Customization, as always, is extremely deep, with the option to completely outfit your character how you see fit. Choose your gloves, boots, shirts, helmets, anything really. When it comes to building classes, Sledgehammer takes the familiar Pick 10 system and turns it into Pick 13. You have 13 points to use and can choose the perfect weapons, perks and scorestreaks to match your playstyle. The game also lets you remove certain options from your kit if you don’t find them useful. For example, as someone who doesn’t often get scorestreaks, it was nice to be able to use my points towards an additional weapon attachment instead (even though in Advanced Warfare you can now customize your scorestreaks, so instead of just a remote turret for instance, you can now get one that spins 360 degrees, or fires a laser).
You’ll also get supply drops, which occur after matches if you’ve completed a particular challenge. With these, the game will give you a few new items to add to your armory. Mostly it’s cosmetic stuff (new gloves, new pants, etc.), but sometimes you’ll get weapon variants as well. If ever you don’t want something (and considering your armory only holds about 80 items, that will likely happen) you can trade it for XP (with most items, at least). Also, sometimes the game will give you a locked weapon in a supply drop, meaning you can’t use it until you level up a bit more, which provides even more incentive to keep playing.
In terms of modes, it’s more of the same, with all the usual staples of the genre making an appearance. The new kid on the block here is Uplink, where both teams will need to grab a ball and toss it into a floating goal on the other end of the map. If you’re the one holding the ball, you can still melee with it as you make your way across the battlefield. Otherwise, your job is to either hunt the person who has it (if they’re on the other team) or protect them (if they’re on your team). It works well given you can use your Exo Suits to boost and jump around in creative ways and it’s a nice break and change of pace from the more kill-based modes. It makes use of almost all the new mechanics, too, so if you really want a refreshing Call of Duty multiplayer experience, this is the mode to play.
The last thing to mention about multiplayer is the firing range. With the press of a button, you can test out any new weapon you’d like in a firing range. No longer do you have to wait till you get into a match to give your new gun a trial run. Now, right from the customization screen you can hop into a range and play around with your new death dealing tools. It’s a small, but welcome addition that I greatly appreciated.
On the co-op side, Sledgehammer have included a mode called Exo-Survival. It’s not terribly different from the series’ zombies mode though, or any other type of Horde mode for that matter. By now, you all know the drill. With up to 3 other players, you’ll take on wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies. And, as the mode’s name suggests, you’ll be able to use your Exo Suit to swiftly make your way around the map.
Where this mode does try to offer something new is that it switches up your objectives. So one moment you’ll be trying to find intel and the next you’ll need to defuse a bomb, while still contending with enemies, of course. You can also upgrade you Exo Suit and weapons throughout to make things easier. It’s by no means a terrible mode, but it’s a bit unimaginative and bland and doesn’t offer anything new that we haven’t seen in countless other games by this point.
Technically, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare looks and runs almost flawlessly. Framerates never drop and facial animations and character models are spectacular. And by spectacular, I mean amongst the best I’ve ever seen on a current-gen console. Environmental effects like fire, rain and snow are stunningly realistic and overall, both the graphics and attention to detail is superb. As for the sound, it’s top-notch across the board. The voice acting is excellent, especially from Spacey, and every explosion, gunshot and crash is felt.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare marks a definite improvement for the franchise and is, by all accounts, a huge success for Sledgehammer Games. The single player, while still giving us a perfunctory plot, is a blast from start to finish and has never felt so refreshing and invigorating. The addition of the Exo Suit is a game-changer for the series and leaves us with a campaign that’s actually worth spending some time with. And that carries over to the multiplayer as well. The dynamic of online combat in Call of Duty has completely changed and with one of the most rewarding and deep loot systems that the franchise has ever seen, there’s no doubt that gamers will be partaking in online fragfests for a long time to come.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it; that’s a saying that most people live by. Not the team at Sledgehammer Games, though. They’ve taken a formula that’s always worked and dared to go bigger and bolder with it. They haven’t completely reinvented the franchise, but with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare they’ve given it a massive shot in the arm, and I believe that both the series, and gamers, will be better off for it.
This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game.
