“Advanced Warfare” was an important entry into the “Call of Duty” franchise. It introduced the right changes at the right time, and it helped revive interest in a franchise that many had lost hope in. Just recently, the “Reckoning” DLC pack was released for the game, boosting its player numbers on Steam by a good degree. But how well is the game holding up at the moment, and is it worth buying it now that “Black Ops 3” is right around the corner?
Many players are still very happy with what “Advanced Warfare” has to offer, and the game keeps enjoying a lot of attention from players, YouTubers and streamers. It does have its strange quirks and small downsides, but in the end it managed to revive the formula of the franchise in a way that no other title had done before, with the exception of “Modern Warfare”.
It came at the right time too – when “Ghosts” came out the year before, it managed to sink interest and respect towards the title by a large margin as it was generally seen as a poorly polished, unoriginal title with lots of issues. It slowed down the gameplay by a large margin, looked outdated and failed to bring anything new to the table.
If anything, it just solidified the idea that was lurking in people’s minds that Infinity Ward is a shell of its former self. After the studio’s main talent left it, they’ve been struggling to put out anything interesting, and now “Ghosts” might have been the last nail in their coffin.
But then came Sledgehammer, a new addition to the development roster of Activision for this franchise, and managed to introduce several changes to the gameplay which were very strongly welcomed. Most importantly, it revised the movement system and added a strong vertical element to the game, giving players a lot more freedom in roaming around the maps.
And those maps themselves were designed quite exquisitely as well, with plenty of spots to practice the new skills provided by the Exo-Suit system. All in all, the game managed to do pretty much everything right and as a result, “Call of Duty” is once again seen in a positive light by the gaming community. People are actually expecting “Black Ops 3” with a lot of interest now, which, compared to the strong skepticism towards the release of “Ghosts”, is a refreshing change.
Activision have of course been continuing their trend of releasing DLC for the game in a scheduled manner, adding more maps and occasionally some other small bonuses to expand the gameplay even further. They have been maintaining the traditional 4 DLC system, and reception to the packages released so far has been mostly positive.
But most importantly of all, the game established some new trends in the franchise, allowing Activision and their developers to explore various new options with regards to the game’s gameplay and map variety. The next installment is going to expand on those ideas in a pretty significant way too.
“Black Ops 3” is coming fast, and it will not only feature an even more advanced movement system than the one we saw in “Advanced Warfare”, but also intricate weapon customization options and even better character modifications. Treyarch are seen in a very positive light by the community right now and they have a lot of potential for improving the way people see the game, so hopefully they’re going to make proper use of that.