Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

By: Robert Murphy

It's hard to fight those little voices in your head that tell you to not go out and by the latest game in a franchise, Call of Duty often being the one people struggle with the most I would think. Irregardless I have enjoyed the games for various reasons over the years and I recently picked up the latest addition to the franchise Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. And why wouldn't I want to with all that the game has boasted about it with a new setting and a new futuristic tech to be seen, I was ready to check it all out. 

Your standard three pronged approach returns with AW this time around, there is the main campaign, the online competitive multiplayer and then the co-op play for you and your friends to play. The campaign is something that gets a major uplift this time around and brings cut scenes and story moments to practically cinematic levels in it's visuals. All the characters look amazing on the screen and have great definition put into each and every one of them. Don't ask me what their names are though, sadly I really can't say much for the characters themselves as I wasn't too personally invested in any of them. Your captain or leader of your squad through most of the game did give me some Cpt. Price flash backs to be honest. We also receive a big A-list celebrity, Kevin Spacey, who lends his voice and likeness to perhaps the more memorable character from the campaign, Jonathon Irons, who steals the show like he was meant to.

As for your new tech, it all comes pouring out into your missions from the moment you join Irons and his private security force that works independently and seemingly more efficiently than any governing body does in the story. Working for a private organization was a nice change of pace for AW and was one of the more redeeming qualities to the story especially when I got my hands on my exo suit, flying assault drones and many more badass toys in my toolbox. The level of intense action I felt for the first few levels of the game were fantastic, dropping out of orbit in a drop pod, boosting forward, left, right, up and over with my exo suit and blasting away swarms of robot drones was quite the adrenaline high. It is a shame that all of this doesn't transfer over to the story and its characters as things lose stream about half way through and you begin to see the ending coming a mile away. But I will leave all of that for you to discover and move on.

Now as you all would expect multiplayer is also back again and in every Call of Duty game it proves to be insanely fun no matter the changes or differences but this time around the big changes are something to admire. Players can still deeply customize and change their characters skills to fit whatever way they choose to play but now that customization goes a step further. Players who take a liking to a particular weapon and use it more often than the rest gain access to a special and unique model for that gun with it's own stats and style to make you stand out from the rest. This also comes coupled with AW's new loot system, now in post game match making players can check supply drop boxes with assorted items inside but sometimes there are Elite versions of weapons that can be found. Just like your unique gun that you can gain from use of a specific weapon over and over, Elite weapon variants come with their own stats and styles to make your character unique. 

Throw this on top of the fact that the game allows you to augment your character with Perks, new Exo abilities and gear such as helmets, boots and more, then you've got a character you can call your own. It's funny how a shooter has almost become a role playing game where you can end up taking great chunks of time to design and make your game character. And of course, all the features and elements of the single player campaign have transferred over as well and changes up the multiplayer strategies of a lot of players. Now you can jump for cover and dash away from danger far easier than you could in the past or on the opposite end, you can dash forward and get more up close and personal now with your weapon. Finally, I could make a shotgun class and not only use it on the smaller maps which have also been well balanced to accommodate the new changes to the gameplay. 

Lastly, AW's response to cooperative play and many may not be excited by what there is to be had, no real Zombies mode and Extinction is history....see what I did there. You and your friends or group will be faced with wave after wave of gun totting enemies that come your way. You can further upgrade yourself throughout the waves of enemies with guns and equipment but really that's about all there is to it. The whole experience ends up being nothing but a big botz fight and it feels like a big waste of time and an opportunity that the game should of jump all over. AW had the perfect set up for a great new co-op feature, I would of settled for more Zombies even but sadly that just wasn't the case.  

In the end, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare shines exactly where you expected it to shine and that's with it's multiplayer and there isn't anything wrong with that in the least. Other new features that the game introduces work amazingly well for the campaign and multiplayer. Above all else, I was extremely impressed with the levels of design that went into the stories cinematic moments and character presentation and I hope to see more like it in the future of gaming. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go grab my hover bike and fly out of here. 

Good:

- The impressive visuals throughout the campaign

- Incredible multiplayer customization and perks

- New in game weapons, features and abilities for the campaign and multiplayer

Bad:

- The campaign falls short at the half way marker 

- The new co-op mode is lack luster and a wasted opportunity

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10 

Call of Duty: Ghosts

By: Robert Murphy

In my down time waiting for the Xbox One to receive its heavy hitting games, I found myself looking for a game to play in the meantime and so since I chose to skip Call of Duty: Ghosts for the 360, I thought I’d try it for the One. CoD: Ghosts comes with a whole new storyline to follow, a once again solid multiplayer element and a new horde style game type for you all to enjoy called Extinction and the new game mode known as Squads. And while I was apprehensive at first about my purchase there was still plenty to enjoy for the latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise.

The main storyline of the game is set in a not too distant future, I would say sometime after Modern Warfare 3 but not as far as Black Ops 2 and paints a not too pretty picture for what the U.S. has to look forward to. We are introduced to two new characters to the series, a pair of young brothers named Logan and Hesh, who are fighting against a new organization known as The Federation. This faceless organization has caused the U.S. a fatal blow when they steal a weaponized space station and go on a little bombarding spree across America. The impact of this may be devastating or rather it would if we knew who The Federation was at any point in the game, no you spend most of your time facing down a low nothing lackey of the organization which doesn’t make for much tension. Throughout the single player you will feel short changed at least I was because for the first time I didn’t find much enjoyment out of the storyline in a CoD game. Many of the missions lacked originality and made you feel like you were doing the same missions over and over again. The only new thing to come from playing the story mode was the introduction of Riley, your canine partner who is really more Hesh’s dog than yours and didn’t really make a heart felt connection with you in the story so that’s a bust as well. What good can be said for story mode is that it does take you to some incredible places much like a CoD always does and makes truly great environments especially when you finally play that space mission you’ve waited for since Modern Warefare 2.

Where I did find my appreciation for the Ghosts though came from the multiplayer which is exactly what I expected it to be right from the start. Multiplayer is much the same solid gameplay that it has always been which is great and it also adds some new abilities such as sliding, peering around corners or objects and a interactive environment. For the first time players can open doors, blow down a tree or release smoke across the battlefield, while this is nothing incredible or on par with Battlefield 4’s level devastating triggers, it is still a nice quirky addition to the game. The new maps players will be fighting across are just as enjoyable as they have been in the past, they are all evenly made and a dream to play on.

Perhaps the biggest addition to come the games multiplayer element is solider customization and the ability to unlock new uniforms, face models, patches and backgrounds to go along with Call of Duty’s solid weapon customization. Players can now spend hours tweaking your character to look just the way you want him and also tweak your gun in much the same way with the massive selection to choose from. Outfits, skins and player models unlock as you progress in level but weapons now are bought through skill points that you earn doing any number of things during a match and aren’t to hard to come by. CoD: Ghosts also features the ability to play as a female character for all the female gamers out there as well.

Finally, we have the two newest game modes, Squads and Extinction. Squads is a new mechanic in which players can now set out and make their own squad of players controlled by AI to play against your friends with. While this seems like a solid and fun idea, it turns into you and another player killing each others bots in a team deathmatch fashion. Something that was meant to save this from happening was the Squads game mode known as Safeguard where your team faces down waves of more AI controlled bots, which is just as exciting as I made it sound. But then we have Extinction which is the new survival horde mode that changes things up from the zombie mode we’ve all seen before. Players now can work on 4 person teams and fight off waves of encroaching aliens, destroying nests and fighting to survive for as long as you can. I found this to be a fantastic addition to the game as you can easily level your character up with cash you earn as you fight back the alien menace. The only downside is the limited level choice being that there’s only one but with the recent addition of the DLC for Extinction that has change but for those of you who have been waiting it’s been a drag.

In conclusion, don’t hold your breathe for Call of Duty: Ghosts, the game while fun only had a major selling point and that was it’s continually enjoyable multiplayer element. Ghosts did very little in the way of shaking things up especially when it came to the story, the characters were nothing to write home about and didn’t suit the memory of the games name sake character. There also wasn’t any twist and turns to the story, no shocking moments, it wasn’t what you’d expect from a franchise that has always made a great story mode. As for the multiplayer, the ability to now customize your characters as well as your weapons makes for an enjoyable addition to game as you spend hours making a character you absolutely love right down to the gun you carry. Also the addition of the new Extinction mode may be great but for those of you who have been waiting for a new map I can’t imagine it has brought a lot of repeat pleasure.

Good:

- Multiplayer is still as solid as ever

- New character and gun customization is a fantastic addition to the game

- Extinction while fun may have gotten old with just one map to play

Bad:

- An uninventive single player story

- Doesn't do anything really in the way of innovation just adding on to past glories

- Squads is nothing but a bot death match mode and Safeguard mode pales when you think about the old Spec Ops game mode

- With a name like Call of Duty: Ghosts you expected more especially when you think about how we all loved Ghost……NEVER FORGET!!!!

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10