Review. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - jumping to conclusions. Review Call of duty infinity warfare game plot

For the past six months, among the fans of the series, there was only talk about the re-release of everyone's beloved fourth part. Updated graphics, new mustache for Captain Price, anticipation of a return to Pripyat and the disappearance of the famous inscription from three letters- there were always new topics for discussion, as if a full-fledged sequel was not coming out this year.

In the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare review, we'll tell you who shouldn't ignore this project. But first, remember the main thing: not all games are created in order to bring joy.

- What is it we see?
- Battle tank C12, manual fire control. Very stupid. Very powerful.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

The Empire Strikes Back

The refurbished version of Modern Warfare is eye-opening. Firstly, the fact that the mechanics, which seemed almost perfect nine years ago, are now quite outdated and do not attract as much as they used to. Secondly, the fact that the new part has not gone too far from the rejuvenated relative, relying on time-tested techniques instead of bold experiments.

As if in defiance of last year's Black Ops III, the levels were again made chamber and narrow; go around the building to the left or right, lower or upper tier - the limit of local nonlinearity. They returned nostalgic swotting on the F key, non-trivial puzzles in the spirit of "kill a big robot with a rocket launcher" or "fight off a crowd of enemies while a break-in is in progress." This is not a crisis of ideas, but just a tribute to tradition, isn't it?

The authors of Infinite Warfare boldly borrow scenes from popular films about space. This one is unmistakably "Interstellar".

Space battles have become a new trend in the series, and there is no way to dig into anything. After a fruitful march on foot, you climb into the starship and soar into orbit, where the real " star Wars"According to the rules of Ace Combat. The shooting range in the air is not much different from the shooting range on the ground, but it brings a bit of variety, especially since you have to fly more than once per game, but almost in every mission.

Hiking in outer space has also become a part of the workflow: these episodes are short, but atmospheric, sometimes even abundantly peppered with drama. The topic of gravity was well disclosed, especially with the help of special grenades, with which you can either lift up enemies who have settled behind cover, or "ascend" yourself in order to occupy a point higher and thereby gain an advantage in the battle.

An alliance fighter can switch between machine guns and large caliber on the fly, making it the ultimate weapon against any enemies.

For once, special tools are really useful. Instead of implants and an exoskeleton, we have good old gadgets like hacking enemy robots, calling a flying assistant drone and a bulletproof energy shield. Supply boxes are sometimes scattered right on the battlefield, so there is no point in saving resources by holding something in case of a particularly hot firefight.

Strengthened jumping and wall running remained, but if in Titanfall 2 whole levels are devoted to uncomplicated parkour, then here it is nothing more than a side tool. You can not at all pretend to be an acrobat, remembering techniques only in those rare moments when you cannot go through the plot without it.

Shock grenades mark the status of enemies hit. How, we can only guess.

Some of the developments of last year's part of Infinity Ward were nevertheless taken over. The protagonist has his own "Normandy" with a map of the solar system on the captain's bridge and personal quarters, where you can read dossiers and briefings, or check the list of high-ranking enemy targets. The choice of layout before the operation has also been preserved, and you can customize both your equipment and the body kit of the starship.

In terms of level design plot part looks ... ordinary. Fights in space added variety, but unique episodes such as a high-speed race on motorcycles or a fight on the roof of a traveling bus have completely disappeared from the game. Beautiful landscapes loom before your eyes, but you quickly get used to them, and apart from space stations, ruins of megacities and the surface of planets, you will not really see anything here.

The picture from the days of Advanced Warfare is prettier (it cannot be compared with Black Ops III at all), but it is still not equal to Battlefield 4 three years ago. But the optimization is prohibitive: even on budget configurations, the game stably holds 60 frames with textures and details twisted to the limit. If Call of Duty is capable of being the best in something now, then, probably, only in the cleanliness of the code.

Dumb and Dumber

If you live near the sea and hear a loud splash on the night of November 3rd to 4th, don't worry - this is the Infinite Warfare plot rushed deeper in order to break through the bottom and set a new stupidity record, which until recently belonged to the offshoot of the Ghosts. But if in the legend of the Ghosts from the writer's pen, certain moments and scenes suffered, then the problem here is in the very approach to work.

The first bell was the absence of even an attempt to explain how humanity developed and due to what it was able to colonize the entire solar system. There are no reference books, no briefcases of intelligence - there is nothing at all from where one could glean even a grain of data about the universe. Even the year of action remains a mystery, and the entire "lore" is revealed in less than a two-minute clip.

So, people depleted all the resources on earth, so they sent colonists to the far corners of space. The Front for the Defense of the Colonies was founded there (abbreviated as SDF; you understand what the joke is, right?), Which at some point got out of control and for some reason wanted to destroy the cradle of humanity. That is, in fact, we are dealing with sectarians: survivors of the mind and armed to the teeth.

The plot would be ideal if the main storyline revolved around the mystery of the origin of the separatist movement. But leave the speculation about brain-burning obelisks or the intervention of alien races: if any explanations are possible, then they are left behind the scenes, and we have to fight a hypertrophied evil that is villainous simply because it can.

Jon Snow himself is in charge of the SDF sect. In addition to appearance, nothing special and does not stand out.

I don't even want to ask why the earthlings did not have ears on the new frontier in order to timely notice the unrest and intervene, as well as how the fanatics, constantly shouting "Mars is eternal!" There is no hint of any betrayal on the part of the generals of the alliance, or of an information blockade of the colonies - the turmoil arose out of nowhere.

And if the insanity of the narrative was limited to only one plot ... In the first hour of the game, the alliance (UNSA), knowing about the instability of the situation, drives its space fleet to a military parade and in one fell swoop loses almost all ships due to sabotage double agent... But do not worry: not only the earthlings are stupid, but also the SDF, because the latter could not immediately start a large-scale invasion, and for some reason they were waiting for a signal from the scout.

One day we will be trusted to shoot from beam cannon, tearing apart any ship in one salvo. But they will not be allowed to blow up some seedy planet.

Soldier and pilot Nick Reyes gets on one of the two surviving vessels of earthlings, and since all experienced officers, including the captain of the ship, have already played in the box by that time, the reins of control of the flagship of the alliance goes to him. The lieutenant is awarded the extraordinary rank of captain without any ceremony and sent to war. A small squad against an entire fleet - this is normal by Call of Duty standards.

But not everything in Infinite Warfare's history is that bad. The topic of racism in relation to robots, which are actively used by both parties to the conflict, is not badly disclosed. There are a number of emotionally powerful scenes, for example, when you find yourself in a damaged spacesuit in outer space with a robot partner. This is not to say that absolutely mediocrities were involved in the game, who would just work out their salaries.

The main character calls his partner "plague" and, looking at this face, all questions about the appropriateness of this nickname are removed.

Everything finally spoils the moral of the story. If in Black Ops III they tried to warn us about the dangers of implants implanted in the brain, then the main slogan of Infinite Warfare is “the task above all else”, even if it costs a soldier's life. This topic is discussed throughout the campaign, which makes it easy to predict by the middle how the story will end.

And the problem is again in the absence of a global context, because if we extrapolate this thesis to modern society, it looks absurd, and how exactly the ideology of earthlings came to such a devaluation of people's lives is not explained in the game. And the death of subordinates is framed in an extremely ridiculous and clichéd manner, so that you have time to feel compassion for someone.

Pulling up to the enemy with a grappling hook and attaching a grenade to him is a favorite technique of the protagonist in a battle in open space.

The game also falls short of the level of typical Hollywood action films. Spectacles only feed you the first hour and a half, when the enemies smash the alliance's fleet, then completely give up space panoramas and the usual series of firefights with explosions. The haired old woman of Modern Warfare, released on the same engine, makes a novelty easy both in terms of quantity and quality of spectacular scenes.

Against the background of all this, localization is somehow lost, but there is nothing to say about it. This time the train did not boom, and there were no people with diction problems among the actors. Unless the voice of the protagonist is too much in tune with the image of the military, the commander of the detachment, but this is clearly not what you will pay attention to in the first place.

Takes place outside of Earth - players find themselves in the middle of a war that engulfs the entire solar system. The protagonist of the game, Captain Reyes, unexpectedly takes command of "Retribution", one of the remaining warships of the earth's fleet.

We sat down with Taylor Kurosaki, Narrative Director of Infinity Ward, to chat about the epic history and development process of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Let's start from the beginning. How did you get into the game development industry?

Taylor Kurosaki: My first game was Crash Bandicoot. I was the second employee at Naughty Dog, and most of the game was made by a team of five people, including the two founders of the company. As far as I remember, at the time of release there were eight of us. After working on Crash Bandicoot, I decided to take a break from video games. I already had experience in TV and in the film industry, so I returned to the world of television. Some time later, at the end of 2003, Naughty Dog called me and asked: "Hi, can you help us with some cutscenes and dialogues?" So I went back to Naughty Dog. By this time there were 35 or 40 of them. I worked on Jak 3 and about ten more years on all four parts of the Uncharted series, until my transition to Infinity Ward in 2014.

Tell us about how you literally pulled Jacob Minkoff, your ex-Naughty Dog colleague, out of the jungle to join you on Infinite Warfare?

Taylor Kurosaki: Jacob Minkoff and I have been through a lot and have worked together at Naughty Dog for many years. But one day he just decided to take a break from business, sold his house and a truck, gave someone his dog, got rid of a bunch of other things and settled with me before he left for the jungle, waiting for the completion of all transactions.

While he was living in my house, I started chatting with Infinity Ward about the possibility of working with them, and Jacob and I began to watch old war films, play Call of Duty and exchange ideas on what we could do for Call of Duty together. ... I said, “Look, I really would like to work with you on this project. I don’t want you to go to the jungle. ” And he replied: "Yes, it would be fun, but maybe some other time."

He flew away, and I continued my communication with Infinity Ward. When they proposed to me, I emailed Jacob and got an auto-reply that he had gone upriver and would be completely unavailable. After about a month, he reached the nearest town and was able to check his mail. I sent him a message and just wrote: “I really would like you to work with me, but I understand that this is not destined to happen. I hope when you receive this message in a couple of weeks, you will know that my proposal is still valid. "

I received an answer from Jacob the very next day. He was still in town and wrote, "Oh, most of the people in my camp got sick with malaria, and I wouldn't want that, so I'm in business." And he just flew from the jungle to Infinity Ward, and we soon started working together on Infinite Warfare.

Let's talk about the plot of the game. Why did you choose space as the setting for your new game?

Taylor Kurosaki: The team at Infinity Ward had some very interesting ideas about what they could do in the next Call of Duty. For example, the seamless gameplay approach was perfect for Jacob and me. No loading screens. Just imagine: you take a gamepad and nothing distracts you anymore. We were very inspired by this.

They also had a few ideas about the option of side missions, which, again, was something new for the Call of Duty series. This was a really interesting challenge as all of our previous games were fairly linear in structure.

After watching many films and reading books about the war, we noticed two patterns. There are stories told from the perspective of an ordinary soldier, an infantryman, and there are stories from the perspective of a commander. We thought that since you have a choice side quests then, of course, you are the leader. You decide what to do next.

So we started with that and never stopped. We decided to tell the story from the perspective of the leader, and as you can see for yourself, the goal of the leader is not to fight alongside friends and bring everyone home. The goal of the leader is to complete the task, and the task must come first.

In "Saving Private Ryan" Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) learns that the main thing is not to return home to his wife, not to deliver all his subordinates to their relatives, the main thing is to save Private Ryan. We wanted to tell a story that follows the same principles, and therefore we have Captain Reyes, who in a very short time has to understand that he is no longer just a squad leader who has to bring all his guys home, but a real leader, and most importantly for him - the execution of the task.

Sacrifice for purpose is an important part of Infinite Warfare's story. Why is this question so important to you?

Taylor Kurosaki: We wanted to tell a realistic story. If you want to talk about the burden of leadership, you have to reliably show what it is like to send people under fire and live with the consequences. And there are always consequences. We do not want to tell stories in which you would be a member of a superhero squad, and all missions would take place calmly and safely. We want to honor the service of real soldiers, tell about it without embellishment.

One of the most unusual characters in the game is the Improved Tactical Humanoid Model 3 (e3n), or simply Ethan. He's a robot, but in many ways seems more human than some of the human characters we meet throughout the story. Tell us more about the history of its creation. Was this hero originally conceived as an intelligent machine?

Taylor Kurosaki A: When we start working on heroes, we are not attached to gender or race. We draw diagrams, discuss. We knew we needed a protagonist. We knew he would need a best friend and a right hand, but we also knew that someone else had to join them. And as a result, this “other” became “completely different”. By car.

Then no. Ethan was not originally conceived as a machine, nor was Salter conceived by a woman. The whole point was to reveal their characters, to find a "chip". We wouldn't make Ethan a robot if we realized that his character wouldn't work like that. From the very beginning, we promised ourselves that we would not make him a robot if we felt that such a hero would not fit into the Call of Duty universe.

Robot heroes are featured in many games, TV shows and movies. We said to ourselves, “What is special about our boyfriend? Why should he be a robot? " - and almost at the same moment we realized that we wanted to create a universal soldier. Such a soldier should not only be the best on the battlefield, but also the ideal support for his squad.

This means that if you look at the war from the side of a soldier, you will see that the main thing for him is to protect his comrade. The main thing is to make sure that everyone returns home. Therefore, Ethan's most important goal is to always protect his associates, and in some cases Reyes, his commander. This is his way of thinking.

How do soldiers in the middle of the fighting support each other? In most cases, humor helps them. It’s strange, but jokes help you get through all this trouble. In war there is a lot of routine and boredom, there are many extremely dangerous, stressful situations, and very few moments between these extremes.

To get through all this, to survive in dangerous situations and tense moments, soldiers use humor to distract each other from the idea that death could be waiting for them literally around the corner. Ethan is capable of joking - and this part of his personality gives him the opportunity to fit into a squad of living fighters.

He is very different from them. He doesn't look like anyone else. It became extremely important to give him the opportunity to intermarry with other fighters in battle. With the likes of Omar. Omar is a true fighter who believes in the power of weapons and face-to-face combat without resorting to technical gadgets - which is why he is skeptical about Ethan. But Omar is not a fool. Gradually, he recognizes Ethan as a valuable member of the team and eventually takes "for his."

Earlier you mentioned Saving Private Ryan. What other works have become sources of inspiration for you?

Taylor Kurosaki: If we talk about stories about war, then we studied great amount materials - from "Gate of Fire" by Stephen Pressfield, which deals with the Spartan warriors in Thermopylae, to "The Fall of the Black Hawk" and "Saving Private Ryan."

If we talk about the sources of inspiration among science fiction, then we can separately note the industrial design in the tapes of James Cameron - he always skillfully combined recognizable elements with unfamiliar ones. Mixed correctly, your fictional universe will become more mundane and similar to the real one.

The Call of Duty series always takes place in a universe in which there are no monsters, aliens or giant blue humanoids. In Infinite Warfare, we tell a story of conflict between humans set in a realistic future. Traveling to unfamiliar worlds, we take familiar elements with us - just like David Cameron. Aircraft glass cockpits, heavy valves on the doors, helmets like straight from the Vietnam War.

We took a close look at the aesthetics of the modern navy and carefully brought the elements that make up real warships into the game. We reproduced colors, materials, aesthetics - and then combined this with the design that NASA follows - because our ships do not ply the seas, but the vastness of space.

By combining all of these elements, we have created "Retribution" - a ship that looks real because it is made up of many real pieces of equipment from the Navy and NASA. Many of the players have probably never been to the present. battleship, but I'm almost 100% sure that none of them have ever been to Titan or Europa, or on the surface of Mars. Going to fantastic places, you take with you something familiar, a piece of home - this is exactly what we tried to achieve in the design of the game.

The storyline campaign is full of various game situations - classic shootouts, space horror, fighter duels and much more. Putting it all together and making it work in one game is very difficult. Tell us about the most difficult tasks that you dealt with during development?

Taylor Kurosaki: We always ask ourselves: “Does it feel part of Call of Duty? ”- can we add certain elements without fundamentally changing the concept of the game? Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Modern Warfare are games that have had a huge impact on us. Our goal during the creation of the game was to honor the roots of the legendary game series, but at the same time to qualitatively develop its components.

Imagine an abandoned mining colony on a rapidly spinning asteroid close to the Sun. What happened here? Where did the miners go? Secret. The next question is - can we tell such a storyline in Call of Duty? Will it feel like Call of Duty? At some moments we said to ourselves: “Yes, it is real to do it!” - and we did it. When we felt that we were deviating from the canon, we said: "Stop!" - and began to work out the next concept.

The legendary "Space Odyssey 2010" unequivocally warned us that it is better not to meddle in Europe, but it is on this moon of Jupiter that the events of Infinite Warfare begin. Admit it - is this a deliberate reference to the classics?

Taylor Kurosaki: Yes, we were heavily inspired by science fiction such as Robert Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress." Of course, we are well acquainted with other popular works and their versions of the cosmos, planets and moons.

The bottom line is that there is a lot of water in Europe. This place, which you will definitely want to appropriate, is a source of resources, and in a war, the possession of resources is a key factor in victory. If this or that resource runs out on Earth, and at the same time it will rarely be found in the vastness of the solar system, there will be a conflict between those who wish to be avoided.

This thought was a great starting point - as fans of science fiction and war stories, we built the narrative with inspiration from them. You can see the fruits of our labor in Infinite Warfare.

Additional information about Call of Duty is available on the official Russian-language Call of Duty Facebook page, as well as @CallofDuty and @InfinityWard accounts in

The long-standing confrontation between the Call of Duty and Battlefield game series is over. The truce was not signed, just EA released in 2016 two online shooters at once and the competitor to the new Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare turned out to be not “escaped” into the past, but a daring one, which also takes place in the future. These projects really have a lot in common, let's figure out which one can offer players more.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

genre shooter
Platforms Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developers Infinity Ward, Raven Software
Publisher Activision
Websites callofduty.com, Steam

Campaign

Distant future. Humanity has finally exhausted the resources of its home planet and began active development of the solar system. The UN was replaced by UNSA (United Nation Space Alliance), instead of NATO it is now SATO (Solar Alliance Treaty Organization). Tension is growing between Earth and Mars along with the outer colonies, which results in a confrontation between the SATO and the SDF (Settlement Defense Front), the armed forces of extraterrestrial settlements. The Martians manage to create a powerful fleet and, having carried out a sabotage, arrange a new Pearl Harbor in Geneva for the earthlings. Most of the SATO fleet was destroyed, leaving only two damaged ships at the command's disposal. One of them, the cruiser "Retribution", you have to manage.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's introduction is written in broad strokes, but unfortunately, it does not answer many questions and does not allow for a complete picture. game world... How did the conflict between the Earth and the colonies begin? Why do the Martians and their leader, Admiral Salen Kotch, hate all earthlings so fiercely? Why are they obsessed with the idea of ​​taking over and humiliating the Earth? How did Mars manage to build such a powerful fleet? Why, having mastered the entire solar system and having at its disposal jump (!) Engines, the Earth and the colonies are still fighting for resources? Who, after all, is the genius who came up with the idea of ​​collecting the entire fleet in one place, without leaving even a minesweeper on alert? Alas, you will not find answers to these questions either in the dialogues of the characters in the game, or in their personal files and audio recordings, which can be listened to in the captain's cabin of Retribution. As a result, the Martians and the SDF fleet are portrayed as conditional space fascists, and SATO and Captain Nick Reyes' associates as conditional good guys fighting for democracy. Forgive Activision, but in Titanfall 2, where the conflict of colonies and corporations is described no less sparingly, the world looks more alive and whole.

Even the favorite act of Actisivion - inviting famous Hollywood actors to the leading roles - does not help. As conceived by the authors, the star of the film ... sorry games, Keith “You Know Nothing” Harington was supposed to be, but the writers did not bother to write his hero even more interesting character and lines. All we know about Admiral Kotche is that he hates earthlings and when he climbed Olympus (the one on Mars), after which he named his flagship. Completely cardboard villain. A little more interesting character turned out to be Captain Reyes, played by actor Brian Bloom. His hero is not ready for command, he hesitates, has doubts, sending people to death. However, these throws of Reyes look a little played out.

Minor characters are spelled out in a little more detail. Staff Sergeant Jozef Omar (played by actor David Harewood), combat robot Ethan and the captain's partner, Lieutenant Nora "Plague" Salter (model Jamie Gray Haider), who have an important place in the plot, turned out deeper than the main characters. It is especially interesting to watch the development of the relationship between the stern paratrooper commander and the robot with a sense of humor. From complete rejection in the beginning, to real army friendship in the finale. In general, Ethan (E3N) seems to be the most alive character in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. His bond with the captain is somewhat reminiscent of that of Private Cooper and BT-7274's titanium.

Unfortunately, the most touching, really touching something in the soul episode associated with the members of the team "Retribution", the developers hid in the credits of the game. I'm afraid not all of them will see him.

The highlight of the Call of Duty series has always been the exotic locations that the developers threw us into. Well, this time, not limited to being bound to one planet, the authors dispersed in full. Ice caves of Europa (the one that is Jupiter's moon), orange clouds and methane rains of Titan, the lifeless landscape of the Moon already familiar to us, thirty-second days of asteroid Vesta-3 rushing towards the sun. The only place you will visit on Earth itself is the UNSA capital, Geneva.

Space locations in Infinite Warfare look really cool. Yes, at times the authors sin a little against physics, increasing 10 times the brightness of the Sun on Titan or increasing a hundred times the gravity on Vesta, which, at such a speed of rotation, should have been torn apart in an amicable way. But we will pretend that we did not pay attention to this. As well as "did not notice" the selective work of gravity on spaceships. As soon as the life support system is turned on, the earth's gravity appears along with oxygen. Or a space-limited depressurization effect. In the end, he is needed here only to show how opponents are sucked into space, and not for realism.

Fight on the International space station Zero gravity was the most memorable moment, in Infinite Warfare they decided to focus on this kind of gameplay. In part of the plot and in the majority additional missions you, as part of the landing party, go to board the enemy ships (we will not say anything about the rationality of the captain's participation in such missions). In this case, approaching the ship and skirmishes among the wreckage and on the hull take place in complete weightlessness. Of course, they are far from realistic battles in the absence of gravity, such as in Shattered Horizon from Futuremark, but such gameplay looks at least fresh.

But with the use of jump packs and the ability to run on walls in Infinite Warfare, everything is much worse than in the same or Titanfall 2. You can go through the entire campaign without such acrobatics. In multiplayer, skills related to vertical movements are more in demand.

In keeping with the setting, all weapons in Infinite Warfare are futuristic. It is clear that modern prototypes are taken as the basis for energy rifles, nevertheless, the guns look fresh. Especially transformers. Sniper rifle that turns into a machine gun; a submachine gun mutating into a shotgun; submachine gun divided into two pistols, etc. The only problem is that from the look of the weapon, you can never guess what to expect from it in real combat. However, the ability to pick up the enemy's cannon saves the situation. Another issue with weapons in Infinite Warfare is sound. He's not impressive at all. And if you can still put up with sniper and assault rifles, then the chatter of submachine guns and the sounds of a firecracker like shotguns are frankly upset. But for the grenades - special thanks. Spider mines and anti-gravity charges are something.

A big chunk of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is fighter jets in space. There are enough such episodes in story missions and a lot in additional. There are even pure space battles, without a ground unit. As in previous games in the series, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II served as the base for the futuristic fighter. This time his keel was chopped off. Battles on the "Jackals", this is what space fighters are called - pure arcade. Here, by and large, you don't even need to steer. He captured the enemy with a radar and calmly press the trigger, the fighter will be guided by automatic equipment. The destruction of large ships, bombers and destroyers generally turns into some kind of QTE. We calmly shoot from a medium distance, from time to time pressing Q to shoot anti-missiles. The only interesting mission in space is near the Sun, for a while.

In terms of graphics, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare isn't far off last year. Yes, beautiful, yes, quite modern, but overall nothing special. The same Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1, both technologically advanced and more original due to their style. Infinite Warfare lacks some flavor. Of course, the corridors of spaceships and extraterrestrial stations are generally similar, but why make them so boring. Missions on the surface of the planets are more interesting, but, unfortunately, you will not spend so much time in the open air. There are fewer wow-moments in the game that make you follow with a bated breath what is happening on the screen. Even the beating of the fleet over Geneva is not particularly impressive, we have already seen all this in different interpretations in previous Call of Duty episodes.

Let's summarize. Overall, the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare campaign differs little from the campaigns previous parts games, even despite the radical change in the setting. This is the same virtual shooting range with not very smart opponents and a pretentious plot. If you liked the storylines of the previous episodes, you will probably like this one too. Moreover, space is still something new. But, for many, CoD is primarily a multiplayer, let's deal with it.

Multiplayer

It is for the sake of the dynamic fast-paced multiplayer Call of Duty that shooter fans have been looking forward to November for the ninth year in a row.

With development, however, they overdid it a little - the multiplayer mode itself turned out to be decent, but with the dynamism the game had a clear overkill. Infinity Ward took this moment into account by making minimal changes to the formula Black ops III and slightly slowing down the pace.

However, this does not mean that you can go to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in the evening to relieve tension, as in Overwatch or Battlefield 1. Due to the specifics game mechanics Call of Duty is not about casual gaming for a long time, success here is guaranteed exclusively by lightning-fast reflexes and perfect knowledge of the map. So if you're not ready to spend hours memorizing enemy routes and hidden spots that can provide you with a killstreak, this reactive spinal pixel hunting is not for you. Otherwise, you are welcome.

There are seven game modes here, they are mostly standard, the developers did not invent the wheel. True, as practice has shown, it was possible to limit oneself to Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All, the other modes do not particularly favor players. For more than forty hours, the author literally managed to play Domination and Frontline a couple of times (an ordinary desmatch with revival exclusively at bases), partners for capturing and holding a drone in Defender, playing 9v9 in Ground Wars or participating in a Gun Game (every man for himself according to special rules) was not found. It's not that these modes are bad, it's just that there are too few people playing Infinite Warfare on PC. A week after the release, the peak player count fell below ten thousand. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the situation on consoles is much better.

Infinite Warfare multiplayer has tried to incorporate all the best that has been in Call of Duty over the past three years, but it cannot be said that he did it to the fullest. From the Black Ops line, the game borrows the wonderful Pick 10 character customization system - the player is allocated ten points, which he spends at his discretion on perks, weapons and attachments for him. Rewards for the number of points scored, which replaced the awards for the kill streak, and class traits stand alone, points are not spent on them. There are six classes in the game, but not all of them are available from the start.

Here, too, there were no surprises - combat at long, short and medium distances, light and fast mech, heavily armored soldier, and so on. Moreover, they are not limited in the choice of equipment, absolutely all weapons available in the game are available to each class, the differences are only in the gradually charging ultimates and class features. Well, in appearance, of course.

Speaking of looks, the ubiquitous loot chests do well in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. They are bought for keys that you earn during the game, gaining points and completing tasks of one of the factions. Inside, in addition to camouflage for the trunks, you can find all kinds of helmets, suits, key rings, gestures, in-game currency and, in fact, various prototypes of weapons. The latter is common, rare, legendary, and epic. Higher quality weapons are distinguished not only by their unique color and improved performance characteristics, but also by additional features, such as the ability to cause a nuclear strike by typing 25 frags in a row or replenishment of grenade ammunition after five kills. The chances of a sensible barrel falling out, of course, are small, but it can be opened for the very in-game currency. This is a long time, but for sure.

The design and architecture of Infinite Warfare maps are most often pleasing - there are a lot of hotspots where skirmishes regularly occur, detours and sharp turns, due to which a couple of opponents with shotguns can jump out at the most inopportune moment. Rocket packs and the ability to run on walls add verticality to the action and also allow for sudden flanking attacks, so the game is constantly on the edge. Unfortunately, the maps are relatively small and there are very few open spaces. Add to this a very non-illusory chance that the enemy can appear from anywhere and running homing explosives and you will understand why sniper rifles have become practically useless - in conditions when ranged combat risks turning into melee at any moment, it is better to use assault rifle with a sight of variable magnification.

But this is not the main problem of Infinite Warfare multiplayer, sniper maps may still see the light of day in one of the upcoming DLCs. More frustrating is the strange respawn system. The algorithm by which the game calculates the player's spawn points works frankly badly and you will often resurrect right in front of a running enemy or directly under bombs falling from the sky. The pleasure, to put it mildly, is below average. And in 2016, Infinity Ward decided to "please" us with p2p hosting, in this case one of the players takes over the role of the server. As you might guess, the host has a significant advantage over other players. You shoot the enemy in the head, the game carefully displays two or three hits, and then for some reason he runs further, and you die and go to watch the replay, during which it becomes clear that you hit only once, and even then in the shoulder. Add to this the periodic inability to establish a connection with the host and the fact that, in the event of its departure, for some unknown reason, the game categorically refuses to transfer its role to another player, as it was done before.

Zombie mod

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare also has a mandatory zombie mode for four players. This time, the ghouls will have to be shot in an abandoned amusement park of the eighties. We start on a patch of rather modest size, reinforcing windows and doorways with boards and earning money to buy more serious guns and ammunition for them - everything is the same as before. Gradually, passages open into the depths of the park, where there are more zombies and more serious guns. You can unblock the passages earlier than expected, spending money on it, but it is not recommended to go too far with the starting weapon - it is dangerous to health. After death, by the way, you will be sent to a room with classic arcade machines and traditional fairground attractions like basketball or a shooting gallery with water pistols, where you can try to win a chance to return to your comrades. It all looks like a budget version of Left 4 Dead, but it is played quite fun, some demonic clowns are worth something. But the players in this mode are almost impossible to find. In a week, I managed to try out the zombie mod only twice, and then for some reason happy accident. Game session you can search for hours.

Despite the existing problems, the multiplayer Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare leaves rather positive impressions, the futuristic setting of the game suits the face, the dynamics are excellent, and there are no complaints about setting up the equipment and appearance of the character. But due to the unforgivably low number of players on the PC, this game, perhaps, should be taken immediately on the console.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered

Along with the enhanced versions of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Digital Legacy Edition, Legacy Pro Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition, players receive as a bonus another game - a remaster of the classic 2007 shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Activision has already been criticized for the fact that the remaster cannot be purchased separately from Infinite Warfare, even if not for $ 8, as it is now, but for $ 10-12, but so far the publisher has not announced plans to release this project separately.

But in vain, because Modern Warfare Remastered is a practical perfect remaster that literally has nothing to scold. While fully preserving the plot, dialogue, gameplay, mood of the original, Raven Software was able to significantly improve the graphics. Textures, models, lighting. Especially the lighting. Modern Warfare Remastered looks a little worse than Infinite Warfare itself, but it plays just fine. What can I say, take a look at the videos comparing the graphics of the original and the updated game.

Favorite characters, familiar levels, everything looks recognizable, but at the same time in a new way. A good reason to replay one of the best games series. Yes, the Remastered version has certain optimization problems and a couple of bugs, but the patch that has already been released fixes most of them. Seriously Activision, consider the standalone Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered edition.

conclusions

Activision has traditionally put several games with different gameplay in the Call of Duty box. Infinite Warfare has an epic campaign, explosive multiplayer, a fun zombie mod, and in the case of extended editions, a remake of the classic shooter with improved graphics. The problem is that each of the parts that make up Infinite Warfare has one or another flaw. The campaign is spoiled by a stupid plot, memorable characters and uninteresting fighter battles. The multiplayer and zombie mod suffers from a lack of players and are designed exclusively for fans of fast spinal gameplay. There are no complaints about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare remaster, but it's still a completely different game, and it's probably dishonest to include it in the Call of Duty: Infinity Warfare rating.

Minuses: Weak plot; poorly designed world; unclear motivation of the heroes; unconvincing weapon; uninteresting space battles; problems with reviving in network game; small number of PC players

Output: The updated Call of Duty has a lot to offer, but, unfortunately, each of its components has one or another flaw.

Rumors that Call of duty went into space, walked the Web, even when it was in its original composition, but even diving headlong into science fiction, the series did not want to leave Earth. But now everything is as it should be: interplanetary travel through the solar system, Martian landscapes, skirmishes in zero gravity and - as a bonus - intelligent robots. If last year was a clumsy attempt to imitate Philip K. Dick's "Ubik", then it is a collection of SF hits of the last 50 years, from Clark, Bradbury and Star Trek to the latest blockbusters. I will not even list where they got it from - the list will be longer than the review - so I would better describe the overall impression.

I like it.

Mars aeternum

The main reason for this is storytelling. Having stuffed cones on a stupid one, she took the same idea as a basis (having seized resources, the new superpower attacked the former masters of the world), but told it much more excitingly. Time of action - XXIII century. Earthlings gradually settled in the planets and satellites of the solar system, established their way of life and wanted independence from their once native metropolis.

The Martian military organization SDF, once created to defend the colonies, has become a power structure, declared independence and gradually subjugates one settlement after another. There has already been one war between the United Nations Space Alliance and the rebels. Now the SDF and its leader, the ruthless Rear Admiral Seilen Kotch, attacked the enemy in the heart. During the parade of flotillas in Geneva, they took over control of the anti-aircraft installations and destroyed all but two ships.

Our hero Nick Reyes is assigned to one of them, "Retribution". The captain of this ship was killed during the shelling, and now Reyes will have to fight back the SDF. Only he does not command, standing on the bridge, but he goes into the hell, whether with a rifle in his hands or in the cockpit of a fighter. Shepard would definitely approve of this approach!

But the success of the captain is determined by his subordinates, and here Reyes was lucky: an excellent team of interesting, well-developed characters gathered on "Retribution", to whom you manage to become attached in 8 hours of passage. The main star, of course, Ethan, aka E3N, a combat robot with an advanced artificial intelligence, which EDI could easily fall in love with from. And as the Retribution mission becomes more self-destructive, you will become more worried about the fate of the charges.

The worst thing turned out, oddly enough, the main villain. Keith Harrington, who was discharged from Westeros for this role, honestly worked out his fee, but after a spectacular appearance in the prologue, he is practically out of work - he sits on his super cruiser and regularly gets live on our air to inform about the imminent triumph of SDF. Although, I must say, closer to the finale, the screenwriter made a good feint - I did not expect such a denouement.

Interstellar citizen

But what I expected and received in full was the laws of game mechanics that have already become classic Call of duty... Like the last predecessors, he tries to make the arenas of battles as open as possible, and the jetpack allows you to climb up in search of vantage points. The action and futuristic equipment revives the action: grenades that cancel gravity, homing killer spiders, instant cover made of durable foam and a module that intercepts the control of SDF robots.

Meanwhile, as before, the script always has the last word. Until the player begins to move forward, the teammates, depicting violent activity, will not rush into the attack, and the enemy will receive regular reinforcements - this was the case in the original, and is often encountered now. Not without "stealth" episodes, when we follow the fighter, clearly following his instructions.

On the other hand, there are also quite honest secretive forays, where the visibility indicator dances in the center of the screen, and the game does not punish with an instant “screen of death” for detection. Not Deus Ex and Hitman, of course, but already a step forward!

Space battles were also successful, of which there are many in the game. Taking an enemy ship by storm, rushing across its decks, then having a firefight in open space and jumping into a fighter plane to shoot down a few aces is a typical Reyes workday. The controls and physics are, of course, arcade, but that is exactly what they should be in a dashing action movie so that the player can beautifully smash enemies to shreds of metal and have fun.

Oh yes, the spectacle of this Call of duty do not borrow. They did not save on decorations, special effects, models, animation, sound, pretentious music and cinematic tricks. One of the most spectacular episodes takes place on a small satellite of Mercury, which has left orbit and, rapidly rotating on its axis, rushes towards the Sun. The explosive decompression at the lunar base also looks great, when a whole detachment of Martian special forces flies out of the shattered window. In some places, the authors, of course, cut corners - for side missions for landing on the SDF cruisers, they often use the same fragments of levels (although, on the other hand, it is logical that the Martian starships were built according to the same standard design).

Despite the similar scope and budget, it turned out to be the complete opposite of another autumn action movie - and the point is not only that the creators of one game looked a couple of centuries into the future, while others made an excursion into history. For the first time in many years Call of duty can be safely recommended to those who play shooters for the sake of the campaign. It is a pity that it takes 8, not, say, 15 hours, and does not allow us to breathe deeply - we always move strictly forward, as the game designer decided, and the general "rail" has not disappeared anywhere - but this "film" is better than before.

S.S.D.D.

The online part, on the other hand, appeals to conservatives. Despite the increased power of consoles and a modified graphics core that easily draws the vastness of distant worlds, multiplayer is "sharpened" for fierce battles on small maps, where stopping is like death. Many of the elements have almost entirely migrated from, and I would not be surprised that this is why the studio was listed in the credits. Jetpack bouncing, wall running, sliding, supply drops, unique specialization options with special skills - all of this I saw last November. Is that now they added "crafting" from improvised resources, which allows you to design sometimes insane types of weapons, updated gadgets and painted a bunch of beautiful locations, from dilapidated Shibuya to an orbital shipyard. A colleague of Top, who participated in the open beta test of the multiplayer "beta", came to similar conclusions.

But everything could be different, take the courage of the developers! The Single did a great job of merging ship gunfights and space battles, so why not have boarding battles between two teams of players? Such regimes were in the old and, but they lacked elaboration and polish; could blow the dust off this concept and implement it at the proper level. Eh!

The third component of the traditional menu Call of duty- zombie mode, available both for singles and in "co-op". In contrast to the absurdity about dragons in Stalingrad with a serious face, here the cheerful tone is immediately set by a long introductory cartoon and hits of that era like "Tainted Love" from Soft Cell.

Four actors came to audition for the once famous director, and he, using black magic, threw them into a "horror" from the 1980s. Now they have to fight off 20 waves of evil spirits in the amusement park, nailing up windows, buying weapons, earning experience and activating bonus cards a la Painkiller... If you fight as a team, then you will probably reach the end without much hassle: ATMs allow you to share money with your friends, and death from blood loss is not the end. After death, you find yourself in an otherworldly hall of machines to earn the right to return in mini-games. If you are not fed up yet the walking dead- go in, but remember: the network part uses a peer-to-peer connection with all its sores.