We got our first look at the new Call of Duty, subtitled Infinite Warfare, this morning. Now we have more details on the first-person shooter that will take you off Earth and out into the far reaches of our Solar System.
Developer Infinity Ward promises a futuristic story that casts players as Captain Reyes, a "Tier One Special Operations pilot" who pilots one of "Earth's last remaining warships," indicating that this 13th game in the hyper-popular Call of Duty series will be on a scale larger than its its Earth-locked predecessors.
Players will pilot one of Earth's military spaceships
Reyes will be battling the forces of the Settlement Defense Front, an insurgency that seceded from the suitably sci-fi-sounding United Nations Space Alliance over the issue of Earth's colonies.
Our home planet has been stripped of its resources at this indeterminate point in the future, leading humans to rely on colony production, but the fascist SDF — hardened by difficult lives on asteroids and new worlds — want to take the goodies for themselves. Infinity Ward says battles will be fought both on the ground and up in space, putting players at the controls of jet fighters and spaceships with "few visible load times." The huge warship you'll be piloting, the Retribution, will also serve as your home, suggesting that Call of Duty could be borrowing Mass Effect-ish conversations with crewmates in its stated quest to deliver "rich emotional arcs."
The official announcement comes after fans spotted a listing for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare under the "trending" section of the PlayStation Store last week, an apparent mistake that appeared to confirm the name for the next game in the yearly franchise, but didn't provide any extra information. Another image discovered by fans on the game's subreddit appeared to show Infinite Warfare's cover shot, and its release date — November 4th, this year, in line with other releases in the series.
Infinite Warfare is — fittingly — the work of Infinity Ward, one of three studios (along with Sledgehammer and Treyarch) that tag-team development duties on Activision's mega-hit Call of Duty series. Infinity Ward was responsible for the original Call of Duty, along with 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Following Modern Warfare 2, the studio's founders left with a number of its key staff members to found Respawn Entertainment under the umbrella of Activision rival EA. The studio is responsible for the Titanfall series.
In addition to the campaign mode, Infinite Warfare will ship with multiplayer and a co-operative Zombies modes, the two features that helped cement Call of Duty as one of the biggest video game names on the planet. Notably, this will be the first time an Infinity Ward game has included a Zombies mode. The immensely popular game type was introduced in Call of Duty: World at War by Treyarch, and Infinity Ward staff have shied away from including it on their games in the past, arguing that their co-developer had ownership of the concept. Special editions of Infinite Warfare will also ship with a remastered version of Modern Warfare, updated for modern consoles and PCs.