Gamescom 2014 kicked off the first of it's major conferences with developer Sledgehammer and publisher Activision, to unveil a new multiplayer trailer and fresh info on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the latest in the incredibly successful annualised military shooter series, famous for its fast paced online twitch shooter multiplayer gameplay. The Call of Duty series, along with other first person shooter series like Halo were largely responsible for the rapid growth and explosion in popularity of online multiplayer focused console shooters back in the mid to late noughties. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is considered to be the catalyst which sparked off the military shooter behemoth that is equally loved and loathed by gamers worldwide.
The latest game takes the series further into a near future setting than previous titles, and a large aspect of Advanced Warfare's gameplay is built around the 'Exo' suit (short for exoskeleton) the player has. This is essentially a futuristic blend of a jetpack and battle suit, and the multiplayer experience has been designed with every aspect of the suit in mind.
Players can now boost jump, dodge, powerslide and drop down from above for a slam kill, increasing the speed of an already lightning fast multiplayer experience. The suits also offer Crysis like abilities such as cloaking and going invisible, bringing up shields, and the ability to hover in the air momentarily allowing you to pick enemies off on the ground. Oh, and I almost forgot, you also have wrist-mounted grenade launchers as well, in case the other features weren't enough.
The Pick 10 system from Call of Duty: Black Ops II is returning, only this time it has been changed to the Pick 13 system (it has three more things in it, it must be better). This essentially lets you pick your own personal set of perks and abilities that you want to play with in multiplayer - for example, faster reloading, more ammo etc.
Four of the new maps were shown off as well; these were Biolab, Riot, Ascend, and Bunker. They look like they come from, or are heavily inspired by the single player campaign levels, which is a good thing as the campaign looks suitably impressive on the graphics and art direction side of things. The focus appears to be on small tight level designs that the Call of Duty series is famous for, although the new Exo suit mechanics in play will undoubtedly change up the rhythm of play somewhat.
Speaking of verticality coming into play in the map design, although comparisons to Titanfall were inevitable, the gameplay does look like it's own thing, even if that thing is a slight spin on what you normally expect from Call of Duty every year. There's now a randomised loot drop system, which is based on time spent playing rather than ranked skill which means that players of all skill levels will at least get a consistent supply of new weapons, armour and upgrades for their soldier. There's now co-op score streaks, where other players can make use of their friend's hard earned gunships and other shiny killing machines to cause some destruction themselves.
As the conference drew to a close, as a final Columbo "Just one more thing" sort of moment, it was announced that anyone who preorders the game will automatically get the 'Day Zero' edition of the game. Essentially, it means players who preorder the game will be able to get their mitts on it a day before everyone else and get double experience points throughout that day to give them a leg up on the competition, in addition to some exclusive weapons. This will undoubtedly appeal to hardcore Call of Duty players, but it's hard not to think of Spinal Tap and the whole 'turn it up to 11' gag with this - surely day zero is now day one though right? It's hard not to see this promotion spreading like wildfire once other publishers catch on to how willing gamers can be to get there hands on games in advance - we'll have to wait and see for now though.
