Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: Spacey Face

[Badfinger]

I tried to be thorough in my search for a thread about this, and I haven't seen one. So here is a thread for COD: Colon 2014 Edition.

 

Kevin Spacey plus a slew of reviews that were positive in the ways that they needed to be for me to buy this again has me back in the COD fold for the first time in quite a while. I've finished the campaign, and while there was nothing overly spectacular or ambitious about the plot, it's well carried out. Spacey is legitimately excellent with at least one really great supervillain moment, the rest of the acting is solid, and the animation and capture is all really well done. The game looks quite good. I'm not quite Blown Away overall, but the mission loading cutscenes had me wondering if they'd subbed in live video for some moments.

 

The movement and future tech adds things the multiplayer needed, and the co-op seems solid if potentially running really long per round to its detriment. It's a good video game!

 

Talk about it here.

[Sno]

Every time a new CoD comes out, there's talk of some new "thing" about it that makes me consider for a few moments whether or not i want to dive back in before assuring myself that it's still going to be a CoD game and that i'm probably still going to hate it. The thing is, i have a particular love for elaborate mobility-boosting gameplay mechanisms such as what is promised by this newest reboot for the series, so I am finding myself perilously close to giving CoD another chance.

I will pose a question: Is the campaign still deeply based in very linear and inflexible scenarios with barely-there enemy AI as CoD tends to be? Is it still, at its core, CoD? Obviously the online progression is still going to be there, and i don't like that either, but i probably wouldn't end up playing it a bunch online anyways.

[Badfinger]

I will pose a question: Is the campaign still deeply based in very linear and inflexible scenarios with barely-there enemy AI as CoD tends to be? Is it still, at its core, CoD? Obviously the online progression is still going to be there, and i don't like that either, but i probably wouldn't end up playing it a bunch online anyways.

Yes, absolutely. There are some great moments, including a sequence that has come the closest of any game (COD or otherwise) from recapturing the feeling of All Ghillied Up. There are moments when you're not just Following, there are moments when you don't have a weapon. But you're without a doubt being led by the hand for the majority of the campaign through their crazy movie-you-play.

 

Outlets and resources I trust and follow have praised the campaign while noting it lacks some of the ambitious features of Black Ops II. They think it's taken a step back not because it didn't execute but because it's so safe in its ambitions and doesn't push things forward. Having not played BLOPS II I can't comment on that.

[melmer]

I've got this haven't placed it in my PS4 yet, i need to finish off my first playthrough of Bayonetta 2. but yeah.... cod. Its been a while, probably only a year and a half since i played blops 2, but it feels longer.

 

All i want to know is, will i have the opportunity to shoot Kevin Spacey in the dick in slow motion. Thats all i want

 

God blops 2 was terrible, and i played a future one at some point which had Merle from the walking dead running around with me... that was worse :-/

 

edit: wait, WHAT! That was the same game haha, they did the whole, future mission, past mission thing. weird. shit.

 

Worst moment in video games:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=San8rraQBik

[Salacious Snake]

The multiplayer feels great this year.

[JonCole]

God, I thought I was going to be able to resist this but the wind is out of my Destiny sails until the next expansion so I'm itching for it really bad. Doesn't help that from what I heard, it borrows from BLOPS2's Pick system which I loved so much that I got like 7 prestiges in that game.

[Badfinger]

Upset at myself that the ramp up curve every time I get back into an FPS seems a little bit longer.

 

Makes me feel old.

[melmer]

Advanced Warfare’s week one unit sales beat the sales of Destiny, Titanfall and Wolfenstein combined by almost 14 per cent. (in the UK innit)

 

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=929977

 

I played the first 15 minutes.... didn't really like it. i know i need to give it more time, but for a game so handholdy i died by either going in the wrong direction or by not doing exactly what the game wanted you to do on multiple occasions :-? guess i'm not cut out for advanced warfare, fingers crossed theres no alien invasion in my life time. Who am i kidding! I'd welcome the alien invasion tomorrow, IT WOULD BE SO COOOOOL

[JonCole]

I actually died a ton of times during the first mission on Hardened difficulty, half because they were so handholdy and half because I was just unfamiliar with the weapons and whatnot. By about the third mission (maybe 30-45 minutes in), they pretty much get through all of the newer stuff and actually let you do your own thing. I think that with this COD more than others, you actually have some opportunities later in the game to traverse the environment/corridor in a few different ways that keeps things relatively fresh and not so obviously linear.

 

I beat this over the weekend and really liked it! I was particularly pleased, story-wise, by the fact that in the ending -

 

There were no last minute backstabs, no post-credits stingers, etc. There was some bog standard stuff, like bros dying, suicide mission scenarios, and so on but I didn't feel like anything was so cliche that it put me off like the ending of Ghosts did.

 

Now I'm onto multiplayer, which I've actually been enjoying quite a bit. I don't quite have the mobility stuff nailed and I'm not really sure about the utility of the EXO temporary powerups, but otherwise it seems like the most technically proficient COD in recent memory. Only gripe I can think of is how the weapon unlocks work, more in the traditional style where certain types of kills unlock certain mods and leveling up unlocks weapons. It mostly just leads to a handful of matches slumming it with the most basic gun before you can actually be competent.

[Salacious Snake]

 played the first 15 minutes.... didn't really like it. i know i need to give it more time, but for a game so handholdy i died by either going in the wrong direction or by not doing exactly what the game wanted you to do on multiple occasions :-? 

Yeah, that stuff is infuriating. There's a tutorial message on screen telling me how to safely fall great distances, so NATURALLY I jump into the huge gaping pit directly in front of me. 

 

GET BACK TO THE MISSION AREA, SOLDIER!

 

Destiny has a similar combination of jetpacks and giant, inviting pits that you're not allowed to enter. 

[melmer]

Yes, i did that too! I jumped into that massive sink hole.

 

Also the bit before when you have to jump down 30 stores in the apartment block. I didn't get the 'push square' prompt the first time round so just jumped to my death. (Surely that should be an automated thing) At least the checkpoints are super frequent and load almost instantly

[Salacious Snake]

 (Surely that should be an automated thing)

Hahah, yeah, this exo-suit was designed by fools! It should be able to sense my dangerously rapid descent and compensate automatically!

 

I blame Kevin Spacey.

[Badfinger]

Seriously the cutscene where Kevin Spacey addresses the UN is goddamn amazing.

 

This is apropos nothing, I just really loved that moment. It's completely telegraphed, and built up right to that point, and he still nailed it.

[Architecture]

So, uh...let's say I really enjoyed the Modern Warfare games as well as Black Ops 2 and have probably put 300 hours collectively into the series' multiplayer.

 

Should I purchase this?

[JonCole]

So, uh...let's say I really enjoyed the Modern Warfare games as well as Black Ops 2 and have probably put 300 hours collectively into the series' multiplayer.

 

Should I purchase this?

 

You just described me and I love AW. AW takes the Pick 10 system from Black Ops 2 and makes it into the Pick 13 system, letting you choose/forgo scorestreaks and the special Exo abilities. The future motif lends some novelty to the multiplayer maps, which seem exceedingly more diverse and memorable than the grey-on-grey-on-urban-on-grey of Ghosts.

[Architecture]

It's too late, I've already purchased it. But I'm glad you're backing my play here.

 

Jon, are you not playing this on PC?

[JonCole]

I'm playing on PS4, unfortunately. I just downgraded to a Pentium so I could give my wife the i5, so I'm really not going to be playing AAA games on PC for a little while. Also, even though I did well with M&K in MW2, I think I'm still better with a controller.

[Architecture]

Too bad, I was hoping maybe I'd have someone to play some TDM with.

 

Either way, I am loving this game so far. Kevin Spacey has a titular line! "This is Advanced Warfare" almost made me fall out of my chair laughing. Either way, I really like the setup thus far and it's surprisingly cogent for a Call of Duty. Hell, it's one of the best-constructed stories in gaming in general.

 

Also, this game looks amazing.

[Badfinger]

I am on the PC.

[Architecture]

What's your Steam handle?

[Badfinger]

Badfinger! Same icon as this one for the inevitable dozens of badfingers.

 

 

e: I guess I could just do this steamcommunity.com/id/badfinger

[melmer]

This game really should be called Call if Duty: Team America. I just did a mission in Greece which played out almost exactly the same as when team America destroyed France

[Architecture]

This game really should be called Call if Duty: Team America. I just did a mission in Greece which played out almost exactly the same as when team America destroyed France

Really dug this mission.

 

In fact, I'm really digging this game overall. It looks great, it plays pretty well. Sure, there's questionable player agency, but it's easily the best campaign in a Call of Duty title since Modern Warfare 2.

[Architecture]

Oh boy.
 
This game's plot gets really stupid just before the end. From what I can tell, I've got two missions left. I'm still enjoying the experience of murdering things with future guns while double-jumping around and harpooning fools, but

when Spacey addresses the UN? Oh. My. God