Parents' Guide to

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

By Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Gritty, brutal near-future war game has privacy concerns.

Game PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One 2014
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Game: Screenshot #1
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Game: Screenshot #2
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Game: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 12+

Based on 53 parent reviews

Mathew smith
Mathew smith Adult
April 27, 2021
age 12+

CoD infinte warfare

This is a insulation in the call of duty series. It does have moderate violence but blood and gore can be turned off in settings. i bought it for my 12 year old and didn't like it at first but the turned of the gore and blood and it was the ok for him to play. Some parents don't like the knives but its no worse than a documentary on wild animal and hunting. The worst scene is when you walk into the hospital and there are bodys on the floor but with no gore or blood it is fine. Common Sense Media over rates a lot of games and movies so pay no attention to the CSM rating.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
benefitsben
benefitsben Adult
October 14, 2020
age 15+

Best CoD ever

This is the best Call of Duty game ever made, the campgain is fun, it has a good story, good characters, great gameplay and amazing visuals, the multiplayer is a good experience with really good map design, exo zombies is fun and a good spin on the zombies game mode, and exo survival is fun with friends.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 53 parent reviews

What’s It About?

CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE is set about 40 years in the future, in a world where a private American military contractor called Atlas has become as powerful as the government's military. Employed to help quell obvious good-vs.-evil conflicts in foreign lands including South Korea and Nigeria, the fight eventually becomes grayer as the battlegrounds move closer to home. Players take on the role of Mitchell, a marine dismissed from service after suffering a serious injury in combat. Atlas provides Mitchell with a new home, using advanced technology to return him to fighting condition. As part of Atlas' growing army, Mitchell is equipped with futuristic equipment, including a highly advanced exoskeleton that allows him to leap great distances, cloak himself, grapple up walls, and smash through metal doors. Beyond the campaign, players can engage in a variety of multiplayer modes. Competitive play is similar to previous Call of Duty games, allowing players to customize and upgrade their soldiers as they earn experience. Cooperative play pits teams of up to four players against increasingly challenging waves of enemies, forcing them to work as a team to survive for as long as possible.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (53):
Kids say (94):

Sledgehammer Games' first kick at the Call of Duty can -- the first game in Activision's prolific military shooter franchise to be developed by a new studio in eight years -- is significantly different from other entries in the series. The introduction of an advanced exoskeleton suit dramatically alters the way players make their way through environments, adding a new degree of mobility and verticality. And with special abilities such as cloaking and threat grenades that paint targets behind cover, plus some slightly sci-fi weapons such as a powerful directed energy rifle, the action is distinctively futuristic. The differences are particularly evident in multiplayer mode, where exo-abilities such as boost jumps and hovering in mid-air force players to be more aware than ever of threats from above. It's a refreshing and fun change of pace for the franchise -- though it's clearly geared for players looking for faster-paced, arcade-like action than simulated warfare.

The one area in which Advanced Warfare fails to innovate is cooperative play. Whereas developers Infinity Ward and Treyarch have pushed the boundaries of what we expect from Call of Duty cooperative modes with their alien- and zombie-themed variants, Sledgehammer's traditional wave-based mode feels pretty safe by comparison. Still, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is well-polished and even a bit daring at times. It clearly stands apart from other games in the series and should prove good fun for adult gamers looking for a spot of futuristic military action.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the impact of violence in games. Gritty military shooters strive to depict combat as it actually is and may have an impact that's more visceral than movies due to the interactivity. How do you feel during and after playing military shooters?

  • Discuss the role of the military. When should our soldiers go to war? Who has the power to send them to war? What are some of the goals of war?

Game Details

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