Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Reviews
While Multiplayer feels largely like more of the same with a few new features and a fresh coat of paint, and Zombies in Spaceland is a goofy, funny romp through 80s nostalgia, the Campaign is where Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare really shines. Infinity Ward brings a level of narrative skill to the series not seen before, with a gripping space opera that makes this one of the best to come out of the series in a while.
We'll be damned if Infinity Ward hasn't gone and pulled it out of the bag this year. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is yet another delectable dollop of shooty blockbuster entertainment that somehow manages to exceed expectations. Yes, it hasn't really come all that far and no, Infinity Ward hasn't reinvented the wheel. But as Call of Duty experiences go, Infinite Warfare hits the mark.
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare is the most disappointing multiplayer shooter I’ve played in recent memory because it has too many poorly balanced mechanics and systems to create an enjoyable arcade shooter experience
Very strong start to the Season Pass offering. Infinity Ward not only give fans another great zombie scenario inspired by 90s movies and music culture but also some great multiplayer maps.
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The multiplayer isn’t deeply flawed, it’s just boringly safe. We’ve had this movement system for three years, and there are better implementations of it in and outside of the franchise. The maps aren’t particularly well designed and the RIG system isn’t all that dissimilar to Specialists from Black Ops III, but needlessly makes loadouts more complicated without improving them. Matchmaking is atrocious and desperately needs to be fixed. Early in my online career, as a lowly level 5, I was constantly matched with players well above my rank. It’s impossible to compete against well-drilled teams with considerably better weapons, and that happened on a consistent basis. Even worse is imbalanced teams. I’ve been in too many objective matches that begin as four against six. By the time the teams have been balanced, which takes way too long, the result is known.
At the highest points, Call of Duty has evoked the flavors of films like Sicario. They show you the shape of things, and they present a messy world that soldiers make their way through. Sadly, the narrative of Infinite Warfare is closer to something like White House Down, a series of black and white tropes that merely tell us the same stuff that we knew already: we’re good, the enemies are bad, and we can murder the world into the shape we want it to be.
Infinite Warfare features a solid campaign but its lack of innovation in multiplayer hold it back from achieving greatness.
Overall, I found Infinite Warfare as a solid first step for the Call of Duty franchise as it heads into space, and is certainly worth checking out for the gameplay alone.
In the end, I thought Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was two things: a triumphant return to form for Infinity Ward, but also a return to safety and sameness in at least two of the three pillars. Multiplayer, while solid and highly replayable, is fraught with deja vu and I have concerns that some of the OP, built-in gun perks will devolve this into pay-to-win.
Infinite Warfare is one step forward; two steps back for Call of Duty. The multiplayer is still fun, but suspect microtransactions have left me wary. The campaign also gets more wrong than right with shoddy storytelling overshadowing the usually tight FPS gameplay. At the very least, we got a Zombies experience comparable to what we’ve seen in the past—and Modern Warfare Remastered was a fun stroll down memory lane.
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare is another first person shooter in this overcrowded market but what it offers is one of the most unique experiences of this genre in 2016 which includes exceptional gameplay, a fantastic story and truly riveting multiplayer. It’s definitely my favourite Call of Duty to date and Infinity Ward hasn’t pulled any punches when it came to the creation of this game. At times, the single-player is quite emotional and even bittersweet to an extent but where it excels is through its powerful narrative, direction and excellent cast. So once you’ve finished the excellent single-player campaign, you’ve got hours upon hours of multiplayer fun left to take you well into 2017.
A series showing its age by refusing to evolve
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare occasionally rubs elbows with the best moments of its predecessors, but too much tedium and half-baked multiplayer make this one hard to recommend.
Thrilling and polished, Infinite Warfare is a generously loaded game but one that does nothing new against its rivals.
The Call of Duty franchise continues its inexorable forward march with a surprisingly deep single-player campaign and an addicting multiplayer that is only slightly tarnished by microtransactions and networking issues
Judged only by its single player campaign, this latest Call of Duty is game-of-the-year material. Judged only by its multiplayer, the game is a jumbled, crowded mess with inferior matchmaking and unbalanced guns — cardinal sins for a competitive shooter. Somewhere in the middle is Zombies mode, which boasts a great sense of humor and lots of replay value.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare delivers a phenomenal campaign filled with rich characters and a stylish zombies mode, but the multiplayer feels unpolished, stale, and it fails to innovate.
All in all, Infinite Warfare is just about average with a few sparks here and there. The game feels a lot like the few of the other CoD titles I have tucked away on my shelf but with a few shiny upgrades. Same great mechanics, same beautiful visuals, familiar platform, and the baddest Call of Duty game since the original in Modern Warfare Remastered makes this an average title that won’t disappoint the die-hard Call of Duty fan.
Overly familiar Multiplayer, but tells a compelling story.
Boots on the ground or sci-fi shooting while flying through the air - why not both?