Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Reviews
Mixing futuristic tech with established fundamentals, Sledgehammer has created the first truly impressive Call of Duty in years.
One of the best Call of Duty games in a while, Advanced Warfare is a triumphant effort from Sledgehammer Games, whose storytelling nous and risk-taking in introducing the Exo pays off in spades. It's not the jaw-dropping reinvention that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was back in 2007, but Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the shot in the arm the series needed.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is worth your time. It delivers with its story, great acting, dialogue, the realistic facial animations, cool weapons of the future, and the welcome change in pacing from combat missions to stealth missions. I welcome the idea of using great actors like Spacey in a big-budget game, and I look forward to future versions of the game that marry Hollywood blockbuster actors with the blockbuster-style game play.
By bringing in a new developer with its own talent and fresh ideas, Activision has succeeded in shaking up its biggest franchise. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is undeniably distinctive within the Call of Duty family. But it might take a game or two for Sledgehammer to start delivering on the same scale as its sibling studios.
Sledgehammer Games does a great job with their first full go around of Call of Duty. Advanced Warfare features a campaign with an entertaining story, a deep multiplayer experience that is fast and on target, and a co-op experience that has small twists to keep it unique. They didn't reinvent the franchise with their first Call of Duty release, but they did produce something enjoyable.
Despite a few pulled punches this is the best Call Of Duty has been in years, and the multiplayer in particular is the most innovative since Modern Warfare began.
Advanced Warfare's increased focus on player mobility makes a huge impact that freshens up the action and, in some ways, makes every other game in the franchise feel obsolete by comparison.
Ultimately, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is one of the best iterations in the franchise, as it has found a way to reinvigorate its gameplay mechanics without deviating away from what has kept the series so strong over the years. Very little of the game feels lacking, as even though the story is standard fare for most military shooters, its presentation takes it quite far. Multiplayer is generally the heart and soul of FPS games like these, and even there Advanced Warfare keeps things fresh and with enough genuine content to keep players playing longer than ever before. Fans of the series will feel just at home with the new gameplay mechanics after a few rounds, and FPS fans who may be tired of the old formula will find about as drastic of a change as possible without the series losing its namesake.
Sledgehammer Games lays the groundwork for more futuristic Call of Duty games with a comprehensive multiplayer experience and a faulty but stimulating campaign.
Advanced Warfare is Call of Duty's true starting point for a new generation. The tech enhancements are an important evolution for the franchise, giving the online proceedings a necessary shot in the arm. The campaign is predictable but thrilling with enough exclusive tech tricks and set-pieces to make it a must-play. The co-op can sustain you for multiple hours, and it's hard to imagine playing Call of Duty multiplayer without an Exo-suit ever again. Sledgehammer has found fun in the future, and we can't wait to go back to it.
Advanced Warfare shows what the series needed most was risk
Sledgehammer Games hasn't reinvented the first-person shooter franchise, but it does give it a shot of adrenaline, making Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare one of the fastest, freshest and most thrilling entries yet.
Tasked with leading Call of Duty into the next generation, Sledgehammer Games is off to a cautious start. Advanced Warfare executes the formula competently while adding a handful of bells and whistles like mechs, laser cannons, and double jumps; but Sledgehammer Games seems reluctant to really cut loose and push the setting to its fullest potential, making Advanced Warfare a solid but ultimately unexciting entry in the series.
The single-player campaign in Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is more engaging but it still makes some mistakes in the end with characters making decision and choices I felt were rushed or simply did not make sense. Technically speaking the game is the best Call of Duty to date and even the story issues can't detract from that. Coupled with the new multiplayer modes, both co-op and PvP, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare delivers on its purchase price.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare breathes new life back into the franchise with a greatly rewarding progression system and fantastic take on player movement. The fun but painfully predictable story glens some enjoyment courtesy of Kevin Spacey's ability to be an awesome jerk in any role that he plays.
There are options all over the place -- asymmetrical multiplayer, open-world single-player, full narrative co-op, user-generated content, more use of vehicles off rails, grappling hooks in goddamned multiplayer... and so on. None of that is meant to lead you to believe this is a bad game -- it's the best Call of Duty since Modern Warfare and may in fact be better, but saying that isn't because it's changed the series' formula the way that game did, rather it's refined it. And maybe that's not the fault of any of the developers working on the game, and rests more squarely on the shoulders of the publisher who sets that beat I've talked so much about.
So that's my final opinion on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The single-player is phenomenal, and the multiplayer is good but limited by its own unlock system. I personally think the story alone is worth a purchase, and I hope that this becomes the mark of Sledgehammer Call of Duty titles in the future. Personally, I have played enough Call of Duty multiplayer already, heck, I have played enough first person shooter multiplayer in general, to know what I am getting in a multiplayer suite like this. Robot suits and double jumps and future weapons are all decently cool additions to the multiplayer formula, but a studio that is willing to criticize the U.S. government, capitalism, and global war culture in its story is a true rarity worthy of praise.
Advanced Warfare is faster and more focused than any Call of Duty before it.
Sledgehammer Games have taken a huge risk by sending the series so far into the future. Some fans may feel left behind, but the simple truth is should they choose to ignore the title, they will be missing out. This is one of the better Call of Duties in recent years. It's fresh enough to the point that it's alien, yet it's still Call of Duty underneath that futuristic surface.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare plays it a little too safe with the campaign, but it feels like a real core entry in the series, and will please fans who are jaded after last year's release. While Treyarch is still the king of Call of Duty in my eyes, Sledgehammer Games has shown itself to be more than capable of taking over with its debut entry. Infinity Ward is now the odd man out.