the future
by Johnathan Irwin
reviewed on PC
War Games (cntd)
If you happened to play Titanfall earlier this year, then you may have some idea of how to handle yourself with the slightly clunky suit that all players are equipped with online. It enables a new layer of freedom, and helps to cut down on camping in maps that would otherwise be full of high grounds with only one normal access route. The Exosuit, like in the campaign, allows the player to jump higher, move faster, and hit harder.
Though, it’s not just the Exosuit that’s new; things such as multi-functional grenades can rise to many occasions such as threat assessment, EMPing enemy electronics, and of course doing what grenades do best; exploding into a storm of fiery fragments to damage and hopefully eliminate the enemy. You want lasers? Have one. Whether it’s the one you can equip, or the kill streak that appears as a pillar of fire from orbit, it’s one of several things the game throws at you that tries to say, “HEY, IT’S THE FUTURE NOW!”. But even with the new things thrown into the mix, as previously stated, it’s still a Call of Duty title. Only now, it feels slightly fresher.
Outside of the futuristic side you will find more traditional firearms, and this time there seems to be less to pick from overall. On one hand, you have less filler weapons that no one uses but on the other hand variety is often the spice of life. I’ve found the starting weapons able to hold their ground with the rest of them, and have only switched my assault rifle to pick one that looked better. Stats for the weapons seem to make little sense, range has never been an issue without bullet drop and people take damage so quickly that the one or two extra bullets it may take to kill someone is once again negligible. If you die in a fire fight, it’s most likely because they shot first, had more consistent aim, or the peer to peer set up of the lobbies was not in your favor. As always, the Kill Cam is an inconsistent mess and will be more of a frustration than actually giving you insight on what happened.
...They Pulled Me Back In
I have to tip my hat and give a clap for this installment. They pulled me back in by teasing a campaign they made me actually want to play, and the gameplay was actually different enough for once that it didn’t leave me asking myself, “Why did I buy this? It’s the same as the last several.”. While the multiplayer aspect may not hold me for as long as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare did, it certainly will last longer for me than all of the other Call of Duty games since then.
It’s also the first Call of Duty game to try to address at least the most glaring plot holes in the campaign so that the story doesn’t lose itself. Though it starts off unique and then fades back into the normal trends it still offers a far better story than the others of the franchise. Despite the dismal showing of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare shows that it’s not quite time to write off this series yet, and I just may be back next year to see if the improvements continue or if this game turned out to be just a fluke.
8.0
fun score
Pros
Better campaign than previous installments, changes to gameplay offer a slightly new experience while not completely changing up the formula, weapon balancing seems better for the most part, Kevin Spacey’s debut into the game world does not disappoint.
Cons
Exosuit feels clunky at times, lower weapon variety may cut filler but also gives less to choose from, peer to peer lobby hosting can still offer levels of unbridled frustration especially when it comes to Kill Cam observation.
