Xbox Reviews

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Review

Review Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare | Call of Duty isn’t known for reinventing the wheel, but in all honestly, for a Call of Duty game, this is the absolute best campaign I played in years. We have seen so many shooters this year and the hard competition will make it hard to really pick one shooter to play, read the review to see if Infinite Warfare is something for you!

Please note: This colour means I’m writing something about the online modes.

THE GOOD

  • It’s been a while but after some years I finally cared for the characters again. In previous Call of Duty’s you had zero character building, did someone die? Oh well… who the hell was he anyway? Not anymore in Infinite Warfare, the cast are a bunch of very believable characters that each have a specific role. You actually care what happens and the fantastic dialogue and emotional story gives you a feeling that I never had before with a Call of Duty game. And before I forget, Ethan. A prototype AI that will put on a smile on your face with his funny sentences.  In short: Infinite Warfare has some incredible characters and they are totally worth your time (and money) investment. That said, I did expect more from Kit Harrington’s (Jon Snow anyone?) performance, he never really stands out.
  • Reason why the characters can give a good performance is the plot filled story.  Some cliché moments are unavoidable but defending Earth from the Settlement Defense Front was surprisingly interesting. It’s the first time in years that a Call of Duty game actually had an engaging and emotional story for me. A story that worked, giving you reasons why you are shooting thousands of enemy soldiers.
  • Zombies in Spaceland, featuring David Hasselhoff is a great Zombie-mode that many Call of Duty players love. The bright and colorful amusement park looks great and has many surprises. An incredible 80’s soundtrack gives some timeless music and the trial-and-error gameplay will give you many replay value. When you die, you spawn at an arcade. You can find all sorts of older arcade games from Activision and a few fun mini games. By playing them you build up your scorebar and when full you respawn again in the amusement park.  Zombies in Spaceland could have easily be a standalone digital game so it’s definetely a great mode to have and play with Infinite Warfare. 
  • I’m really hoping that most Call of Duty players will like the ship battles. Previous games always had small vehicle-sections, but nothing like this before. You control a high maneuverable space fighter destroying enemy pilots, controls are really easy so you don’t need to worry about that. Many of the optional tasks contain space fighter fights making it a big part of the game.
  • New for the online mode are Missions teams, giving you extra tasks when playing a typical online round. You start with JTF Wolverines and unlock more teams the more you play. Missions go from kill five enemies or knife three people. When you finish them you get more rewards and get a higher mission team ranking. I really found this feature great for newcomers and people who aren’t blessed with epic gaming skills. 
  • Skylines and in general the Sci-Fi world and levels are top-notch. Giving some real Mass Effect vibes. In the single player, everything looks really crisp, the trillion explosions and fast action look great on your screen.

Mixed Feelings

  • You could say that the single player has many risks and innovating features. That can’t be said about the online play, I haven’t seen a more risk-free online game in a while. It’s pretty clear that Activision doesn’t want to take any risk for alienating the online community. For me this is a BIG disappointment, I can’t imagine how freaking great it would be if we had online anti-gravity (Or Zero-G) battles and why place that many resources and time in Infinite Warfare’s dogfights and not make it available for online play? Besides a Halo-like Oddball mode named Defender nothing is really standing out as new. Not even the new Rigs feature that Activision likes to talk about. 
  • After you finish the campaign you unlock two new modes. One of them is specialist mode, in this mode you don’t recharge health. Requiring you to go find nano-shots to get healed. Getting shot in different body parts also comes with troubles. Getting shot in the leg will slow down your movement, when you get shot in the arm you can’t use “aim down the sight” or use equipment. Getting shot in the head will surprisingly end your life .. or you have to wear a helmet. Funny enough enemies can also shoot your weapon, breaking it. The second new mode is a perma death mode. For me, it gave little to no extra reason to play the campaign missions again but I can imagine that some players will enjoy these two hardcore modes.

THE BAD

  • While some of the twelve online maps have some nice touches most of them feature low resolution backgrounds. Something that you don’t expect from a 2016 Xbox One game. Okay, you don’t really notice it because you are always running around checking corners but when you compare it with Gears 4 or Call of Duty’s biggest competitor Battlefield things don’t really look that great. 
  • Is Infinite Warfare’s online balanced? Yes and no… nothing really stands out at the moment but I absolutely hate the Wolf-like Rig ability and the devastating Nuclear game ender. ( a 25-killstreak ability)

Score: 90 | For me, Infinite Warfare is the best Call of Duty game since Black Ops 2. With great storytelling and some fantastic characters like Ethan, you really get an emotional bond with the game. Infinity Ward doesn’t take many risks for the online play, so active Call of Duty players will enjoy it.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the Modern Warfare Remastered review on LifeisXbox.eu!

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