Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Frustrations with Multiplayer

It’s always difficult when first beginning a new shooter as players need to learn the ropes and thoroughly evaluate the maps to learn what works best for them. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is no different, especially when it comes to the added enhancement of being able to boost over walls and other objects.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare for the most part feels very similar to the multiplayer gameplay that we’ve all been used to. However, like I mentioned we can now boost on top of objects and also thrust in different directions to attempt to evade enemy fire.

I must say that the Exo boost feature is really neat and although I didn’t like it at first it has eventually grown on me. I still can’t say it’s the best thing to ever happen to Call of Duty as I still wouldn’t mind staying on the ground with basic run and gun gameplay.

Now it’s run and thrust and gun!

I appreciate new direction and vision, and I respect those who like the more futuristic gameplay. I also like it myself, though I prefer Call of Duty: Ghosts more compared to what I’ve experienced with Advanced Warfare.

My opinions are primarily based on playing hardcore team deathmatch on the Xbox One for over 20 hours.

Obviously the game is only a week old and a lot of changes will be made to issues like lag and spawn locations. Lag has pretty much ruined multiplayer as it seems almost every game someone on the team of six witnesses a big lag display where they are delayed from the rest of the group. This leaves the player at a disadvantage because their response time to a one-on-one situation is delayed compared to the other player.

Do you ever wonder where that guy came from or how some guy seeming just turned but already got his shots off? The lag delay is usually at fault (though some players really are that quick).

It’s just frustrating because players can have a good round with no issues at all and have a nice positive kill/death ration but then have it completely wiped out because they are hit with lag the next round.

That’s been a known issue though and is something they are working on quickly to fix. (They just released an update that has seemingly helped with the lag. I still need more time to test it out though.)

Another issue I’ve had is the spawning. The thing that annoys me and other players the most is players spawning right behind enemies. It happens far too often! This is awful because players think they clear and corner but then all of a sudden get shot right from the location they just cleared because an enemy just spawned there.

Sure, I’ve had many times where I’ve spawned behind players. I even spawned right behind a friend right when he spawned. So I guess maybe it evens out, but it’s still ridiculous.

This is something that could be better with team matches as they’ll know not to advanced too far otherwise the other team will spawn behind them. However, in open rooms where everyone is running everywhere, it’s impossible to stop.

I’d almost rather have to fight my way out of a spawn zone rather than get shot in the back by someone who just spawned randomly behind me.

Here’s my big overall issue with Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer. The size of the maps.

Some of these maps are just way too small and not designed very well at all. There are way too many exposure points and not a lot of close quarter zones for players to really get a good overall back and forth fight. Right now it’s just an insane chaotic mess inside a small toybox where players can come from all sides, from all heights, and from any spawn. This isn’t very fun.

What makes these maps too small is the new boost pack feature. Maybe a lot of these maps would be fine if the Exo abilities didn’t exist, but they do and it makes everything feel very claustrophobic.

I keep hearing a lot of people mention how they didn’t like the maps in Call of Duty: Ghosts because they were too big. That I can’t understand at all because they felt great and very natural to me. I don’t think it has as many player favorites like Black Ops II did, but it still has many of its own fun and engaging maps that each feature those favorite battle locations where players always seem to meet up and fight.

Ghosts got a lot of criticism for reasons I still don’t understand. It stayed true to the series and gameplay we all love. No, it didn’t take a big chance and introduce new elements, but it did provide more great multiplayer action.

Again, Advanced Warfare is awesome for trying something new. I’ve grown to appreciate everything about it, everything except the maps. I wonder if during its creation that Sledgehammer heard about the Ghosts’ maps being too large and made note to condense theirs. If they wanted smaller maps and were making a game with the exact same gameplay, then yes that would make sense. However, they introduced more speed and height with the Exo boost ability. This alone would make any large map feel much smaller. So it obviously makes the small maps feel very confined.

I think this is the reason why we see more camping also. Not only are we having players appear right behind us, but more players seem to be camping in the few spots that actually have good cover.

I’m just frustrated with the maps. Maybe my frustration with the lag and the spawn locations is affecting my impressions overall with the maps, who knows. But what I do know is that the maps have too many open points that allow easy access to cross to the other side and force players into further chaos. The chaos only gets further amplified by the addition of players spawning all around. There just isn’t a good overall flow to these maps like there has been in previous Call of Duty games.

I’ll keep playing for a little bit longer, especially after some of the issues get fixed to see if that enhances the experience. Otherwise, I might just be a frustrated player until larger maps are released. Hopefully it’s not too long of a wait though because I really do love a new Call of Duty.