Review : Call Of Duty - Advanced Warfare
An EXO-ting new chapter
I’ve been wondering how to approach this review for last few days and just finding myself going around in circles. Reason for this is that I have so many things that I want to tell you but now I’m worried about spoiling something or running out of characters. So I decided to just screw it and do it…
I’ve been a massive COD fan since the first one. (Don’t get me wrong; I also love Battlefield if I want a bit more of a tactical gameplay.) It was ground breaking stuff that catapulted the FPS genre into new heights. So the first one was a massive success and that obviously is where any person in their right mind will start milking that cow for what she’s worth. We saw COD2 and 3 being released and it was good games, but then they stepped up the game (literally). COD: 4 Modern Warfare. OMFG!! For those of you that weren’t around at that time, we crapped ourselves the first time we saw the clip of Soap in the Ghillie Suit. Amazing stuff!
Now I can think that you’re wondering “Why the history lesson?” Understanding that feeling, is understanding how I felt the first time I played Advanced Warfare. It knocked my socks off. I was impressed by all the hype and videos doing the rounds, but because of Ghosts being such a miss on the multiplayer side, I honestly had my doubts. But boy oh boy, did they surprise me.
Campaign
As always you are the good guy needing to stop some power hungry psycho from taking over the world or something in that line. This would be a boring day out if it wasn’t for this being 50 years in the future and having the most bad ass tech at your fingertips. With the introduction of the EXO-Suit, the series got a breath of new life. You are stronger, faster and just all round better with this thing strapped to your ass. I can spend a lot of time going into some details but you really just need to watch the trailer to get the info you need to know. Atlas Corp, Kevin Spacey, future-awesomeness and Exo-Suits. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The story is solid with a few good twist and turns. Took me about 8 hours to finish on Regular difficulty.
There are some interesting locations you visit/destroy but one of the coolest things they added was a challenge/reward system. As you progress through the missions, you will earn upgrade points for your EXO-Suit and even Supply Drops (I’ll get to Supply Drops in a minute.) Upgrade Points can be used after a mission to upgrade your EXO. Faster reloading, carry more grenades, take less damage. You get the picture. This gives it so much more replay value in my opinion. Then there are gadgets like the grapple hook that opens up a lot of options. It really the is Call of Duty we needed to give us new found love for an old friend.
Multiplayer
Single player is awesome, but as all real CoD fans know, multiplayer is where s@#$ gets real! I was a bit doubtful about the multiplayer mode from watching all the pre-release videos, especially after the massive let down of CoD: Ghosts Multiplayer compared to Black Ops 2. But just as the campaign mode, multiplayer really surprised me. Once again, the EXO makes all the difference. Just to give you an idea of how the new setup works. Character customization is back, but this time you have only one guy/girl to worry about. Everything from eyewear, EXO, boots even kneepads can be customized.
You also have 13 slots per class, which also makes a hell of a difference. The combination of weapons, attachments, perks, score streaks and EXO abilities are endless. EXO Abilities have replaced the tactical gear in your load out. This can be a Shield, cloaking (yes, as in invisible), Speed boost etc. The weapons are awesome with just as cool attachments, but once again you will need to find what works for you on what map.
The EXO opens up a whole new way and pace of playing CoD online. It takes some getting used to, but it’s still good old CoD. Now something else they added was the supply drops I spoke about earlier. These are unlocked when achieve certain thing like 5 kills without dying or even at random. Supply Drops can contain a special weapon, gear or added perks. The perks and some gear are time limited which means it will expire and fall away. Other gear and weapons can be permanent and even redeemable for XP if you don’t like it.
Something I also found very awesome was in the Local Play (Offline against bots or friends). They added a eSports game mode group. So you can actually train offline for that next LAN or COMP. Also, Clan Wars and all the other game modes are back as well.
I can spend all day going on about this, but in short the Multiplayer is awesome. The few things they changed and added really kicked this experience up a notch. I personally loved it and think this is really going to keep me as busy as BO2 multiplayer did.
EXO Survival
For the last part of this review, we dive into the new co-op mode EXO Survival. This was not even close to a selling point for me but a few games in and I was hooked. This is also online and offline based co-op, so it’s really something awesome to play with friends when you’re having a gaming night or just getting tired of getting your ass handed to you by some 12 year old with a 10mb ADSL line. My 3rd game in, me and two buddies (online) survived for 1hr 02min. It was crazy. As you go, you earn upgrade points that can be used to upgrade your EXO and weapons. All depending on what role you are playing in the team. And unlike other modes, here playing as a team is key. On the reward side, your earn Supply Drops for some awesome goodies to use in multiplayer.
There’s not much else to say about this mode besides just getting three friends and enjoy. This is guaranteed to provide you with hours of epic co-op action.
The final verdict
The game is amazing. Some people will think it’s just another Call of Duty. My opinion. It’s THE Call of Duty. We have waited too long to get the CoD we deserve and it finally came in the form of Advanced Warfare. Everything is excitingly new but yet classic CoD and it works like a charm.
We don’t really have a rating system yet, but as this is my first review on Guinea Pixel, I will rate it at 90%. I played it on PS3, since I can’t afford a PS4 (nudge nudge wink wink), but for best results go for PC and Next-Gen Consoles.
I hope you enjoyed our first review and will be looking forward to bringing you more stuff in the future. Please like and follow us or even drop us a mail with any comments. We are here for the fans of gaming. We are family.
