I’m not much for war shooters. They all kinda blend together for me. Cartoonish villains, explodey set pieces, intensity, tropey setbacks: the works. They bank on the predictability of it all. Playing these games is like going to Cracker Barrel: you know what to expect. It’s nothing new, but it gets the job done. You might even really like it, but you keep that to yourself.
What drew my attention this go ‘round was the magnificence of a Mr. Kevin Spacey.
Whatever you say, President Underwood. Just tell me who to kill.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Release Date: November 4, 2014
Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, 360, XB1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFu5qXMuaJU[width=650,height=366]
Spacey gloriously inhabits the role of evil corporate overlord, Jonathan Irons. Irons is the Lex Luthor that Spacey should have been in that terrible Superman movie. He’s affable, occasionally intense, and uses bad guy logic that is incomprehensible. Oh, and he always thinks he can turn everyone to his way of thinking, even when he’s just murdered friends and loved ones.
Extremely Derivative...
My biggest issue with Advanced Warfare is the fact that everything feels a little generic. Exo-armored soldiers fight terrorists, and then a paramilitary organization, and prevent a global genetically-engineered poison named “Manticore.” It’s a little bit Starship Troopers, a little bit Edge of Tomorrow, and a little bit G.I. Joe.
It’s occasionally hard to tell if it’s supposed to be 2024, 2054, or 2400 AD.
Every twist is obvious and every betrayal is telegraphed. Not much about this game’s story is unique. Very little personality, virtually no innovation and it’s pretty damn predictable.
...But Still Fun
Hot damn, is this a fun game. You know what to expect, but what you’re expecting is still pretty exciting. A bunch of gun-toting soldiers in cyborg armor shooting at swarms of robots and throwing grenades that can see through walls or fly around obstacles? Sign me up!
It gets right to the meat of what makes mindless blockbusters a success. The pacing of the action is perfect to keep you 100% engaged. The depth of the tactics and combat options are shallow enough to not bog you down with any big decisions but deep enough to trick you into thinking you have a lot of agency.
During actual gameplay, most enemies end up just glowing red silhouettes.
It’s a well-curated collection of near-future sci-fi tropes and blockbuster movie writing shortcuts that amount to one of the coolest shooting galleries you could hope for. The cinematics are largely fluff, but it’s got Kevin Spacey. What other game has Kevin Spacey?
His character is a bit dead-eyed, but it still rests on the other side of the Uncanney Valley. His badguyness is over-the-top, but I don’t know that nuance would really be an asset for this kind of game. Also…I mean, c’mon. It’s Kevin Spacey.
Multiplayer
War shooters are usually sold on their multiplayer, but I think they backed off of that a bit for Advanced Warfare. There are some cool aspects to it: combat drones, mobility upgrades, customizable loadouts, etc - but it’s pretty much more of the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj3-RsyJKfA[width=650,height=366]
You basically get everything you’d expect from one of these games, and a tiny bit more. Weird grenades and gun mods can change the game up a bit, but most of the people I played with just used the best guns they could find to shoot each other. The added touches are probably too unwieldy to throw into a successful loadout, but they can be fun to mess around with until you ultimately get shot throwing high-tech nonsense at an enemy mid-shooting-you-in-the-face..
The Verdict
I got this one out of Redbox and beat the single-player campaign in a couple of nights. It’s fast-paced and straightforward, they don’t really give you time to linger. It’s a solid six hours or so of varied, action-packed gameplay that’s totally worth checking out, but not really worth holding on to.
The multiplayer is engaging, but the audience is currently split across 5 different platforms. There’s no way that community is going to stick around long enough to make it a rewarding purchase. Plus, the single player campaign is so linear and one-note, replay value is pretty low.
