"While a radical departure from traditional Call of Duty mechanics failed to resonate with the majority of the COD community, it resulted in one of the best space shooters since Halo 2, despite losing the majority of its player base within just three months of launching. "
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare features a campaign good enough to exist as a stand-alone title. It could have easily sold well on its own thanks to a grounded, human-centric science fiction plot that embraces space combat without relying on aliens or fantastical encounters to move the story along. The game also boasts a stellar voice cast, including Brian Bloom, Kit Harington, David Harewood, and Claudia Lee Black,all of whom deliver top-tier performances that add a rare emotional depth to a first-person shooter campaign.
Unfortunately, due to the community’s less-than-enthusiastic reception to the multiplayer mode, the campaign’s narrative is unlikely to be continued,a real shame, as both the characters and plot are among the best the franchise has ever offered. While it falls short of the excellence of Black Ops II, it comes remarkably close to being one of the best campaigns in Call of Duty’s 20-year history.
The single-player campaign wasn’t the only part of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare to benefit from a star-studded cast. David Hasselhoff, Jay Pharoah, Ike Barinholtz, and Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) all lent their voices to the game’s various modes, helping establish it as more than something for “nerdy gamers” to enjoy.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s reveal trailer was one of the most disliked videos in YouTube history at the time of release, with over 60% of its 600,000 user ratings being negative. What makes this even more curious is that, while it wasn’t a great “Call of Duty” game by traditional standards, it was a brilliant first-person shooter that didn’t deserve the flood of negative reactions it received. Most of the backlash came from long-time fans craving a return to the boots-on-the-ground gameplay that had defined the series, rather than from issues with Infinite Warfare itself.
As of 2023, the reveal trailer has over 4 million dislikes and 656,000 likes, making it the 34th most-disliked video on YouTube,an ironic fate for what remains one of the franchise’s most narratively ambitious titles.
There’s nothing wrong with chasing a trend and making it work,Call of Duty: Warzone is proof of that. But many successful franchises have stumbled after making radical gameplay changes to lure players away from rival titles, and Activision has been one of the most consistent offenders.
Across several attempts to retool the formula, Activision tried,and failed,to compete directly with rival shooters, often alienating its core fanbase in the process:
1) Advanced Warfare: An attempt to cash in on the success of Titanfall resulted in many Call of Duty fans rejecting the Exo suit movement system, while few Titanfall players were willing to trade their mechs for what felt like a weaker imitation.
2) Infinite Warfare: The second attempt to capture the Titanfall audience only pushed fans further away, as they longed for a return to grounded, boots-on-the-ground combat. Ironically, despite being the less polished game, Infinite Warfare outsold Titanfall 2 by a wide margin,yet quickly lost its player base, while Titanfall 2 continues to have an active following to this day.
3) Black Ops 4: When Activision prematurely attempted to turn Call of Duty into a buy-2-play battle royale without crossplay, it found limited success. While Black Ops 4 sold well, it couldn’t compete with free-2-play titans like Fortnite and Apex Legends, which continue to dominate the genre.
Fortunately, the fourth attempt was a charm. Call of Duty: Warzone and its sequel went on to become dominant forces in the genre,not dethroning the leaders, but securing a massive market share and even surpassing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in 2022.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a first person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, it released on 4 November 2016, and is available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare supports:
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare offers the following matchmaking options:
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare supports the following peripherals:
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare offers a fantastic campaign that stands on its own as a complete sci-fi experience and remains one of the franchise’s most narratively ambitious efforts. However, due to the low activity of its multiplayer modes, I recommend waiting for a discount – or, for Xbox and PC players, its eventual addition to Game Pass.
We found Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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