Background

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare is something of an odd ball. At times, it tries to be a new wave for Call of Duty that tries to rekindle that fire that gave its juggernaut status back when Call of Duty Modern Warfare was released. However, it at times becomes more akin to its old nemesis Halo, to which it replaced as the need-to-buy game for any console player. Either from its rock rendition of Water on Mars or its focus on having much of its story and multiplayer take place in space, even extended to what can only be descried as “Space Jet” sequence. Yet, because of all this I am still somewhat bored and only really enjoy this game for the zombie mode.

Story

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare story takes place in the near future were humanity has spread to the stars but with an almost cartoonish evil separatist movement lead by Kit Harrington, who pretty much plays his most iconic role to date (which is Jon Snow), but as an evil version. This decision somewhat confuses me; you have an actor who is known for doing an amazing character and is amazing actor, but instead of making the character relatable or understandable you instead almost make him as silly as Cobra Commander. If anything, this games almost borrows entirely from Killzone, as the ideology (if you can call it that) is borrowed almost entirely from the Helghast. Either from their hatred of freedom or disapproval of caring for your troops, even seeing their enemies to be inferior to you. As you can tell, I do not see any sense in the story side for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare but I do understand that most people play it for multiplayer which I will go into in the next section. However, I felt I had to make some critique of how poorly the story was done despite the main great amount of time and effort that was made into making this game; then again this is my opinion of the game.

Mechanics

One of the key improvements to Call of Duty Infinite Warfare are the new changes in multiplayer with a refocus on the idea of movement. As the rule of thumb for Call of Duty and for many First-Person Shooters is that the faster you go, the quicker you can respond to your adversary. This lead Call of Duty to implement jet packs and the ability to wall run etc. However, Infinite Warfare has helped develop various tactics to deal with issues better than pervious entries such as anti-gravity grenades that stop or limit your enemy’s movement. This is but one example of how the game attempts to allow players new ways to deal with the constant issue of one hitting snipers who run fast enough to snipe you, and then find your spawn and snipe you there. In general, through there are not enough of these changes to really be worthy of being mentioned, due in part of the yearly cycle of Call of Duty games, much of the mechanics are either improved from the last year or just added in.

Sound Design

There is no major change in sound design, as much of the games gun sounds are largely the same, with some minor difference and the sound tracks have no major weight to it. Furthermore, much of the gun sounds are likely pulled from older Call of Duty games or have just been tweaked a little. However, I will say the 80’s style soundtrack in the zombies mode is somewhat fitting, more so with David Hasselhoff as your DJ, and it will make for some memorable moments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare was a game I tried as much as I could to get into, but at times it felt almost insulating to carry on. As you have an amazing cast of actors there who, given the right direction and with a few small tweaks, could have led to perhaps the best Call of Duty. Instead, despite the many attempts and many missteps, it does not compare to Battlefield which has been able to capitalise on this misstep. Could this be the end of the juggernaut that many fear it could be? If future entries have such weakly written stories or such minor improvements, then the answer could be yes, and due to this I will give this game a 6 out ten. Largely due to the fact that this game is still working and has no game breaking bugs or glitches in general, but is largely a boring game and very big missed opportunity on the developer’s part.

Score

6 out of 10