How Game of Thrones influenced Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
And nine other things we’ve learnt about Sledgehammer’s take on the undisputed king of first-person shooters.
We’ve seen three levels of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare so far, and we’re feeling pretty good on this reboot for Activision’s tent-pole title. From demonstrations, gameplay and talking to Sledgehammer, here’s ten things we’ve learnt about one of this year’s most anticipated shooters.
Game of Thrones has been a big influence
I know, right? Maybe there won’t be as much neck-slitting and sibling-f**king, but Sledgehammer are obsessive about telling a realistic story with real characters during the single-player and co-op game. That’s why they’ve pulled in someone like Kevin Spacey as the lead villain. They also name-check The Walking Dead when talking about story-telling, because according to Sledgehammer’s Glen Schofield “TV is telling better stories than movies right now“. In Advanced Warfare you’ll be following the story of one character, not multiple characters, and it plays out chronologically, so hopefully the confused story-telling of previous COD games won’t be so much of an issue.
Sledgehammer actually gives a s**t
They’ve been working on it for almost three years, the first time a Call of Duty title has had that long in development. I’ve met Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield a couple of times and they are genuine, friendly, interesting people. That might seem like an odd thing to say but we’ve interviewed developers before who clearly don’t want to be in front of the press or give a toss about the game they‘re working on. But the passion the Sledgehammer leaders have must spill out on to the rest of the development team and if they care they make the best game they can. Keep the faith.
Vehicles are fully drivable
None of the vehicles sections are on rails as they have been in the past. Levels may not be open world, but you can use vehicles to navigate them more freely. That includes the hoverbike, the gun turret on legs, the helicopter, the Warbird dropship and the hover tank. And if that makes the single player game better, imagine the fun you can have with them in multiplayer and co-op.
The Exo suit makes the game look (and play) like Titanfall
Your character’s Exo suit is the basis for a lot of gameplay changes in Advanced Warfare. Rapid movement, verticality and stealth are key to gameplay. The Exo gives you the ability to dodge left and right very quickly, to double-jump higher and to cloak yourself for a limited amount of time. Sounds very similar to Titanfall, right? That’s a good thing because Titanfall really livened up multiplayer shooting this year.
Weapons and gadgets are realistic future tech, but not science fiction
I’m always concerned about gadgets in games feeling like a novelty, but what we’ve seen so far is encouraging. Sledgehammer will give you a variation on an AK47, but what an AK47 might feel like 50 years from now. This thinking has been applied to all gadgets and weapons, so there are guns with assisted aiming and the Mute Charge, a sort of reverse flashbang that sucks the sound out of an area and allows the player to perform more stealth kills.
You can level-up your exoskeleton
Advanced Warfare will feature a a light RPG element so you can increase your Exo stats at the end of each level. Sledgehammer reckons you’d need to play through the game about two and a half times in order to max out and see everything your character can do. Remember when Gears of War dev Cliff Blezinski said that the future of shooters was RPGs? He was right.
It’s still very much a Call of Duty game
As much as Sledgehammer is pledging to shake-up the Call of Duty format and give it new life, Advance Warfare still feels very much like a game you’ve played before. The mission we walked through began with your character stealthing under the feet of the enemy and using long grass to avoid confrontation. Sound familiar? How about the rappelling section that followed and the breach and clearing of rooms? From what we’ve seen so far, it’s definitely a Call of Duty game.
Grenades are getting an overhaul
Everyone loves a good grenade but apart from cooking them we’ve not seen a lot of innovation in explosives for some time. Again, that ‘realistic future’ thinking has been applied to the pineapples. Smart grenades are thrown into the air where they pause before homing in on a target. Threat grenades explode and highlight enemies in red on your Exo’s HUD. And there are more. Grenades are fun!
Advanced Warfare feels like a Sledgehammer game
Sledgehammer may have worked on Modern Warfare 3 but its best known (and loved) for the Dead Space games. And the most memorable parts of Dead Space are evident in Advanced Warfare. Storytelling. The steady upgrade of the character. Experiences that aren’t repeated as the game progresses. Clever use of gadgets. The cleanliness of the screen and smart use of HUD. All those cool things you got from Dead Space have seeped into Advanced Warfare.
It’s using a new engine
We’ve heard this one before so let’s take it with a pinch of salt. But honestly, it looks nice - a lot better than the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Ghosts. All new tech, rendering, shaders, physics and audio. But the new engine has been led by the creative process, according to Sledgehammer. It’s not new technology for new technology’s sake.