Video Game Review – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
The Call of Duty series has always been the pinnacle of modern FPS, especially thanks to its extensive multiplayer experience. The series has received a new installment each and every year, and the last two games, especially Ghosts weren’t that highly praised, mainly because they failed to add something new to the already old formula. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare comes in a great time for the series, as the COD games do need a refreshing addition in order to remain the most successful FPS on the market. But does the game live up to the hype? Let’s find out!
Story
Most of the trailers placed a lot of emphasis on Kevin Spacey and his antagonist role in the game. In fact, this is the major strength of the campaign on its own, because other than that you get the normal blockbuster title that you would expect from a COD game. You have lots of corridors and on-rails shooting places, with only a few minor locations where you can opt for a pseudo open-world approach. The missions take full advantage of the futuristic approach that the game brings, as you will find yourself in a world filled with drones, exo suits as well as other interesting additions.
However, the campaign is short, around 6 hours and while it does bring a lot of intensity, in the end it has a stale story in which Kevin Spacey doesn’t shine that much. It is an interesting story with a good ending, but lacks replay value.
Gameplay
Most of us will play Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but most of the game mechanics can be encountered in the singleplayer as well. Alongside the normal shooting that you would expect from the title, you can now take full advantage of an exo suit that’s implemented with your character. The suit is one of the major additions in the title, because you can upgrade it whenever you want and just modify it according to your needs. The exo suit comes with some neat functions, one of the finest ones being the grappling hook that simply turns you into Batman, because you can go from one place to another and ascend vertically without too much hassle. This can even be used as a way to grab enemies and kill them silently. The exo also has a jetpack-like boost that you can use whenever you see fit.
All exoscheleton features can be used in multiplayer as well, where players can jump in the air and kill the enemies doing that, or they can smash on the ground to defeat enemies if they want. This feature alone extends the multiplayer experience quite a lot, especially since your exo abilities can be refined as you progress through the game.
The multiplayer experience also gets some new and interesting modes, such as the Uplink or Momentum, each one of them with a different experience. Uplink is pretty much like basketball where you just need to take the ball from the other team and score, while Momentum is something similar to Tug of War, although it does combine that with Capture Points. Both these new game mods provide a neat refresh for the multiplayer experience, and combined with the exo abilities you get quite a lot of new content.
Graphics and sounds
From a sound standpoint, the game is pretty much as expected. Gun sounds are realistic, the music is action packed almost all the time and the voice acting is very good, especially in the case of Kevin Spacey, of course. Graphically, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is one of the prettiest COD titles to this date, and it does manage to bring a whole new set of interesting background designs, better character models as well as improved lighting. Just like most other COD titles, it’s not the most impressive game from a graphical standpoint, since this is clearly a game that needs to run on older computers as well, due to the large player base. Despite that, the game looks very good and all the locations are fun to browse or play in!
Conclusion
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the refresh that COD fans were waiting for a very long time. The campaign shows the true potential of the futuristic setting and the multiplayer aspect of the title just gets new life thanks to the new game modes, improved upgrade system and the stellar exo-suit. It might borrow some elements from Battlefield or Titanfall, but in the end it combines them seamlessly with the COD formula, giving us a good, evolved Call of Duty experience.
9/10
