E3 2016 – Call of Duty Infinite Warfare Preview

This year, it’s Infinity Ward’s turn to pump out a Call of Duty, and they’re taking the series far into the future. They’re going so far in fact, that the game features robots and epic space battles. The latter in particular are what had me intrigued when I first laid eyes on it – I really wanted to see more of it at E3.

I did thankfully, but not much. My behind closed doors demonstration at E3 featured the very same video shown at the Sony conference earlier this week along with a small segment of brand new gameplay. I did get to see another portion of the FPS too, that showed off some traditional shooting, along with nifty gadgets too.

The demonstration kicked off on one of the game’s earliest levels, where some attack is happening in Geneva, Switzerland. Citizens run about screaming, and a thick cloud of dust (caused by recently collapsed building) blankets the scene. Chaos is the flavour of the day by the look of things.

The protagonist and his team move away from it all, and into a nearby alley. It’s only a brief respite from the madness unfortunately – something attacks them. It’s not a random human enemy, but a robot. Only after it’s killed do I notice that one of the members of the protagonist’s squad looks different. He’s a robot too, which I found quite interesting.

Anyhow, the team move on, and before long, a proper gunfight breaks out. The enemies encountered are a mix of the fleshy and metal kind. The former fall with a few well-placed shots.The latter though, the robots, are obviously more of a headache. They require a fair bit more firepower to dispose of. Even when they go down though, they still pose a threat.

One for example, had it’s body torn in half with a barrage of bullets. Despite its lack of legs though, it swung around (having landed facing the opposite way) and continued to fight until it was killed off properly. I thought that little detail was rather cool.

The player has powerful futuristic tools at their fingertips to help alleviate this much stronger threat. One that really caught my attention was the spider grenade (I have no idea what its actual name is, but that’s what I’m calling it ok). The demonstration saw the player throw the little mechanised eight-legged critter out and toward a building that contained a handful of enemies. It scurried off toward them, latched onto the nearest one, and exploded in glorious fashion a few seconds later.

It may seem cheap, but I quite liked the device. It’s perfect for gamers like me who couldn’t be bothered to aim a traditional grenade to land behind cover.

Anyways, back to the demonstration. After much shooting, that’s as cinematic and explosive as you’d expect from a Call of Duty title I might add,the protagonist and his team climb into some nearby ships to head off into space. The whole process of getting from the ground to outside the atmosphere happens very quickly.

Just on the outer rim of earth’s air bubble sits dozens of ships, both large and small. They’re engaged in some epic battle for REASONS. The protagonist and crew head straight into thick of it for… reasons too I suppose. They’re immediately accosted by enemy fighters. Missile warnings appear, and flares are dropped to counter them.

The protagonist then flies around, with full control of the ship (I.e. there’s the ability to strafe), and picks targets randomly. killing enemies looks a bit simplistic truth be told, but it still looks like some good fun.

What I liked about this particular segment of the gameplay is that the player is at liberty to go wherever the hell they want (within limit though I presume). It should make for a nice change of pace from the usual FPS fare of hiding behind cover and gunning down some linear path.

In an interview I did later in the day, I also found that this would not be the only space battle present in Infinite Warfare. When I first saw footage a few weeks ago, I immediately thought, “oh that looks nice, but that’s likely a limited, on-rails portion of the game.”

That’s not  the case. From my understanding, there will be space missions waiting to be completed outside of the main campaign, which I’m sure will make many people happy (myself included).

How space battles will fit into the overall Infinite Warfare experience though remains to be seen. I like what I’ve seen thus far, but I’d like more information on what exactly this part of the game entails. Otherwise, what I saw today is par for the course for Call of Duty. Visually, it runs smooth as butter, and it’s cinematic and filled with a lot of oomph and atmosphere. The gunplay is smooth and refined, which too, is to be expected from this franchise.

What I’m most curious about of course, is Infinite Warfare’s other offering. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good campaign, but it’s the multiplayer segment of this game that I’m dying to see.

That being said, if you’re in it for the single player component, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Infinite Warfare seems all set to deliver another explosive campaign.

Last Updated: June 15, 2016