Hey, the new Call of Duty game came out! I think it's the 3rd this year! Aren't you excited? Are your Dorito™ dust encrusted fingers shaking with excitement at the prospect of playing another BRAND NEW entry in the critically acclaimed, best selling franchise?! Or are you just going through Dew withdrawal?
So, yeah, I've made it clear what I think of the CoD games in many forum posts. To summarize: I don't like 'em. Yet, I've purchased the latest two entries in the series the week they came out. Why? I guess because I have no self respect, and need to be told by large companies what to buy in order to achieve a sense of worth so lacking within me. And also because I keep thinking I can recapture that wonderful joy I felt at playing the original Modern Warfare so long ago. That game was the fucking tits when I was a tween. Now, I am made bitter and cynical by the continual reinforcement of a single fact: these games are really fucking terrible.
I gotta give some credit here, Black Ops 2 didn't offend me all that much. At least, it made sense sometimes, and that's frankly enough for me to not hate it. Ghosts, on the other hand, was a god damn travesty to the FPS genre. I've never felt more dis-empowered as a player. Advanced Warfare has been called a "return to the roots of the series" by some. It's a few steps in the right direction, but it's still not enough. To be clear, I'm strictly talking about the multiplayer here. The campaigns for these games, Advanced Warfare included, are barely worth mentioning. One purchases a CoD game to play against others online, no matter how much money Activion paid Kevin Spacey to convince us otherwise. That said, a play-through of the 5 hour long story mode is valuable in the way that a root canal without happy gas is valuable. You can say that you did it, and then never do it again. Everyone else should watch it for laughs, at the expense of the script, voice acting and "gameplay" consisting largely of other people telling you what to do, getting killed for not walking in the precise path the game expects you to, and pressing a button to advance the plot. Yes, you do actually have to press F to pay your respects at someone’s funerals. It is shockingly not the stupidest thing in the game.
There are two big changes Advanced Warfare brings to the table: movement and graphics. Seriously, the graphics are actually worth noting here. They're really good, and optimized quite well for once. The only reason I point this out is because, since Modern Warfare, the visuals have remained largely unchanged. Even Ghosts looked like it could have been released in '07. So for the series to FINALLY make the leap to next-gen fidelity is a welcome improvement. I mean, they only did it because they had to, not out of any want to push the medium forward, but at least the results are satisfactory. “They only did it because they had to” should be the subtitle of this game.
Aside from the graphics, the truly largest change to the gameplay formula is the addition of Exosuit movement. It’s the main selling point of the game, advertised as a revolutionary new way to traverse the environment, ADDING A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION OF VERTICILITY TO COMBAT, etc. Look, I’m gonna lay it straight for you right here homies: it’s not as good as Titanfall, the thing it's directly and blatantly trying to compete against. It feels clunky, the physics are weird, and it doesn't really change anything at all.
Your new abilities include a double jump, which sends you way too high at way too steep an angle, a dash which can be performed on the air or ground, a kick ass power slide which is completely useless, and...that’s it. The game fails to commit to these new options in any meaningful way. Your double jump is good exclusively for climbing things, it’s too slow and predictable for use in combat or for anything aside from getting higher. The dashes make you go fast for a moment, but you awkwardly lose all momentum once they end, so most of the time you’ll just stick to running around like you always have. And the wicked sick power slide sucks because you can't aim during it, unless you equip a perk, because I guess they though it'd be super unfair. It’s like the developers were scared people would have fun or something. The first time I used the Exo abilities I thought to myself, “that’s it?” The game feels barely changed at all. I guess that’s what they were going for though; it’s the same CoD it’s always been, with a few new shiny “changes” to show off in advertisements. They even have a game mode where the Exo suits get turned off. You know, in case you hate new things, but feel like spending $60 anyway. The Exo abilities even come with a weakness: you show up on the enemies mini-map every time you use them. Why even bother?
I don’t mean to imply I never used the Exo movement. I made frequent use of it, partly because I was bored of just holding the Shift key down, and partly because I had to. Now the maps in the game have shoehorned vertical elements in them. Basically, in lieu of a ladder, you can jump up to high places. Sometimes there’s even still a ladder though, which is frankly baffling and hilarious at the same time. It goes to show how little faith the designers had in their fancy new game mechanics. It made me pine for Titanfall. This fucking game made me pine for fucking Titanfall.
Issues that have plagued this series since Modern Warfare 2 remain, because they aren’t seen as issues. There are no spawn times in the popular game modes (in other words, the only game modes you'll be able to play once this shit is a month old). You die and can spawn immediately. Now, in theory, this is fun because there’s no waiting. In practice, this eliminates any form of momentum from the game. There’s no push and pull for position and space. Everyone is everywhere, all the time, and dying is not punishing. In the short time I’ve had this game, I’ve spawned behind enemies multiple times every single match. I’ve had enemies spawn behind me multiple times a match. This is exacerbated by still-awful map design. Long ago, CoD developers decided that camping was a really terrible thing for some reason, as if choke points aren't a healthy part of the natural ebb and flow in an FPS, and that demanding a team work together to push through to an enemy’s position is a bad thing. There’s no rhythm, it’s just constant butt-fuckery. To get rid of camping, they eliminated sight-lines and added a great many ways to traverse the map, to an excessive degree. Essentially, you’re never safe anywhere. You have to be constantly moving or else someone is going to be behind you soon, either due to the awful spawns or the nature of the maps.
To even the negativity, I have to say that I had fun for a little bit. The weapons are more balanced than they've been in awhile. SMG's can't do literally everything anymore, basically, even if they are still largely more powerful than other weapon types simply because you don't have to aim with them. Maps aren't quite so awful as they were in Ghosts, so at least there's some symmetry that forces conflict to the center, even if there are too many ways to get there. Kill streaks, or score streaks, or whatever the fuck they are, have been better balanced as well, or at least the stupider ones are much harder to get.
I should mention that this is the first CoD game developed by Sledgehammer studios. They apparently made a whole new engine for it, though who knows if that's just marketing talk. It doesn't feel like a new engine, it feels like a less refined version of the engine the game has always been made on. Mainly, the physics are clearly not up to snuff, with weird interactions between surfaces and projectiles and strange momentum cancelling which removes almost all control of your character from you once you're in the air and makes going fast pretty much impossible.
Look, the whole CoD system is fundamentally broken. Having to level up to get equipment over time is stupid. Perks are stupid. Score streaks are stupid. But maybe they can be fun, because things can be stupid and fun at the same time. The core gunplay isn’t bad, in theory. Headshots could be rewarded a bit more strongly, with body shots made weaker, but overall it’s easy to have fun killing people. It’s too bad the game can’t get out of its own way. I miss having to check for campers in the popular hiding spots. I miss having clearly demarcated spawn zones and areas of engagement, with simple maps and long sight lines. I miss having skill and
smarts placed above mindless, repetitive, grueling, non-stop, emotionless action. I want to feel fun within my brain. Release me from this hell. I’m re-installingTitanfall now, this is the 7th circle.
Yep, Titanfall is a better game than Advanced Warfare could ever hope to be. It privileges player skill above anything else, even as it hides beneath of a guise of being friendly to any skill-level with its AI enemies. Maps are extremely large but players can traverse them at great speed with the movement system. This same movement system balances out the fighting of the game by giving players the ability to actually out-maneuver their opponents aim, something lost to almost every other shooter. Combat feels great, with minimal bullet spread and a heavy emphasis on landing headshots. Weapon selection is parsed down to only what is necessary, making each option feel different and useful, contrasted with the bloated and samey-feeling armory of Advanced Warfare. The game embraces every element it introduces, rather than being ashamed of anything remotely deviating from the same old modern shooter formula.
Maybe with some refinement Advanced Warfare could be a fun game. With the inevitable sequels soon to come, perhaps we'll see that. As of now, it's not even close to being worth $60.
THE GOOD:
Appreciably improved, well optimized visuals
New movement options break up the monotony of getting around
Better weapon balance than expected
THE BAD:
Worthless campaign mode
Poor map design
Guns still feel too similar to each other
Baffling design decisions and poor spawn points result in a frustrating, dis-empowering multiplayer experience
Leveling up to get equipment remains a poor, tedious, skinner-box method of keeping players in the game
Score streaks are once again dumb, albeit in a less intrusive way
Complete failure to commit to its new gameplay elements
Nearly 50 GB install size, holy shit
It's CoD with the freshest coat of paint Activision could be bothered to give it, but it's still CoD
The community for these games is the worst I've ever seen and I don't think it's ever going to change
Titanfall is better and I think it costs less too, go get that instead if you want a good CoD game
So, yeah, I've made it clear what I think of the CoD games in many forum posts. To summarize: I don't like 'em. Yet, I've purchased the latest two entries in the series the week they came out. Why? I guess because I have no self respect, and need to be told by large companies what to buy in order to achieve a sense of worth so lacking within me. And also because I keep thinking I can recapture that wonderful joy I felt at playing the original Modern Warfare so long ago. That game was the fucking tits when I was a tween. Now, I am made bitter and cynical by the continual reinforcement of a single fact: these games are really fucking terrible.
I gotta give some credit here, Black Ops 2 didn't offend me all that much. At least, it made sense sometimes, and that's frankly enough for me to not hate it. Ghosts, on the other hand, was a god damn travesty to the FPS genre. I've never felt more dis-empowered as a player. Advanced Warfare has been called a "return to the roots of the series" by some. It's a few steps in the right direction, but it's still not enough. To be clear, I'm strictly talking about the multiplayer here. The campaigns for these games, Advanced Warfare included, are barely worth mentioning. One purchases a CoD game to play against others online, no matter how much money Activion paid Kevin Spacey to convince us otherwise. That said, a play-through of the 5 hour long story mode is valuable in the way that a root canal without happy gas is valuable. You can say that you did it, and then never do it again. Everyone else should watch it for laughs, at the expense of the script, voice acting and "gameplay" consisting largely of other people telling you what to do, getting killed for not walking in the precise path the game expects you to, and pressing a button to advance the plot. Yes, you do actually have to press F to pay your respects at someone’s funerals. It is shockingly not the stupidest thing in the game.
There are two big changes Advanced Warfare brings to the table: movement and graphics. Seriously, the graphics are actually worth noting here. They're really good, and optimized quite well for once. The only reason I point this out is because, since Modern Warfare, the visuals have remained largely unchanged. Even Ghosts looked like it could have been released in '07. So for the series to FINALLY make the leap to next-gen fidelity is a welcome improvement. I mean, they only did it because they had to, not out of any want to push the medium forward, but at least the results are satisfactory. “They only did it because they had to” should be the subtitle of this game.
Clearly scripted, set-up photo courtesy of whoever. Point is, the game looks good.
Aside from the graphics, the truly largest change to the gameplay formula is the addition of Exosuit movement. It’s the main selling point of the game, advertised as a revolutionary new way to traverse the environment, ADDING A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION OF VERTICILITY TO COMBAT, etc. Look, I’m gonna lay it straight for you right here homies: it’s not as good as Titanfall, the thing it's directly and blatantly trying to compete against. It feels clunky, the physics are weird, and it doesn't really change anything at all.
Your new abilities include a double jump, which sends you way too high at way too steep an angle, a dash which can be performed on the air or ground, a kick ass power slide which is completely useless, and...that’s it. The game fails to commit to these new options in any meaningful way. Your double jump is good exclusively for climbing things, it’s too slow and predictable for use in combat or for anything aside from getting higher. The dashes make you go fast for a moment, but you awkwardly lose all momentum once they end, so most of the time you’ll just stick to running around like you always have. And the wicked sick power slide sucks because you can't aim during it, unless you equip a perk, because I guess they though it'd be super unfair. It’s like the developers were scared people would have fun or something. The first time I used the Exo abilities I thought to myself, “that’s it?” The game feels barely changed at all. I guess that’s what they were going for though; it’s the same CoD it’s always been, with a few new shiny “changes” to show off in advertisements. They even have a game mode where the Exo suits get turned off. You know, in case you hate new things, but feel like spending $60 anyway. The Exo abilities even come with a weakness: you show up on the enemies mini-map every time you use them. Why even bother?
I don’t mean to imply I never used the Exo movement. I made frequent use of it, partly because I was bored of just holding the Shift key down, and partly because I had to. Now the maps in the game have shoehorned vertical elements in them. Basically, in lieu of a ladder, you can jump up to high places. Sometimes there’s even still a ladder though, which is frankly baffling and hilarious at the same time. It goes to show how little faith the designers had in their fancy new game mechanics. It made me pine for Titanfall. This fucking game made me pine for fucking Titanfall.
Issues that have plagued this series since Modern Warfare 2 remain, because they aren’t seen as issues. There are no spawn times in the popular game modes (in other words, the only game modes you'll be able to play once this shit is a month old). You die and can spawn immediately. Now, in theory, this is fun because there’s no waiting. In practice, this eliminates any form of momentum from the game. There’s no push and pull for position and space. Everyone is everywhere, all the time, and dying is not punishing. In the short time I’ve had this game, I’ve spawned behind enemies multiple times every single match. I’ve had enemies spawn behind me multiple times a match. This is exacerbated by still-awful map design. Long ago, CoD developers decided that camping was a really terrible thing for some reason, as if choke points aren't a healthy part of the natural ebb and flow in an FPS, and that demanding a team work together to push through to an enemy’s position is a bad thing. There’s no rhythm, it’s just constant butt-fuckery. To get rid of camping, they eliminated sight-lines and added a great many ways to traverse the map, to an excessive degree. Essentially, you’re never safe anywhere. You have to be constantly moving or else someone is going to be behind you soon, either due to the awful spawns or the nature of the maps.
There's a genuinely comprehensive customization feature in the game, for some reason. You'll never see any of your items, and most of them need to be unlocked through random drops the game occasionally hands out. This is where you'd put on your Dewrito gear.
To even the negativity, I have to say that I had fun for a little bit. The weapons are more balanced than they've been in awhile. SMG's can't do literally everything anymore, basically, even if they are still largely more powerful than other weapon types simply because you don't have to aim with them. Maps aren't quite so awful as they were in Ghosts, so at least there's some symmetry that forces conflict to the center, even if there are too many ways to get there. Kill streaks, or score streaks, or whatever the fuck they are, have been better balanced as well, or at least the stupider ones are much harder to get.
I should mention that this is the first CoD game developed by Sledgehammer studios. They apparently made a whole new engine for it, though who knows if that's just marketing talk. It doesn't feel like a new engine, it feels like a less refined version of the engine the game has always been made on. Mainly, the physics are clearly not up to snuff, with weird interactions between surfaces and projectiles and strange momentum cancelling which removes almost all control of your character from you once you're in the air and makes going fast pretty much impossible.
Look, the whole CoD system is fundamentally broken. Having to level up to get equipment over time is stupid. Perks are stupid. Score streaks are stupid. But maybe they can be fun, because things can be stupid and fun at the same time. The core gunplay isn’t bad, in theory. Headshots could be rewarded a bit more strongly, with body shots made weaker, but overall it’s easy to have fun killing people. It’s too bad the game can’t get out of its own way. I miss having to check for campers in the popular hiding spots. I miss having clearly demarcated spawn zones and areas of engagement, with simple maps and long sight lines. I miss having skill and
smarts placed above mindless, repetitive, grueling, non-stop, emotionless action. I want to feel fun within my brain. Release me from this hell. I’m re-installingTitanfall now, this is the 7th circle.
Yep, Titanfall is a better game than Advanced Warfare could ever hope to be. It privileges player skill above anything else, even as it hides beneath of a guise of being friendly to any skill-level with its AI enemies. Maps are extremely large but players can traverse them at great speed with the movement system. This same movement system balances out the fighting of the game by giving players the ability to actually out-maneuver their opponents aim, something lost to almost every other shooter. Combat feels great, with minimal bullet spread and a heavy emphasis on landing headshots. Weapon selection is parsed down to only what is necessary, making each option feel different and useful, contrasted with the bloated and samey-feeling armory of Advanced Warfare. The game embraces every element it introduces, rather than being ashamed of anything remotely deviating from the same old modern shooter formula.
Maybe with some refinement Advanced Warfare could be a fun game. With the inevitable sequels soon to come, perhaps we'll see that. As of now, it's not even close to being worth $60.
THE GOOD:
Appreciably improved, well optimized visuals
New movement options break up the monotony of getting around
Better weapon balance than expected
THE BAD:
Worthless campaign mode
Poor map design
Guns still feel too similar to each other
Baffling design decisions and poor spawn points result in a frustrating, dis-empowering multiplayer experience
Leveling up to get equipment remains a poor, tedious, skinner-box method of keeping players in the game
Score streaks are once again dumb, albeit in a less intrusive way
Complete failure to commit to its new gameplay elements
Nearly 50 GB install size, holy shit
It's CoD with the freshest coat of paint Activision could be bothered to give it, but it's still CoD
The community for these games is the worst I've ever seen and I don't think it's ever going to change
Titanfall is better and I think it costs less too, go get that instead if you want a good CoD game