Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | Review
If you are expecting a massive departure from the norm with this installment then you are in for a disappointment, but if you are like the tens of millions of Call of Duty fans that are very happy to simply get more of what they love, then you will be right at home with Infinite Warfare.
As always you get a high quality product that has been polished within an inch of its life. The graphics, music, voice acting, design, and coding are all of the highest quality. As a technical exercise it has been executed brilliantly, as it is each year.
Much like the recent Call of Duty outings, Infinite Warfare is split into three distinct modes. The single player campaign caters for the players looking for an over the top Hollywood blockbuster adventure. It runs about 6-8 hours, depending on your play style and skill level, with a number of optional settings/modes to change it enough to merit some replays.
You play as Captain Reyes, the story is very entertaining although nothing too mind-blowing. It is set in the near future, Earth’s resources are not adequate to keep the population thriving so we go looking off planet. Of course it is only a matter of time before the off planet resources become a point of contention.
The SDF (bad guys) led by Kit Harington and his sidekick Conor McGregor attack a number of strategic points on and around Earth causing huge amounts of damage and blocking their ability to rebuild. From this point on you are on the back foot, essentially the underdog in the story. This is a welcome departure for the series that has always been about being the best and having the biggest guns.
Another clever design choice has been to keep the flow seamless. Once you start playing as Reyes you pretty much follow his path in real time. There isn’t any fade to black, minimal loading screens, or cuts to jump forward in time. The story pretty much fits in the play time and you experience it all from the one point of view.
Of course it does make use of all the usual COD tropes. You will crash and get knocked out more than once, you need to walk to ships to allow some conversations to build out the story, and of course you will be instructed to take out the guy on the left while your team takes out the rest. However they have also added some not so COD design choices like being able to explore the ship on your own. Read emails and listen to voice messages that is a departure from the normal rush to push you to the end.
I was invested in the characters despite not spending a lot of time with them. Especially Ethan who is endearing, but also the core group around you. I was happy with the variety of mission types, going from ground battles, to zero G shoot outs, to space combat and all in between. It combines to create a fun experience that you can pick up and play in burst with some optional side missions that will help break out the story and unlock some new weapons.
The jewel in the crown once again is the always brilliant Zombies mode. This idea does change and grow every year as the team appears to have been given more freedom to express themselves. The ideas get better and better, with this year’s 80’s B-Movie theme being my personal favourite. It is both is funny and endearing and the level design is smart and challenging.
The movie tie ins, the crazy weapons, the clever design choices for the location, and level designs, as well as the game mechanics make what was essentially a side mode one of the stand out portions of the game.
Multiplayer, the main focus, is perhaps where Infinite warfare shines the least. It is so similar to what we have seen in Black Ops 3 that it is essentially a new map pack. News maps, weapons, perks and not a lot else. I’m sure the highly invested players could rattle off a list of changes, but from my point of view there was little that really jumped out at me in a wow I’ve never seen that before kind of way.
Don’t get me wrong the maps are great, they are well thought out, well designed, the game plays flawlessly (outside of some connection issues due to using peer to peer matchmaking). There is just nothing so dramatically different that it deserves special mention. It uses the same Pick 10 system that avoids the unlock grind, gives incredible variety and a huge amount of customisation options, while being very simple and intuitive for new players to grasp.
A big missing piece is the lack of Zero G mode, after it being so prominent in the story it seemed almost a guaranteed mode. Perhaps it is coming in a future DLC or perhaps the slow pace didn’t translate when they looked at it.
Overall: Each year the dev team face a difficult challenge. How do you make something new and yet keep it the same. It does take a certain level of talent and restraint to not stray too far from the working formula and yet come up with something that is really worth playing. But as they do every year, they manage to hit the sweet spot again.
For Call of Duty fans you have probably already rushed out and snapped this up, for those sitting on the fence worrying that the space setting will be too much of a change and a path they don’t want to go down, then don’t worry it adds just enough variety to be fun without taking anything from the main experience.
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