Advanced Warfare Thoughts & Discussion

[Parker]

So the new Call of Duty has been out for a few days and I feel like I've put enough game time in to post my first thoughts and impressions. Hopefully some fellow PSNP members bought the game too and we can both discuss as well as play online together. 

 

First things first, the campaign. Personally, I really enjoyed the single player portion of the game. The cinematics looked absolutely amazing, the facial movements and features are some of the best I've ever seen in any game. The game itself looks pretty damn good as well, especially for an engine as old as the CoD engine. I've seen some people describe the game's graphics as "garbage" or "trash" and I have to wonder if they're looking at the same game I am. Sure it isn't the best looking game in the world, but it is far, far away from being a bad looking game, in my opinion. 

 

The first mission in the campaign is fairly standard and boring, but after that it gets a lot more interesting. I originally thought having Kevin Spacey in the game would be a little gimmicky and stupid but I definitely changed my mind after completing the campaign. His character is still pretty stereotypical and he won't really surprise you, but he delivers a fantastic performance and the cutscenes are a joy to watch when he is in them.  Aside from that, the campaign is fairly standard CoD, lots of action and great shooting sequences that are great to play through. My only real complaint is the length, it only took me 5-6 hours to complete it on regular difficulty, which is unfortunately fairly standard for most FPS games these days. 

 

Now, for the meat and potatoes of the game, multiplayer. I am level 22 as I type this and so far I am really enjoying it. The game is very fast paced, the Exo mechanics are a joy to use and make moving around the maps a breeze. The maps themselves are very fun as well, there is a lot of verticality to them so it makes predicting enemy movements a lot more difficult than previous games in the series. My only real complaint so far is connection and lag comp. I have a pretty good internet connection, 50mb/s download and 20mb/s or so upload (I am wired as well) so it is more than enough to play games online. However, for some reason I have been getting a lot of 2 and 3 bar games or spikes while playing AW. There have also been plenty of times where I start shooting before my enemy and he still kills me, but the kill cam doesn't even show me shooting. It isn't a deal breaker as it doesn't happen all the time (or even a majority of the time) but when it does happen it is rather annoying. Aside from that, the shooting is very fun and arcadey like a CoD game should be.

 

One of the most fun parts of CoD is creating your own class, complete with perks and weapon attachments, that you use online. What are some of my fellow PSNP members favorite classes? 

 

I've always been an Assault Rifle kind of guy in CoD and since Assault Rifles in AW are probably the best weapons to use, I'm right at home. Here is my favorite class so far. 

 

Primary Weapon: Bal-27

Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Foregrip

Secondary Weapon: Combat Knife

Perk Category 1: Low Profile

Perk Category 2: Blind Eye

Perk Category 3: Toughness, Blast Suppressor 

Exo Ability: Exo Stim

Exo Launcher: Frag

Wildcard: Perk 3 Greed

 

I will probably make some changes to this (I want a suppressor, for starters) but so far I have really been enjoying this class. I'm not a great player by any stretch of the imagination but I suppose I am a little better than average and I have had quite a few great games using this class. Hopefully when I tweak it a bit it becomes even better. 

 

So, what do you guys think about the game?

 

 

Parker

 

[BAZINGA0802]

This:

 

This is basically my thoughts on this game, a step in the right direction, but still has the marks of a generic cod fps. Where some of the graphics aren't always correct, windows are indestructible unless you're meant to hit them , and there is always a slow motion breach through a door, a part when you think you're dead and you're not and always an evil terrorrist-like person trying to kill everyone. But, like I said, a step in the right direction. (I have a feeling Sledgehammer were a good addition to CoD)

Edited November 9, 2014 by BAZINGA0802

[Saltyie]

I like it more than any other CoD, even 4 (many view 4 with rose-tinted glasses).

 

Single Player 

The first half of the story is great, I love the Traffic jumping mission, and also the 'Manhunt' mission, but towards the end of the game it becomes classic CoD "Americuh fuk yeh". I thought the Private Military thing was pretty interesting, but it throws the whole "We're better than any countries' military" idea out the window once Atlas are supposedly "backed into a corner" by America at the end. The characters like Gideon and Illona were alright, but were pretty standard supporting characters in a call of duty game, but I didn't like how they all became the action heroes at the end because the entire American military couldn't fight. I mean, how hard would it have been to remove their DNA from the Atlas database? It's personal preference I guess, but I liked how in the early game you felt part of something bigger, not commander universe.

 

Kevin Spacey had a great character, but it honestly felt like Activision Brass rolled up to Sledgehammer games and was like "We can't market a PMC, make him evil", Kevin randomly ditches his ideology of having the Power at the end of the game, and becomes nothing more than a psychotic standard villian that doesn't care about anything but killing America. The game feels cut short at the end, we play one mission of Atlas attacking America, destroying the bridge, and failing to capture a boat. Now they're suddenly backed into a corner and we fly straight to their headquarters?    

 

Despite my complaints, I still thought the story was good and the gameplay in the missions was great and varied. Multiplayer is hit or miss for me, I just can't get into it, I prefer more slower paced online modes like The Last Of Us', I don't like how 99% of the time it's whoever sees eachother first wins (Not in CQC, but I get most of my kills by shooting people sprinting around that don't get a chance to fight back). That said it's still cool, and the customisation is pretty fun, I won some ultra-rare terrorist trousers in a supply drop.  

 

Exo Survival is great fun too, but after round 25 it gets a bit too easy. Enemies don't get that much better, and by wave 40 you have fully upgraded stats, and it doesn't really pose a challenge anymore.

 

Overall I'd give it a 8 or 9/10. I think I wrote too much about the negatives above, but I always end up doing that when talking about games

Edited November 9, 2014 by Saltyie

[Parker]

I have thoughts about this, but they are pretty much all mentioned in one of my favourite youtuber's video. Am I allowed to link it?

 

Sure, I'd like to be able to read your own personal thoughts as well though. 

 

I like it more than any other CoD, even 4 (many view 4 with rose-tinted glasses).

 

Single Player 

The first half of the story is great, I love the Traffic jumping mission, and also the 'Manhunt' mission, but towards the end of the game it becomes classic CoD "Americuh fuk yeh". I thought the Private Military thing was pretty interesting, but it throws the whole "We're better than any countries' military" idea out the window once Atlas are supposedly "backed into a corner" by America at the end. The characters like Gideon and Illona were alright, but were pretty standard supporting characters in a call of duty game, but I didn't like how they all became the action heroes at the end because the entire American military couldn't fight. I mean, how hard would it have been to remove their DNA from the Atlas database? It's personal preference I guess, but I liked how in the early game you felt part of something bigger, not commander universe.

 

Kevin Spacey had a great character, but it honestly felt like Activision Brass rolled up to Sledgehammer games and was like "We can't market a PMC, make him evil", Kevin randomly ditches his ideology of having the Power at the end of the game, and becomes nothing more than a psychotic standard villian that doesn't care about anything but killing America. The game feels cut short at the end, we play one mission of Atlas attacking America, destroying the bridge, and failing to capture a boat. Now they're suddenly backed into a corner and we fly straight to their headquarters?    

 

Despite my complaints, I still thought the story was good and the gameplay in the missions was great and varied. Multiplayer is hit or miss for me, I just can't get into it, I prefer more slower paced online modes like The Last Of Us', I don't like how 99% of the time it's whoever sees eachother first wins (Not in CQC, but I get most of my kills my shooting people sprinting around that don't get a chance to fight back). That said it's still cool, and the customisation is pretty fun, I won some ultra-rare terrorist trousers in a supply drop.  

 

Exo Survival is great fun too, but after round 25 it gets a bit too easy. Enemies don't get that much better, and by wave 40 you have fully upgraded stats, and it doesn't really pose a challenge anymore.

 

Overall I'd give it a 8 or 9/10. I think I wrote too much about the negatives above, but I always end up doing that when talking about games

 

This is probably my third favorite CoD multiplayer. CoD 4 and MW2 are my two favorites and AW is tied with Blops II. If Sledgehammer fix the lag comp and connection issues I might possibly enjoy it more than Blops II. 

 

I agree with you on the campaign as well. It is as if Sledgehammer ran out of time and couldn't fully develop the story so they just threw some levels together at the end and cobbled the ending up. I enjoyed it more than both of the Blops campaigns though, as well as MW3. I still think Modern Warfare and MW2 ( as well as CoD 2) have the best single player experiences. 

 

 

Parker

[Masamune]

I can only play offline MP, but here's one of my favorite setups.

 

Primary: EM1 (Foregrip/Quickdraw Grip/Heat Sink)

Secondary: Crossbow (ACOG Scope)

Perk 1: Danger Close

Perk 2: Fast Hands

Perk 3: Hardline (Scavenger if using different Primary)

Exo Launcher 1: Explosive Drone x1

Exo Launcher 2: Semtex x2

Wildcard 1: Primary Gunfighter

Wildcard 2: Bombardier

Wildcard 3: Streaker

Scorestreak 1: Missile Strike (Hellfire Missile/Extra Missile/Extra Missile)

Scorestreak 2: XS1 Vulcan (Overcharge/Extra Burst/Light Show)

Scorestreak 3: Bombing Run (Stealth/Additional Bomber/Care Packages)

Scorestreak 4: Orbital Care Package (Double Tap/Better Odds/Support)

 

Total Points Cost: 19

[BlindMango]

Actually... what you said Parker was pretty much exactly what I thought about the game too! lol - I also agree with most of what Saltyie said.

 

The game no doubt surprised me, I never at all expected to be as good of a game as it turned out to be. The multiplayer is a breath of fresh air and isn't the standard boring recycled CoD multiplayer. Though I do appreciate the "Classic" playlists which have four popular game modes with no exo suit too which really changes it up! That being said, I one day hope for a MW2 feel to come back to Call of Duty, no Call of Duty game after it could nail multiplayer like Modern Warfare 2 could, every time I still play that game from time to time, I still play it for hours! 

 

Either way, yeah, this game is good! I was a bit scared with the first level in the story (it sucked hard imo), thinking every other missions after that would basically be the same but I was wrong, it shaped up to be a good campaign! It even had some cool stealth moments too. The technology and the events that happened in the game all also seemed realistic and nothing seemed too cheesy or unrealistic enough to make me go "oh right, come on!", lol

 

Basically, so far I like it! That's something I haven't said in a while for a Call of Duty game (I primarily have been using the games in this franchise as a chat room to play and talk with friends, lol, so this one surprised me)

Edited November 9, 2014 by BlindMango

[Masamune]

Either way, yeah, this game is good! I was a bit scared with the first level in the story (it sucked hard imo), thinking every other missions after that would basically be the same but I was wrong, it shaped up to be a good campaign! It even had some cool stealth moments too. The technology and the events that happened in the game all also seemed realistic and nothing seemed too cheesy or unrealistic enough to make me go "oh right, come on!", lol

That one stealth level (Sentinel?) was actually one of my favorite levels in the entire game.

[BlindMango]

That one stealth level (Sentinel?) was actually one of my favorite levels in the entire game.

 

Yeah, it was good! I think that Sledgehammer were fans of "All Ghillied Up" from CoD 4 and wanted to put some of that in their game, while the stealth missions don't come close to All Ghillied Up (it's hard to top that mission!), they are still great missions!

[Ryumoau]

I loved the campaign. It was the best i've played since the first Black Ops. After the reveal trailer for the game (with the Kevin Spacey Democracy speech), i was initially worried it would try too hard to be political and up its own butt like that awful Spec Ops the line game. But i was pleased that Sledgehammer didn't forget what separates Call of Duty from all other shooters, which is the epic cinematic gameplay moments that make you feel like a true hero.

 

The multiplayer has been great so far, with the new exo movements providing a breath of fresh air to the Standard CoD multiplayer experience. All the maps look great and borrow alot more from Treyarch's colorful Black Ops style maps than Infinity Ward (which is great for me). I also love the character customization options and new supply drop system.

 

Its going to be hard to go back to normal ground warfare, so i'm really curious what Treyarch has planned next year (since i have a feeling it may be WW2 based).

This:

Wow....could that youtuber be anymore cynical and obnoxious? >_<