With a billion dollar franchise to boot, you can hire just anyone so why not a two time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey?
However the question everyone has on their lips is does the game deliver? Does it in any way revitalizes the FPS genre? It's got a spiffy new HUD for display....wow.
After COD Ghost, every terrorist organisation has been done to death. Thus COD Ghost was a sharp departure from the previous COD storyline as it does not in anyway resemble old world sensibilities. We are introduced to modern warfare where technology plays a part in deciding the fate of man.
So here we have Advance Warfare, a sci-fi take on the FPS genre that has no invading aliens but man's greatest enemy...himself. Activision has hired Kevin Spacey, to reprise his "House of Cards" role in the form of a power mad Jonathan Irons. As for you the player, you get to play a loser soldier without an arm called Jack. That's all you need to know buddy as you sit back to take the ride.
Iron's character borrows heavily from post-911 CIA/NSA self deluding goals. He's the power behind the intelligence and he lets things happen so that more wars are fought.
So what does Advance Warfare bring to the FPS genre? Plenty. No more puny weapons, we now have Exo Skeleton suits and Gundam like armor. The war is not fought in space but on Earth. The weapons have gotten way more intelligent to appeal to the typical iPhone owner. Thus the game pad experience is somewhat limited to pushing this or that button at the correct moment. Beyond that, it's just aim and shoot.
Advance Warfare copies the skill tree from Borderlands to poor effect. Each level you complete gets you points to which you can redeem to up your capability. More grenades, and even more battery power for your exo-suit. Everything is good to go and there is even a cloaking device which you can become invisible. Spiffy. Now is there a story behind this? Well yeah. It reads more like Michael Bay movie.
The game play doesn't change, it has very intense moments and a blockbuster feel to it. The action is fast...gets almost as boring as COD Ghost but avoids it by proper story pacing. I hated flying the jet planes, and the drone controls don't make sense. I happen to use RC controllers in Mode 2 and there is no choice for taking that up. You just have to relearn the controls.
With the FPS concentrated on technology, it does get monotonous. Unlike Battlefield 4, you don't have a choice of load outs before every campaign. And the guns in Advance Warfare, feels very artificial. The gun play itself is pretty boring. It has none of the challenges of COD: Modern Warfare 2 in terms of repeat play. You can pare down the recoil in the Skill Tree and that might sound awesome but trust me, it's no great shakes.
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| The token black dude in a block buster game is back! |
The game's sandboxing is very annoying to say the least. There are times where I want to hide in a corner only to find that outside the boundaries of the sandbox. It was as if the programmers got careless and didn't bother with gamer's experience. There are places where you can jump which they don't allow you to and for the Exo-suit's varied capability, the features are locked before the start of a new level so you don't get to choose the features you want.
The story telling is better this time round. The COD Ghost borders on the ridiculous so with a sci-fi storyline thrown in for Advance Warfare, it paces very well. I must say that in the end, when Jonathan Irons tells you why he has declared war on the US for all its excess, you can't help but rally in and support him. Politically speaking, he might just be right but your job isn't to support him but to kill him in the end. How I wish I had a choice of which side to take on because I really do feel for Irons by the end of the game. That is probably one reason I won't chase him down in the end. The other reason is that you don't get to use your good arm to beat him into a pulp as your Exo suit is disabled. This takes the fun out of fighting and to some extent, poor story telling from the producers. Your character is nothing more than a one arm gun slinger at this point. Once you expend all your ammo, you have a knife. Enough said.
The entire COD franchise suffers from Deja Vu. You have seen it all before an for some reason you can't help but think if there is life on Mars half way through the campaign. It certainly be more fun if we invaded them for a change. So who knows? That might just be the case for the next instalment.
Conclusion
Advance Warfare is a polished piece of work and though lacking in repeat play, it would satisfy the FPS player immensely. The graphics rendering has improved by leaps and bounds and if you are in for a ride, there is no going wrong on this. I didn't have the chance to check the multiplayer mode's side features as I felt it was a waste of time. Multiplayer options will be nice if you have a good internet connection but mine just pure sucks.I must say Advance Warfare has none of the excess of COD Ghost. It still is a bit way off from Battlefield 4 in terms of repeat gameplay. For me at least, the repeat play is inherently destroyed by the sand boxing of the levels. You step out a bit too far you get a warning that the game will end if you don't return to it. The concept of repeat play is lost among the designers who like to pigeon hole your gameplay to a strict route. This takes the fun of having a go again with a different tactic or weapon, hence you don't get a choice of weapon loadout.
As a stand alone game, Advance Warfare is a much better game than COD Ghost. If that is the only motivation you need to buy the game, then you will enjoy it.
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