PREVIEW – Well here we are again, it is almost November which means it’s time for another Call Of Duty.  Infinite Warfare is the latest entry in the series created by Infinity Ward (Haa…) and is the first game after COD: Ghosts which was not the most critically acclaimed game, nor was enjoyed by many. Has Infinity Ward redeemed themselves finally in the eyes of the fanbase, or is this an even worse hole that they dug themselves into? Find out here with our latest multiplayer beta impressions!

 

Sci-fi is all the rage unless we count Battlefield 1 in the mix with its World War I escapades, and Infinite Warfare has decided to go even crazier than ever. It combines elements from Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3, and even a tiny bit of Titanfall if we count the opportunity to call in mecs at times. We now do not have specialists, but instead, have Rigs at our disposal that can provide us with special abilities for the matches. There is a rig for example that transforms us into a sprinting robot that can help one hit melee players or Warfighter RIG that has a gun which fires ricochet ballistic rounds (useful in close quarter hallways).  While the RIGs are a great addition, they lack a bit of personality (in the beginning but we’ll get to that).

Time to kill? Or time to die

Call of Duty is a tough game to get into, especially if you are a newcomer, but even if you are a veteran, every new sequel adds something to the franchise that spins it off balance. With Infinite Warfare, however, especially in the multiplayer beta, the game seems to be a heavy mix of Black Ops 3, and Destiny. Time To Kill in this game is atrociously low, and even lower than Titanfall 2, furthermore, the spawn points (while I’m used to randomity of the COD franchise), here it is unbearable.

At times, you will spawn behind the enemy, and vice versa. While team deathmatch exists, there is no virtual frontline to fight on, and that is a big problem as everybody just runs around shooting the nearest enemy in sight (There is Domination mode, but that does not help too much). There might be choke points on the map, but those quickly de-escalate, and the action is all over the place. After playing Destiny, the previous Call of Duty games, and even Titanfall 2, in Infinite Warfare it feels the most that you die a lot unfairly. Not just because you did not aim well, but because of the RIG skills, and weapon skills through off the balance of the games.

It does not feel fun to play, and the gunplay has been stale for awhile for the series, while others have been able to invigorate their franchises. We have the wall running available, and jetpacks, but the map design and TTK makes them worthless.

Layers upon layers of RNG and Unlocks

So while Infinite Warfare at first looks a bit samey in terms of armor design, and weapon skins, it is not. The problem with this is that most of it are locked behind not just objectives, or kill numbers, but behind Supply Drops. Supply Drops are random loot boxes that contain items, cards, and weapons, plus armor.

You can win keys to get more supply drops (or just buy them in the inevitable store), plus you can also upgrade weapons by using scrap. Weapons have four types, Common, Rare, Legendary, and finally Epic. The difference between the guns is not in the damage, but instead, they get Destiny type weapon perks.

So now not only do we have player perks, skills, and armor, we now have weapon perks. However the weapon perks have to be unlocked with scrap, and even the standard upgrade costs 200 scraps. So strap on those mud boots, cause you’ll be grinding a long time to get the upper hand in the game. If they do not adjust the drop rate, and material earn rate, the game will become P2W rather quickly. Let us hope that campaign will be good.

Blunder of the century?

Infinite Warfare was probably in the making for over two years, and it seems like the multiplayer is a mesh of all the lousy elements from the previous games. Sure this might sound like an overstatement, but a lot of YouTubers have also called this the worst Call of Duty to date ( It still might sell buttloads).

I did not really mention positive aspects of the beta, because at this point it feels samey, even with the full sci-fi paint job. The weapon and RIG mechanics are great, but the low TTK leaves little to be desired, and the graphics while still looking good, are not that big of a deal. Maybe the franchise should go on a bit of a hibernation just like Assassin’s Creed did to figure out what to do next.
Probably the worst Call of Duty in multiplayer ever, which is disappointing because the future stuff is great, but the TTK issues suck all the fun out.

-Dante-

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Publisher: Activision

Developer: Infinity Ward

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Relase date: November 4, 2016