The role of chief Call of Duty spokesperson has bounced between developers over the last few years, but the party line has remained the same: whether they’re set in the sea, space or San Francisco, these games are grounded in military reality.
Advanced Warfare finds Sledgehammer’s Glen Schofield spouting the same message – but he’s at least prepared to admit that his studio’s extra-silly gadgetry pushes the series into new territory.
There’s the exoskeleton, of course, which enables really high jumping, really fast running, and really hard punching.
But there’s a whole other sci-fi toolkit besides. Threat detection grenades function like XCOM’s battle scanner – revealing the position of enemies within a fairly large radius.
Mobile barricade are even more outlandish – hands-free riot shields which mirror your movements and keep you covered, until they detect you’re preparing to fire. In practice, they remind us of light gun shooter Time Crisis.
“The future tech in the game is actually based on technology that is here today, and we’ve taken it further,” said Schofield. “That’s one of the things about Call of Duty – it’s got to be relatable, got to be believable.
“But we are taking it to an extent that makes it also fun and new. It’s going to change the experience of Call of Duty like never before.”
Does CoD’s dubious basis in reality matter at all to you? Or would you rather the series leap exo-feet first into a more entertaining future?
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be out on PC from November 4.
Thanks, VG247.