'Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare' Multiplayer Review
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer mode is the best in years, drawing inspiration from the multiplayer found in Black Ops II and expanding upon that in important ways.
The big, obvious changes all hinge on Sledgehammer’s introduction of the Exo-suit, a futuristic, high-tech kit that gives your soldier super abilities. This changes the game in fundamental ways while still, somehow, retaining the Call of Dutyfeel. It’s at once a very different game and very much the same—a remarkable achievement.
Call of Duty is a series that changes in small ways from one year to the next, iterating and evolving without reinventing the wheel. That makes sense when you consider how well the game sells each year. You don’t want to mess with a winning formula.
Still, each year the game changes and multiplayer in particular has evolved year over year. Last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was something of a letdown after the excellent MP of Black Ops II, which introduced the Pick 10 system allowing players to mix and match their gear and perks utilizing up to ten slots.
Customize
Advanced Warfare wipes the slate clean after Ghosts, and takes its cues directly from Black Ops II, introducing a Pick 13 system instead of Pick 10. This means three more slots for your loadout, which is a good thing since now you have your Exo abilities to consider, as well as customizable scorestreaks. You can even add a fourth scorestreak, or make them cooperative instead of solo. The options here are mind-boggling.
And you can test out your loadout in a new virtual firing range, which is a nice little addition.
Customization is key. Players can outfit their soldiers with all sorts of new outfit options just to give your avatar a unique look (and then show off that look in the Virtual Lobby.) As an RPG fanatic this ticks off all the right boxes for me. Lots of choices for loadout, lots of choices for how you dress up your character, lots of unlocks to grind through. The feedback loop is strong with this one.
As you rank up and earn medals and unlock gear, you also get rewarded by Supply Drops—loot crates essentially, filled with some random items which you will eagerly open up like a kid on Christmas morning. Some of these are special weapons. Some are just cool outfit stuff for your character. There are different tiers of rarity for items also, meaning sometimes you’ll get something really cool and rare. Did I mention how strong the feedback loop is in this game?
Exoskeleton
The new Exo-suit is the big game-changer, though. The suit gives you the power to boost jump, allowing you to double jump to new heights. This adds a layer of verticality to the game not present in past titles. This is probably the biggest single change to the multiplayer. You don’t just have to worry about enemies coming around corners or waiting for you on a rooftop or high window, now they can be anywhere.
The added boost dash and dodge abilities mean that players can dodge in and out of cover or zip forward in midair, giving the entire experience an even faster, twitchier feel. There’s also a boost slam that allows you to melee smash from above. There are other abilities, as well, including Exo Ping which allows you to see enemies through walls, Exo Cloak which temporarily makes you invisible, and more.
It’s all very new and yet it all feels very much like the Call of Duty we’ve come to know. Multiplayer is familiar and fresh all at once. It’s fast and frenetic and fun—just really, really fun even for a lesser-skilled player like myself. (Honestly, I can’t keep up with hardcore CoD players. I play dozens of games each year. I don’t have the time to hone my skills the way some of these people do. But I enjoy trying.)
People compare the game to Titanfall, and it is similar in a sense. But you don’t have the parkour of Titanfall, nor do you have the mechs. There are no weak bots adding bodies to the maps. And maps themselves are generally more compact than what you find in Titanfall, which needed oversized maps to accommodate its oversized Titans.
Ultimately, whether you like one or the other better comes down to taste. I like the immediacy of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It’s just more my style than Titanfall or Destiny or really any other major first-person shooter outside of the all time great Counter-Strike.
Maps
The game ships with 13 maps. Additional maps will become available with DLC down the road. Here they are:
- Ascend
- Bio Lab
- Comeback
- Defender
- Detroit
- Greenband
- Horizon
- Instinct
- Recovery
- Retreat
- Riot
- Solar
- Terrace
Something Old, Something New
Advanced Warfare handles really well, too. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but the game just feels tight all around. Maps are laid out perfectly for the game’s expanded mobility. Guns are solid and responsive. Even the introduction of energy weapons doesn’t change the trademark feel of the MP experience. I’m usually the type who moans and groans about console shooters, but I barely even missed my mouse and keyboard playing MP on my PS4.
All told, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has tight, responsive controls, terrific maps, and tons of different modes to sink your teeth into (though I tend to stick to Death Match and Domination and a sprinkling of others. Uplink is a lot of fun.) It looks fantastic on PS4. And it feels like a real rejuvenation of the series, filled with energy that you can almost feel radiating from the other players, too.
Lag
All of these very good things are being impacted to some degree by lag issues. The peer-to-peer servers used for the game mean that gamers with a poor internet connection need to be accounted for—which, in turn, leads to a lag compensation mechanic that can really distort who kills who at times.
Honestly, I haven’t encountered too many problems with lag or lag compensation, but it has happened. Some players seem to be experiencing it a lot; others not so much. This is week one, however, and I suspect that the issue will be resolved. I’ve reached out to Activision for comment and will update accordingly.
For some people, this issue may be a turn-off. I’ve seen it described as “crippling” and reddit is flooded with lag posts at the moment. (On second thought, let’s not go to reddit, it’s a silly place.)
For my part, it hasn’t been a big deal, and certainly not enough of an issue to make me stop playing. (I’m much more likely to rage quit, regardless.)
In Conclusion
All told, lag issues aside, this is a terrific multiplayer experience. If you’re worried about lag issues, I suspect updates and slightly less over-worked servers following launch week will clear things up nicely. Maybe wait a little bit and pick up a copy when things have cooled down a bit.
Ultimately, though, Sledgehammer has achieved exactly what the franchise needed: A reboot, essentially, without actually messing with the formula. It’s new and fun and fast as hell, but it still plays just like Call of Duty. Source
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