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E3 2014: The future soldier in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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Sledgehammer Games have previously been co-developers for Call of Duty games. This year they are responsible for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but can they live up to expectations for the franchise?

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has to revolutionize and evolve the series because fans are demanding it. During E3, we were able to see two levels for the anticipated title.

E3 2014: The future soldier in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

But do we like it?

Soldier of the future

As the title suggests, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is about the future of war and soldiers from a realistic near-future point of view. What is shown is theoretically possible, but all the weapons and upgrades have years of development before becoming common.

The main focus in CoD: Advanced Warfare is that you wear armor and exoskeletons that give you extra abilities. These suits act as both armor and enhancements. This translates into “powers” in the game which are used by the player. Some options are an assisted jump, powerful melee, optical camouflage, or slowing down time depending on the circumstance.

The demo showed two levels of the game. Collapse took place in San Francisco and the other level was called Bio Lab.

Collapse started with an armored vehicle chase where you shot at an escaping van. There weren’t any hints of why you were chasing the van. In typical CoD style, it was visually powerful.

After the cutscene, Sledgehammer showed off the high jump, new weapons, and special grenade. You can also tag enemies in the level to know where they are. The exoskeleton lets you interact more with the environment like kicking objects with your enhanced strength or using pieces as shields. There was also a demo of the skill to slow down time, but there wasn’t any explanation of how it is used in the game.

The end of the level resulted in the destruction of one of the bridges in San Francisco.

Bio Lab started in a jungle and Sledgehammer showed off the camouflage skill. The level also had the standard “follow order” mission where your in-game partner called out orders like “move,” “cross now,” and “fire.”

At certain moments, you activated optical camouflage to blend in around the enemy or perform stealth kills.

Another November release

If you remove the improved graphics, which are better than last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, and the 60 fps, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare doesn’t really impress me. Maybe Sledgehammer is going the easy route and giving fans more of the same in a new, but same wrapper.

Personally, I hope games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are more than graphic evolutions and also improve design and playability. It’s difficult to fully evaluate Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare with a 20 minute demo so we will continue to watch Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in the months up to release.

Follow me on Twitter: @raulprz.

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Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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