The Call of Duty series underwent some drastic changes in recent years – both in terms of overall story concepts and in terms of the era of the stories being told. Call of Duty started as a World War 2 game, all main games and DLC content revolved around the battles of the second worldwide conflict. Then, with the Modern Warfare installments, a shift towards a more recent storyline came. But, it didn’t stop there, Call of Duty became a herald for a dark future in terms of story and overall concept: If we as heroes and protagonists were unable to stop global conflicts and warlords, our world would collapse. We were never alone though, we were part of a team of heroes out to save the day.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is another bold step towards an even more futuristic setting, the story takes place in a future that sees a great conflict beyond the reach of Earth. Mankind has taken to the stars to gather the resources needed for the survival of the human race. After years of colonization, a group of rebels has started to invade outposts and resource plants. Those rebels are not the romanticized rebels from something like Star Wars, they do not fight for good, they want to establish an all-out rule over the colonized galaxy. Those soldiers have no connection with Earth and the humanity our protagonists in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare seek to protect. The SDF is out to claim everything for themselves and destroy Earth.
This dark setting of the storyline is introduced quite drastically with the first mission and is part of the whole player experience in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The constant struggle of mankind against this new threat is underlined by the complete loss of humanity: The SDF destroys, kills and tortures without remorse. During the campaign players fight in very different environments, even fly spaceships and try to survive in very close Proximity to the Sun. While a lot of fans of the series were very skeptical about an even more futuristic storyline, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare works really well overall. The single-player campaign of Black Ops 3 did not work all that well, Infinite Warfare goes back to the series’ roots, bringing us a great experience with epic battles, acts of heroism and lots of emotional subplots.
The multiplayer experience:
If we look at servers and players for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, we see that the competitive gaming community has not yet adopted the newest title in the series. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 remains at the top with time played and concurrent users. Overall the multiplayer of Infinite Warfare is very similar to other installments of the series. Specialists have been replaced by combat rigs, which are exo-skeletons that vary in weaponry and stats. Players still need to grind levels to receive better weapons, weapon skins and perks. This means that professional teams have not had time to really delve into the tactical combinations of weapons and perks while the eSports season was still going on. With the next year looming, this might be the next step to push Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer component above Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is out now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.