Let me be clear right up front : I haven’t been a big fan of Call of Duty in the past several years. As someone who loved COD 2, Modern Warfare, and Modern Warfare 2, I’ve been turned off by the recent offerings for a number of reasons. I gave Black Ops 3 a fair shot but was generally unimpressed. To me, the controls felt far too floaty and unintuitive (play BO3 and Halo 5 or Titanfall back to back and you’ll see what I mean), I didn’t care for the Zombies design and it ran horribly in split screen, and the overall design of the game in multiplayer felt juvenile.
Enter Infinite Warfare, a game that immediately upon being shown to the public became the subject of ridicule for the future aspect it was presenting. As with seemingly a good percentage of others, I bought the game mostly to play Modern Warfare Remastered hoping to enjoy my return to a true “boots on the ground” COD while thinking that Infinite Warfare would mostly be ignored.
So here we are shortly after launch and in looking at my time spent on the two games I see the following:
Modern Warfare Remastered : 2 hours
Infinite Warfare : 33 hours
And let me be clear, Modern Warfare Remastered in my experience so far is a blast. The feeling of nostalgia in playing multiplayer was amazing and Raven Software certainly deserves applause. However, it has been Infinite Warfare which has really grabbed my attention. Without giving a full review I’ll highlight some of the points on why I feel this is one of the best overall COD packages in years and quite possibly, ever. Relating to Infinite Warfare and its three distinct modes specifically:
Campaign
- It is well written and pulls you into a large scale conflict very early on. More importantly, as with any good story, it has emotion.
- The characters are amiable and well developed which is something I haven’t felt about COD in many years.
- The set pieces, while over the top, are incredible and absolutely equate to the awe and fun that COD became known for.
- The addition of optional side missions, including dedicated Jackal missions, are very welcome and help flesh out the overall scope of the story.
- Infinite Warfare is the first COD to be built from the ground up with this generation of consoles in mind and thus, it’s without a doubt a best looking COD and runs beautifully.
- While it takes place in the future, it has the feel of a proper military driven COD and thus is more reminiscent of CODs of the past.
Zombies
- Maybe I’m being biased here as a child of the 80s, but the 80s theme is hilarious. The music, cameos, setting, humor etc….are all fantastic.
- The map is well designed and fun to play through with lots of secrets and mini-games to play.
- It runs very smoothly even in split screen co-op with no black borders and a full framerate (BO3 struggled heavily here).
Multiplayer
- The UI is far cleaner than BLOPS3.
- The gameplay, despite having the same movement capabilities as BO3, feels more weighty and grounded like CODs of old.
- The weapon and rig design, while on the surface being very similar to the characters in BO3, are far more balanced and create opportunities for a wider array of play styles.
- The map design is broader and creates more viability for both weapon and play styles. I’ve seen far more sniper and LMG play than I ever saw in BO3.
- The ability to work towards upgraded versions of your favorite guns is a welcome one and creates longer term objectives beyond just challenges and camos.
- Mission Teams add further variety and a way for even less experienced players to feel like they accomplishing something in every match.
In short, if you’re anything like me and haven’t taken COD too seriously over the past few years, give Infinite Warfare a shot. It may just surprise you as it did me. And a thank you to Infinity Ward for the excellent experience.
