Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
To Infinity and Beyond...
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Dev: Infinity Ward
Pub: Activision Release date: 04/11/2016 Format: PS4, PC, Xbox One |
8/10
Ben Hughes @potatoes351 |
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Infinity Ward knew they had a huge task on their hands after 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Not only had they managed to solidify the idea that CoD truly was a franchise in need of being put down, but due to the monumental cock up of Modern Warfare 3 two years prior, they had also put themselves on the firing line; making gamers across the world question whether the studio that started it all were actually capable of creating anymore games worth playing in the behemoth series.
It was clear they needed to drastically change what Call of Duty was, not an easy task considering that Sledgehammer Games did just that with 2014's Advanced Warfare, successfully managing to shift the series into a sci-fi/military shooter hybrid which was pushed further again by Treyarch's Black Ops III last year.
The only option that Infinity Ward saw was to push the series so far into the sci-fi genre that it barely resembled anything that the series had delivered so far...the initial reception was underwhelming to say the least. Becoming a complete farce on the internet, becoming the second most disliked video on YouTube ever! Infinite Warfare was destined to fail from the word go, right?It should come as a huge surprise to you then, that Infinite Warfare is actually one of the best games in the entire series, reaching heights that the series hasn't attained since 2007's Call of Duty 4. Allow me to explain.
Set in the distant future, after Earth has been stripped of all it's natural resources, humanity has branched out to the stars in search of the materials they need to continue sustaining a highly advanced way of life. The governments of Earth have converged to form the United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA), with the militaries of the planet also converging to form the Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO). However some members of the UNSA & SATO leave and form a new group, the Settlement Defence Front (SDF), whose goal is to provide better lives for citizens of planets that Earth has colonised, by any means necessary.
Over the years tension has steadily grown between the UNSA & the SDF to the point where their relationship has escalated to the brink of war, all that is preventing it from happening is a figure to spearhead the SDF and lead them in the fight against the UNSA.
This is where Infinite Warfare starts. A reconnaissance mission on Jupiter's moon, Europa, shows that the SDF has found that leader in Rear Admiral Salen Kotch, Commander of the Olympus Mons starship.
Kotch and the SDF attack Earth during a celebration of military strength in Geneva, crippling SATO forces and leaving the UNSA almost defenceless. Only two starships managed to escape the attack, one of which, the Retribution, you; Nick Reyes, are the newly appointed Captain of.
From here begins an adventure that sees you hopping from planet to planet in the solar system in an attempt to cripple the SDF's military force by any means necessary, giving the UNSA more time to prepare for a full blown assault on the SDF.
It was clear they needed to drastically change what Call of Duty was, not an easy task considering that Sledgehammer Games did just that with 2014's Advanced Warfare, successfully managing to shift the series into a sci-fi/military shooter hybrid which was pushed further again by Treyarch's Black Ops III last year.
The only option that Infinity Ward saw was to push the series so far into the sci-fi genre that it barely resembled anything that the series had delivered so far...the initial reception was underwhelming to say the least. Becoming a complete farce on the internet, becoming the second most disliked video on YouTube ever! Infinite Warfare was destined to fail from the word go, right?It should come as a huge surprise to you then, that Infinite Warfare is actually one of the best games in the entire series, reaching heights that the series hasn't attained since 2007's Call of Duty 4. Allow me to explain.
Set in the distant future, after Earth has been stripped of all it's natural resources, humanity has branched out to the stars in search of the materials they need to continue sustaining a highly advanced way of life. The governments of Earth have converged to form the United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA), with the militaries of the planet also converging to form the Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO). However some members of the UNSA & SATO leave and form a new group, the Settlement Defence Front (SDF), whose goal is to provide better lives for citizens of planets that Earth has colonised, by any means necessary.
Over the years tension has steadily grown between the UNSA & the SDF to the point where their relationship has escalated to the brink of war, all that is preventing it from happening is a figure to spearhead the SDF and lead them in the fight against the UNSA.
This is where Infinite Warfare starts. A reconnaissance mission on Jupiter's moon, Europa, shows that the SDF has found that leader in Rear Admiral Salen Kotch, Commander of the Olympus Mons starship.
Kotch and the SDF attack Earth during a celebration of military strength in Geneva, crippling SATO forces and leaving the UNSA almost defenceless. Only two starships managed to escape the attack, one of which, the Retribution, you; Nick Reyes, are the newly appointed Captain of.
From here begins an adventure that sees you hopping from planet to planet in the solar system in an attempt to cripple the SDF's military force by any means necessary, giving the UNSA more time to prepare for a full blown assault on the SDF.
In your time with Infinite Warfare you'll sabotage industrial sites key to the SDF war effort, destroy starships, assassinate key figures of the SDF and participate in epic space battles. The minute to minute gameplay of Infinite Warfare is perhaps the most varied in the entire series, in a single mission you might start with some zero-g combat, using debris of a crashed spaceship as cover and grappling your foes towards you. Then you'll infiltrate an enemy cruiser and do some standard corridor shooter action, but after five minutes you'll encounter a giant mech that needs to be dismembered limb by limb before pulling off a spectacular finishing move by climbing on top of it. Then you'll escape back out of the ship and enter a Jackal starfighter to have a dogfight with various other starfighters and some other larger ships in the fleet before calling it a day and returning back to the Retribution.
You never know what Infinite Warfare is going to throw at you next, and it's startling as to just how sci-fi it actually is. Whilst indoor sections and the few earth based missions to seem like familiar territory for CoD, the surface of other planets are completely new territory for the series.
The story can also be approached in a non-linear fashion by presenting you with a galactic map aboard the Retribution, highlighting the next story mission and a handful of side missions which I highly encourage that you play in order to get the full IW experience. These side missions aren't repetitive either, whilst the end goal of the mission is always the same, the ways you tackle it vary on a mission to mission basis. One particular standout mission involves donning an enemy outfit and performing a stealth infiltration of a starship to poison the commanding officers, whilst another sees you having a dogfight against a fleet of starfighters in close proximity to the sun, where heat radiation plays a factor.
Though IW's singleplayer is wholly original compared to other CoD's, it is clear to see where it has taken 'inspiration' from. Most of the ship designs, character models and some of the environments appear to have been modelled very closely to ones from sci-fi FPS giant Halo. It does seem like a petty thing to hold against the game, but at the same time it is often quite startling as to how closely some things have been designed.
Another kick to the teeth is that even with the side missions, IW struggles to reach the 8 hour mark. If you miss these optional missions I'm sure the game would last little over 5 hours, this is such a huge shame as I genuinely wanted to carry on playing, because I was having a great time...something I haven't had in a CoD game since MW2.
Infinite warfare is a gorgeous looking game, with some of the largest environments in the series history. Each planet looks distinctly different from one another and more than once I found myself just taking a moment to let the majesty of it all settle in. It's even more impressive to consider that this is the first CoD to not have loading screens. Instead regular cutscenes disguise the loading of the next area, but just how smoothly it all transitions, whilst managing to keep up the signature CoD mayhem is certainly commendable.
The voice cast too delivers a very strong performance, bringing Call of Duty characters to life for the first time since Soap & Price (with the exception of Kevin Spacey in Advanced Warfare). The biggest surprise however is that Game of Thrones' Kit Harrington delivers perhaps the weakest performance of the whole game as Salen Kotch. It might be that the character isn't given enough screen time in the game, or that he simply fails to sound like anything other than Jon Snow having a bit of a tantrum.
But that is more than made up for by the genuinely hilarious Ethan, played by Jeffery Nordling, who provides some of the best one liners in the series history. He also puts across a more light hearted view of the situation, a much needed one due to the games startlingly bleak tone.
You never know what Infinite Warfare is going to throw at you next, and it's startling as to just how sci-fi it actually is. Whilst indoor sections and the few earth based missions to seem like familiar territory for CoD, the surface of other planets are completely new territory for the series.
The story can also be approached in a non-linear fashion by presenting you with a galactic map aboard the Retribution, highlighting the next story mission and a handful of side missions which I highly encourage that you play in order to get the full IW experience. These side missions aren't repetitive either, whilst the end goal of the mission is always the same, the ways you tackle it vary on a mission to mission basis. One particular standout mission involves donning an enemy outfit and performing a stealth infiltration of a starship to poison the commanding officers, whilst another sees you having a dogfight against a fleet of starfighters in close proximity to the sun, where heat radiation plays a factor.
Though IW's singleplayer is wholly original compared to other CoD's, it is clear to see where it has taken 'inspiration' from. Most of the ship designs, character models and some of the environments appear to have been modelled very closely to ones from sci-fi FPS giant Halo. It does seem like a petty thing to hold against the game, but at the same time it is often quite startling as to how closely some things have been designed.
Another kick to the teeth is that even with the side missions, IW struggles to reach the 8 hour mark. If you miss these optional missions I'm sure the game would last little over 5 hours, this is such a huge shame as I genuinely wanted to carry on playing, because I was having a great time...something I haven't had in a CoD game since MW2.
Infinite warfare is a gorgeous looking game, with some of the largest environments in the series history. Each planet looks distinctly different from one another and more than once I found myself just taking a moment to let the majesty of it all settle in. It's even more impressive to consider that this is the first CoD to not have loading screens. Instead regular cutscenes disguise the loading of the next area, but just how smoothly it all transitions, whilst managing to keep up the signature CoD mayhem is certainly commendable.
The voice cast too delivers a very strong performance, bringing Call of Duty characters to life for the first time since Soap & Price (with the exception of Kevin Spacey in Advanced Warfare). The biggest surprise however is that Game of Thrones' Kit Harrington delivers perhaps the weakest performance of the whole game as Salen Kotch. It might be that the character isn't given enough screen time in the game, or that he simply fails to sound like anything other than Jon Snow having a bit of a tantrum.
But that is more than made up for by the genuinely hilarious Ethan, played by Jeffery Nordling, who provides some of the best one liners in the series history. He also puts across a more light hearted view of the situation, a much needed one due to the games startlingly bleak tone.
As for multiplayer, because I can't exactly avoid talking about it, as much as I want to. It hasn't changed much from Black Ops III. The only significant changes come in the shuffling around of a few perks and a slight increase in the whole sci-fi tone of it. Beyond that it actually feels more or less identical to last years multiplayer suite. Take that as a good or bad thing, but personally I won't be spending much time at all in Infinite Warfare's multiplayer.
Zombies is also a mode I try to put as much distance between it and myself as I possibly can so unfortunately I won't be covering it in the review. But the general consensus of other reviews is that if you like the previous Zombies modes then you'll probably like the new one, because it's more of the same just with a wacky 80's vibe to it.
Say what you will about Call of Duty, I know I have in the past. It is a series that normally fails to deliver much in the way of change, or memorable moments. But Infinite Warfare, the game that everybody thought was going to be so awful has defied expectations by delivering one of the best CoD campaigns since the original Modern Warfare. With it's ever changing minute to minute gameplay, interesting characters and some truly wow moments, Infinite Warfare will likely go down as one of the best entries in the series.
It's a shame that the multiplayer played it so safe and chose not to take any of the unique gameplay styles that the campaign introduced such as dogfights and zero-g combat. Had that not been the case, we might have seen a CoD game finally come somewhat close to achieving what CoD4 did 9 years ago.
Zombies is also a mode I try to put as much distance between it and myself as I possibly can so unfortunately I won't be covering it in the review. But the general consensus of other reviews is that if you like the previous Zombies modes then you'll probably like the new one, because it's more of the same just with a wacky 80's vibe to it.
Say what you will about Call of Duty, I know I have in the past. It is a series that normally fails to deliver much in the way of change, or memorable moments. But Infinite Warfare, the game that everybody thought was going to be so awful has defied expectations by delivering one of the best CoD campaigns since the original Modern Warfare. With it's ever changing minute to minute gameplay, interesting characters and some truly wow moments, Infinite Warfare will likely go down as one of the best entries in the series.
It's a shame that the multiplayer played it so safe and chose not to take any of the unique gameplay styles that the campaign introduced such as dogfights and zero-g combat. Had that not been the case, we might have seen a CoD game finally come somewhat close to achieving what CoD4 did 9 years ago.
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+Exciting, Well Paced and Unpredictable Campaign
+Relatable (and sometimes funny) Characters +Space Combat +Non-Linear Structure -Copy/Paste Multiplayer -Campaign Is Too Short -Too Visually Similar To Other Sci-Fi Games |
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