Earlier this week, Activision and Sledgehammer Games released the newest story trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The story for the new game for the mega franchise, which takes the series into the future with a more sci-fi bent, looks like it will be a commentary on private military corporations. Based on the footage from the new trailer, the Atlas Corporation’s allegiance only lies to itself.
The trailer opening starts with voice-over narration that reveals the world suffered a massive terror attack. The attack was global and caused the meltdown of five nuclear power plants across the world. The event left governments and their armies crippled. Enter the Atlas Corporation, founded by company president Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey). Atlas was responsible for cleaning up the mess of the attack, repairing the countries’ infrastructures and attacking the terrorists. From there, it appears Atlas became only more powerful. Spacey’s voice-over notes that Atlas possesses the largest sitting private military in the world and is able to invade a country without Congress’ approval. That particular story beat sounds interesting; but would a private military organization cross over into another sovereign country’s airspace be some sort of violation of law?
The trailer begins with an Abraham Lincoln quote: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” I assume the quote is meant to refer to Irons’ character and corruption. The gameplay footage in the trailer focuses on what appears to be Atlas soldiers and their high-tech gear in war torn areas. The true villains, terrorists or bad guys are not clear. Based on the trailer, I am leaning toward Irons being the ultimate villain, or perhaps the cause of the initial global terrorist attacks. However, the trailer does not really reveal who the main protagonists are and whether you are attempting to undermine Atlas or fighting for it throughout the game.
In the E3 demo for the game, you play as a character named Mitchell. Some of the footage from his gameplay videos were in the trailer. Mitchell appears to be the game’s playable protagonist, and he is also apparently a soldier for Atlas.
The use of a Call of Duty game set in the future as a form of commentary on giant corporations or private military corporations is an interesting idea. The intentions of Irons and his organization are not clear. However, based off the trailers released so far, Irons and Atlas come off as far from benevolent. As the old saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 4.
With nations brought to their knees by a global terrorist attack, the world turns to Atlas, the largest private military company on the planet. However, Power changes everything.
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