“Well written story in the campaign, might be the best story in Call of Duty series”
Name: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Release Date: 4.November 2016
Developer: Infinity Ward, Raven
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on: PS4
Another year, another Call of Duty game. What can they possible do to please the fanbase and gain our money? – By bringing the fight to space!
I’m very sceptic the direction this franchise are taking, and i’m not the only one as the reveal trailer for Infinite Warfare got on the most hated videos on YouTube.
But let us try to have an open mind and dig in on what Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare can deliver to us.
STORY
Infinite Warfare’s campaign starts off with classic sci-fi story, as Earth’s resources are getting low, pushing the humanity to colonize in other worlds. And the story won’t be so interesting without an enemy, led by Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) a new faction rises: Settlement Defence Front. There will be no aliens in the game, just humanized robots.
There is a few big names in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Kit Harrington known as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, Conor McGregor the UFC fighter and David Hasselhoff in the zombie mode. But unfortunately these names are not so much included in the story as we hoped. The narrative itself is a bit thin, and Kit Harington’s face does sometimes pop up in a small HUD video screaming at you. This happens more often than being intimidating presence.
You play as the protagonist Nick Reyes, a lieutenant who undergoes a trial by fire when suddenly being promoted command of his own ship. Reyes has to face different events that can reveal him as a vulnerable leader. The story itself isn’t a huge storyline in hours of gameplay, you will probably use around 5-7 hours to complete the story. But the short story that Infinite Warfare got isn’t bad written by the writers. They have managed to create meaningful characters with depth.
You got Nora Salter, Reye’s ally who up until recently was the same rank as him, Audrey MaCallum, an ex captain and more. Each and every character in the story got backstories or other stories to tell you, I felt that I got connected to each and every one.
The biggest “leap” in the story is the sci-fi part, there aren’t any aliens in the story, but robots. The one who stands most out is ETH3N, or Ethan as they call him. A robotic naval petty officer who takes commands from Reyes. Best part is that this robot got it’s own personality. One good example of this is when he jokes about having a farmers brain and makes light of the rivalry between the Navy and Marines. And he does not sound as an robot, but more “normal human”
Even though the story is short, it might be one of the best campaign in Call of Duty’s history since Modern Warfare series.. Good writing, excellent voice acting and thrilling action as a few factors.
I would recommend players to go through the campaign before heading out for the multiplayer, will get back to that later in this review.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The graphics are much more than I’ve expected earlier. From being hated on because the trailers looked “old schooled” and so on. But that is not the case here, the graphics are pretty good here, especially in the campaign mode. The effects and looks on the water for example when ships crash in it, it’s mind blowing. The “Jackals” as they call their ships, are not very good designed, but everything else is pretty amazing.
But that is in the story mode, when it comes to multiplayer and zombie mode things are different.
You can immediately see that Infinity Ward has had focus on campaign and not the rest. Graphics and design are pushed forward and lacks the most important thing, “creativity”.
MULTIPLAYER
With Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare story mode might be one of the best in the franchise since Modern Warfare, comes the multiplayer. The one part that actually matters for the Call of Duty community. What has happen to the multiplayer?
Maps are bad designed, weapons are not balanced, matchmaking is at it’s worst. It feels like the whole multiplayer has been putted in the game because they wanted a multiplayer. Infinite Warfare are not as fluid in gameplay as Black Ops 3, the game move much slower than used to.
As in Black Ops 3 we use the 10 point system to create classes, and instead of choosing special ability character we can choose different RIGS. The concept is there but the RIGS system can’t quite reach what Black Ops 3 did.
To bring something positive out from my multiplayer experience, first time you log into multiplayer you will get an “motivation” video. I thought this was very cool and needed to point out. Overall my experience in matches could have been better if the game was better balanced, same goes with weapon balance.
One big issue I have with Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer is the “care packages” you can buy with ingame coins to get skins and weapons. Yes I said weapons. You can now get weapons by opening care packages, so instead of playing for weeks to just earn that one special weapon, can you now pay for it with real money.
Pay real money to get ingame coins, and there again buy lots of care packages to open up, earning random skins and weapons. This is a big game changer i Call of Duty, Pay2Win as we call it.
ZOMBIE MODE
Treyarch’s success with zombie mode has infected the rest, and now Infinity Ward has joined in with Zombies in Spaceland.
If you buy Call of Duty every year just because of the zombie mode, you might be disappointed this year. Zombies in Spaceland is very basic in its fundamentals challenge. In another hand, if you are a newcomer to the zombie mode, than Zombies in Infinite Warfare would be the best place to start off nowadays if you want to keep up on the challenges in previous games. (To get the best experience I would recommend playing zombie mode in COD: World at War)
The map design in Zombies in Spaceland are kinda “boring fun”, kaotic paths to run, randomly placed doors, perks and weapons are one of the few bad things. But the theme is 80’s theme park, including are Rollercoasters, slides and David Hasselhoff DJing. You can use different rides as traps, and just keep on killing zombies until you die. One big positive thing about this mode is when you die, it is not boring to die. Earlier you had to watch and wait until the round was over or everybody dies. But now you spawn in an arcade room, while the others fights the undead you can play skee ball, throw basketball, play some old school arcade games for instance Pitfall 2.
THE VERDICT
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare comes with a lot of content, and it surprise me a lot in a good way.
Graphics are gorgeous in the story mode, same goes with the story itself and voice acting.
This years Call of Duty could have been one of the best in the franchise in a long time, so it is a shame that the multiplayer is at it’s worst right now. I would actually play Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer instead, and that says alot.
Zombie mode are not the best made zombie mode that we are used to, but it isn’t boring.
Strong campaign mode, okay zombie mode and destroyed multiplayer in this years Call of Duty.
4/10
+ Excellent written story in campaign
+ Voice acting
+ Looks gorgeous
– Worst multiplayer in Call of Duty
– Zombie mode could used some more work with map design
– Pay to win in multiplayer
