This is not really a review. To be honest, I haven’t finished the campaign or prestiged in multiplayer yet, but I’ve put in some hours, and I have a platform to say something, so why the hell not do so? You don’t mind do you?
Campaign
As always, don’t expect an epic, sweeping journey of over 20 hours from a Call of Duty game. It’s all action and straight to the point. And it’s great action if the truth be told. The exo-skeleton and various future tech weaponry adds vertical elements and firepower that makes you feel like a superhero rather than a grunt. And let’s be fair, when we play games, we want to feel just a little invincible right?
The set pieces in the game are familiar, but are high adrenaline affairs in most cases and for the first time in a while (looking back to COD4 here), I felt driven to keep playing through the campaign.
It also looks a lot better than Ghosts did. Admittedly, Call of Duty has never been the prettiest shooter when compared to others, but it does look great in the campaign.
Survival Co-Op
Which is more than can be said for the co-op addition to the game. It looks like another game for some reason. And it plays like an addition without a heart or soul.
You know the score with this sort of thing – kill waves of bad guys, unlock equipment and battle to survive. It just feels so very shallow somehow.
This is not the mode to consider buying the game for, and it’s very sad that the capitalist attitude will mean the better mode (Zombies) will apparently be paid-for DLC.
Multiplayer
I have been tempted to suggest playing Titanfall would prepare one for playing the multiplayer of Advanced Warfare. It does not. It is still Call of Duty, but it’s fast, furious and fun. There’s still weird spawning issues, but it’s something that can be patched.
The verticality will throw a few players off at first. Map and situational awareness will be a key factor to mastering the maps in the game, which are generally decent to sublime.
The exo-skeleton is not as unbalancing to the multiplayer as one might have expected it to be, and finding the right class setup from the Pick 13 will be down to your playing style.
The modes are pretty extensive and ‘Uplink’ is a blast. For the eSports fans, the rulesets are there and waiting for the first online or LAN event. And the season for eSports fans looks very promising indeed.
Conclusion
Thankfully, Sledgehammer has done exactly what it needed to do to give the Call of Duty franchise a renewed focus. They have buried the memory of the poorly received (by the more competitive community at least) Ghosts and brought some new and exciting features to the table. The singleplayer is a thrilling ride, as is the multiplayer. The test for the eSports fans will still come as the competitive season starts up, but for now, we say suit up and (double) jump in.
The Summary
Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Reviewed on: Xbox One
Also available on: Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 and PC
Available to buy here: Kalahari.com
If we had to give it a numerical score: 8.0/10
What I loved
- A thrill-ride of a campaign.
- Exciting and fast-paced multiplayer.
- Exo-Skeleton and future weapons make me feel invincible. Kind of.
Not so much
- The Survival Co-Op. It’s meh.
