‘Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ Multiplayer Beta: What You Need To Know And First Impressions

For as good of an emotional, well-written story as the Call of Duty series can tell, especially in the Modern Warfare series, let’s be honest: this series is all about multiplayer.

When you first load up a game from this series, you’re not thinking about how to combat the new terrorist threat, but how to combat your friends using a sniper rifle and some landmines. You’re not thinking about the amazing characters you’ll meet along the way like you would with something like Grand Theft Auto or The Walking Dead, but you’re in this to win and utterly destroy your friends in some Team Deathmatch.

Last month, Activision had us jump in the Deleorean-esque military vehicle and travel to another futuristic setting that would be our home for this year’s game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irIkbTen53k

Say what you want about the idea of more future stuff, but this is definitely going to be a fun ride. As we did earlier this month with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, let’s take a look at some first impressions from this game and what fans need to know before they load their clip up, customize their character, and prepare to kick some futuristic butt.

There’s not much to say about the PlayStation server issues yesterday that caused people to be unable to play until about 2:30 p.m. ET. Activision handled it as best they could from a PR standpoint and I’m not sure how much of the issue had to do with just server overload of people wanting to play the beta, but it’s in the past. Had this been an issue with the actual game day one where there was a major delay, however, that’s an entirely different story.

With that said, though, the servers are still having some major issues even a day later. Slow servers are to be expected with a beta, but this is a bit worse than I think most people expected.

I’m not a huge fan of the jetpack mechanic right now only because the idea of having to press X and then hold it seems like an inconvenience. While veteran COD players will have no issue with this system, I would have liked to see a mechanic similar to the one used in the older Star Wars: Battlefront games where a simple double tap did the job, but it’s one of those things we’ll get used to as time goes on.

Speaking of Star Wars, I can’t be the only one who gets a really similar vibe from this game that I do with the long-running sci-fi franchise, right? The “Frontier” multiplayer map feels a lot like the Tantive 4 from the original Star Wars— the ship where Darth Vader captures Princess Leia — the default soldier skins resemble Jango and Boba Fett’s Mandalorian armor (thanks to Cinema Blind for the picture) and there’s even similar sound effects from some of the guns. Though Infinite Warfare began development in 2014, one really has to wonder how much of the Star Wars renaissance that’s been in place for a few years (The Force Awakens, The Clone Wars, Rebels, Battlefront) played a part into the ideas for Activision’s latest project.

You hear the word fluidity a lot when talking about video games, but everything moves so smoothly in the beta that I have to mention how great this game runs. Even with the server issues, there’s no lag or hangup; everything works fine once you get into a game. I’m also a big fan of the slower pace that was more common in the Modern Warfare series and the first Black Ops, so major props have to go to the guys at Infinity Ward for making combat feel both different and similar to how it has in the past without doing anything extreme to change it.

The FHR-40 gun kicks major futuristic behind. You are going to see a lot of people using this gun when the game officially releases because it will pick the bones of your enemies clean.

The robots are not voiced by John DiMaggio. This is a shame.

In addition to Deathmatch, the other two available modes in the beta are Dominator and Defender. For those who don’t remember Defender from Modern Warfare 3, the main idea is that it’s almost like Capture The Flag, but a group of players will need to defend whoever is holding the flag rather than the holder simply sprinting to the finish line. Many people used it in MW3 to quickly rank their level up and the same should be expected — and is happening already — for Infinite Warfare.

Customization was limited in the beta so I can’t speak too much about it, but I will say the robot looks terrifyingly amazing. I need a robot like that.

Alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered for those who ordered select versions, the non-PS4 version of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will release on November 4 for Xbox One and Windows. Obviously, COD: IW will hit PlayStation 4 owners that day as well.

[Featured Image by Activision]