Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare details:

In development at Sledgehammer Games for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. A separate studio to be named later is working on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. There's no word on Wii U.

The game runs on a new and unspecified game engine.

The story opens with a catastrophic event that Sledgehammer Games cofounder Michael Condrey describes as "like a global 9/11." There's little more to go on, but major cities on multiple continents are affected by some kind of terrorism perpetrated by a terrorist organization called KVA.

It is set in 2054.

You play a character named Private Mitchell, who is voiced by prolific voice actor Troy Baker. You may know Baker for his recent roles in The Last of Us (Joel), BioShock Infinite (Booker), and Batman: Arkham Origins (The Joker). Mitchell only speaks during cutscenes; never during gameplay.

Mitchell starts Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare as a Marine, who is squadmates with Will Irons, the son of Private Military Company Atlas Corporation CEO Jonathan Irons (played by Kevin Spacey). After their tour of duty is done, the elder Irons asks Mitchell if he wants to leave the Marines to join his father's company. Mitchell says yes and is outfitted with an "EXO" suit for his new job.

Unlike past Call of Duty games, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has only one protagonist.

Kevin Spacey says he was "very excited" about joining the game when he was originally approached.

You'll earn points every mission that can be used to upgrade your EXO suit. Using the EXO suit, you can climb walls with magnetic gloves, boost-dodge toward cover, perform super-jumps that let you get to higher ground, use optic camouflage for cloaking, and hover in mid-air.

Your arsenal includes "variable grenades," which can be switched from concussion to threat detection while they cook. The threat detection grenade reveals enemy locations and makes this information available via an augmented reality system visible in your visor.

Some of your guns are energy-based, and do not use traditional ammunition.

There is a rideable vehicle called a Pitbull, which is based on the real world Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle.

There's no official word on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer yet, but Condrey teases, "You can probably imagine the possibilities of a lot of the stuff you saw in single-player and how it would apply online." Activision also says it is "absolutely committed" to supporting eSports.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will have some kind of co-op mode.

Veteran Metal Gear Solid composer Harry Gregson-Williams is working on the game's soundtrack. Audio director Don Veca says, "I think Advanced Warfare is going to be the best-sounding and certainly the best-mixed game ever."

In an effort to create a believable world, Activision consulted with "experts from production design in movies to experts in the military to scientists and futurists," according to Sledgehammer cofounder Glen Schofield.