At this year's E3, we were given a glimpse at what the next entry in the Call of Duty series has to offer. We saw a demo showcasing future war in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, with gadgets, exoskeletons, and swarms of unmanned drones. But it was a single-player demo, and so some people wondered how many of these features would make it into the multiplayer mode. Developer Sledgehammer Games has affirmed that the multiplayer is getting overhauled to include a host of significant changes, such as futuristic abilities and equipment.
In an interview with Official Xbox Magazine, Sledgehammer co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield explained how the team is progressing and fundamentally altering the well-worn Call of Duty multiplay er formula. For example, they state that the inclusion of gadgets has greatly increased the agility of players and changed the flow of the game. "We've got heavy weapons, which is sort of another new class, verticality through the boost jump--you can imagine what that does to the multiplayer experience," Condrey said. "And then cloak, super-strength, and then off-the-controller changes, like the exo-boost and the exo-slide."
He continued, saying that the abilities now enable you to perform different actions that further change the way the game is played: "We've got a really great combo now with the boost jump and then a lethal slam from above. We feel like it's a pretty fundamental change to the second-to-second combat, as well as the broader linear experience that you see in campaign."
"The variety that the new controls and the exo bring to gameplay is pretty revolutionary."
Condrey and Schofield think th at the new abilities transform even the way moment-to-moment combat plays with something as constant and immediate as a shotgun. "The shotgun is a close quarters weapon," Condrey says. "A short-ranged, broad-angle weapon like the shotgun is pretty ineffective against a player who can boost out of the way really quickly, right? So there are a lot of really interesting and unique challenges and opportunities."
Although Call of Duty developers have long highlighted the improvements and iterations they bring to each year's new multiplayer, they have rarely attempted changing the basic mechanics since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Sledgehammer wants to buck the trend, and Condrey believes that "the variety that the new controls and the exo bring to gameplay is pretty revolutionary."
This is the first time we've gotten concrete confirmation that the exo-suit and futuristic abilities will be in Advanced Warfare's multiplayer. In June, Sledgehammer claimed that Advanced Warfare's multiplayer would be a big step forward but didn't provide any details. The developer has also been describing the lengths to which it has worked to make the game as visually striking as possible, even claiming that it takes "full advantage" of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare launches on November 4 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, although the last-gen versions are in development at High Moon Studios. What do you think of the improvements to multiplayer? Let us know in the comments!
| Alex Newhouse is an edito rial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse |
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