It’s fair to say that pre-launch, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare hasn’t had the best of starts, at least from the perspective from much of the gaming community.  Before it was announced, many had hoped that developers Infinity Ward would take us back to the historic themes that the Call of Duty series was once known for.  Whether it be World War I or II, or even Vietnam, this is the hope that was clung on to by many.  So when Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was revealed as a sci-fi shooter, it was met with much outrage.  So much so that it had broken records for the amount of dislikes it received on YouTube.  For a series that many just love to bash and hate on, this was always going to be an up-hill task for the latest in the long-running series.

However, if you’re a fan of the series or perhaps even sci-fi games in general, it could prove to be a mistake to dismiss this entry, as while it’s not the best, it’s most certainly a lot of fun and as always, packed full of content and value.  Granted, Activision didn’t help themselves by only making it possible to own Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, by purchasing certain editions of Infinite Warfare.  Which I believe Activision will release it as a standalone in the near future, after all, its money.  But let’s get back on topic shall we with our review.

The biggest inclusion with Infinite Warfare is the introduction of space battle dogfights.  When I saw some of the trailers that were graced before release, I assumed that this dogfights would be pretty much on-the-rails, like we’ve seen in previous games.  Thankfully my assumption was wrong and you do in-fact have complete free control over your ship, or Jackal as its known in the game.  These sections for me at least, are the most fun I’ve had in the game and it’s something that I’ve wanted to see for quite some time, instead of being stuck on those rails.

Most of the Jackal missions will come in the form of the side-missions, where you can acquire various upgrades for your weapons, as well as the Jackal.  Speaking of side-missions, Infinite Warfare has plenty of them, though they only come in two varieties, on foot, more tradition missions, or with the Jackal.  As well as giving you various upgrades, by completing these missions, they will also make the main campaign missions a little easier.  So there’s plenty of reasons to take them on.  However, what I will say is that despite them being a lot of fun to begin with, you will soon find yourself having a feeling a déjà-vu as the missions will eventually repeat themselves and they will soon become repetitive.  This in itself is a shame, because with just a little more variation, I believe Infinity Ward are on to something good here.

Campaign wise, other than the space battles, this is every bit the ‘Michael Bay-esque’ story that you can come to expect. The story is set in the distant future in which Earth is running out of natural resources and we’re forced to farm among other planets within the Solar System.  As you can imagine, there’s been enough wars on our planet now as it is, as nations battle it out for natural resources, but now those battles have taken a intergalactic turn of events.#

It’s got bad guys, over the top action, lots of explosions and of course betrayal.  It’s even got some added star power with Game of Thrones Kit Harington lending his talents as the residential bad guy; Admiral Salen Kotch.  There’s even has a couple of oddball cameos from the likes of Lewis Hamilton and even Conor McGregor.  However, you’ll be playing as Captain Nick Reyes after he is thrown in command of the UNSA (United Nations Space Alliance) following a devastating attack on Earth at the hands of Admiral Kotch’s SDF (Settlement Defense Front).

You kind of know what to expect with a Call of Duty story by now, but despite its pre-release criticism’s, Infinite Warfare’s campaign is very enjoyable.  And odd as it may seem, its new setting may even appeal to those not particularly drawn to the series before now.  However, while the gameplay is as refined as a first-person shooter is going to get, its feeling very samey between Infinite Warfare, Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3, especially with the robot enemy design and exo-suit capabilities.  As enjoyable as the campaign is, I think it’s now time to move away from the futuristic setting.

Also with the multiplayer, it may have more customisable options than ever before with your loadouts and character design (or RIG’s as they’re known in Infinite Warfare), but it’s all getting a little too familiar when compared especially to the last three Call of Duty titles that came before.

Again, that’s not to say that the multiplayer isn’t fun, because it most certainly is, but I believe just like the campaign, it’s time for the multiplayer to move into a different direction now.  That said, the multiplayer component of Infinite Warfare is not only as robust as ever with customisation, but there’s more modes maps where that you could shake a digital shit on a stick too.  If the multiplayer of Infinite Warfare is your thing, there’s plenty here in the base game to keep busy for many months to come.

Zombies of course makes a return and once more has an all-star cast that includes the likes of David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff.  The premise is set in the 1980’s and a once famous, now struggling movie director is desperately trying to climb back on top of the Hollywood box office mountain.  So in order to do so, he has sent his auditionees to a zombie infested theme park located in space!  If you’re familiar and enjoy the Call of Duty Zombies mode, then the chances are that you will enjoy this.  You will earn points by killing zombies, collecting power-ups and unlocking new areas of the theme park as you progress in order to restore the parks power and survive for as long as possible.

Everything thing about this year’s Zombies instalment is 80’s, from the sound bites, visuals, neon colours and tongue in cheek clichés.  Even the zombies are kitted out as if they just left a Cyndi Lauper fancy dress party, its great fun!  So if you’ve given Zombies a miss lately, then I urge you to get some friends together, as this could give you the most amount of fun with what Infinite Warfare has to offer.

It would be wrong to write-off Infinite Warfare based upon its theme or even what others might say.  The series is showing signs more than ever before that it needs a change of direction, but it’s still a great game to play in terms of first-person gameplay and its Hollywood blockbuster style story-telling should keep you hooked throughout and once more, you’d struggle to find a game in this genre with more content in its base game at launch and it at least tries something new for the series with its side-missions.  If you want to know what a bad FPS game is, just read our review on Honor & Duty.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare certainly isn’t the best in the series, but it’s by no means the worst and truth be told, yes there maybe better options out there, but regardless, this is still arguably one of the best FPS games that you’ll play this year.  It’s just time for the series to go back to basics and remind us why so many of us fell in love with the series in the first place.  Speaking of which, you can also check out our review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered here.

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