Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is, as we noted earlier, completely nuts and in a good way. Apparently just as tired of the “realistic” military shooter as the rest of us, they’ve decided you need every goofy idea DARPA is trying to develop, especially in multiplayer.
The multiplayer actually looks like a pretty heavy mix of other video games. You’ve got your vertical power-jumping and sliding from Titanfall, your exosuit and its powers from Crysis, your loot rarity from Borderlands, your goomba stomps from Mario, and your general frantic tone from Halo. On the other hand, considering the series’ previous focus on turning actual war zones into playgrounds, honestly, it’s a step in the right direction. And the map design they show off actually looks fairly promising for using these features in a fun way, although the whole paper doll aspect of customizing your character is more unintentionally amusing than anything else.
Finally, there are new modes, like Uplink, which is basically football with guns. Really.
That said, it’s an open question how the franchise fans will… oh, who am I kidding? This thing would move twenty million copies with just the name on it. Expect Call of Duty Babies next year.