14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Sledgehammer Games is at the moment busy talking about the changes of core game mechanics that will be included in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but the team also wants the single-player story to be interesting and to draw some inspiration from current world events.
Glen Schofield, a co-founder and leading developer working on the first-person shooter, tells CVG that much of the philosophy of the main antagonist played by Kevin Spacey is based on the effects of the Arab Spring.
He states, “I had a friend who escaped from Iraq. Her uncle had been sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein four years earlier. He had this tradition where he released a number of prisoners every year and that year her uncle was one of them. When he was released, she said she was leaving Iraq and he should come with her. He replied, ‘why? I have support here. I have protection. It may be tough here but I have all I need’.”
Sledgehammer Games is creating a story that shows how the advancement of technology can be used in the future by a Private Military Company to gain more power than national armies and to launch a worldwide conflict.
Ethics and the first-person shooter
The campaign of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will allow gamers to do some questionable actions and the team wants those who get through the title to evaluate their ethical response once they see what the consequences are.
Schofield does not want to force gamers to understand real world situations but he likes the way they allow players to think about their own morality.
He adds, “But I like the idea of sentimental redemption. I don't have an agenda and I'd never be so bold as to try and ram one down the throats of our fans. But if we can present some questions or some thoughts or some facts and have the player walk away thinking about those things - I'm really into that!”
The team has said that the single player of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be bigger than those of previous titles in the franchise.
The first-person shooter will be out on November 4 on the PC, the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 and last-gen consoles and a Day Zero Edition is designed for hardcore fans who want to get access 24 hours earlier.
