Just like the Xbox One version of CoD:AW, the campaign mode for the PlayStation 4 is just as strong. If it hasn’t been re-iterated enough times, this just wasn’t a means to a multiplayer end when it comes to this year’s version of Call of Duty. Sledgehammer truly put some solid effort into the campaign. It’s probably not going to win any Academy Awards for ‘Best Movie Ever’, but it certainly will give Highlander a run for its money.
The story of AW puts us in the future, where a man named Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey) heads a private military corporation named Atlas with a focus on keeping the world out of wars, while maintaining complete military control. As the old saying goes, ‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Our main protagonist is a wounded and rebuilt private Mitchell (Troy Baker), thanks to the efforts of Irons, who looks to stop terrorists from undoing the efforts of Atlas. Of course there is more to the story, but I ain’t tellin’.
One of the things I enjoyed about Call of Duty: Ghosts is the Michael Bay-esque over-the-top sequences that came with it. I loved seeing terrible disasters, like a giant space station collapsing to the earth — raining death and destruction on the world, and I adored getting out of them. That sort of stuff drives emotion and gets you connected, at least on the high-sensation value side of things. What I didn’t care about Ghosts is the Michael Bay-esque story that came with it. It was confusing at times and tended to skip and imply too much as the story pushed from point A to point B. I connected better with Black Ops II than I did with Ghosts, as the story felt more complete and thought out.
To my point, the story with Advanced Warfare is comparable to a high-end 80s action flick (almost at the Die Hard level, though I know I am going to get blasted for that — I did say ‘almost’), and that’s not a knock against it — I like high-end 80s action flicks. Sledgehammer kept it simple and precise when telling the story. They played it safe by not opening up a bajillion plot points they clearly didn’t have time to fill. Sure you get less of the Michael Bay ‘EXPLOSIONS’ that you love seeing in previous CoD titles, but you get more of a competent plot and a story that simply plays smoother. Again, it doesn’t take chances, but it also doesn’t overcomplicate itself. I will take that combination any day of the week if it means solid entertainment.
Of course it doesn’t hurt when you have one of the most talented actors in film leading the way. The best part about Advanced Warfare’s campaign story is that they used their superstar, Kevin Spacey, appropriately. He carries it all and is head and shoulders above the rest of the cast in this game. He doesn’t spout out dumb lines and he brings the intensity when it needs to be brought. Sledgehammer Games and Activision have put him in the forefront of their marketing blitz and the man delivers.
So, how long can you expect this story to last? Seven hours. It’s a typical timeframe for first-person shooter games these days, but the enjoyment factor won’t make it feel like seven hours. When I reviewed Battlefield 4 last year, it felt like a linear chore; same with Ghosts. Advanced Warfare was enjoyable and I will probably revisit it again before the next CoD comes out.
Shifting gears, how did the campaign look and feel. First and foremost, the cutscenes were the best I have seen in a first-person shooter to date — even topping Battlefield 4 from last year. Sledgehammer did a bang up job capturing and converting their actors onto the screen. You see the emotions in their eyes, facial expressions that are quite evident through the animation, all of which add to the story and emotion. When the campaign shifted into actual gameplay, the animation and detail gets toned down a notch or two, but doesn’t stray far away from the cutscene look and feel. You will still see the emotions and movement there, but just not as detailed.
So, here comes the most annoying question of this generation, does this version push a full 1080p? It does, and I’m not down playing the significance of that (don’t want to feel the wrath of the GAF), but at the same time it feels and looks nearly identical to the Xbox One version when you’re into it and playing it. And according to the good folks at Eurogamer/Digital Foundry, the full resolution on the PS4 comes at a frame rate price.
I will say that the PlayStation 4 version of the game looked a bit sharper. There was less crushed black in the the game and more details that you can just sit back and enjoy. For example, there is a female soldier on your team that does some batshit crazy interrogating on a person of interest during the story (nothing too out of line, but still a bit brutal). This scene in particular really stands out from the rest, as you can see the slight peach fuzz on her face and just some nicely lit details and shadowing coming off of her noggin too. It’s enormously gorgeous and the lighting in the cutscene is frightfully good, and more importantly it is proper within the scope of the room laid out.
Having said that, characters are one thing, what about the world they reside in? The environments are crazy-good in this game. You have a large landscape where just a variety of things are going on at one time. For example, the first level puts you in the middle of downtown Seoul, where you see North Korea going up against South Korea. You have detailed buildings everywhere, shit flying in the air all around you and swarms of enemies (drones and actual soldiers) quickly moving around at one time. It’s quite impressive to see in motion. The textures, design and detail are definitely far ahead of last year’s Ghosts title. Maybe Sledgehammer had more time to work with the hardware to get the animation, details and textures the way they wanted because it certainly looks better than any of the first-person shooter games — and it’s certainly one of the better Call of Duty games.
Outside of looks, what can you expect in terms of gameplay? I think they stepped up in gameplay to make it interesting. I know the jump thrust is the first thing on everyone’s mind when it comes to this game and I can tell you two things about it. First, it’s not Titanfall. You don’t have that flexibility and loosey-goosey feel with it. Second, it’s not the jumping that you might have done in a game like Destiny. Having played Destiny for over 100+ hours now (still going), the Destiny side of me wanted to float, shoot and land safely in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. This isn’t what the jump thrust does. Advanced Warfare’s jumping is direct, machine-like and can go wrong if you let it. It fits the world, and story, that Sledgehammer Games built where technology leads the warfare — and sometimes works against you. It’s a cold and calculated thing that gets you out of tough spots and across canyons. It’s not something you will do because you can and because it’s there. So, any idea or assumption of that portion of the gameplay that you may have is more than likely wrong. Keep an opened mind and know that you’ll use it when the time is right. And it is useful in certain situations.
Anyway, the style of the gameplay in Advanced Warfare is fun, but it can get complicated quite easily. Sledgehammer Games assumes that we’re all competent gamers, so they ask a lot of you in the campaign. For example, having two grenades (assigned to L1/R1) with multiple functions (square button) can get confusing in the middle of battle, though it’s quite badass when you get the hang of it. When you hit L1 on the DS4 controller, Mitchell pulls out a grenade that requires you to cycle through (using square) choices such as Threat, EMP and Flash. The EMP will knock out electronics and drones (you’ll use this the most in the campaign mode), the Threat will give you enemy images in a room before you enter it (so you can shoot enemies through walls) and the Flash is just…well…flash. The idea of having a single grenade with multiple functions is brilliant.
On the R1 side of things, the grenade gives you multiple choices as well (like Frag), but the one I used the entire campaign was the Smart option. This grenade can be thrown up in the air, you target your enemy (or thing) with your gun and it flies towards it and delivers an explosion. It’s pretty cool and it’s a great companion to have around in heavy firefights. The method is the same as the other grenade.
The execution of these grenades in the battlefield can be quite difficult at times, if you’re not used to it. The game does its best to get you used to the method of hitting L1/R1 and then hitting square to cycle through.
Other gameplay mechanics include a process called ‘Overdrive’. When you press up on the directional pad, the action will slow down and allow you to take out as many bad guys in slow motion as you can. It’s a neat process and a neat addition to the gameplay, but honestly I never used it more than twice during my entire campaign stint. It can help tame chaotic moments, though.
The directional pad can also be used for drones, healing and a variety of other commands. All of which are useful, but not exactly second nature when you’re not used to hitting these buttons in the heat of battle (it might just be me, though).
Anyway, the controls in AW ask a lot of you and at times it can get tough to deliver. Remembering what grenade you need or do things like scale up onto a building (yeah, you can do that, but only when called upon) can get frustrating at times. The action is quick and demanding and I think I died more times in AW than I have with previous Call of Duty titles because of the controls — although, sometimes it was because of my own stupidity.
Onto some other technical details.
In true Call of Duty style, the game does throw you into particular situations that put you in different vehicle scenarios. You’ve seen these type of things through out the last five or six releases, where there is a mission you have to hop in a tank/plane/whatever and take out bad guys just to add some spice and variety to it all. Advanced Warfare does a great job with properly implementing these scenarios into the story where they belong. It never just does things to do them; it’s methodical about the experiences in relation to the story. For example, there is a level where you’re asked to take out a high profile terrorist. Mitchell starts out invading the enemy’s stronghold in a particular city and then goes into drone mode to take the head terrorist out, while he is having a meeting with investors. After taking said terrorist out, and realizing that isn’t the actual terrorist, the drone mode breaks away into a first-person chase experience that gets lengthy — all of this in one single mission. How Sledgehammer implemented the drone into the story is quite good. It fits within the believable confines of the story presented, plus it adds value to the emotional attachment you feel in this particular situation. You will think the drone needs to kill this guy and help out the Atlas team while they invade from the outside. When everything goes to shit, you will feel like the drone is done and pursuing the enemy on foot is the correct transition.
In short, everything non-FPS they do is done with a purpose. I like that and it doesn’t make the campaign experience cheap. It kind of makes it cool again.
So what about the linear gameplay? Well, going from point A to point B is still very much intact in the campaign mode. There really isn’t any good way to break that mold in Call of Duty, as the story depends on your linear progression to continue. Now, how you get from point A to point B is enormously flexible in Advanced Warfare. For example, going back to the first level in Korea, there is a point in the gameplay where you have to push your way through the streets and past some heavy armor from North Korean troops. The game allows you to break off from your forward pattern and find a different route to complete this task. You’re asked to follow your team leader Cormack (Russell Richardson — talented guy), but you can chose to break into a restaurant, go up three flights of stairs, take out the enemy from a high point and then jump through a window back to the ground, if you want. I’m not sure I’ve seen that much map freedom in the campaign mode of Call of Duty ever. There are plenty of different levels that allow you to do this, though some are restrictive in their path. I don’t want to give away too much, so I’m withholding examples, but just know that if you think you can make it to a certain point using a certain path, more than likely you’re right and should try it.
Advanced Warfare brings odd freedom to the campaign mode of a CoD game and that makes it impressive.
What isn’t impressive, at least half the time, is the lack of good enemy artificial intelligence. While there are some moments where the enemies detect they are in trouble and jump or run to get out of the line of fire, there is still patterned peeking around the corner to catch a bullet in the noggin’ deaths for those poor folks. You won’t have a problem with how you kill the enemies in the game, but the amount that are thrown at you is where you might come up short a few times. So, expect more of the same intelligence from the enemy minions that you’re used to seeing in CoD titles.
Having said that, the variety of enemies is actually quite nice. You’re going to run into some massive EXO-suit wearing a-holes in this game that are hard to bring down. You’ll run into tanks, drones (lots of them), snipers, vehicles and sometimes seemingly impossible obstacles that will make you stumble on your way to completing the story. There is plenty of variety with the enemies, at least for a first-person shooter, that you’ll be satisfied. You will notice repeating, but I’m sure you expect that by now.
Before I close out the campaign side of the review, we should talk about the replay value of it. Typically, once you’re through the campaign in a Call of Duty or Battlefield title, you’re done with it. You unlock ‘whatever’ and you might return to it 1-2 times again — might. Sledgehammer Games adds some incentive to replay missions and do better with an upgrade system between levels. You’re given EXO challenges/goals to meet during the game. This is broken down into kills, headshot kills, grenade kills and intel collection. If you meet the goals (or come close), you are rewarded with upgrade points. You can use these points to upgrade campaign character attributes such as bullet deflection, armor, sprinting, making your grenades more lethal, improving weapon recoil and/or weapon reloading (these are a few attribute examples, there are more). Each time you fully upgrade your character in a particular category, you get a supply drop. You have a total of 22 upgrades in the campaign mode, which can help make private Mitchell’s life easier in the story. I completed 16 of the upgrades before completing the campaign. In addition to the upgrades, you also have the opportunity to collect intel during missions (you’ll find laptops laying around that you collect intel from). There are 45 pieces of intel to collect during the campaign mode, but sadly I only collected five pieces during my session. This does further prove that exploration is encouraged. In the end, all of this may not be a huge leap for gaming in general, but these things are a good way to keep the campaign mode of a Call of Duty title from becoming one-dimensional. Credit Sledgehammer Games for making a traditionally ‘once-through’ mode more replayable.
While not perfect in everything, I am happy to report that the campaign mode of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is interesting and fun. It certainly has its hiccups here and there, but you can tell that Sledgehammer Games put some real effort into the experience.
Now, shall we talk multiplayer?
Let’s not beat around the bush. The multiplayer experience has been the main focus of console first-person shooter games for at least the last five Call of Duty titles. Typically, people play the campaign to prepare themselves for the MP experience. While it is my belief and feeling that this has changed with Advanced Warfare a bit, making room for an entertaining and well-written story, there appears to be a heavy amount of effort and time lent to the MP side of Advanced Warfare. So, while some things change, they stay the same.
I’m okay with that, as I think Sledgehammer brought the two worlds closer together, at least more than a lot of CoD titles.
Anyway, you don’t want to read that ramble as much as you want to know what the hell is going on with the MP side of AW. Let’s dip right into it.
The MP gameplay in Advanced Warfare is pretty damn fast. That is one of the first things you will notice about it when you jump right in. The difference maker in this is the jump thrust. The way it works will get you around the maps quick, out of sticky situations and allow you to be creative when it comes to killing enemies. It’s an enormous difference maker on the multiplayer side of the game. It affects the way you move around maps, presents you with different strategic methods of getting matches completed and is just damn fun. This is a huge improvement for the MP experience and one that stands out in the game.
Outside of the jump thrust, the mechanics you know and love from other Call of Duty titles is very much intact. There isn’t much adjustment to the gameplay on the MP side other than the jump thrust.
Things that have been adjusted in the game start with the equipment/weapons and leveling. The equipment is as vast as it usually is for this type of game. You have the same type of gun categories, the same type of add-ons you can make for your primary and secondary weapons, and pretty much the same perk and weapon upgrades you’ve seen in titles like Ghosts and Black Ops II. When I say that I mean the same type of structure — not actual items. It will be familiar to you. You should expect a primary/secondary firearm, three wildcard spots, three perks and three scorestreaks. Having said that, there are two new spots for this edition of Call of Duty, which are the EXO Ability and the EXO launcher.
The EXO Ability category contains different types of EXO suits. The EXO suits are of particular interest (trust me on this), as they can determine how good or bad you are depending on what you choose to loadout before the match starts. Think carefully when choosing those because you can really dominate, if you choose the right one. For example, when we were at the Call of Duty review event for the Xbox One review, I had a fella from another review site decide to choose the EXO suit that provides a shield for players. He mixed that with an actual shield in his arsenal and wielded dual shields. He was incredibly tough to stop — and hilarious. Anyway, EXO suits will help you out and they are a neat addition to the loadout.
On the EXO Launcher side of things, it comes with a launcher attached to the right arm. You have frags, stun grenades, Semtex and even drones that are unlockable for the launcher. It’s a helluva cool addition, as it replaces the traditional grenade-arch-throw method of dispatching enemies. It’s a more direct method of firing grenades (and other things) via crosshairs. You simply point your arm, target and launch. It’s quick and effective and in some respects just a better choice for dispatching enemies from afar. With that said, it also takes some getting use to when firing on the run. There are dozens of doorways on the maps below that have felt the wrath of my Semtex. It’s a nice rush when you do attach one to someone or beside someone.
As for the weapons…a shitload of them. As you level up in the game, you’ll find more elite weapons at your disposal, such as the hand gun called the Huckleberry. Midway through my play during the MP session, I obtained an assault rifle called the Cowboy. This sucker pretty much stayed with me for a good 15-20 levels. It was powerful, precise and it didn’t have much kick to it. Through out the MP experience you will run into plenty of unlock able weapons like this and quite a few that are locked and waiting for you to level up. Sledgehammer Games keeps it interesting and makes sure that you have weapon choices to make. I stopped my MP session at level 32 and didn’t feel bored once with weapon choices.
Speaking of leveling, the leveling does happen fast and furious. It took me seven hours of gameplay to get to level 32. Keep in mind that it was a constant amount games. When you hit around level 25, the leveling starts to arch a bit and you aren’t leveling as frequently as you previously were (and that’s how it should be). To alleviate that arch, Sledgehammer has implemented the ability to sell off weapons for experience points. This is something that helps out stagnant gameplay and leveling. Having played this series every freaking year, it was a welcomed option because I certainly don’t like particular classes and never use particular classes on a regular basis. Therefore, when I gain a sniper rifle that is pretty powerful, I can now sell it off to bump up my XP. That sell equals out to more experience, which means leveling isn’t a chore. Again, this is very welcomed addition to the game and something that the series should have thought of prior to this release.
Related to leveling is a small medal system in the game. As you play through levels, you’ll have moments where you obtain medals by doing small tasks. For example, if you end up shooting someone while they’re in mid-jump thrust, you will receive a medal called ’Skeet Shootin’’, which is hilarious. Should you capture a flag while under heavy fire you will receive a medal called ‘Playmaker’. Each of these little medals adds up to points, which adds up to more leveling.
Also related to leveling is getting supply drop rewards for doing well in matches. Customization is a huge part of the CoD family (at least in the last few years or so), so when you do well in the game it rewards you with supply drops, clothing and whatnot. The supply drops could be weapons, items to be used for the next round or just clothing, gloves or helmets. You can customize your soldier with these items and create a fun and unique look. You get them all the time and the items are pretty darn impressive. Are they completely necessary to surviving in the game? No, but it’s additional dumb fun that gives a bit more spice to the overall meal.
The folks at Sledgehammer Games certainly didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with leveling, perks, weapons and whatnot, but they gave enough variety and change in Advanced Warfare to keep things interesting. It didn’t feel like the same, even though the majority of it was the same in structure. I’ll take that any day of the week for a Call of Duty title.
Now, let’s talk about some maps.
They deliver the maps. You get 13 maps on the AW disc, with one additional map, if you buy the DLC in particular Call of Duty packages. Anyway, here is what you should expect in terms of locations:
Ascend — I am a huge fan of Ascend, as you’re put into a large, round building that looks like something that manufactures quite a few weapons. Circular in design and multi-level, so there are plenty of places to jump and hide when you need to. There are quite a few spots in Ascend where you can jump on top of structures and blow the hell out unsuspecting players.
Biolab — I think I enjoyed this one more on co-op than I did with PvP. It’s a flat, snowy map that sprawls out a bit. Lots of windows to shoot through and plenty of places to be out in the open. Out of all the maps, this one just seems a bit bland.
Defender — A base that is located under the Golden Gate bridge that is small and compact, and insane when you’re trying to play space capturing matches. When you do get those matches, remember to equip Semtex grenades. You’ll thank me later. What’s cool about this level is that you’re always in danger from a tsunami…because why not. It’s a small, condensed area with just a few multi-levels to jump to and from.
Solar — This is a confusing map that has a small pool of water in the middle. It’s mainly built with a series of large piping that runs into thin, jumpable ledges. You can get lost easily in this map because everything looks the same. It’s a great map for Capture the Flag, though. Not much else beyond that.
Recovery — Why not build a base around an active volcano, right? You are on a Hawaiian-like setting that is pretty flat and expansive, though there are a few buildings you’ll never go in, located in the middle (you can go in them, but most likely you won’t), because they’re too open for fire. It’s a good map and it’s pretty much useful for all match types, but it’s nothing particularly special in terms of fun. It works, but just not terribly exciting when compared to the other maps.
Retreat — Definitely in my top three. This is a huge map that has three hotel/buildings in the middle, with smaller structures on the outside. The outside of the map dips down, which allows for you to run around without much detection (dependent on a lot of things). It’s a gorgeous looking map that works well with games like Uplink. I would have loved to play hardpoint on this one.
Comeback — This map is neat and reminds me of a few maps in Black Ops II. You are put into a third world city, battling through large buildings and small structures. It has open streets that rooftop sniping can have a field day with, if you’re a good sniper. It’s fast moving and very contained.
Riot — There’s nothing quite like a nice prison scenario to get the blood going. This is one of my favorite levels because it pretty much works well with every type of match play. It’s a huge prison that has a two-story cell block in the middle. Around it it has gates to jump over and through, small structures on the edges and a basketball court at the end. It’s a beautifully built map that works well.
Detroit — “Send him to Detroit!” This is largely a bunch of rectangular shapes put together with flat, open areas inside of buildings. It’s a quick map that offers up a variety of different ways to take out your enemies and a variety of different paths to run through to get away from them. This works well for things like Team Deathmatch, but not so much with Capture the Flag. For supply drops, choose the rail guns. You’ll thank me later.
Terrace — This is the outside of some resort, possibly a hotel, where you have multiple small buildings stacked up on each other. It’s a really neat place to play pretty much any of the AW modes and it bodes very well for your jump thrust. Probably in my top five.
Instinct — Instinct is a map that is set in the jungle around a Mayan-esque structure. The depth of the map is pretty impressive, but for the most part it’s a very open map. This means there is a lot of killing to be done. There aren’t a lot of places to hide and it works really well (and very poorly) for some of the game types. There is a structure in the middle that you can jump on for a 360 view of the map. Other than that, it has an oval shape perimeter.
Horizon — This is an airport hanger with a floating jet in the middle (because why not) and smaller structures inside and outside the perimeter of the map. This is a cool structure that is second place on the entertainment scale of maps for Advanced Warfare. It has a lot of nooks and crannies to hide in and is balls-to-the-wall when it comes to matches like Hardpoint. It’s huge, folks.
Sledgehammer did a good job with building maps for their match types. Some of them didn’t work well, but the majority of them were spot on. I can’t tell you how effective the jump thrust was for making these maps more interesting. It really does speed up the use of every map and how it works. You will enjoy hopping around quite a bit on these suckers.
Now, maps aside, let’s talk about what you’re going to play in them. Here is a complete list of modes offered on the CoD:AW version we tried out:
Team Deathmatch — It is what you would expect it to be, but just in case this is your entry point into the series, it’s one team versus the other. The majority of the maps are very conducive to TD gameplay, so you won’t miss a beat with this one.
Domination — Who doesn’t like domination? Good stuff and works well with this edition of CoD.
Kill Confirmed — A fan favorite and one that works very well with the multi-tiered terrain you’ll be running on in Advanced Warfare. The point of this game is to collect as many dog tags from fallen enemies, 65 being the cap.
Uplink — This is a new one for me. Your team picks up a small satellite and delivers it to the enemy’s base on the other side of whatever map you’re playing. What’s cool about this game is that the satellite is basically a ball that you can toss at the enemies, toss to a friend or just toss. It’s a pretty intense mode of play, especially if you’re on a small map. It works best on huge maps that require the gamers to make a long run.
Momentum — It’s tug of war meets capture the flag. You capture the flags at particular points on a map in attempts to having more captures than your enemy. The catch is that if the enemy team captures a flag, it takes a flag capture away from you. It’s neat, but it only works with large environments. Otherwise you will sit on a small map tugging on one flag…as dirty as that sounds. I played this on Defender and had a Semtex-fest.
Hardpoint — Yep, it’s still here. You basically occupy and defend a designated portion of a map that constantly switches places. It’s cool, it’s fun and it works really well on pretty much any map. The map with the airplane hanger was the most fun with this game type.
Search and Destroy — This is a single elimination match that asks you to plant a bomb at a designated area, while the other team has to defuse it. Whoever sets it off or whichever team is the last standing wins the match. I’m okay with this one, felt like it was a bit one-dimensional. I’ve never been a huge fan of Search and Destroy.
Search and Rescue — This is a fun one. Enjoy this one, folks.
Capture the Flag — This is an oldie, but a goodie. You capture the other team’s flag and deliver it back to your base. Pretty easy stuff, well the concept at least.
Free-for-all — This is exactly what you think it is. Everyone against everyone. It’s entertaining and it allows for most of the maps to stretch their legs.
Infected — I didn’t like this one last year, still don’t this year. The mode starts with one person against a team. Each person the single individual kills becomes an infected soldier as well. Either the infected win or the people survive. It’s a bit slow and uneventful.
Not everything is going to please everyone. Hell, I downright disliked one of these modes, but AW brings previous match types with it and adds a few new ones. The new ones, especially Uplink, are solid. There is enough variety here to suit everyone’s taste in the PvP experience.
Shall we talk co-op? We shall.
I love team-based multiplayer, but for my money (and my old school PC side from decades ago) a good co-op mode goes a long way. Mostly what people remember of Call of Duty when it comes to co-op is zombies. While that was Treyarch’s baby, and a cool baby at that, Sledgehammer Games put together a more mature and potentially more settled version of just that game. Instead of having an outlandish theme of the walking dead coming to get you, Sledgehammer chose to go with something that suited the game it created — a co-op game based on the maps it built and the enemies it built for them.
Co-op basically works the same way, though. You are put on a map and asked to survive round to round, while keeping an eye on you teammates in the process. Should one of your teammates fall to an enemy, you can revive them or wait until the next round (though, you run the risk of dying because you have less guns at your side). The dying person has a chance to help out the cause while bleeding out, by popping a few caps in enemies in hopes of clearing enough space to get revived. Again, everything you’ve seen before in previous co-op.
Sledgehammer Games added some dimension to co-op, though. Instead of simply waiting to kill enemies rushing you, you get things like an ‘objective round’, which asks you to complete extra goals, while still killing enemies. For example, there is a mission where you must collect dog tags laying around the map, 20 in total, before a certain amount of time runs out. Completing these objectives reaps you rewards, such as care packages. Not completing the objectives results in punishments, such as enemies throwing smoke grenades to cloak their presence, while bringing dogs, all of which make your life a living hell in any round. The objectives do vary. You have objectives that ask you to defuse bombs and/or collect intel from fallen enemies (hint: let the enemies get close before you kill them). It spices up the CoD idea of co-op, while still maintaining that core value of teamwork. It also makes it feel less like the Night of the Living Dead.
As you go through the rounds, you also earn upgrade points. These points can be used to upgrade weapons, upgrade weapon proficiency and armor, and/or upgrade EXO-suit attributes. Keeping the upgrades going and making sure you are where you need to be in terms of leveling is vital to survive in the game. As the rounds progress, the enemies do get harder to kill, so they level up with you or without you. It’s tough to kill something in round 18, if you only leveled up your weapon proficiency to two.
Co-op is a blast. There wasn’t a moment where the boredom crept in, and I can’t say that for past Call of Duty co-op games. The maps featured in co-op range from flat sprawling maps, tightly built maps (like the Detroit) and multi-tiered maps that allow you to use the jump thrust quite easily. There was plenty of layout variety that kept the co-op engaging.
You can probably tell at this point that the game is damn fun. You’ve got a bit of everything that you’re supposed to have with a Call of Duty title. An entertaining campaign mode, a fast/furious MP experience and a co-op mode that does everything you’re used to doing with a bit of a change to keep it different from previous iterations. Kudos to Sledgehammer Games for doing a great job with their title. Hope they are offered more chances to produce the series.