Sledgehammer Games are currently slaving away on their first solo entry in the Call of Duty series. But despite crafting the eleventh core entry in the franchise, the team decided to approach Advanced Warfare as if it were a brand new IP.
Talking to GameInformer, the studio’s co-founder Glen Schofield said, “We approached this like we would any new IP. I mean, this has been one heck of a creative challenge. I mean, everything is brand new in the game,” noting that the team have introduced “some pretty big experiments to the core mechanics that’ll affect multiplayer and every mode of the game.”
Senior development director Aaron Halon explained that the series’ tropes would still exist within Advanced Warfare, but protagonist Mitchell’s exo-suit would offer a new spin on the game’s single-player campaign. Earned experience points can be used to upgrade various elements of the suit, which will allow player to stealth cloak, hover in mid-air, and punch people clean off their feet with super-strength.
Sledgehammer’s second co-founder Michael Condrey explained, “We’re really looking forward to sharing more because we think we have some meaningful way to make this franchise feel like it’s got its Sledgehammer mark on it.”
It’s easy to be cynical when talking about Call of Duty, and the highly cinematic trailer – whilst showing off many of the exo-suits capabilities – does nothing to offer any confidence that the new abilities in the game will be anything more than on-rails set pieces. But giving Sledgehammer the benefit of the doubt, just imagine what a great action shooter Advanced Warfare could be by utilising a Deux Ex: Human Revolution augmentation skill tree, and some Crysis-like suit mechanics. That could be just the twist the series needs.
We’ll find out just what Sledgehammer have done with Call of Duty when Advanced Warfare launched on November 4th.
Thanks, VG247.