The Future of Warfare

My younger brother is visiting, and along with him he brought Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I can’t really explain how much time I’ve put into this series over the years, added with the joy of playing them. I’ve played every major release from Call of Duty back in 2003, to now, excluding only the portable releases.

The past several years though, my enthusiasm for the series has dropped. I love FPS games with a passion, but this series has grown old to me. I acknowledge what the series has done, and that’s great. I also respect how it caters to so many people, and keeps them coming back year after year.

The story drops you in a futuristic world, where everything is more advanced. Or is it? The year is 2054, and we are fighting the North Koreans. I’m actually surprised they are still a threat at this point in time. But hey, at least its not Russians right? Sadly this story brings nothing new to the table.

It is interesting, as it made me think of modern day Nazis trying to rule the world. Kevin Spacey makes an appearance, with voice and looks. I heard so much talk about this, revolving around how good it was going to be. I don’t think it done anything for me, and it was rather distracting to have a look-alike running around.

It didn’t make sense, and rather than the story taking a serious note, I couldn’t. I found it funny, to see him in every cutscene. Don’t be mistaken though, I thought his role was done very well. Its been one of the best in this whole series, but its still funny even thinking about it.

The game puts you in the shoes of one character, not several. Which is a great thing, I rather enjoy this. Not that going back between people is a bad thing, but in games so short, it suits it. Another thing I liked was the cutscenes, I’m guessing they were pre-rendered, which ultimately made them look better.

This isn’t a big deal at all, but watching something with actual detail, more than usual was nice. Although if your someone like me, you find yourself distracted. I’d lose interest in what was actually happening or being said. I rather do that a lot with games now. You ever been in the middle of a fight, only to stop and look at the textures? No? Well that is me lol.

Two things I didn’t try was Exo Survival, which is said to be like Survival Mode from MW3. And Exo Zombies, a mode similar to Treyarch’s previous games. The reason for not trying these modes is I never have fun with them. I actually dislike them quite a bit, and they come off as tacky.

The zombie mode is a big one that gets on my nerves. People see or hear something about zombie and they go crazy. But, in reality its mediocre at best. I see these modes as them taking away resources that could have been used to make multiplayer better, or even the campaign.

With that, the MP is the big selling point for CoD. Though what FPS don’t market their game as that? I was rather excited to try this out, as my brother keep talking about how different it was. It had this, and that, yea he is a big fan of the series.

After finishing up the short story, I went over to the mp. Made me a few classes, then went into a match. Starting off in Team Deathmatch, I was unimpressed, but it was short, but that was due to a join in progress. I left the lobby to go back into one of my old favorite modes: Domination.

This is where I found some fun, and I got my usual laughs out of playing it. Yet after it all, I really have nothing to say about it, except its all the usual we have seen. Of course we have some new things, but not that much to be considered new. It all comes down to the old being used in a different form.

Sadly this is what has waned me from the series, too much in a short amount of time. It still pleases me though, to see people are interested in such a title. But, for how much longer? It didn’t take long for people to get tired of the old WW2 setting, and now we are moving away from present, into future.

I think more than anything its the way they execute the idea. Even with a future setting, it still oddly feels present. We have no fresh enemies except for the common human atrocities death, murder, and of trying to rule the world by re-inventing the modern day Hitler.