Article by Pietro Gualano
This is not an easy time for the Call of Duty series. Competition is fiercer than ever, fan confidence is at an all-time low and original ideas are increasingly rare. The new CoD, Infinite Warfare, therefore has a mission of vital importance for the future and success of the franchise: the title must be able to win over fans by offering quality content that can entertain and entertain for a long time.
The guys from infinity Ward, supported as always by Activision, found themselves a hot potato in their hands and tried to better manage the situation by taking advantage of all the experience accumulated in these years of working with the CoD series. The question, however, is: did they manage to complete their assigned task, offering players a Call of Duty worthy of the name? Grab your laser rifles and let's go, it's time to find out together.
The greed of man
The single-player campaign has never been, in the last ten years at least, the centerpiece of the titles belonging to the Call of Duty series. There are very few fans of the franchise who buy CoDs only for the single player, but a quality campaign can only be a positive factor for the game and every year the various development teams that take turns try to propose something interesting. With Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward has decided to take us back to the future, in a universe where war is now underway and where humans are forced to fight for their very survival. The players therefore find themselves having to fight against the SDF, facing an enemy better equipped, fierce and with decidedly effective tools of death.
The proposed story is not, not even this year, particularly original, but we cannot fail to underline the high explosiveness rate of the package prepared by the developers: we have fights between spaceships, huge plasma cannons, completely frozen planets, crazy and fun granante from use and much, much more.
The basic formula is the same seen in the previous chapters of the franchise, with levels not particularly elaborate from the point of view of the level design in which the player finds himself having to progressively advance by killing all the targets indicated. The linearity of the campaign, however, is broken by some decidedly fun secondary missions thanks to the battles between spaceships but, unfortunately, rather short.
As for the longevity, it takes about 6-7 hours to complete the story, a rather low number that now seems to have become the standard for all the main shooters coming to the market. We really appreciated the ending and the events proposed in the last hours of the game, but of course we do not intend to reveal anything about it.
Also this time there is no shortage of "special guests" and in the course of our adventure we came across Hamilton, Formula 1 champion, and of course Jon Snow (Kit Harrington). Unfortunately, the latter was not given a very exceptional role, but we can say that he played the part of him more than worthily.
The Infinite Warfare campaign has convinced us overall: the story as mentioned is not particularly original, this is true, but it is fun and manages to pleasantly entertain the player with crazy situations and on the verge of reality. The secondary missions, with spaceships and spacewalks, have conquered us and we would have liked more, but even the main ones offer some very interesting situations.
In conclusion, we are happy to pause for a moment on the level of challenge proposed by the title: with this Infinite Warfare, in fact, veterans of the series can first test themselves with the specialist difficulty (worse than ever), and then throw themselves on the YOLO. What are we talking about? Simple, a mode with permanent death designed for the most demanding players in which, in fact, the game literally ends after a single defeat. Very few will complete a game in YOLO, we are aware of this, but we very much appreciated Infinity Ward's willingness to meet even the most demanding players looking for a really high difficulty.
Zombies on the big screen
Zombie mode, introduced several years ago, is an integral part of the Call of Duty franchise and pushes thousands upon thousands of players to team up every year to take down waves of the undead. In Infinite Warfare, the development team has decided to focus on a decidedly less gloomy setting than the one seen in the first Black Ops: players therefore find themselves having to take on the role of four actors, literally sucked into the big screen by a madman director with very ... particular casting methods. The maps designed by the guys at Infinity Ward are full of secrets to discover and items to buy, with illuminated signs and posters that wink at really existing posters.
Speaking of the actual gameplay, the formula is always the same: the player starts with little money and low-level weapons and over time, by killing the undead, must be able to earn credits to invest in increasingly devastating rifles or special upgrades. . The knowledge of the map is always essential and of course it takes several attempts to get decent scores, also taking advantage of the new card system introduced by the developers. Initially, in fact, we can choose a limited number of cards among those in our possession and, once a special bar has been filled, take advantage of otherwise inaccessible upgrades.
Overall we can say that the Zombie mode of Infinite Warfare is up to the previous ones, with its humor always over the top and its crazy setting. Fans of this component of the game will have a lot of fun facing the waves of the undead with friends, discovering the many secrets hidden by the developers and trying out different weapons.
The variety in terms of maps is very low, this is true, but we hope that the development team will take action by offering additional content in a short time, perhaps without paid DLC.
They sprout from the walls!
The time has finally come to talk about Call of Duty multiplayer, that component that most likely interests fans of the franchise most.
Also in this new chapter of the series the development team has strongly focused on a structure in classes, giving great possibilities of customization to the user. There are tons of accessories, armor pieces and special abilities to unlock, and the progression system designed for the occasion works pretty well.
Initially, just before entering multiplayer, we are invited to choose our first battle kit: we can focus on a soldier suitable for medium-sized fights (generally the best choice for beginners), on a perfect machine to support, on invisible soldiers specializing in ranged engagement and more. The number of kits present is certainly good (they are not all selectable immediately) and the variety proposed is commendable, but in fact, once in-game, the differences between the various kits are not extremely marked. The most evident variations between the kits, in fact, are a special weapon (usable after a certain number of minutes in the game) and different special skills based on the classes.
The maps created for the occasion are obviously designed to allow the player to make the most of the extraordinary movement skills of their virtual alter ego, with walls to run on, walls to climb and areas to fly over quickly. The dimensions of the various battlefields, as usual, are very small and it is easy to find a player even after a few seconds, so the knowledge of the map and the use of the minimap are essential for victory.
The time to kill is as usual very low and it takes a long time to train the reflexes: in this Infinite Warfare, even more than in the previous chapters, the player must be able to think and act quickly, always keeping himself ready to fire and making the most of the capabilities of the weapons at their disposal. Yeah, the weapons. Unfortunately the development team didn't put in many of them and in the course of our games we also noticed some balance problems (nothing too serious, mind you). We would certainly have appreciated a greater variety from this point of view also because playing always with the same guns, after a while, boredom begins to be felt. Nothing to say instead regarding the modalities, with great returns and some welcome additions. Defenders, for example, is waiting to be discovered: the player's aim is to keep possession of a sphere for as long as possible to reach the final victory.
There are also some rather interesting team missions to complete in the course of our games: we can join four different teams, with unique tasks useful for unlocking high-level equipment.
In conclusion we must focus on crafting, an interesting novelty introduced in this new chapter of the series. The weapons, in fact, can be "crafted" to be then used in multiple versions, from the common to the legendary. To do this we must take advantage of the spare parts, or we can look for the ready-made weapon in the trunks (unlockable with keys). All beautiful right? Too bad that the developers have implemented microtransactions in the system, giving an advantage as incomprehensible as it is annoying to users who decide to invest more money in the title. Infinite Warfare is not a pay-to-win, but certainly those who spend it have an advantage on the field and this should never happen in a game that is sold at full price (see Overwatch).
Speed and accuracy
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is definitely a good title from a technical point of view. We are not faced with an exceptional product, this is true, but in the course of our test we have not encountered particularly serious smudges and we have never been forced to restart. The textures have been well taken care of (except in some cases all too evident), as well as the lighting effects, and at the level of fluidity we have not found drops even with explosions on the screen. Credit for the face-to-face animations of the campaign, certainly worthy of praise, and for the animations of the soldiers in multiplayer. The movements in wall runs and jumps are fluid and believable and we have never "wedged" into any of the maps.
The parts where the game manages to give the best, technically speaking, are probably the ones where the player finds himself having to act in a few fractions of a second in narrow multiplayer maps, running on a wall or throwing a grenade that will trigger a huge explosion.
The soundtrack is certainly thick and offers engaging music suitable for the occasion, but the audio effects have also been well cared for and appear generally credible. The dubbing in español is certainly more than good and the game is absolutely enjoyable even in our language.
Conclusion
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a good title, but nothing more. The campaign is short and unoriginal, but fun and explosive at the same time. The multiplayer is of quality, but the innovations introduced compared to the previous chapters of the series are not very many and we would have liked a greater number of weapons. The handling of microtransactions also worries us a little and we can't help but wonder how the game will become in the long run.
The zombie mode convinced us and is perhaps the most interesting component in the game thanks to a decidedly crazy setting and a formula that, in fact, never gets old.
In conclusion, the game is recommended for fans of the franchise, while others should perhaps carefully evaluate the other products on the market before buying it.
