Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Released in November 2014, *Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare* was developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was the first Call of Duty title for which Sledgehammer served as lead developer. High Moon Studios handled the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, while the game also appeared on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

Its campaign follows Jack Mitchell, voiced by Troy Baker. Mitchell begins as a U.S. Marine fighting in Seoul, where his friend Will Irons is killed and Mitchell loses his left arm. Will’s father, Jonathan Irons, offers Mitchell a prosthetic arm and a position at Atlas, the private military corporation he leads. Kevin Spacey provides Irons’s voice and likeness. As Mitchell carries out operations for Atlas, he discovers that Irons is pursuing Manticore, a biological weapon, and turns against him. Mitchell later works with Sentinel, a force investigating Atlas. The campaign’s conflict ends in New Baghdad, where Mitchell detaches his prosthetic arm to escape Irons’s grip.

The game’s defining equipment is the exoskeleton. In the campaign, different suits enable actions such as boosted jumps, dashes, grappling, and cloaking, depending on the mission. Exo movement also reshapes multiplayer: players can boost upward or sideways, reach elevated routes, and change direction during a firefight. That makes its matches distinct from the predominantly ground-level movement of earlier Call of Duty releases.

*Advanced Warfare* uses a “Pick 13” multiplayer loadout system, in which weapons, attachments, perks, equipment, and scorestreaks draw from a shared allowance. Scorestreaks can be customized with additional capabilities at a higher point cost. The game also introduced Supply Drops containing cosmetic gear and weapon variants with altered statistics. Its Virtual Firing Range lets players test a selected weapon without leaving the loadout screen.

Beyond the campaign and competitive multiplayer, the base game includes Exo Survival, a cooperative mode built around waves of enemies. A separate Exo Zombies mode arrived with the *Havoc* downloadable-content pack. Its story continued through the maps Outbreak, Infection, Carrier, and Descent, released across the game’s four DLC packs. The mode features performances by John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and Jon Bernthal.

Together, these elements mark a specific turn for the series: *Advanced Warfare* pairs a story about a powerful private army with movement and equipment designed around the exoskeleton. Its campaign makes Atlas central to the conflict, while its multiplayer makes the same technology central to how players cross a map and fight.