Review - Call of Duty: Advanced WarfareReview by Phil Cole
Format Reviewed - PS4 |
Developers; Sledgehammer Games
Publisher; Activision Formats; PC, PS3, PS4, X360, XO Release Date; Out now |
Editor’s Note: Like many sites around the internet, we’ll be publishing our review in two parts. Phil will be covering the Single Player and what new stories Advanced Warfare brings, whilst a variety of articles will be going up over the next few weeks focussing more on the Multiplayer so we can give it a proper going over....er I mean, get our arses kicked remorselessly.
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25th December, 2003. After playing a demo of a new First Person Shooter called Call of Duty pretty much constantly, I ripped off the wrapping paper from the full game and snuck off to play it eagerly. It changed the First Person Shooter genre for me overnight with its cinematic gameplay and the introduction of the now ubiquitous Aim-Down-Sight mechanic changed everything I knew about a genre that was, until then, filled with corridor shooters and doors to unlock. The Call of Duty series is bombast and battlefield hewn emotion at its very best and it is very much a guilty pleasure with it even managing to make me shed a single manly tear down my well chiselled and stubbley jaw. Since the first title the series has marched steadfastly onwards towards the present day and further into the future, but can its latest incarnation stir me as much as its ancestors?
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As soon as you load into the game, the first thing that hits you is the fantastic graphics. Detail and fidelity is very impressive and the faces… Oh lord the faces! It easily equals and occasionally surpasses titles like Killzone: Shadowfall in terms of just how beautiful the game looks, both in cut scenes and gameplay. I would be genuinely hard-pressed to tell you which ones were pre-rendered and which were in-game. It’s a definite step up for a series that was beginning to look a bit tired (even with the “new” Ghosts engine).
The game starts with the same gameplay demo that was shown at E3, where the US marines are being sent into South Korea to repel an impending North Korean invasion of Seoul, clad in their Helghast inspired Exo-Suit armour. It plays out with the usual over-the-top Michael Bay styled explosions and gunfights as the team make their way through the city to their objective. Again, the levels feel like real places. There are large amounts of incidental details and just the right amount of destructibility to make the place look thoroughly ravaged after a firefight. The game throws plenty of tech at you from the off, with guns with magic hybrid sights, floating smart grenades and VR screens everywhere. |
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After the events of this mission you find yourself in the PMC called Atlas, whose owner is played by the one and only Kevin Spacey. His performance is brilliant, playing a man who aggressively believes in his own methods and is very calculating in his actions. It does occasionally stray into the uncanny valley as his digital face isn’t quite as expressive as his real one, but it does a pretty good job. Opposite him, playing “our” character, is the ever present Troy Baker who does a great understated performance and for once, gets to have his face to go along with his voice.
As the rest of the game unfolds we’re treated to a story that is... well… a tad generic and linear. It hits all the hot topics games like to mention these days. PMCs, WMDs, terrorists and the like are all featured but the game doesn’t really try and do anything new with them. Several times during the campaign I had strong feelings of “I’ve done this before” – ranging from stealth missions that feel like Sledgehammer are trying to put their own stamp on “All Ghillied Up”, the fantastic Pripyat mission from the original Modern Warfare to battling through Hi-tech bio labs that definitely give off strong Black Ops 2 vibes. It really does feel at times like Sledgehammer wanted to do a “best of CoD” campaign as so many of the set pieces feel very familiar. Along with this goes the character Gideon, who really feels like a “cooler” Captain Price, if perhaps not as moustached. Alongside him is Iliana who provides a tropetastic cold and brutally efficient stereotypical female Russian (though thankfully she does show a more tender side at times). This feeling of sameness does let up at a few points and the story approaches something regarding brilliance, with a few pivotal moments really getting my hopes up, only for me to feel a tad disappointed with the direction that was then taken. |
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Comparing it to the likes of Black Ops 2, I feel that the campaign structure is lacking the involvement or choice that was found in that title. Knowing that your choices would affect the overall outcome was something that made you feel invested in the story and care about the characters, as often their fates would be linked to decisions you had made. A return to a more linear fashion does make things easier for the developers but definitely loses something in my eyes.
In terms of gameplay, the core remains the same. Running around ADS-ing and pew-pewing people in the face is a linear and procedural as ever, but the Exo-Suit and the other new abilities and gadgets do provide some welcome additions (and I do love the Mute charges), though I found myself often forgetting that I had certain abilities like the sideways dodge boost. The game also throws a few vehicle driving sections in (including one quite nice surprise) but these are again fairly on the rails affairs that don’t really push things as far as I would have liked. On the whole it’s hard to say that things have really changed much from even the earlier World War 2 era games. Everything gets a lick of hi-tech paint but the core mechanics don’t feel too different.
In terms of gameplay, the core remains the same. Running around ADS-ing and pew-pewing people in the face is a linear and procedural as ever, but the Exo-Suit and the other new abilities and gadgets do provide some welcome additions (and I do love the Mute charges), though I found myself often forgetting that I had certain abilities like the sideways dodge boost. The game also throws a few vehicle driving sections in (including one quite nice surprise) but these are again fairly on the rails affairs that don’t really push things as far as I would have liked. On the whole it’s hard to say that things have really changed much from even the earlier World War 2 era games. Everything gets a lick of hi-tech paint but the core mechanics don’t feel too different.
Wrap up
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All in all, the Single Player campaign is an enjoyable, if predictable, action romp that ends by leaving the player feeling a tad underwhelmed, and annoyed at the game that could have been. However for Sledgehammer’s first real solo effort in the Call of Duty universe, it could have been a lot worse (Ghosts I’m looking at you…) and I really am excited to see what they do with the franchise as there are tasters of something brilliant lurking there.
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Single Player - 3.5/5 |
Game reviewers own
Screenshots provided courtesy of Activision
Screenshots provided courtesy of Activision
