Perhaps modern gaming’s most established franchise, Call of Duty has come under increased scrutiny in recent years as its blockbuster reputation has been hampered by gamers’ understandable concerns that while the series churns out new titles every year, with the first Tuesday in November almost becoming Call of Duty day, the franchise formula changes very little. Advanced Warfare does change things up in the biggest way since Modern Warfare 2, with developer Sledgehammer Games making their solo debut with the franchise. The new exo-suit gives a new degree of movement to players’ characters that changes the way that games should be approached. However, in saying that it still maintains many of the traits that Call of Duty has become known for, both good and bad. In the words of Modern Warfare 2 villain General Shepherd, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.
Taking the line that the last three Call of Duties have taken, Advanced Warfare has a futuristic setting – although with this one being set even further forward in 2054. It is a time where technology has driven warfare to new levels, with more intelligent drones and weapons taking over the industry. The game looks great, although I am playing it on last-gen hardware, and takes a relatively colourful palette and combines it with the colder and generic feel of the future very well. The biggest change in this Call of Duty though is the exo-suit, which allows soldiers far more options in terms of movement – with the ability to boost into the air, slow landings and move around far more freely.
I’m keeping this review confined to the multiplayer element of the game, as I haven’t played enough of the campaign or the Exo Survival co-operative game mode to give a fair judgement on their merits. From what I’ve played of each they seem as though they are boiler-plate Call of Duty fare, but with little to no imagination or memorable elements to them. The campaign mimics Black Ops 2‘s general ethos to an extent, with warfare being a changed beast from the modern day and the Exo Survival game mode takes a heavy line of Modern Warfare 3‘s survival attempt – which essentially revolved around putting AI enemies against players on multiplayer maps, and no real objective other than to stay alive.
But the multiplayer is where Call of Duty games really earn their reputation anyway, and there is plenty in this game that tries to evolve the franchise into new territory.
The exo-suit changes multiplayer considerably by adding a new level of verticality to gameplay. It manages to heighten the signature fast-paced gameplay of Call of Duty as relatively large maps can be traversed quickly and your next encounter is rarely more than a few seconds away. Coupled with the fast rate of fire of guns, and the relatively solid hit detection, it makes for a game that has two positives combine to make a lethal combination for players that are new (or returning) to the game. One second you will be safe, and the next minute you could be dead – such is the nature of the beast. It’s something that takes a while of getting used to, but it can be done.
Much has been made of Advanced Warfare‘s exo-suit capabilities, and comparisons between it and this generation’s other jetpack shooter Titanfall have been very common. After playing both, there is little real similarity between the two systems – other than the fact they allow you to boost into the air (which AW gives more weight to). Titanfall‘s system is far more fluid and intuitive, with the added bonus of wall-running making its’ movement far better – but Advanced Warfare‘s does allow you to customise your exo-suit in more ways and does a good job of bringing a new flavour to the annual Call of Duty banquet. The exo-suit’s abilities give you special features such as a temporary shield, speed boost or a trophy system which destroys incoming explosives – all of which can come in tremendously useful, but are forgotten slightly in the heat of Call of Duty combat.
The game has a reasonable set of maps, which generally feel about the right size for the six on six contests that Advanced Warfare serves up. None really stand out to me as being especially great, although there are definitely some that are better than others. One problem I’ve had with many of them is that they don’t seem to have been as optimised for the exo-suit gameplay as they could have been, with many areas being “out of bounds”, areas being accessible through glitches and holes being included in the map that let you fall off to your death. None of these features strike me as good map design, and although in general they are fun and colourful to run around, these create frustration that shouldn’t be there. Most maps also feature random events that occur during the game, which while adding a bit of context and feature to the maps they often only result in an annoyance that gets in the way of the game. Examples range from the tsunami that washes in on Defender or a toxic volcanic explosion on Retreat that ushers you to another half of the map. I can understand the appeal of adding in these sorts of features, but it disrupts the flow of a game so much that it takes away from the overall experience of a match for me.
The create-a-class system appears to have been lifted wholesale from Black Ops 2, with the Pick 13 (up from 10) system allowing a very flexible customisation of your loadout to incorporate the guns, attachment, perks, scorestreaks and equipment. The biggest change otherwise is that scorestreaks can now be customised, with each getting new abilities that cost more to earn but provide more effectiveness if you manage to attain them. This adds a new layer to the rewards, as although there are fewer different scorestreaks available on the face of things – their upgrades act in the way that Pro perks used to. It’s interesting that while the game has chosen to break up perks individually that they have chosen to group scorestreaks together, presumably to focus on the personal combat of the game. The balancing of this system also appears to be very good as there are no real stand-out perks in the game that are over-powered. One necessity for me is “Hard Wired”, which makes you immune to the obnoxious System Hack scorestreak.
A new system for Call of Duty is the supply drop system, where random items are bestowed upon players after earning them in game. These include different weapon variants that change the guns attributes as well as gear to customise your soldier. It’s a tried and tested system of adding a bit of variety to the game, and I think it certainly helps with the replay value of the game – as the more you play the more chance you have of getting some of the cooler loot which appeals to gamers. These also allow you to find guns that really suit your playstyle which adds a new layer on to your class selection. While these are useful, you also earn character customisation items to change your character’s appearance. For lots of gamers this will provide some interest, but for me it is an unnecessary extra. I’m hoping to see less of myself in the game than I am of the guns I’ll be using, so can I not just get more of them?
Advanced Warfare‘s focus was always meant to be on gun on gun action, and I think Sledgehammer managed to do very well in that department. Not since Modern Warfare 2 has there been a game with such fast-paced combat as Advanced Warfare, with high powered weapons and good hit detection combining to provide a great experience. There is also a good range of different guns available, with assault rifles (favourites: BAL & AK12), SMGs (favourites: KF5, & ASM1) and heavy weapons such as the EM1 laser rifle all serving their purpose nicely.
Scorestreaks are relatively few and far between in Advanced Warfare compared with its’ predecessors. The focus tends to be on gun on gun encounters, which while fun, limits the Pavlovian excitement that players get for earning the top rewards. None of the scorestreaks are particularly satisfying to use, with nothing comparing to the upper end killstreaks from Modern Warfare 2, for instance, where you could rain death from above in an Apache helicopter or AC130 gunship.
There are the usual Call of Duty game modes available in this game, almost unchanged since Modern Warfare 2 but with a few new twists. A welcome addition is the Momentum game mode, a revamped version of War from World at War. Here, there is a series of five flags on the map with one active at each point, with the goal being to capture the flag and push on towards the enemy’s base. Teams can capture flags quicker by building momentum, which is done by getting kills. This game mode works really well in Advanced Warfare, although it does lack a bit of the grandeur that came with the mode in World at War with a certain historical context and of course the use of tanks! The newest mode in the series is Uplink, which acts similar to how Sabotage worked in earlier games – with a single objective that can be scored in the other team’s goal, similar to basketball or football. These are new and interesting to an extent, but Advanced Warfare lacks the drama that other Call of Duties gave me on a game-to-game basis – where winning and losing really meant something. Whether that’s my fatigue with the genre coming to play or the game’s fault, I can’t tell, but there’s no game modes in Advanced Warfare that I LOVE to play.
The multiplayer as a package is good, but there isn’t the same fun factor to it that existed in the earlier titles for me. Earning scorestreaks is harder than ever, and without that the ADD nature of FPS shooters falls down a little. Titanfall understood this with its mechs, but fell down with its class customisation. Advanced Warfare does the opposite. Individual games don’t quite have the same drama to them, especially in the case of the Domination game mode, which now features a halftime switch of sides which kills the flow of the game in my opinion. The exo-suits provide a new way of experiencing the game, but also make it even harder to pick up – which for someone like myself just coming back to the fray has meant that the learning curve has been particularly steep, and something that likely won’t endear it to the newcomers to the series (of which there is always some). Advanced Warfare is not a cure for all of Call of Duty‘s ills.
All-in-all, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is the first in the long-running series to change things in a tangible way for a long time. The exo-suit provides a new dimension for the series, but also has its drawbacks too. It’s fun to play, but doesn’t quite pack the same punch that the older titles did for me. Advanced Warfare has proved Sledgehammers mettle in the FPS market, but the questions and doubts over Call of Duty‘s continued success still remain.