By designing the levels in the campaign, co-op, and multiplayer to facilitate those new mechanics, Advanced Warfare is granted a weight and importance that changes how the fast-paced shooting action feels in all three modes.

This game is a lot of fun. There’s some Crysis in it, some Titanfall, some elements borrowed from Unreal Tournament and Battlefield. Underneath it’s still Call of Duty though, finally modernized in terms of visuals. [13/2014, p.50]

Even though Advanced Warfare has a cliche scenario like Ghosts, multiplayer is still fun.

Despite the dismal showing of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare shows that it’s not quite time to write off this series yet, and I just may be back next year to see if the improvements continue or if this game turned out to be just a fluke.

It's the best Call of Duty campaign in years, and the multiplayer continues to scratch a certain itch. [Jan 2015, p.64]

The story is nothing to write home about, but the multiplayer is great fun as long as the servers are working.

For the second year in the row, Activision, like a crafty snake oil peddler, pushes ‘a next-gen Call of Duty’ by replacing developers, locations and characters. Goodbye, German cyber-shepherd, orbital kinetic missiles and a crazy Venezuelan dictator. Hello, exoskeletons, holograms and a corporate megalomaniac played by Kevin Spacey. But the glitzy CG cinematics and sweet PR songs hide the stale 10-year old gameplay formula.