While they’ve since been shot down, last week saw a few rumours flying about the internet claiming that Sledgehammer Games was working on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2. It was too good to be true, and it seems we won’t be returning to the near future to hop about in exoskeletons and throw terrorists into lamp posts. Life is so unfair, since a sequel would have ruled. Call me a fool, but it’s the best campaign the series has ever seen.

I’d go to bat for Infinite Warfare too, since it feels like futuristic entries in the blockbuster shooter series have been met with ample derision purely because they wanted to stand out from the pack, or at least abandon the tried-and-true landscapes of modern conflict and world wars we’ve been seen depicted time and time again. It was different, and was thus met with outrage from fans who thought they knew better. Spoilers: I don’t think they did.

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Acting as the first entry in the series wholly developed by Sledgehammer Games, Advanced Warfare marked the first step into the future that was slowly becoming commonplace at the time. Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall had made a splash months earlier, while EA was yet to reset the clock with Battlefield 1. While diminishing returns hadn’t quite set in, Advanced Warfare was the start of an impatient streak that would reach its dire conclusion several years later. Gamers wanted dark, gritty, boots-on-the ground action, not futuristic technology and badass jetpacks. We don’t know what we want, because Advanced Warfare remains a fantastic game with a stellar solo campaign and killer multiplayer options.

Advanced Warfare

I suppose it was a departure for Call of Duty. It maintained the twitch shooting we’d come to associate with the series, but its heavier approach to parkour and exoskeletons gave it all so much more nuance. The result was more rhythmic movement and a slower time-to-kill that put tactics above response time. This clearly wasn’t for everyone, but for me, it was a welcome change to a formula that for so long had become clouded in a toxic meta. Sledgehammer sought to abandon that through its own mechanical innovation, but it was very clear from the outset that it wasn’t going to fly with seasoned fans. This wasn’t Modern Warfare or Black Ops, and thus represented a hostile deviation from the norm. But all these years later it still kicks so much ass. Name another game where you murder Kevin Spacey at the end*. That’s right, you can’t.

Taking place in the year 2054, Advanced Warfare follows Jack Mitchell (played by none other than Troy Baker, because of course), a member of the United States Marine Corp who finds himself discharged after suffering a near fatal injury. Now outfitted with a sick robot arm, he spends his downtime pressing F to pay respects at funerals before the one and only Kevin Spacey comes calling and asks him to join the Atlas Corporation. This PMC outfit is a big deal, and is starting to dwarf the military presence of major countries with its wealth of technology and manpower. It seems like the right career move for Mitchell, so he joins up and becomes another cog in the machine, murdering for pay on covert operations.

Advanced Warfare

Before too long it becomes clear that Spacey wants more power, and believes his tyrannical perspective to be the right one even if it means starting another world war. It’s been years, so a few of the specifics are probably going over my head, but the campaign remains a tightly paced, endlessly imaginative rollercoaster ride that understands the essential balance between explosive set pieces and tense firefights, and even gives its characters some worthwhile development while building a near-future that actually feels plausible.

Its society isn’t that far removed from our own, with robotics and human augmentation becoming more commonplace like so many games assume they will. You might view the performances as hammy, as its critique of traditional military systems and the need for an alternative has the political subtlety of a sledgehammer (fitting given the developer). But it has more to say than most entries in the series, and does so with style, substance, and so much fun. This game isn’t fondly remembered by many, and that legacy has always surprised me.

Unlike Titanfall, which turned us into flimsy ragdolls as we ran along walls and made use of jetpacks, there’s a plausible weight to Advanced Warfare that makes it very clear a human being is flying through the air and going against the laws of gravity. The technology is new and flawed, made obvious by how we awkwardly blast into the sky only to crash down on the ground with an astounding thud. A wrong move could kill us, while raining hell down on our opponents instils them with a sense of fear that feels frighteningly real.

Yet this added layer of sophistication meant that a lot of people wrote it off completely, afraid that Call of Duty was leaving behind what made it special. It wasn’t though, merely building upon it all and making the core experience that much tighter. We should embrace different studios taking a stab at this property, changing up how it feels to play Call of Duty every year instead of praying for the same thing. But like I said, gamers are fickle, flawed creatures who don’t quite know what they want. Advanced Warfare remains a great shooter, and eight years later it still deserves more respect.

*I’m serious, you throw Kevin Spacey into a fire at the end. Coolest shit I’ve ever seen.

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