Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on PS3 – The DVDfever Review

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is set in the year 2054, so it’s 40 years since the world wars currently being raged, and things haven’t improved on that front. In fact, they’re getting worse as insurgent technology gets better – the enemy being the KVA, led by Joseph Chkheidze, aka “Hades”.

The initial mission sees you, Private Jack Mitchell, fighting for the government, but after losing your best friend, Will, in the first mission, his father, Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey) wants to recruit you to his company, Atlas, where their technology is 20 years ahead of the military, and your being injured is no barrier to progression, since they have fantastic exo-skeleton suits which will have you leaping about like a teenager.

The suits are equipped with a number of features – some of these you use more than others, and some not enough – but those I’ve used most included Boost Jump – double-tap to make you leap tall buildings… almost, in a single bounce; Land Assist – drop down from high-up positions without making yourself brown bread; Riot Shield – brings up a… erm… riot shield, although, annoyingly, you can’t shoot from behind it; and overdrive – slow down time, making it easier to bump off the baddies.

There’s also a number of grenades you can use, some selectable with your left hand, and some with your right, and I kept getting confused so I’d always set off the wrong one first, as you bring one up, then cycle through the options, but if you don’t have the right one of the two hands, you can’t cancel it! Anyway, the options include Threat Grenade – this makes your enemies seen through walls, like an x-ray; EMP – this disables nearby electrics and kills a drone swarm; and Smart – aim it at your enemy of choice and wipe him/her/it out.

You can also earn upgrade points during a mission by completing 4 challenges; Kills, headshot kills, grenade kills and finding Intel, and then using these between missions to beef up your suit.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Level 5: Aftermath (720p HD)

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has had three years in development from newcomes to the franchise, Sledgehammer Games, and graphically, while the lip momvements in-game, as other characters talk to you, aren’t always perfect, they are much better during the CGI scenes, and Spacey, partically, looks incredible. I know they stick little motion-tracking balls all over the actors’ faces and bodies, but – and maybe this is because I’ve seen the lead chap before, but none of the others – Spacey is looking almost lifelike. Spacey has also been a wonderful actor over the years and he doesn’t skimp on things here, so you can expect him to deliver his trademark sarcasm and sharp wit. Full marks to Activision for getting him on board.

Beyond that, the general in-game graphics move fast and are nice and fluid. However, I did come across a shockingly bad situation on level 5, Aftermath, when everything turned into a Christopher Nolan nightmare, a la Inception and Interstellar. As you can see above, from 17.40 into it.

Audio-wise, it’s crash/bang/wallop all over the place in Dolby Digital 5.1 and certainly delivers in that respect.

Gameplay-wise, apart from the grenade confusion (I need to write those down), yes, this title behaves very ‘on rails’, but then so are lots of games like this, so that doesn’t matter too much. Alas, it does have some annoying “button mashing at the right time in order to progress” moments. Overall, when I’m playing the game, while Advanced Warfare starts off well, as it goes on, even in the loudest moments, it’s feeling a bit so-so at times, and rather ‘seen it all before’ – just basically not as exciting as I’d expect from a Call of Duty game. It’s difficult to put my finger on it, but I’m not enjoying it as much as previous entries in the series.

There’s also multiplayer action for those who are so inclined, but I’m a single-player campaign kind of guy.

So far, I’ve uploaded just six levels on my DVDfeverGames Youtube Channel, but there will be more to come soon.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Levels 1-6 (720p HD)

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Important info:

• Publisher: Activision
• Players: single player campaign, multiplayer: 1-12, co-op: 2-6
• HDTV options: 720p/1080i/1080p
• Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
• Spoken language: English
• Subtitles: English

GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT	8 10 7 7
OVERALL	8