Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review

It’s hard to think that the Call of Duty franchise has been around for 11 years now. Or is it? It feels like the overly familiar first person shooter has been popping here, there and everywhere, especially since the launch of the Xbox 360. Odds are, if you’re a gamer of most types, you’ll have picked up a COD game at some point in your life.

So already Advanced Warfare has both a problem and a plus point. They say familiarity breeds contempt, and it’s certainly something that a lot of the internet seems to view with the COD series. But then, as a COD fan, you know exactly what you’re getting when you sit down with the game and is the franchise’s constant double-edged sword. The real question everyone should be asking though is “What’s different this time?”

Well, firstly, there’s a new studio behind this instalment and they are Sledgehammer Games. They’ve already helped with Modern Warfare 3 in the past and, until recently, that game was the fastest selling game of all time. Not bad then. The biggest and most important change is the exo-suit addition. It continues 2014’s FPS fascination with jetpacks, but ultimately adds new scope to each mission and the online, giving you more movability around the map.

The story itself isn’t too bad, considering it’s a COD game, and it actually managed to surprise me once or twice. It’s probably one of the better written stories since Black Ops and the Modern Warfare arc, and feels like it’s there to actually there to tell you a story rather than a vague excuse to shoot things and apparent terrorists, for the most part.

It’s also quite good looking too. Obviously, there’s the usual stench of COD in the air, but the nice visual refinements during the gameplay are very welcome and the attention to detail in the cutscenes are always appreciated, even if a lot of COD players won’t notice after the first few cutscenes. Kevin Spacey’s rendered alter-ego also looks creepily accurate in the COD universe and you can tell Sledgehammer put a lot of love into it.

Multiplayer is as you’d expect in a COD game, quick and generally speaking, quite fun too. It remains as accessible as always too, which is also a great benefit to those who aren’t necessarily all that great at FPS titles. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t content for those that are a bit more talented at FPS games, with all skill levels of players being accounted for, just that more hardened players might find their kicks somewhere else.

The Call of Duty franchise seems to have garnered a reputation for being the same old game year-in, year-out. And it’s true, you can pick up Advanced Warfare and know you’re playing a COD game. What’s impressive is how Sledgehammer has altered some of the smaller details, which successfully make its first attempt in the franchise, one of the better and more refreshing titles in the recent series of COD games.

Game Info:

Rating: PEGI 18
Genre: Action
Developer: Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, High Moon Studios
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd., Activision

Official Website: https://www.callofduty.com/advancedwarfare