CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE
Infinity Ward’s future and past combine in this double header
Our soldier shoulders his rifle (DualShock?) to put a score on COD’s interstellar instalment.
As any sibling can attest, living up to the reputation of the eldest can be a burden. By bundling a remaster fans are feverishly anticipating alongside its latest effort, Infinity Ward places a lot of pressure on its new offspring to deliver. But thanks to a superbly taut campaign and reliably snappy shooting, Infinite Warfare doesn’t buckle. To say the campaign is out of this world is factually accurate instead of lazy cliché. After a breathless invasion of Earth, Captain Reyes and the crew of the Retribution flee the planet and find themselves fighting against overwhelming odds. Taking down the fascist aggressors of the Settlement Defence Front involves commanding your own warship and crippling the SDF’s fleet and forces across the galaxy. It’s a move that changes COD’s campaign structure completely, with the Retribution acting like a knock-off of Mass Effect’s Normandy (or Tempest, now).
SPACE TRIP
You choose your missions from the bridge, decide on a weapon loadout in the armoury and clamber onto smaller crafts in the hangar. It’s not a huge explorable space, but it doesn’t need to be when there’s a war going on outside.
There’s an exhilarating pace and pleasing room for experimentation to said war. The blend of story levels, side missions and aerial dogfights in the Jackal fighter jet results in COD’s best campaign in years. Sometimes you’ll land on planets to infiltrate SDF bases, at others you’ll storm warships. A great example of the variety this offers is in Operation Deep Execute, a side
mission tackled early on. After discovering an SDF warship near Pluto, I sneak on board and slip into an enemy uniform, then suffer through an excruciating stroll past suspicious guards towards my objective. The stealth is done well, but when the mission inevitably goes south, the resulting fight is expertly crafted. COD’s trademark shooting’s so good I almost want to fail at stealth.
Infinity Ward also adds a notch to its skillset with space combat. Nippy and packing a punch, fighting in the Jackal jet makes for some wonderfully chaotic skirmishes. Watching bigger ships explode is an eye-bulging wonder. The jet also provides a link between missions, as most end with you flying back to the Retribution, docking and getting ready for the next one. The non-stop pace this fosters never dips.
Not everything in the campaign works, mind. Zero-gravity firefights are an uneasy blend of gorily empowering grappling hook kills and frustrating navigation, as you wrestle with hovering behind cover. Still, the story is propulsive enough to keep you interested, and the focus on mission variety means boredom never creeps in.
STAR REKT
In contrast, Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer is more consolidation than innovation. The Specialists classes of Blacks Ops III may be no more, but the new Combat Rigs are extremely similar in spirit. With a choice of six rigs – you have instant access to three, while the rest need unlocking – there’s one to suit your style.
My choice is the speedy Synaptic, whose Payload (a special weapon you can trigger) is the Reaper: twin automatic pistols that make light work of anything in their range. The other notable addition is Prototype weapons. These are guns with specific perks that you unlock with salvage, which you earn from playing online matches. There’s a nice touch of personalisation to this gear, but they add yet another series of unlocks in an overwhelming sea of them.
Importantly, though, multiplayer nails the fundamentals of the series. Maps facilitate fast, flowing play, and I discover far fewer distracting invisible walls than I did last year. Movement remains just as fluid, and chaining jumps into kills is just as thrilling. Yet it’s hard to escape the feeling that the lack of change is to keep the fanatically dedicated happier than the casual fans who want to dip in and out.
Good job Zombies In Spaceland, an ’80s theme park full of the undead, is such fun, then. While the gist remains the same – survive for as long as possible – this is goofy in ways Zombies hasn’t been for a while. There’s still a colossal number of secrets to uncover, but an open and readable map means it’s enjoyable rooting them out. Plus, Hasselhoff is
“YOU UNLOCK PERKS WITH SALVAGE, EARNED FROM PLAYING ONLINE MATCHES.”
a DJ playing Frankie Goes To Hollywood. That alone makes it worth a go.
PRICE IS RIGHT
Then there’s the matter of Modern Warfare Remastered. If you buy any of the Legacy editions of Infinite Warfare, you’ll also get the seminal classic. Despite the walletruining price of these packages, it’s an essential purchase.
Multiplayer remains an addictive proposition. While scurrying across these iconic maps is great thanks to their new lick of paint, it’s the style of play that stands out the most. The increasing speed of COD’s current multiplayer crop makes Modern Warfare’s online battleground feel comparatively fresher. The (relatively) slow movements of your soldier and lack of double jumps forces you to focus on cover and strategy rather than twitch reflexes. It feels like a different game, rather than an old one.
Of course, the campaign also remains a classic. While one or two levels lose impact because you know what to expect, many are timeless. All Ghillied Up’s nerve-shredding tour of Chernobyl, in which you sneak past a whole army, is still the high point of the entire series.
The only thing missing from both Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare is, obviously, the element of surprise. An excellent shooter is the minimum expectation, and both games clear that bar easily. Infinite Warfare might not quite reach all the heights that its older brother can, but few games do. Instead, this bundle reminds us twice why COD remains a perennial pleasure.
VERDICT
Another strong entry in a series that’s keeping itself relevant. While familiarity is creeping into multiplayer, Zombies and the campaign are the best they’ve been in years. Ben Tyrer