Remember all the hate that ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ recieved when the E3 trailer was revealed?  Everyone loved all the eye candy until it was splashed with the title card, letting you know it was another COD entry. Call of Duty has come a long way from its beginnings. Exo suits zombies, hacking and future combat have taken the place of modest beginnings. This has left some gamers tired of the same formula. ‘Infinite Warfare’ looked like it was going to another notch of the same futuristic formula. We were all wrong, folks.

‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ is the best of the series since Modern Warfare 2. The campaign, takes familiarity and destroys itself in order to become an entirely new and never boring experience. Call of Duty’s campaign is once again something you want to play through.

This entry pits, the Settlement Defense Front (SDF) against, the Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR) in a battle for territory in outer space, along with vital resources. The SDF begins launching attacks and holding blockades against (SCAR), leaving your team to take the fight to them as Captain Nick Reyes.

“…destroys itself in order to become an entirely new.”

The reformulation of COD is made apparent once you board the UNSA Warship Retribution. This warship acts as your home base. You have free roam of the ship to read messages, watch news reports, access the armory and access a holographic projection of the battlefield in space. Much like in ‘Starfox’ you are able to analyze combat opportunities on this map and have free choice to pick any you like, in whatever order you like. The option to skip the side missions is also available to you.

The best thing about these side missions is how they aren’t cheap. They are full, well thought out and some offer some of the best parts of the game. For example, one mission allowed me to space walk in zero gravity to a destroyer  infiltrate it, disguise myself as one of the enemy and cut off life support to some high ranking officers in the SDF.

The biggest redesign goes to the incredible space dogfights in your Jackal. Your small combat craft comes loaded with mini-guns, cannons and missiles. These are all used to unleash hell on the enemy in tight space combat. During these dogfights you take on small enemy crafts, as well as huge enemy carriers. There is something very satisfying about shooting these behemoths down. Controls during flight are user friendly, and allow you to take full control of your ship. These aren’t cheap tack on missions, these are core parts of the game that give you a break from the shoot em up ground combat action. These side missions offer upgrades to your weapons as well as the ability to take down key most wanted targets.

In your Warship there is a board of all the most wanted, high value targets. You will somewhat randomly locate these targets during your missions. Once you have killed them, your board back at base will cross them off the list and add their personal details for you to read. I loved the addition of these targets. I feel like this could have been another really high point for the game but ends up being somewhat of an afterthought. If there had been way to make the wanted board similar to the ranking system in ‘Shadow of Mordor’ it would have given something to gamers that they could have really sank their teeth into.

Your core team of SCAR soldiers is Nora Slater, and your new favorite bromance bot, Ethan (E3M). You along with the rest of SCAR takes the battle to the SDF lead by the sinister Salen Kotch.  These battles will determine who takes control of the solar system and its valuable resources.

Gameplay during ground missions takes Call of Duty back to its core. The missions are split into stealth and loud firefights. Playing on a harder difficulty proved to be a challenge. The Ai forces you think about your approach. Running out into the open and attempting to run and gun is a quick way to find yourself dead and respawning.  Weapons are primarily made up of regular firearms and energy weapons. Energy weapons deal more damage to machines, while your regular firearms are best used on human enemy armor. The SCAR soldiers  are loaded with a innovative and engrossing weaponry. Zero-gravity and shock grenades alter the way you can take on certain battles. While, a personal energy shield allows for running out into dangerous gunfire with total frontal protection. Other weapons include, the ability to hack into robots and take control of them on the fly and foam grenades that create cover in heated battle.

The variety of weapons allows for taking on any given combat situation in different ways. This manages to keep the FPS action from becoming monotonous. The weapons selection and gameplay compliment each other organically and allow for a blast in gameplay that COD hasn’t quite perfected until now.

“this is the reason to come back.

This is the one you have been waiting for”

My main concern when I originally saw Call of Duty in space, was that it was going to jump the shark and get too hokey. Much to my surprise, the game is a sobering experience. It has some effective comic relief here and there but it carries a real world feel to it. In my opinion, if humanity were actually placed in this situation, this is what it would look and feel like.

On top of having a deeply involved story, the campaign also manages to pull some surprise emotional smack downs in its conclusion. This ending will not be one you expect from the series. Personally,  I was one-hundred percent not prepared. During the credits, the game does something surprising. It makes you ‘feel’ for some of the casualties. It is rare that a game makes a decision to

With the last few Call of Duty entries lacking in the campaign section, Infinite Warfare completes a 180 turn and destroys itself in order to save itself. All the characters are well fleshed out and matched to the well-versed and perfect pitched voice actors. It holds enough weight through the entire campaign to give a gut punch of an ending. When a Call of Duty game can effect you in this way they are doing something right. Throw in some vicious dogfights, cool weapons and a bromance from a robot named Ethan and you have yourself a hell of a game. If COD has put you on the fence in recent history, this is the reason to come back. This is the one you have been waiting for.