Title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Format: PS4(reviewed), PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: November 4th, 2014
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M
After the mostly disappointing release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, we finally get a proper look at how good a CoD can be on the current gen consoles.
Story and Presentation: Lets be honest, the narratives in previous Call of Duty titles have always been pretty forgettable, but Sledgehammer has decided to take a different approach. The story features the charismatic Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons. Over the course of 15 missions you'll embark upon a journey with Spacey as your PMC boss, earning new gear and augmentations for your suit as his character starts to become more and more power hungry. I don't think anybody believed for a second that Spacey's character was going to be the good guy here, but it was still nice to see some mild character development. Spacey does not phone it in at all, he gives a great, animated performance that's worthy of his top billing, and the campaign is worth playing just to see his performance alone. We've finally come to the point where the franchise can be considered "current-gen" by any standard. While Ghosts was developed primarily for last-generation hardware, the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 versions have top priority this time around. With the focus on the new hardware, the game's visuals are on a much higher level than Ghosts. The facial animations alone are outstanding, and with farther draw distances and a silky smooth framerate to back it up, this is easily one of the best looking games of the year so far. In the end, the game's narrative and presentation is top notch, and it falls in line with the over the top nature we've all grown accustomed to.
Core Gameplay and Multiplayer:
Say what you want about the Call of Duty, the franchise has single handedly been a staple among the FPS community. Most developers strive to match the chaotic gameplay that the series has perfected over the past five or so years, and thanks to the addition of the new exo-suits, the game has received a bit of a refresher. Now obviously with games like Titanfall and Destiny, the ability to boost jump, glide, and dash isn't entirely unique, but it does do the aging franchise well by adding in a bevy of new mechanics. Not just with multi-player, but with the single-player as well. Uplink, one of the new match types, has players rushing for a satellite device which players palm in their hands, and attempt to throw it into a small target area on either side of the map in order to score points. Another new mode, Exo Survival, has up to three human players fighting sequential waves of computer-controlled enemies, both human, robotic, and canine. This your traditional horde style mode but with a new twist. Earning experience points to unlock new guns, Exo suit abilities, and other combat perks is still the bread and butter here. You can customize and save personal loadouts, manipulate your character’s appearance, and a lot more. That's one thing that the game does better than previous entries into the series, the customization is very deep and impressive. You can pretty much customize your characters appearance to your liking. Whether you're good at the game or not, you always feel satisfied with your recent unlocks. The online is great, but it could use some tweaking. There are some weird bugs like the voice chat indicator appearing in the top middle portion of the screen. The devs are already working on a fix, as well as other minor bug fixes.
Final Thoughts:Advanced Warfare is easily the best CoD game since Modern Warfare 1. The game's visuals are finally up to snuff, and the gameplay is just as fun and fast paced as before. Even if you aren't a fan of these games, you should still give this one a try.
+Feature Rich Online
+Huge Strides in the Visual Department
+Futurisitic Gadgets Are a Blast to Use
-Single-Player Campaign Fall a Bit Flat
S&S Rating: 8.5/10 @whatsPlay
