I have to admit I was pretty surprised to see how well this game was made.
Granted there are still a lot of the typical CoD tropes in the game but I'm actually pretty glad to say I had fun with this.
Thank god it was nothing like Call of Duty Ghosts!!!
Power Changes Everything
Advanced Warfare takes place in 2054. Modern military units are equipped with Exoskeleton Suits or Exo-Suits for short. Your standard infantry man or woman can jump to high ground in an instant or dash away from enemy fire without a single bullet grazing them.
You play as Jack Mitchell, a soldier once fighting for the United States Military but is approached by Jonathan Irons, father of Mitchell's recently deceased best friend. You are brought into the private military company Atlas, an organization that has proven to be more successful in stabilizing regions and win the wars that other nations could not.
As the story progresses you find that not all is perfect as we learn that Irons is not the good man he has been portrayed. Irons is using wars and gaining power throughout the world that he comes to the conclusion that the biggest threat in the world is the very governments that hire Irons to complete the job that the government cannot.
There is many twists and turns and the story and the voice acting from many of the cast is fantastic. Especially from Kevin Spacey.
What really made me glad was that unlike most of the past Call of Duty titles the story here is "meatier" there's more to the story than I have seen in past CoD games. The story actually serves as a sort of commentary to a lot of the issues we currently deal with today such as an ineffective congress and privatization of a lot of institutions.
If you didn't like Ghosts' story I think Advanced Warfare will grab your attention.
Call of Duty with a fresh coat of paint
Call of Duty has always had that 'Tony Hawk' like graphics look but Advanced Warfare ACTUALLY looks like it is up to modern graphic standards.
Especially in the cutscenes where I swear I was looking at Kevin Spacey and Troy Baker actually talking to each other in person. In reality, it was CGI, really good CGI.
Environments actually pop out with color and do not look bland or brown everywhere you look. There's actually color! You're not at the same general "desert" area at some random point in the world. You're actually SOMEWHERE that looks different from the other locations you've been fighting at.
IT'S THE FUTURE!!!
While at first the Exosuit may not seem like THAT big of a game changer. The Exosuit does change the CoD game to the point where you can say "it's at least something remotely different." Instead of your usual run behind cover, maybe go around and flank the enemies you can jump up in the air to ground pound, shoot from above with a rocket or grenade launcher or throw a grenade. Other options may include dashing into the archway of a door or hallway to lay down a hail of bullets to take out the enemies or avoid enemy fire.
Unfortunately you cannot do that all the time. From mission to mission you will be given a certain set of Exo-abilities to use. You won't be able to choose which abilities but you will still have some of the basic functions of the Exosuit.
Missions are varied and there are a lot of fun moments. Missions where you jump from bus to bus on a busy highway, using a special mini-sub to avoid missiles and rogue drones and of course your tank missions. This time with new toys to use.
What I also found to be a nice addition to the campaign was that there were a set of challenges to accomplish that would unlock skill points to use to upgrade my Exosuit during the campaign. Reduced flinch, faster reload speed, more health, more lethal or tactical grenades. This small change actually helps to make the campaign not play like your usual CoD campaign.
Even the stealth missions are not your CoD usual where you were just sneaking around with a silenced weapon. These were more Assassin's Creed-esque where you could not let anyone see or hear you.
A good CoD multiplayer!
Continuing with the trend of "We did not do what CoD Ghosts did." Advanced Warfare's multiplayer is fun and does not have jumbled maps with pointless objects in the way with tons of corners multiplayer like CoD Ghosts was.
The maps are big in Advanced Warfare but not too big to where it takes forever to get from one side of the map to the other. The Exosuit does change the game in allowing players to swiftly get from Point A to Point B.
The guns are pretty well balanced, at least for the stock weapons you unlock and not the other variants that you may find. Hit detection is ok and there is quite a few reasons to have you come back to the multiplayer.
One of those things is the customization of your character. Instead of Ghosts where you were limited to a certain outfit with preset attire. You can customize a lot of your character and find some pretty cool items to make your soldier YOUR soldier. Through the multiplayers' Supply Drop system you can unlock shoes, knee guards, gloves, helmets, eyewear and other things to make your character look the way you want them to.
The Supply Drop system also unlocks weapon variants of the established list of guns you can unlock by the usual requirements of ranking up in the multiplayer. These variants can include different camos, permanent weapon attachments and various changes to weapon stats like damage, accuracy, weapon handling and range.
You may have unlocked all of the stock weapons but you might not have found all of the variants that that particular weapon has. Who knows, you may find one variant that's better than all other variants of that weapon.
The Verdict
Advanced Warfare is a mild breath of fresh air where it does feel like a step in a new direction but still has what you would come to expect from a Call of Duty title.
The campaign is very interesting and fun to play, the multiplayer has a lot of replayability for you to keep coming back to unlock more gear and weaponry.
While it might not be completely new with a massively different take on the franchise it does do at least some things differently.
I recommend giving Advanced Warfare a shot. I can at least guarantee it is not like Call of Duty Ghosts.
Advanced Warfare gets a good 7 out of 10
Granted there are still a lot of the typical CoD tropes in the game but I'm actually pretty glad to say I had fun with this.
Thank god it was nothing like Call of Duty Ghosts!!!
Power Changes Everything
Advanced Warfare takes place in 2054. Modern military units are equipped with Exoskeleton Suits or Exo-Suits for short. Your standard infantry man or woman can jump to high ground in an instant or dash away from enemy fire without a single bullet grazing them.
You play as Jack Mitchell, a soldier once fighting for the United States Military but is approached by Jonathan Irons, father of Mitchell's recently deceased best friend. You are brought into the private military company Atlas, an organization that has proven to be more successful in stabilizing regions and win the wars that other nations could not.
As the story progresses you find that not all is perfect as we learn that Irons is not the good man he has been portrayed. Irons is using wars and gaining power throughout the world that he comes to the conclusion that the biggest threat in the world is the very governments that hire Irons to complete the job that the government cannot.
There is many twists and turns and the story and the voice acting from many of the cast is fantastic. Especially from Kevin Spacey.
What really made me glad was that unlike most of the past Call of Duty titles the story here is "meatier" there's more to the story than I have seen in past CoD games. The story actually serves as a sort of commentary to a lot of the issues we currently deal with today such as an ineffective congress and privatization of a lot of institutions.
If you didn't like Ghosts' story I think Advanced Warfare will grab your attention.
Call of Duty with a fresh coat of paint
Call of Duty has always had that 'Tony Hawk' like graphics look but Advanced Warfare ACTUALLY looks like it is up to modern graphic standards.
Especially in the cutscenes where I swear I was looking at Kevin Spacey and Troy Baker actually talking to each other in person. In reality, it was CGI, really good CGI.
Environments actually pop out with color and do not look bland or brown everywhere you look. There's actually color! You're not at the same general "desert" area at some random point in the world. You're actually SOMEWHERE that looks different from the other locations you've been fighting at.
IT'S THE FUTURE!!!
While at first the Exosuit may not seem like THAT big of a game changer. The Exosuit does change the CoD game to the point where you can say "it's at least something remotely different." Instead of your usual run behind cover, maybe go around and flank the enemies you can jump up in the air to ground pound, shoot from above with a rocket or grenade launcher or throw a grenade. Other options may include dashing into the archway of a door or hallway to lay down a hail of bullets to take out the enemies or avoid enemy fire.
Unfortunately you cannot do that all the time. From mission to mission you will be given a certain set of Exo-abilities to use. You won't be able to choose which abilities but you will still have some of the basic functions of the Exosuit.
Missions are varied and there are a lot of fun moments. Missions where you jump from bus to bus on a busy highway, using a special mini-sub to avoid missiles and rogue drones and of course your tank missions. This time with new toys to use.
What I also found to be a nice addition to the campaign was that there were a set of challenges to accomplish that would unlock skill points to use to upgrade my Exosuit during the campaign. Reduced flinch, faster reload speed, more health, more lethal or tactical grenades. This small change actually helps to make the campaign not play like your usual CoD campaign.
Even the stealth missions are not your CoD usual where you were just sneaking around with a silenced weapon. These were more Assassin's Creed-esque where you could not let anyone see or hear you.
A good CoD multiplayer!
Continuing with the trend of "We did not do what CoD Ghosts did." Advanced Warfare's multiplayer is fun and does not have jumbled maps with pointless objects in the way with tons of corners multiplayer like CoD Ghosts was.
The maps are big in Advanced Warfare but not too big to where it takes forever to get from one side of the map to the other. The Exosuit does change the game in allowing players to swiftly get from Point A to Point B.
The guns are pretty well balanced, at least for the stock weapons you unlock and not the other variants that you may find. Hit detection is ok and there is quite a few reasons to have you come back to the multiplayer.
One of those things is the customization of your character. Instead of Ghosts where you were limited to a certain outfit with preset attire. You can customize a lot of your character and find some pretty cool items to make your soldier YOUR soldier. Through the multiplayers' Supply Drop system you can unlock shoes, knee guards, gloves, helmets, eyewear and other things to make your character look the way you want them to.
The Supply Drop system also unlocks weapon variants of the established list of guns you can unlock by the usual requirements of ranking up in the multiplayer. These variants can include different camos, permanent weapon attachments and various changes to weapon stats like damage, accuracy, weapon handling and range.
You may have unlocked all of the stock weapons but you might not have found all of the variants that that particular weapon has. Who knows, you may find one variant that's better than all other variants of that weapon.
The Verdict
Advanced Warfare is a mild breath of fresh air where it does feel like a step in a new direction but still has what you would come to expect from a Call of Duty title.
The campaign is very interesting and fun to play, the multiplayer has a lot of replayability for you to keep coming back to unlock more gear and weaponry.
While it might not be completely new with a massively different take on the franchise it does do at least some things differently.
I recommend giving Advanced Warfare a shot. I can at least guarantee it is not like Call of Duty Ghosts.
Advanced Warfare gets a good 7 out of 10
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