Power Changes Everything – Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Review

Every year we see a new Call of Duty game come out, and every year it feels more of the same. We get a Blockbuster movie single-player campaign that is enjoyable, a great multiplayer experience and a decent co-op survival mode. Lately the series has become predictable, leaving players with the feeling that the series has lost its momentum with an overflooded shooter market.

Momentum is just what the game needed and Sledgehammer games, who previously helped Infinity Ward with Modern Warfare 3. Focusing on the future of Warfare and a story based on Private Military Contractors, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare gives a glimpse of what war could be like 40 years from now.

The story mode follows Private Jack Mitchell (played by Troy Baker,) a solider in the United States Marine Corp. After a battle in Seoul, Mitchell is wounded in battle and is discharged from military service. Shortly after, he is recruited by Jeremy Irons (Kevin Spacey) to join Atlas, a Private Military Contractor. While working with Atlas, Mitchell and his team come against a Tech-phobic terrorist group called the KVC.

There are several twists and turns through the story that are predictable and you can almost tell exactly what is going to happen throughout the single-player campaign. Its presentation however delivers an edge of your seat action movie experience that is just well done, with plenty of “Holy S**t” moments to keep you entertained throughout.

While the gameplay still follows the Call of Duty tradition of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” there are several new features added to the game that makes it worth playing this year. The biggest of the changes is the Exo-suit, the suit gives players additional mobility, allowing them to do a life saving dash in multiple directions, double jump, air-dash, power-slide, and preform punches that instantly kill opponents while throwing them up in a rag-doll state.

While these suits powers are used from time to time in the campaign, the games exo-survival and multiplayer modes have these features completely unlocked. With the addition of vertical based maps for these modes, it opens up a world of possibilities.

Multiplayer is the shining jewel in this addition not only thanks to the maps and power suits as mentioned above, but because of its customization options which evolved from last years “Ghosts” entries. Players can customize their own soldier, male and female, unlock new gear based on performance, and create their own emblems (returned from Black Ops series.) Weapons are unlocked by increasing your level or by gaining supply drops which unlock special variations.

The graphics for the game on the PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One and PC are nothing short of stunning. The Environments and characters look great, enough so that they stand out above what we’ve seen on the consoles so far. While the audio and voice acting are great, especially from the games big A list actor, Kevin Spacey, who delivers a love to hate performance that only he could provide for the character.

It has been some time since I’ve actually found a Call of Duty game interesting enough to warrant multiple single player plays, little features like Black Ops 2’s multiple endings occasionally brought me back to the title, but sadly after finishing the Advanced Warfare story there isn’t much incentive to replay it aside from difficulty and finding recon files. Multiplayer on the other hand is strong and will keep players coming back for some time.

There is enough different with Advanced Warfare to have even the most tired Call of Duty fan to have fun with the new changes. At the same time it still feels more of the same game, but it seems like we’re on the right track for something completely different from the series.