The weapons are more fun to handle, the maps are more colorful and interesting and better designed, and the progression system is far superior. It’s good news: Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer is much better than Ghosts’. I think this is the fourth Call of Duty I’ve reviewed, and we all know the drill here: this is the part where I leave the campaign behind (as I expect everyone will do after one playthrough) and move on to the multiplayer. I'm having better luck now, but returning staples such as Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, Hardcore Team Deathmatch, and Domination are where most of the players seem to be. That said, it took me ages to get into those rounds, because no one is playing it. It’s like quidditch with guns, and I played a few rounds and enjoyed it. The new Uplink mode sounds neat: two teams fight for control of a ball which they can throw or run through their goal for points. I’d rather CoD just embrace fantasy and leave tragedy for something more thoughtful. A game which judges me by my bodycount, on the number of men whose heads I shot-no, it’s terribly heavy handed. I do have one final complaint, though: Call of Duty has no place trying to express the terrifying realities of war like it does, showing rows of coffins as American soldiers return from battle, a mass grave in a concentration camp, and telling me to press ‘F’ to pay my respects to a fallen friend. Advanced Warfare whimpered into the credits.īut hell, I did have fun, even if it was shallow. But I didn’t grow attached to any of the characters, or really give a damn about who lived and died. I enjoyed Kevin Spacey’s performance (like, who doesn’t love Kevin Spacey?) and the between-mission cutscenes, which can look nearly photorealistic. That’s really frustrating, and I don’t know what made it work in the end, but when it did, the conclusion didn’t even feel worth it. Worst of all, I had to restart the game twice to finish the final mission because a bug prevented me from sliding under a closing door. Other minor gripes: some objects have physics while others don’t, I got stuck in the geometry once while under attack from a sniper, and the audio kept desynchronizing from the video in cutscenes, so Kevin Spacey’s mouth moved a good second after he was done saying something Very Serious. They even gestured to me over their shoulders while I was standing in front of them, and then barked at me to open the door I’d been standing next to the whole time. I was always faster than the squadmates I was supposed to follow, for instance, constantly bumping into them as they slowed to deliver dialogue, and always reaching our destination first. My biggest complaint is that Advanced Warfare slacks on some of the basics. This is what Contra looks like in 2014, like it or not. I find systems-driven moments much more rewarding, but I’ve come to understand and enjoy Call of Duty campaigns for what they are: modern arcade run-and-guns.
Flying a drone around a compound sniping bad guys through the windows is just great, dumb fun. And though my input felt predetermined-doing what the script says I do is mandatory-the scenarios it presents are some of the series’ most thrilling. The Antarctica level in particular is gorgeous, with glowing ice caves and great windy plains of snow. It was impossible to be bored when I was doing something new every ten minutes, and always something spectacular and extravagant.ĭespite a few ugly textures, this is by far the best looking Call of Duty. I didn’t care a whole lot about the potboiler plot, but it was an effective way to push me into increasingly improbable scenarios: hopping between busses on a freeway, clinging to a jet with magnetic gloves as it flies over Antarctica, speeding away from assailants on a hover bike. With the help of Kevin Spacey in a lead role, it tells an enjoyably simple, predictable story of power and corruption.