(Editor’s Note: This article was written by our good pal Shane. Amateur gamer, professional badass.)
Do you want to fly around and shoot lasers at people while having Kevin Spacey cheer you on…… Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the game for you. I read a lot of reviews on this game prior to its release and I have read some since the release and they are all written by pro’s and hardcore gamers. I myself run with about a .85 KD. For those of you that don’t know, Call of Dutiers(?) are measured by the size of their KD (Kill /Death Ratio), in case you’re wondering mine is average for my size, anyway, my review of the game will be based on the casual gamer’s gameplay and thoughts on how the game is set up as opposed to past COD’s.
Let me first say that I bought the day zero addition, which means I got the game one day before everyone else, let me also say that the game was unplayable until yesterday due to server lags on the call of duty server locations. So, if you have read bad reviews about the game freezing and grinding to a halt after kills…well that is kind of fixed now and should be completely fixed by next week.
For me I really enjoy the color schemes they used to highlight players and map features. The main problem people had with COD Ghost, was the maps were very dark and big and encouraged camping…which is sitting in a dark high traffic corner and shooting as players ran by. This game almost completely eliminates camping. The colors contrast so well and they have taken out perks that control your blind side. This forces you to get out in the map and engage other players in a gun slinger type game play.
I also am really digging the EXO suits and the abilities. For this game COD wanted to go vertical, you now have the abilities to double jump in mid air, hover, boost side to side to avoid bullets, and once earned you can go invisible for a short period of time (like 3 seconds). For me this makes the game so addictive, there is so much new stuff to master and the vertical aspect of the maps keeps you guessing as to where the enemy will be coming from.
This brings me to what I perceive as developmental designs. In COD Ghost you could play alone and be fine. You have IED’s and if danger was close you could plant on your blind side and by yourself, you could hold down a whole room or building. I believe this game was designed for you to party up and engage the other players. Playing as a team will have huge advantages in this game since you can not protect your blind side alone. Also this game was designed for you to use add-ons, such as Scuff controllers and Kontrol freeks. Scuff controllers give you the ability to jump, aim and shoot without moving your normal finger placements and Kontrol freeks allow you to quickly and precisely follow jumping moving targets. They have also cleverly added what people once used to have to cheat to get… For those of you that have every played COD and wondered how people could see you through walls and kill you, well it was called wall hacking and it cost 60 bucks a month to buy and maintain so Sony can not detect it and ban your console. This game will give it to you for a short period of time, as a perk, after so many kills. Like I said, they designed this game for you to move and experience the whole map.
This leads me to my last point about the multiplayer aspect of this game. The maps are brilliant so far. They are tight maps with few lanes, they are one level vertical and there are very few dark spots. So far I haven’t seen too many places where I could not see who was shooting me. This was a big problem with Ghost, you could get shot from across the map and have zero chance to engage. I also feel like they put a lot of thought into how the maps are laid out, the cover and jump spots are not so plentiful so you can shoot and duck, but they are enough so you can reload safely and continue gun fighting.
The rooms and building all have multiple entrances and windows and they all have very unique game play patterns. As far as I can tell two have dynamic map features which means the map changes as the game plays, one of them floods with a giant tsunami that you can watch roll in and the other erupts with a volcano.
The other thing I have really enjoyed is the campaign mode…this is a single player mode played in a story format. If you didn’t already know, Kevin Spacey plays a leading role in this game play as Jonathan Irons, leader of the Atlas Corporation who is responsible for the “Advanced Warfare”. There is just something about playing this and having Spacey talk directly to me that makes the game feel more enjoyable. My son and I have been tag-teaming the campaign mode and it is just as enjoyable as the multiplayer modes. After the first couple of hours of Ghost’s campaign I felt like I had already played out the whole story line. The Exo abilities and the robotics aspect of the game, as well as Kevin Spacey, make you feel like every scene and game selection are new and building towards something climactic.
The Stuff I don’t like…… The swearing in campaign mode. The F word along with others are used regularly. I am still a little miffed that I paid for Day Zero and couldn’t play it until day 9. This is kind of a neutral point but for casual players, it is very hard to unlock attachments and perks, Double kills and hip fires are hard to do, but they make the game interesting and challenging. Playing this game makes it very difficult to go back to previous CODs, since now I want to Double jump onto building but instead I just jump into a wall and look like a total Noob looking for a secret door.
Over All the game is great, very fun, very challenging and fast paced.
Shane Davis
Played BO1, BO2, Ghost, & Advanced Warfare…and I still get merked by 13 year olds.
PSN Tag – SootedAA