Call of Duty has gone into outer space before and dabbled in
science fiction a bit in the past, but Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare goes full
bore into the sci-fi genre and I couldn’t be happier with it. It combines elements of Mass Effect and Halo
with the fantastic Call of Duty gunplay to create one of the best campaigns in
the series since Modern Warfare. Some
series fans are upset that Call of Duty is no longer rooted in realistic warfare
– either historical or contemporary – but all I’ve wanted for the longest time
is Call of Duty in space and now I have it and it is just as wonderful as I’d
hoped. Top the campaign with the Call
of Duty multiplayer we’ve come to expect – both online or offline with bots! –
and a zombies mode and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is an incredibly solid
and fully-featured package all around.
See all of the details here in our full review.
Game Details
- Publisher: Activision
- Developer: Infinity Ward
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: FPS
- Pros: Insane set pieces; great gunplay; sci-fi setting; incredibly polished presentation; tons of content; Ethan; offline multiplayer with bots!
- Cons: Overwhelming at times; follow the leader is getting old
- MSRP: $60
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare takes place in the far future
where man has conquered space travel and created settlements and colonies all
over the solar system. Mankind has used
up all of Earth’s natural resources by this time and must rely on the space colonies
to mine materials to send back to Earth.
In a scenario that should be familiar to every sci-fi fan, this
arrangement creates distrust between the colonies and Earth and a hostile
faction rises up to take control of the mining outposts. While the Earth’s main fleet is gathered at
Geneva for a military celebration, the enemy faction launches a surprise attack
that devastates the fleet and leaves only a couple of ships still capable of
fighting. Your character is suddenly
and unceremoniously promoted to captain of one of the ships, and from there
you’re jetting around the solar system and fighting bad guys in the craziest
Call of Duty campaign yet.
That last bit – that you are captain of your own capital
space ship – isn’t executed as well as you’d hope. The game does let you choose what mission you do next, but that
is about all of the actual captaining you get to do. The missions are already planned out and you’re just along from
the ride. Between missions you can walk
around the ship and talk to the various crewmembers, some of which do actually
have meaningful and interesting things to say, but you can just as easily plow
through the missions and not talk to anyone and not miss much. The best moments with the crew happen during
missions anyway as your robot squadmate Ethan trades verbal jabs with everyone
and proves to be more likeable and human than any of them. Seriously, Ethan is great. When he saves you after a certain mission, I
gotta admit I get a little misty eyed.
The meat and potatoes of the campaign is still made up of
the traditional boots on the ground FPS combat we’ve come to expect from the
franchise, but with some sci-fi twists.
Your weapons include the expected familiar looking rifles, shotguns, and
rocket launchers but there are also energy weapons and fantastic new sci-fi
toys to play with to take down enemy robots and assault mechs and such. The gunplay feels absolutely fantastic and
shooting stuff is just plain fun here.
The missions follow the traditional Call of Duty formula
where you have to follow an A.I. character around and do what they say, which I
have to admit is getting kind of old at this point, but the sheer ridiculous
amount of crazy stuff the game puts you through makes it all worth it. You’ll see giant space ships crashing into
the ocean and causing a tsunami.
Buildings crumble around you and blot out the sun with smoke and dust
and debris. You’ll scamper around on
the outside of massive space ships and fight enemies in zero-g. Oh, and did you know you can fly your own
space fighter ship and dogfight in this game?
Every single mission has several “Holy shit” moments where something
amazing happens and your jaw hits the floor.
Because Call of Duty fully committed to sci-fi this time around it
allowed the scale of the battles and set pieces and everything else to become
absolutely massive. You will see
awesome stuff in this game, guaranteed.
With that said, though, I also have to admit that the game
oftentimes feels kind of overwhelming.
There is so much stuff going on all around you that you get sort of
overloaded, though that isn’t a specific problem with Infinite Warfare as Call
of Duty has been doing exactly this sort of over the top craziness for a while
now. It makes me physically tired to
play through these games. I only bring
this up because I also played through Modern Warfare Remastered at the same
time and the difference in tone and scale between the two games is
massive. Modern Warfare is more
straightforward and has simpler missions and lets your role in the gameplay
shine through more rather than constantly taking control away from you to make
sure you see all the pretty explosions.
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy what Call of Duty has become, but it
is also nice to play a game without being totally exhausted after every mission.
In addition to the decently lengthy campaign you’ll also
find competitive multiplayer and the zombies mode we’ve come to expect from the
franchise. I’m not going to say much
specifically, though, because much like reviewing sports games (which you can
read my article about here) reviewing multiplayer online games sucks. Reviewers never get it right because
hardcore fans will find a million things to complain about and make our
positive initial impressions look dumb.
It always happens. So instead I’ll
just say this – My favorite part of the multiplayer is that you can play
offline with bots. Not everyone likes
to go online and get trash talked by 12-year olds as you get shot in the back
constantly, so being able to experience multiplayer offline is an amazing
feature.
The presentation in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is pretty
stunning. The game looks absolutely
crazy bonkers good and runs at a rock solid framerate. As I said above, the sheer scale of the game
is incredible now which leads to some very, very impressive space battles and
explosions and set pieces the likes of which we’ve never seen in a COD game
before. The sound is also very, very
good with solid voice acting, great music, and some of the best weapon and
explosion sound effects in the business.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has had a rocky road since it
was announced as some series fans were mad it was going full sci-fi and others
were upset you had to buy it to get Modern Warfare Remastered and, thus, the
reception has been pretty cold and negative, but don’t let that noise fool
you. Infinite Warfare is good. Very good, in fact, with one of the best
campaigns the series has had in years on top of solid multiplayer modes and
awesome presentation. If you want an
awesome FPS single-player campaign, buy it.
If you want to play excellent multiplayer either online or off, buy
it. If you want both of those things,
you’ve probably already bought it. I
had a great time with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and can easily recommend it
for a purchase.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by Activision.