Playtime:
1195 minutes
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a title that, in some ways, I appreciated more than Infinite Warfare, but at the same time, it's full of flaws — both big and small — that really held the experience back.
Let’s start with the graphics, something I always pay attention to, especially since my PC is more than capable of handling any game at max settings. But here? Even with a €5000 machine, the game crashes, stutters, and constantly drops frames when played at full graphical potential. It’s beyond frustrating. And it’s a real shame, because visually, it had the potential to outshine Infinite Warfare despite being two years older. Unfortunately, the optimization is downright terrible.
As for gameplay, the exosuit double jumps and advanced movement — which should have been a major feature of this era of CoD — felt poorly integrated into the campaign. Aside from a few close-quarters fights where they make sense, they’re pretty much useless. More than once I just forgot I even had the ability, which says a lot.
The story actually has its moments. Some great plot twists, a few cinematic sequences, and a solid narrative structure. But as an Italian player, I have to say that the voice acting was really underwhelming. Flat performances that killed the emotional weight of many scenes.
One thing I usually enjoy in CoD campaigns is not being forced into slow follow-along sequences, where you trail your squad and wait for dialogue to finish. In AW, this was slightly reduced — which I liked. But the trade-off is that you often end up waiting for your teammates at the end of the path while they clear already empty rooms or finish their “epic” conversations. This became especially noticeable when replaying missions for achievements.
Speaking of achievements, getting the platinum wasn’t hard, but I had to replay most of the story just to grab a few I’d missed. That meant enduring all the long, unskippable pre-mission cutscenes again. Not fun.
To get the platinum, you obviously have to face Veteran difficulty, which adds a little challenge without being punishing. If you’ve got some FPS experience, you’ll get through it without much trouble. On one hand, I appreciated not having to sweat bullets to finish the story on Veteran. But considering how many other issues this game has, a tougher challenge might have made the effort feel more rewarding.
Overall, Advanced Warfare is a game with wasted potential. It’s not terrible, but it’s weighed down by bad design decisions and poor technical performance. It’s worth checking out only if you find it heavily discounted, though I doubt it’ll leave a lasting impression like other entries in the franchise have.
👍 : 2 |
😃 : 1