ironhorse_iv Review of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014 Video Game)

It's a fun game, but it didn't really advanced much in story and gameplay.

[8/10 · 5 December 2014]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare isn't anything new. It's the same old, same old, hidden under the veil of Sci-fiction. Developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision, the game is first main entry in the Call of Duty series since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Made for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 & 4, & Xbox 360 & One. Unlike the other games in this series, the game really strips away the realistic of the modern warfare to make it, more fun. It add things like Exo Skeleton suits, cloaking, twin-rotor drones, hover bikes, "spider" tanks, specialized weapons, scan-tron grenades and gloves that allow the player to climb up walls. Still, it kinda makes the game, a bit too easy for the player as you don't really need any skill, strategy, or tactics to get far on the game. The shallow difficulty curve can make for tedious co-op survival. Most of the level designs are pretty well-made, but as the game go on, you can see the length of the levels gameplay become easier and shorter to complete. Half of the time, you really are not in control, much due to all the Quick time event sequences that lead to a predetermined spot. You barely do much, but push buttons. It really does dilute the emotion and importance of the scene to a single button press, ruining it, somewhat. I like to play games in real time. The visuals animation are very beautiful as the backdrop are amazing and well-build. My favorite levels are Seoul, South Korea, Antarctica, San Francisco and Lagos. The worst levels had to Bangkok and Bulgaria. I also didn't like how the game had a training session in the second level, as the first level pretty much shows you what you can do. The second level was just repeatable and boring as hell. Most of the best challenges, come from the beginning of the game, anyways. The campaign mode isn't that long. It took me about 6 hours to get through all the linear levels. The first person shooter, single-player story follows Jack Mitchell (Voiced & motion capture likeness of Troy Baker, but looks & sounds more like Bradley Cooper), whom is a private in the United States Marine Corps of the future. Mitchell finds himself, discharged from military service after being seriously injury in a battle where he lost an arm. With little to no options, Mitchell finds a new hope, when offered to join the Atlas Corporation, the world's most powerful private military contractor, by its CEO Jonathan Irons (Voiced & motion capture likeness of Kevin Spacey). As a reward, Mitchell is given an advanced prosthetic arm to replace his lost one. Seeing this as a new beginning, he joins Atlas, only to find out that his new squad, might not be, whom they are saying, they are to be. The story isn't anything new. The gameplay campaign has twist and turns, but most of it is pretty predictable. The story villains are a bit too cartoony over the top James Bondish, as the villains declare war on the whole world. The voice acting is pretty good for the most part. Kevin Spacey, by far is the best thing in this game. The cut scenes in this game are trying to go for a photorealistic aesthetic. It's obvious they've poured millions of dollars into the animation software and motion capture to try and make them look as if they were real life. But of course the technology can't get past that last jump into photorealism, so it falls into the creepy "the uncanny valley" effect. Still, the modern capture animation was pretty good, compare to other games. I like the exo survival games. They are pretty cool. If you can plow your way through exo survival for long enough, the taste of zombie mode is your reward. It's really, really extremely fun. The multiplayer game is where Call of Duty makes its bread and butter. I like how the Pick 13 System works as it makes the multiplayer game, a little more challenging with skills set. Still, it's hard to create a game match with anybody when strategy is needed. They all like to play it as if a twitch shooting gallery in team death match. I like the capture the flag mode as it was intense. Wish, more people would play that. At less, they have female characters in the multiplayer, now. Overall: This franchise has fallen from a very high pedestal, but not too much. It just doesn't outshine, other big Sci-fiction games like Destiny and Titanfall that came out in the same year before it. Those games have nearly the same things that Call of Duty: Advance Warfare is offering. Despite being develop in 2011, soon after the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It's still a good game to play, and lot of replay value. I just wish, it had more to offer. It felt a bit rehashed.