Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare can make a player have all kinds of mixed feelings. Do I like it, do I hate it, who am I? All sorts of questions will pop up when you’re playing this game, which somehow manages to bring everything to the surface.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a good game, but I can understand why not everyone is thrilled about it. The market is searching for something new, and Activision and Infinity Ward gave that to the players, but it wasn’t what they were expecting. It doesn’t seem to make any sense, I know, but that’s also what you’ll feel about the game at any given point.

 

Story and gameplay

 

I have to confess that I’m part of a minority. I am one of those people that play Call of Duty mostly for the single player part. I don’t mind the multiplayer portion, but I usually enjoy the bizarre and often over the top stories that are told with the game.

 

Somewhere along the line, the name Call of Duty was just stamped on the side so that it sells. There is no reason why this game should have been called Call of Duty, and it would have had much greater success with another name.

 

I find it hard to tell you if the game is really good or just OK. There are so many aspects of gameplay that are exquisitely done, that it’s a real shame some smaller issues subtract from the overall experience. Imagine watching a sci-fi movie that’s excellent, and during a firefight, someone pulls out what looks like an AK-47. You’re not going to enjoy it.

 

The story is straightforward and doesn’t leave any questions about who’s the bad guy. There is a silent war between Earth and Mars, and suddenly Mars attacks and cripples Earth defenses. How a planet that needs domes gets an industry big enough to build warships to defeat Earth is beyond me.

 

Another aspect that’s troubling is the real motivation of the attack. Mars acts as if it has an underlying motive for hating Earth, but that’s not explained. The hate goes so deep that you know Earth must have done something beyond terrible for that kind of anger. Also, the fact that all Mars people seem to be only extremists doesn't paint a good picture.

 

In any case, you take on the role of Nick Reyes, a squadron leader on a destroyer named Retribution. Things go bad, and you become captain. This is where the real game starts. You can take on some side missions and unlock new weapons and upgrades, or you can follow the main story.

 

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a first-person shooter, but this is where another wrong decision was made. As acting captain of a ship with hundreds of people, you don’t get to lead teams on the ground and in dangerous missions. Some explanation is given, but I can tell you that Riker would not let Picard do this. It always ends badly.

 

That would have meant that, at best, the XO would lead the ground teams, or at least the sergeant that was leading the Marines cold have been the main protagonist. This is how military hierarchy works, and the story would have been largely the same.

 

The game is split into two parts, the first-person missions, and a limited space flight sim, although I have to be honest and say that even if it’s a very superficial flight sim, I enjoyed it at times more than the FPS sections.

 

Graphics and multiplayer

 

Just like it happens with the rest of the game, I’m split because the game looks both good and not so good at the same time. When you’re landing on the asteroid heading for the Sun, or you’re fighting on Titan, near lakes of liquid methane, the game looks great and sometimes amazing.

 

On the other hand, the texture resolution for some random zones is just atrocious, and you can see that some of the minor characters didn’t get the same kind of attention as the rest. It feels that the developers didn’t have enough time to improve the entire experience.

 

As for the multiplayer part, it’s exactly what you would expect, which is actually a bad thing. There are several multiplayer modes, automatic matchmaking, rankings, leaderboards, unlockable weapons, and all the rest, but there is nothing that would make me stop and admire.

 

Do I still get my ass kicked by players that are probably 20 years younger than me? Hell yea! The bottom line is that if you are buying the game for the multiplayer, you will most likely enjoy it. I took my chances and I didn’t get very far, but I could see the appeal.

 

This is a problem with most new shooters that have gameplay based on unlocking classes and skills. It creates great divides between experienced players and new ones. You’re going to say that the matchmaking won’t allow for this issue, but that’s not the case. Each time I played, I was on the same map with a couple of beginners and other people that have been playing for a long time. Needless to say, I was trashed.

 

Take Unreal Tournament, for example; all the weapons are already present on the maps and all the players are equal. Sure, you can play for a longer time and get better, but players have the same chances.

 

Predictably, there is a zombie mode as well, but that’s just not fun anymore. It used to be in the form of an unlockable or secret gameplay mode. Having it available right from the start makes it a lot less interesting and exciting, although the fact that you can collaborate for a common goal with other people is a really good idea.

 

Conclusion

 

I have to say that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was a surprise for me. I am a dying type of gamer, one that values single player more than multiplayer. It’s strange, I know, but at the same time, it allowed me to fully appreciate the single player campaign.

 

This is the main reason why I had a lot of things to say about the main storyline, and why I think that having another year for this game would have made it much better. The idea of having the player in command of a spaceship, engage in battles across the solar system, and fight on the ground, was simply brilliant.

 

The problem with this idea is that the developers didn’t have enough time to make it work. It feels like a waste of a great concept that was pushed to early out the door.

 

When the line is drawn, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is much better than you would expect, but it falls short of reaching its true potential. It could have been a different experience with a little bit more time, and this is probably the defining definition of the Call of Duty franchise as well.