Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s campaign is one of the most interesting and unique narratives in the 20-year history of the franchise, and while Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was poorly received by the community for its deviations away from the pacing and gunplay, we have come to expect from a Call of Duty title, the campaign was widely praised for its stunning visuals, engaging narrative and high-quality character models which helped to sell the narrative.
While many in 2023 look at Kevin Spacey very differently, in 2014, getting an actor of his calibre to take the lead in a video game campaign was a huge deal, and in the eyes of some, helped close the gap between traditional entertainment and video games, which to this day are often wrongly dismissed as being just for kids and lacking in any artistic merit.
Image credit Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Published by Activision and developed by Sledgehammer Games.
While there are many ways to adapt a narrative to video game format, some elements are better left non-interactive, such as paying respect at a funeral, with the phrase Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s “Press F to Pay Respect” becoming a meme due to the poor wording and placement of the phrase during a military funeral set shortly after the conclusion of the first mission.
Image credit Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Published by Activision and developed by Sledgehammer Games.
While there is nothing wrong with hopping on a trend and making it work (Call of Duty Warzone) repeatedly, we have seen previously successful IPs struggle to retain their core fanbase when making radical gameplay changes to attract players away from rival titles.
While Activision is not alone in making this error, they have been one of the most consistent with it, having three times tried (and failed) to modify the core Call of Duty formula to compete with a rival shooter, only to bleed their fanbase as a result.
1) Advanced Warfare: Activision’s attempt to cash in on the success of Titanfall resulted in many Call of Duty players hating the emphasis on Exo suits, while very few Titanfall players were willing to leave behind a superior mech product for the relatively lacklustre Exo suits in Advanced Warfare.
2) Infinite Warfare: Activision’s second attempt to cash in on the success of Titanfall did little but further alienated its player base, who were eager for a return to the boots-on-the-ground warfare that made the series so popular, ironically, despite being a vastly inferior game. Infinite Warfare outsold Titanfall 2 by a wide margin, only to swiftly die off, while Titanfall 2, with its more moderate community, remains active to this day.
3) Black Ops 4: Live service titles are incredibly popular in 2023; however, that was not always the case, and when Activision prematurely attempted to turn Call of Duty into a buy-2-play Battle Royale competitor without crossplay, things got interesting, and while Black Ops 4 did very well for itself, its success was insignificant compared to free-2-play titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, titles which continue to dominate the genre.
Fortunately for Activision, 4th times the charm, and Call of Duty Warzone and its sequel would go on to become dominant forces in the genre, that while still unable to dislodge the market leaders, have captured a large enough share of the market to break into the top three, eventually overtaking PlayerUnknown Battleground in 2022.
Image credit Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Published by Activision and developed by Sledgehammer Games.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a first person shooter video game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision, it was released on 3 November 2014 and retails for $39.99+.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is no longer in active development, and the developers have moved on to other projects.
As of November 2023, around 3,000 people play Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on a fairly regular basis.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is barely active, meaning that while finding full lobbies is possible at peak times in populated regions, matchmaking times are likely to be very lengthy, and for those in less populated regions, finding full lobbies may be difficult.
With daily peaks of around 100 players each day on PC and similar numbers on console, Advanced Warfare is one of the least active Call of Duty titles in 2023.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare supports:
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare offers the following matchmaking options:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is rated PEGI 18+ and contains the following:
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s campaign is well worth playing for its engaging narrative alone, but with little to no multiplayer activity on any platform, I cannot recommend it for those looking to play with others in a cooperative or competitive setting.
