Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Reviews
Games are better than this now. Call of Duty is becoming a relic.
Advanced Warfare introduces exoskeletons, laser guns, and double-jumps to the Call of Duty franchise, but the online lag, odd animation, and overall sameness that comes from annual releases prevent the game from living up to its potential.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare upholds the status quo and aims no higher than that. Its sci-fi trappings are but shallow appeals to progress, and while the multiplayer is still able to provide some entertainment, the CoD formula feels anything but "advanced" these days.
Call of Duty doesn't just return to its explosive roots here; it manages to create a new metaphor for the American bang-bang shooter consumers who continue to drive sales of both it and other major franchises. Rather than a snake simply requesting players not tread on it, it is the snake eating itself.
Even with the Exo Suit, the campaign is more derivative than any previous Call of Duty game. The multiplayer action is frenetic, but various shortcomings prevent it being a leap forward.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the video game equivalent of a Michael Bay movie. There's a lot of flash and not much substance. If you just want explosions and spectacle (and don't mind being penalized in multiplayer for having a fast connection), then grab the disc and pop it into your console because Advanced Warfare delivers those in spades.
But as someone who deeply cares about narrative in game, it's immensely frustrating to see the money that Activition is clearly throwing at the narrative not bearing fruit. People tell me that narrative isn't important to Call of Duty, but if that's the case then Activision should not be investing in Kevin Spacey, and should simply pull the plug on single player and invest solely in multiplayer gaming. More than anything else I do believe that if you're going to do a story, you should do it properly. There's the world of potential in Call of Duty franchise to be the games industry's take on The Hurt Locker, so yes, is does annoy me that Activision seems to be more interested in generating endless clones of Black Hawk Down.
Is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare more of the same? It depends on how you look at it. Those who are burnt out on the series won’t be magically converted to the church of Call of Duty with this game, but those who are loyal to the series will no doubt enjoy the new tweaks the future has in store.
In the end, whether you're a diehard fan who plays Call of Duty or a disgruntled one who hasn't played it in a while, then you'll probably find a lot to like with Advanced Warfare's multiplayer that warrants a purchase, but with expectations becoming exceptionally high for triple A gaming these days, Activision's reliance on an 11 year old formula is doomed to inevitable failure.
Rescued by fearsomely good multiplayer
With Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer Games has proven that it can stand on its own legs when developing a Call of Duty title. The game introduces some new and fun concepts, and is a step in the right direction. The game has made leaps forward in a lot of departements, but there are still ways to go when it comes to software design. Ultimately Advanced Warfare is a great title worth playing, but a troubled one none the less.
Advanced Warfare brings some new elements to the experience that make it stand out, but some of these changes only serve to remind us how rigid the Call of Duty box is, and how unwilling the franchise is to think outside it.
Advanced Warfare might not be advanced enough for my liking, but it's a return to the typical fast-paced, explosive gameplay of CoD titles that aren't called Ghosts – and it works alright on PC, too.
Critical gameplay changes, more multiplayer customization make up for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's absolutely awful single-player story.
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.
Advanced Warfare isn't the game to answer those questions. Much like the soldiers that populate its fiction, what strengths it has come from the technology bolted to the surface while what's inside looks more fragile and vulnerable than ever.
The campaign is predictable, dumb fun, and the multiplayer is some of Call of Duty's best—but still subject to every existing criticism of CoD.
Call of Duty Warfare Infinite comes to the market with a lot of content, but little that is truly innovative. The campaign goes smoothly and lasts six hours, with no major twists. Specialist, perhaps, is the most interesting element of the mode and seems deliberately hidden and not valued properly. Jackal and Zero-G are interesting, but also have little space in the game. As for the multiplayer, there are new classes and the introduction of the crafting and "Mission Teams", of great interest for a greater involvement in the progression of the character, partially fails to evolve the game mechanics and gunplay. Zombies in Spaceland has no real problems but, apart from the madness of the situation and the many easter eggs, it repeats more or less the same concept of the series. In summary, a solid product that doesn't dare, but perhaps it should. Because the contents are so many and not bad, but the fun is sometimes hard to come by.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This is Call of Duty coming to terms with itself—pushing and pulling between social responsibility and the joy of instinctual, itchy trigger-fingered chaos. Not since Modern Warfare has an entry to the series felt much more than casually disinterested in humanity.