The 5 biggest changes COD: Advanced Warfare introduces to the franchise

[Mr.Karizmatic]

Over the past decade, Call of Duty has evolved in some pretty surprising ways. The franchise left its World War II roots behind in favor of Modern Warfare’s contemporary backdrops, and then headed into the future with Black Ops II and Ghosts. Multiplayer went from standard deathmatch to one of the most revolutionary, highly customizable experiences in the world of first-person shooters. Through all those shifts, however, the gameplay core has remained largely the same with each new iteration. This year, Advanced Warfare finally bucks that trend, introducing some major shifts in how Call of Duty plays, thanks to a new exoskeleton-powered paradigm and a host of futuristic tech.

1. Boost-Jump and Boost-Dodge– Nothing makes a more fundamental impact on Advanced Warfare than the increased mobility the Exo provides. Whether you’re living out the story of Jack Mitchell in the single-player campaign or going toe-to-toe online, being able to leap to enormous heights, perform acrobatic mid-air dodges, and come slamming down to the ground allows you to think about every single combat encounter in surprising new ways. Why hunker behind cover and wait for a target to pop his head out when you can jump 20 feet onto a rooftop and flank him from the sky?
   

2. Exo Abilities – Another addition that improves both single- and multiplayer, the Exo abilities offer a variety of new powers and tactics to help turn the tide of a fight in your favor. Know you’re about to be outnumbered? Use Stim for an extra burst of health that’ll give you the upper hand. Need to close the distance to an opponent? Pull out your deployable Shield, and you’ll be impervious to head-on attacks. Adding a whole new category of powers really helps expand the number of strategic options—especially online, where the Pick 13 loadout customization system lets you replace your grenade with a second Exo abilities for even more possibilities.
   

3. Variable Grenades – Grenades are a staple of first-person shooters, but they’ve hardly changed at all since the genre’s inception. Advanced Warfare, however, has nothing but innovations for those potent throwables. Now you have just two grenade types—lethal and nonlethal—but you can toggle each of their behaviors between a wide variety of options, so you’ll always have the right weapon for the job. On the lethal side, one of the most interesting options is the Smart Grenade, which can actually seek out enemy targets and then fly in for the kill. On the nonlethal side, the Threat Grenade—which scans the environment and tags foes in red—is equally indispensable.
   

4. Grappling Hook – Though it’s exclusive to a few missions in the single-player campaign and doesn’t become available until later in the game, the grappling hook is one of those gameplay concepts that’s used just enough that it’s fun and memorable but not so much that it ever gets old. While many aspects of Advanced Warfare focus on expanded mobility, none are quite as liberating as zipping around the like Batman, especially once you’re given free rein to mix gunplay and the grappling hook in massive, multitiered environments with almost no restrictions on where you’re allowed to go. It’s open and exciting in ways Call of Duty has never been before.
   

5. Customizable Scorestreaks – Scorestreaks—or killstreaks, as they used to be known—have always been some of the most creative elements of Call of Duty’s online multiplayer, butAdvanced Warfare rewrites the rules. Rather than simply choosing from a set list, you can now customize each scorestreak with a number of modifiers that alter its behavior in a major way, but also make it costlier. If you want that UAV to tag enemies for your team, last longer, or maintain progress even when you die, you can do that—or all of the above—but you’d better be ready to earn the extra points necessary to call it in.