First Impressions: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the perfect blend of Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s movement and Call of Duty: Ghosts’ traditional gameplay.

The new multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare officially launched on the PS4 on Friday and we have quite a few things to say about the game. There’s a lot to love about the newest entry in the Call of Duty series, but first, let us vent our frustrations.

Many of us with beta codes have been anxiously waiting for the developers to open up the servers so we can test out the game. They promised the beta would launch at 1 PM ET. As the time approached, we opened up the Infinite Warfare beta application ready to play it but it wasn’t loading.

After checking Twitter, it just so happens the PlayStation Network servers were down, so we couldn’t play. We’re still unsure why the servers went down in the first place, but many believe it was the high volume of players trying to play the beta. It makes sense, but it’s still very frustrating.

Other than the little server mishaps, which delayed our time with the game, we were finally able to play at 2:30 PM ET, an hour and a half after the scheduled launch time.

After spending about an hour and a half with the new beta, we can say it’s a ton a fun. This is a game that was utterly destroyed on social media, because of the futuristic setting that the developers decided to roll with once again. Many Call of Duty purists were hoping for the next game to return to more traditional gameplay, but they decided to go all futuristic on us once again.

Going into this game, we held our expectations to an all-time low because of everything that was said about the game. It’s odd since we did enjoy playing Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III, but maybe we do agree with some people about the series returning to its roots. So, let’s talk about the gameplay.

Infinite Warfare Gameplay

Infinite Warfare is the perfect blend of Ghosts and Black Ops III. To explain a bit more, Ghosts was the last title developed by Infinity Ward back in 2013. It was also the last game to feature traditional “boots-on-the-ground” gameplay before the series transitioned to a more futuristic setting. Black Ops III is the latest Call of Duty title developed by Treyarch, which was released last year. It features an enhanced movement based system, such as utilizing jetpacks and wall-running. It’s also very fast paced.

We already knew that Infinite Warfare would be like Black Ops III, but we were definitely in for a surprise. As soon as you launch the game, you immediately realize it’s a lot slower and the movement isn’t as big of a factor. This slower paced game definitely caters to classic Call of Duty players since you can spend more time with your feet on the ground and use the movement just to travel through the map.

The three maps (Throwback, Frost, and Frontier) in the beta also seem to cater to both types of players as well. There’s many wall-running platforms and such throughout the maps, but it isn’t as exaggerated as previous games. The maps in the previous two titles were made strictly around the new movement, so you had to adapt to the new style of gameplay and there really wasn’t a different way to go about it. We can safely say Infinite Warfare mixes both classic and new Call of Duty gameplay styles extremely well.

Game Modes

Talking about the modes, there’s three of them available in the beta. Fan favorites Team Deathmatch and Domination return, but there’s also a new playable mode called Defender. This mode is making its return to the series after its appearance in Modern Warfare 3. As usual, all three of these modes are very fun to play and it gives us a lot of variety, especially for a beta.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (screenshot)

Lastly, the weapons, equipment, and customizations offer only two weapons per category, such as assault rifles and submachine guns. If you’re a veteran Call of Duty player, you know that AR’s are mostly used for long-range purposes and SMG’s are for those who want to get straight into the action. To go more into detail about these weapons, one of the SMG’s is called the FHR-40. It’s a full-auto ballistic firearm which solid range and accuracy and it definitely excels at close range.

There’s also the NV4, which is an AR and very accurate and is mostly used for mid to long-range gun fighting. So far, the weapons are a ton of fun to use and we have a great idea of which ones we’ll be using in the full build of the game.

In this game, there’s a new system known as Combat Rigs. You can easily compare them to the Specialists from Black Ops III. These Combat Rigs have a meter and as you play the game, the meter gets full and you can activate to receive a special ability. For example, one is called Warfighter which grants you a mini turret and once activated, it shreds anybody in its path. Of course, you can only capitalize on this for a short period, so use it wisely.

Finally, the customizations. Like in past games, you can customize your character, your weapons, your calling card, and so on to your liking. It’s very similar to previous games and it works very well.

Next: Gears of War 4 online multiplayer review

Overall, the gameplay is smooth, the guns are fun to use, the movement isn’t as exaggerated and the maps are fun to play on. If you’re having doubts, we suggest you give it a try. We’re enjoying our time with the beta so far (other than the servers) and we can’t wait to play the full game once it launches on November 4.