This is clearly not your grand-dad’s Call of Duty. Remember when we had spring-loaded rifles that fired single bullets?
Genre: First-person shooter.
What it's about: Futuristic soldiers shooting stuff.
Why we should care: It's the annual holiday refresh of the hugely popular franchise built on guns, grunts and multiplayer. Plus, players can jump now.
What happens in the first hour: We begin with a cinematic scene of soldiers suiting up into exoskeletons. They're being deployed into South Korea because North Korea is invading.
Our protagonist, an American soldier, natch, is narrating, saying something about his brother. There's no need to pay attention to names, because this is Call of Duty, and when have names, characters or story ever been important?
We're not even a full minute in before we get our first "Ooh-rah!" Oh yeah, it's Call of F-in Duty bro! The troops' job: push back the North Koreans. "This wasn't just a mission, it was an initiation," our protagonist says. Into what, we're not sure.
With all the trite, militaristic machismo over with, it's time to get down to action.
Things look very different as we land in Seoul. We're 40 years into the future. Hover jets make it feel like a battle out of The Terminator. Heavy mech suits walk by. Dollars to donuts we get to drive one of those later.
We use boot jets to safely dump down a big crumbled building. A spider-legged tank provides support. A drone swarm attacks and we take it out with an electro-magnetic pulse blast.
This is clearly not your grand-dad's Call of Duty. Remember when we had spring-loaded rifles that fired single bullets?
Our squad leader tells us to double tap the X button to boost jump. Suddenly, it doesn't feel like Call of Duty anymore. It's more like Halo, or Titanfall.
There's no time to digest that particular thought, though, as another wave of North Koreans attack. They have advanced technology too, which brings up all sorts of questions.
Like: Shouldn't we be mopping the floor with them? Or did Kim Jung Un figure out how to solve his country's food and electricity problems? Was Dennis Rodman a North Korean spy all along?
Our protagonist and his pal break through the enemy ranks and blow up a super-weapon, but not without said pal getting aced in the process. It's reaffirmation for the earlier decision to not learn his name.
Oh, and our hero gets his arm sliced off by a flying shard of debris. It's grody, but ultimately not too concerning since the game is called "Advanced Warfare." He'll surely get a nifty bionic arm in short order.
Mission one is over and we're awarded the "Seoul Mates" trophy. Yeesh.
So far, this is very different from the run of the mill Call of Duty. The jumping around and advanced weaponry are cool. It's also refreshing to play a game that isn't centred around upgrading every single aspect of your character.
No, wait. It looks like you do in fact upgrade every single aspect of your character between missions, such as his armour level, aim time and flinch response. Sigh.
Our narrator is back to tell us the good guys lost 6,000 virtual men in four hours. That sounds about right for a Call of Duty session.
Mission two begins and we finally meet Kevin Spacey, er, Frank Underwood, er, Jonathan Irons, the chief executive of private military contractor Atlas. He promises prosthetics in exchange for service.
He gives us a tour of his company's base and it's pretty damn clear to everyone except our protagonist that he's evil. Atlas is a superpower for hire, so is there really any doubt where all this is going to go?
During the action portion of the second mission, we're on a simulation to rescue the president. Here, a squad leader holds our hand and tells us exactly where to go and when. Ah, that's more like it. Now it feels like a proper Call of Duty game.
If you're thinking "I should buy this for Christmas," get a gift receipt. By the time December rolls around anyone who really wants this game will already own it.
Speaking of which, I decide to break the rules of of my one-hour-only review format and play for a second hour – this time in online multiplayer, the bread and butter of the franchise.
It's much like the single-player campaign: familiar, but also dramatically different. Boost jumping literally adds a whole new dimension to the game. It increases the stress and intensity of the game, since you now have to worry about attacks coming from above, as well as from in front and behind. Expect to swear even more violently and frequently into your headset.
The maps feel good too, ranging from compact for up-close-and-personal skirmishes to large and open, also known as snipers' paradise. I really, really hate such maps. They make you want to curl up in a ball in a corner somewhere and just hide there.
The pick-13 system is back, where you choose 13 weapons, accessories, perks and wildcards. You also get Exoskeleton powers, which range from short speeds bursts to cloaking devices. This is all cool, with the customization options being thoroughly deep.
All told, Advanced Warfare really is stretching what a Call of Duty game is (new developer Sledgehammer Games has been brought into the rotation, now featuring a three-year cycle with fellow developers Treyarch and Infinity Ward). That's probably more good than bad.
Highlights: Fantastic graphics and sound design, and a particularly sinister performance from Kevin Spacey. Boost jumping is smooth and well done.
Lowlights: From infrared "threat" grenades and EMPs to frags, homing "smart" grenades and others, there are way too many grenades. And the irritating quick-time button-pushing events are also back.
Time suck factor: The single-player campaign in Call of Duty games usually runs only a few hours. Multiplayer can last many, many, many hours, depending on how addicted you get.
Worth more than an hour? With the added dimension of verticality and all the new weaponry, this is the most impenetrable Call of Duty for new players yet. But for veterans of the series and fans of first-person shooters in general, it's definitely worth a look.
Peter Nowak