By the time I finished Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's single-player mode, I wanted to return to Seoul, South Korea, the setting of the game's first chapter. This mid-21st-century metropolis is awash in ultra modernity, to a degree I haven’t seen since visiting the economically prosperous version of Tokyo in the 1980s. It's the perfect futuristic backdrop to introduce Advance Warfare's new movement abilities, which are granted by the soldier-enhancing exosuit introduced in the campaign. And when you first bear witness to a flying giant snake made up purely of small drones roaming the streets of Seoul, you know this is new science-fictional territory for Call of Duty.
and reach lengths.
Level complexity is a factor, and is one of the reasons why the modest two-story Bio-Lab map is classified as Tier 1. With many obvious bot entry points, Bio-Lab is a fitting starter map for Exo-Survival newcomers. Surviving a round yields currency to spend on upgrades, and it's not unusual to max out armor or weapon stats by the 30th round. The likelihood of passing 40 rounds on a first or second attempt brings about two classic yet unexpected opponents: complacency and overconfidence. You seldom see this issue in wave-based survival modes, where the progression of difficulty is often much steeper. Even in a Tier 1 map, ending a session should be the result of your team dying, not of your team getting bored and wanting to try try a harder tier. I would have preferred the option of elevating to a higher tier after clearing 40 or so rounds so my teammates could maintain their momentum without having to back out into the lobby.
The last time Call of Duty had “Warfare” in its subtitle, it led to a well-received trilogy that deftly transitioned the series away from a well-trodden global conflict to modern-day combat. If the settings of today have run their course just as World War II did years ago, Advanced Warfare makes for a convincing foundation of futuristic yet relatable combat that is worth exploring and expanding further. The huge change in player mobility is less of a paradigm shift and more of an overdue retooling for an 11-year-old FPS franchise, especially in a year of mobility-focused shooters. Yet for all its predictability, Advanced Warfare is a deluge of action-film bravado, and it's difficult to not be carried away by its tidal forces.
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