Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is taking the franchise to its next logical step; at least that’s the direction that developer Infinity Ward seems to be taking. The single player campaign is seeing a similar expansion, which is seeing additional features like side-missions and space-fighter combat.
Taylor Kurosaki, Narrative Director of Single Player Campaign, explained that Infinity Ward spoke to former Navy SEALs to figure out how zero-G combat would work. These consultants pointed out that infantry tactics would still essentially be the same, with soldiers moving from cover to cover to gain an advantage on the enemy. This lead to the inclusion of the grappling hook to allow players to quickly traverse between areas while experiencing micro-gravity.
Expanding on the space aspect of the game is the inclusion of the Jackal fighter, which provides players with the option of fighting space battles from the comfort of their own starfighter. Kurosaki explained that the flying missions in the single player would not be on rails like some other games, but rather allow full control over the vehicle.
In addition to this, there will be a new game fighter combat mode that takes advantage of VR technology. This mode is solely about flying the Jackal into combat, and uses virtual reality to allow players to aims missiles by looking around. Incidentally, this isn’t too different from how current day fighter pilots perform combat actions.
The single player campaign adds side-quests to the main story. Success in these missions will potentially affect the difficulty of future missions, although it sounds like this simply means that the player will get more powerful weapons from them.
Unfortunately, despite this information, the demo on the Tokyo Game Show floor was still limited to the multiplayer portion of the game. Which still feels like CoD; with few changes. This is probably good news for those who enjoy the franchise and want a refresh, but will do little to convince critics. The Zombies in Spaceland mode will not likely make things any better.
Interestingly, Infinity Ward and PlayStation have announced pre-order bonuses for CoD: IW. Those who pre-order the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Legacy or Legacy Pro editions will gain access to the single player portion of the the game some 30 days before launch. The Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare open beta will begin on 15 October for all PlayStation 4 users.
