Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a 2016 first-person shooter game created by Infinity Ward and released by Activision. It is the 13th game in the Call of Duty series and was available on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One worldwide on November 4, 2016.
Development of Infinite Warfare started in 2014. It was the first game made by Infinity Ward under a new plan to create Call of Duty games every three years. The game’s story follows a war in the Solar System. The main enemy, a group called the Settlement Defense Front (SDF), tries to take control of space. Players control Lieutenant Nick Reyes, a soldier in the Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR). Reyes uses a customizable fighter plane called "Jackal" and travels on a central ship named "Retribution."
The game’s announcement trailer received a lot of negative feedback. At the time, it was the second-most disliked video on YouTube. Experts said this was because some fans were upset about the game’s science fiction setting, which was different from earlier Call of Duty games. Special editions of Infinite Warfare included a remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.
When it was released, Infinite Warfare received mostly positive reviews for its gameplay, characters, and Zombies mode. However, the multiplayer mode was criticized, and opinions about the single-player story were mixed. Later reviews praised the campaign as one of the best in the Call of Duty series but still criticized the multiplayer mode. The game is usually ranked below the top 10 in lists of the best Call of Duty games. It was named Best Shooter at E3 by Game Informer and received several award nominations. Although it sold fewer copies than earlier Call of Duty games, it was the top-selling game in the United States and the United Kingdom in November 2016.
Gameplay
Infinite Warfare is a first-person shooter game, similar to other games in the series. The game takes place in outer space, introducing new gameplay features like zero-gravity environments. Players use a boost pack and a grappling hook to move easily in these environments. The game allows players to visit different planets, satellites, and asteroids in the Solar System.
Players control Captain Nick Reyes, a special operations pilot. He fights enemies in aerial combat using his transforming fighter, the Jackal. Players can freely control the Jackal with few limits, and the game focuses on both space combat and ground combat. Transitions between these combat styles are seamless, with no loading screens.
Players access Retribution, a central hub world. Here, they can track their progress, start main missions, and complete "Ship Assaults," which provide cosmetic items, Jackal upgrades, and story details. Reyes uses a wrist computer to hack enemy devices and call in reinforcements during missions. The game includes two difficulty modes, Specialist and #YOLO, unlocked after finishing the campaign. In Specialist mode, players cannot regenerate health without special items, and weapons can be shot from their hands. In #YOLO mode, players must restart the game entirely if they die, instead of returning to checkpoints.
Infinite Warfare changes the class system to "Combat Rigs," which include six types: Warfighter, Merc, FTL, Stryker, Phantom, and Synaptic. Each rig has different weapons, abilities, and playstyles. For example, the Synaptic rig is for fast-paced combat, while the Phantom rig is for stealthy play. Players can earn "Traits," which are special abilities that help in combat. The game also keeps the momentum movement system from Black Ops III, allowing players to jump, slide, and climb walls.
The game includes hundreds of weapons, such as traditional guns, futuristic energy weapons, and grenades like the Seeker Grenade and Black Hole Grenade. Players can add attachments to improve weapon performance. A new weapon crafting system lets players earn "Salvage" points in multiplayer matches to buy "Prototype Weapons," which are improved versions of existing weapons. Each prototype has different rarity levels (Common, Rare, Legendary, Epic) and gives unique benefits called "Gun Perks." Scorestreaks return, offering rewards like deploying UAVs, counter-UAVs, and summoning an R-C8 robot to defend players.
The game also includes a cooperative Zombies mode with its own story and gameplay, separate from the main campaign. This mode is easier for new players, featuring shared points, teambuy doors, and familiar perks and power-ups. A new feature called "Fate and Fortune Cards" allows players to activate temporary boosts by earning points. Players can choose any of five cards at any time, and refill their deck up to two times per match. Unlike other modes, Zombies is not set in space and uses normal movement.
Synopsis
In the distant future, Earth's natural resources are used up because of more people and more factories. Countries come together to create the United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA), which manages trade, travel, and space settlements. People on Earth rely on colonies in other parts of the Solar System for resources, which attracts groups who want to take over these places, risking conflict. The Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO) protects Earth and UNSA. Before the game begins, a dangerous group called the Settlement Defense Front (SDF) appears on Mars. This group is made up of former UNSA colonies and acts as a dictatorship. After many years of fighting, relations worsen, increasing the risk of war across the Solar System.
Commander Nick Reyes, a top special forces pilot, is appointed as the captain of the UNSA Warship Retribution. His mission is to stop the SDF on Earth and travel to other planets using fighter craft called Jackals to prevent the SDF from taking over the entire Solar System. Helping Reyes are his mentor, Admiral Fredrick Raines; his friend and wingman, Lieutenant Nora Salter; his robot companion, E3N "Ethan"; and SATO Marines, including Staff Sergeant Usef Omar, Corporal Sean Brooks, and Private Todd Kashima. Other important allies include Retribution Navigator Victor "Gator" Diallo, Tigris warship captain Maureen Ferran, and Retribution Chief Engineer Audrey "Mac" MaCallum. The SDF's leader, Rear Admiral Salen Kotch, and his top commander, Akeel Min Riah, fight against Reyes and his team. UFC fighter Conor McGregor appears as SDF Captain Bradley Fillion, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton appears as Retribution Electro-technical Officer Carl Hamilton.
In the distant future, a UNSA team is sent to a secret weapons research facility on Europa, where a new weapon is being tested. The SDF takes over the facility, but the UNSA team retrieves the weapon, triggers the facility's self-destruct, and is captured by the SDF. The SDF's leader, Admiral Kotch, executes the team.
On Earth, Reyes tells Admiral Raines that the SDF's attack is a declaration of war. Raines refuses to respond because leaders want to avoid conflict, especially during Fleet Week in Geneva, where UNSA ships are gathered. Reyes meets Salter and the experimental robot E3N (nicknamed "Ethan"). The SDF hijacks UNSA AATIS cannons and attacks the fleet while invading Geneva. Reyes fights to disable the cannons, captures Riah, and joins surviving ships to battle the SDF. The SDF flagship, Olympus Mons, destroys most of the fleet, leaving only the Retribution and the Tigris.
After returning to the Retribution, Reyes learns that the ship's captain and executive officer were killed, making him the highest-ranking officer and de facto captain. Admiral Raines promotes Reyes to commander and orders him to retake the Moon's cargo port from the SDF. After liberating the Moon, Reyes delays the SDF while UNSA rebuilds its fleet. He attacks key SDF targets and a refueling tower on Titan, damaging the SDF's fuel supply. During this mission, Reyes and Ethan are nearly killed but are rescued by the Tigris. Later, Reyes investigates a disturbance near Mercury, only to discover it was a distraction while the SDF destroys the Tigris, leaving the Retribution as the only remaining UNSA ship.
Reyes learns that Riah carries a beacon to signal the SDF fleet to attack Earth. Reyes plans to use the beacon to lure the SDF into the still-working AATIS guns. The plan fails when Riah escapes, destroys the AATIS guns, and kills himself to trigger the beacon. The SDF attacks, and the Olympus Mons destroys the UNSA headquarters, killing Admiral Raines.
With no other choices, Reyes boards the Olympus Mons. Enraged, Kotch sets his ship to self-destruct, aiming to destroy Geneva and weaken SATO. Reyes fights to the bridge, kills Kotch, and stops the self-destruct. He takes the Olympus Mons and Retribution to Mars to destroy the SDF's orbital shipyard and fleet. The Olympus Mons is heavily damaged, and weapons are unusable. Reyes orders it to ram the shipyard, causing the Retribution to also sustain damage and drift into the Olympus Mons flight path. Both ships crash onto Mars, leaving the shipyard intact.
Realizing they cannot return to Earth, Reyes rallies the Retribution crew for a final attack on the shipyard. Most are killed, but Reyes, Salter, Ethan, and a few others reach the shipyard. Ethan sacrifices himself to destroy the shipyard's moorings, while Reyes unlocks the weapons and orders Salter to destroy the shipyard. Salter reluctantly fires, ejecting Reyes into space. Reyes watches the shipyard explode before shrapnel punctures his suit, causing him to suffocate.
Later, the UNSA honors Reyes and the Retribution crew for destroying the SDF shipyard, calling it a decisive victory that ended the SDF. Salter, one of only four survivors who returned to Earth, salutes a Geneva war memorial listing all UNSA soldiers killed, including Reyes.
Development and release
I want people to try our new game and say, "Wow, I haven't seen Call of Duty change that much since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."
In 2014, Activision announced a three-year plan for the Call of Duty series. Three studios—Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch—would take turns making a new Call of Duty game each year. This plan was meant to give each game more time to develop. Infinite Warfare is the third and final game in the first cycle. It is the first Call of Duty game developed by Infinity Ward since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Development for the game began in 2014. Infinity Ward added many new ideas and focused on the game's storytelling. The team chose space as the game's setting because they believed it would offer players new and exciting environments. To make the game more realistic, Infinity Ward worked with military experts. The team also planned to start a new sub-series called Infinite Warfare.
In February 2016, Activision announced that Infinity Ward would lead the development of 2016's Call of Duty game. Activision confirmed Infinite Warfare as the game when they said they would not have a booth at E3 2016 and instead showed their products through Sony Interactive Entertainment. Activision teased the game with a video called "Know Your Enemy" and a new ending for Black Ops III's "Nuk3town" map, which showed a giant airship. The game was leaked on PlayStation Store on April 26, and the first trailer was shared unofficially on Hulu before the game's official announcement.
In May 2016, Activision released the official announcement trailer for the game, one week after trademarking the name. The trailer was revealed during a live-stream on Twitch. As part of the reveal, Activision created a social media game using a Facebook chat bot that asked players to decode a message. A remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, called Modern Warfare Remastered, was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC alongside Infinite Warfare. This version was only available with the purchase of certain editions of Infinite Warfare. The first public gameplay for Infinite Warfare's campaign was shown during a Sony press conference at E3 2016. A gameplay video for the "Black Sky" campaign mission was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016. The "Terminal" map pre-order bonus was also announced for customers who pre-ordered the game.
In August 2016, Activision sent mysterious metal boxes to YouTubers in the Call of Duty community. Each box had a combination lock and a countdown timer. A code was sent to open the boxes once the timer reached one minute. Inside each box were 80's-themed items, including a cassette player and a VHS tape containing the reveal trailer for Zombies in Spaceland. An HD version of the trailer was released hours later, along with information about new game mechanics and a bonus preorder pack for Zombies in Spaceland. The official reveal of Infinite Warfare's multiplayer mode happened during the Call of Duty XP 2016 convention in early September 2016.
A multiplayer beta for people who pre-ordered the PlayStation 4 version of the game began on October 14. A beta for Xbox One players started on October 21, and the PC version did not have a beta. The beta ended on October 24.
Players who bought the season pass, either separately or with special editions of the game, received all four DLC packs for Infinite Warfare in 2017 at a slightly discounted price compared to buying them separately. Season pass holders also received 1,000 Salvage credits and 10 rare supply drops at the game's launch. The first DLC pack, called Sabotage, was available to PS4 players on January 31, 2017, and to Xbox One and PC players on March 2, 2017. This pack included a new Zombies map, Rave in the Redwoods, and four multiplayer maps: Noir, Renaissance, Neon, and Dominion (a remake of the MW2 map Afghan). The second map pack, Continuum, was released on PS4 on April 18, 2017, and on Xbox One and PC on May 18, 2017. It included four multiplayer maps: Turista, Scrap, Archive, Excess (a remake of the MW2 map Rust), and one Zombies map, Shaolin Shuffle. The third map pack, Absolution, was released on PS4 on July 6, 2017, and on Xbox One and PC on August 8, 2017. It included the Zombies map Attack of the Radioactive Thing and four multiplayer maps: Permafrost, Fore, Bermuda, and Ember (a remake of the MW3 map Resistance). The final map pack, Retribution, was released on PS4 on September 12, 2017. It included the final Zombies episode, The Beast from Beyond, and four multiplayer maps: Carnage, Altitude, Depot 22, and Heartland (a remake of the Ghosts map Warhawk).
In addition to map packs, Infinite Warfare also included announcer voice packs that replaced the regular voice in multiplayer with other voices. A free voice pack called "UK Special Forces," featuring actor Craig Fairbrass, was released to all players. Other voice packs included voices from celebrities such as rapper Method Man, YouTuber Ozzy Man Reviews, and comedian Ken Jeong.
Reception
When the first trailer for the game was released, the community strongly criticized it for being too futuristic. Many people believed this was because of frustration with the direction of the franchise, as recent games had been set in future settings. In response, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said he understood that some fans missed the "boots-on-the-ground-style gameplay" from earlier games. However, he also noted that many fans wanted new and innovative experiences, and that Infinite Warfare aimed to provide this. He also mentioned that Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which also had a trailer with many dislikes, later became the best-selling Call of Duty game at the time. As of June 30, 2021, the Infinite Warfare trailer had received over 3.95 million dislikes and was the 25th-most-disliked video on YouTube.
Despite the criticism before its release, Infinite Warfare was named Best Shooter at E3 by Game Informer. At the 2016 Game Critics Awards, the game was nominated for Best Action Game but lost to Battlefield 1.
According to Metacritic, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare received "generally favorable" reviews for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but the PC version received "mixed or average" reviews.
IGN gave the game a 7.7 out of 10, stating, "Despite its shift to interplanetary combat, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a generally fun but inessential shooter." Trusted Reviews awarded it 4 and a half out of 5 stars, noting that the campaign and "Zombies" mode would keep players engaged.
The single-player campaign received mixed reviews. Trusted Reviews praised the improved quality of Call of Duty campaigns in recent years and the lack of loading screens, but felt the story was "a bit thin." GamesRadar+ appreciated the dark, realistic tone and said the game was different from the usual heroism in the series. Game Informer noted that Infinite Warfare included some familiar elements but had more emotional depth than earlier games. The story and characters received praise, with Polygon and GameRevolution calling them the "strongest" and "most memorable" in the series. IGN and GameSpot also praised the dialogue and performances. GamesTM criticized the lack of player interactions during single-player, while Push Square called the campaign "stellar" but said the multiplayer was "crashing down" and that microtransactions were unacceptable.
EGM criticized the story as one of the worst they had seen, pointing out weak character development and unclear plot points. IGN described the campaign as "slow and plodding," only slightly better than Call of Duty: Ghosts. Destructoid called the campaign "average," saying only fans of sci-fi or Mass Effect might enjoy it.
Game Informer noted that the gameplay felt more like older Call of Duty games, with less fast-paced movement. EGM appreciated the variety of space-based gameplay but found some objectives unclear. Destructoid said some gadgets were more fun in multiplayer. Trusted Reviews criticized the multiplayer, saying it did not match earlier games.
Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb said the game was "not long or replayable enough to warrant a full-priced purchase." Cole Watson of Computer Games Magazine called it "the most disappointing multiplayer shooter" they had played recently.
Infinite Warfare sold 1.8 million copies in its first week in the United States. However, overall sales were 50% lower than Call of Duty: Black Ops III in 2015. Activision expected lower sales because Infinite Warfare was a new sub-series and the Black Ops name had strong brand recognition. Despite slow initial sales, Infinite Warfare was the top-selling game in the U.S. in November 2016. Activision reported in February 2017 that the game missed sales expectations, partly because it "did not resonate with fans."
The PlayStation 4 version sold 105,764 copies in its first week in Japan, making it the best-selling game of the week in the country.
Legacy
Reviews of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare have been varied. Many critics have praised the game's single-player story and Zombies mode, but they have criticized its multiplayer features. Some reviewers highlighted the campaign's special scenes, focus on one main character, and detailed storytelling, with some calling it one of the best Call of Duty campaigns ever made. In 2019, Gareth Damian Martin of PC Gamer noted that the game's science-fiction themes and world-building were strong, stating that "Infinite Warfare succeeds as a good science fiction game despite challenges."
The multiplayer mode faced criticism for its combat, weapons, and map designs. Dave Aubrey of Sports Illustrated said the multiplayer lacked clear direction and felt less realistic compared to earlier games. Cade Onder of ComicBook.com pointed out that the multiplayer did not stand out enough from similar games like Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III, except for its space-themed setting. In rankings of Call of Duty games, some lists have labeled Infinite Warfare as one of the worst in the series, while others have placed it below the top 10.