Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review (Single Player)

We’ve had our hands on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare for a little over a week now, so the time is ripe to get a review out and let you know if Sledgehammer Games’ efforts are worth your time and money.

In this review we’ll be focussing on solely the single-player campaign experience, with a multiplayer review to follow, once we’ve had some more time online with real-world people. That way we can give a fairer representation of what the online experience is like and how the game handles millions of players simultaneously playing at the same time. In the meantime, enjoy reading our thoughts on the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare campaign.

Over the last few years the single-player offerings within the Call of Duty franchise have become nothing more than tacked on shambles to warrant a full retail price, with a couple of exceptions of course.

Call of Duty: Ghosts was simply piss-poor as was Modern Warfare 3, though Treyarch looked to bring some meaningful and thought provoking experiences to players with the graphic realities of war presented in World at War and an interesting, albeit barmy, experience with Black Ops which saw you wrapped up in some conspiracies throughout the Vietnam War.

Story

This time around you’re thrown forwards in time where technology has progressed so far along that soldiers need not go out into combat with just some basic bullet proof vests with some camouflaged linen underneath. No, this is a future where soldier are equipped with the best technological exosuits that money can buy.

So what’s going on in this futuristic world? Well, once again there is a threat to American lives (shocking!) and you play the part of a foot soldier with one aim: kill all bad dudes, save the world.

That’s how the majority of the relatively short campaign plays out; get put in a mission, go to point A, follow other macho solider to point B, kill some bad guys along the way. Rinse repeat.

It’s not all bad though. The pacing has been well thought out and you do get to visit to interesting locales and the main villain isn’t a stereotypical Middle-Eastern/Russian/German as previous games have relied on. Instead the villain of the story is CEO of PMC Atlas, well played by Kevin Spacey who also lent his likeness to the game.

Where previous entries force-fed us “America is great, all other nations suck!” we’re presented with a situation that won’t sit too comfortably with American folks; the terrorist is an American.

It’s an interesting turn and plays out well from a storytelling perspective, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Video-game writing has come a long way since the formative years of the medium, but where others have embraced fresh writing and excelled in the field, the likes of Call of Duty are still left in the dust, spewing out hammy dialogue and nonsensical tales that fail to deliver.

Characters are introduced and thrown aside without any thought to their development, creating no real stand-out performances or possible fan-favourites, a la Ghost, Captain Price etc. It really does seem that Kevin Spacey’s character was the only one given any meaningful purpose and well-thought dialogue.

In the end the story doesn’t come to a satisfying conclusion, instead the 5 hours-or-so campaign is brought to an abrupt halt with the sense of there being more to be told, though I’m assuming Advanced Warfare is the start of a new narrative, opening the door to a potential trilogy along the lines of Modern Warfare.

Gameplay

So we’ve established that the story isn’t up to scratch, but what about the gameplay? Well, it just so happens that it’s no better, unfortunately.

If you’ve played a Call of Duty game in the last five years then you’ve played this one, essentially. The same feeling of whack-a-mole with guns and people is what is presented to you, with very little in the way of innovative ideas being brought to the table.

Sure the exosuits are fun to use, but their real purpose is within the games multiplayer (more on that in the Multiplayer Review.)

The exosuits are not too unlike those found in the Crysis games, though not quite as technologically advanced nor as form-fitting. Your won’t have to look at the muscular arse of your team mates, thankfully.

The abilites bestowed to you by the exosuits vary from mission to mission, though it never really feels like they needed to be in the game. I personally think that the entire game could have been done without them, although some section of the game required the unique abilities of the suits, they weren’t necessary in creating the familiar gameplay.

Enemies are still astoundingly stupid and will rush you for no good reason; they all seem to have a death wish of sorts. The A.I is as poor as ever with enemy combatants taking cover for brief moments, only to run to the next cover then return to their former pop-up point seconds later. There’s no tactical prowess needed to advance through the mission, instead it’s simply a case of pop-up, aim down sights, pull trigger, repeat. So yeah, more of the same.

That said, there are still a few impressive moments, with trademark action-movie like sequences reminding you that you’re playing Call of Duty. big explosions? Check. Almost die only to be saved at the last moment by your handsome comrade? Check. Mandatory stealth mission that doesn’t really require much stealth? Check.

Again there are some diamonds among the rough. Gunplay is somewhat entertaining, if a little repetitive, but vast selection of weapons for you to deal out democracy with is huge and there’s some real improvement over the way it feels to shoot a gun. Obviously it’s not re-creating the real-thing, but it’s alarmingly close. Guns fire of rounds with force, a force you can feel through not only the controllers vibration but also the sound. Major credit has to be given to the sound designers in this case, the guns sound superb with echoes, the clatter of spent shells hitting the ground and the general ambient noise creates the atmosphere throughout the game. This is something that just can’t carry over to multiplayer. Sure you can get the cool sounding guns, but hearing the screams of death and destruction has never been part of the multiplayer offering, a stark reminder that multiplayer is nothing more than faceless bullet-bags with one purpose: to die.

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Graphics

The Call of Duty franchise has been called out more than a few times over the last few years for not dolling itself up to look pretty. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has something to say about that…

The game looks fantastic on the next-gen machines, though this review was carried out primarily on the PS4, both versions are pretty much the same when it comes to looks.

Characters no longer move like stiff mannequins with dodgy plastic-surgery faces. Instead there’s a resemblance to real-life. Not photo-realistic, but enough to trick the eye for brief moments.

Environments have been designed with combat in mind, though more than a little effort has gone into making them look like they could exist in the real world. Buildings and their windows glare in the sun, run-down streets are scattered with little details that you probably won’t take the time to notice. In short, it looks great. Not quite Killzone: Shadow Fall great, but great non-the-less.

Looking back on previous entries in the franchise, it’s easy to see that a three year developement cycle is just what the game needs to be able to present itself in the best light, though I can only imagine what could be done if given the same loving treatment as The Last of Us, Uncharted or Grand Theft Auto.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is available for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. You can get your copy from Amazon or maybe pick up a one of the great value bundles?

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