While to some it may feel like an eternity away, the truth is that the next installment of Call of Duty, the mega-franchise of the FPS genre, isn’t too far off. Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward’s upcoming CoD title is due out in early November of this year. Today, we’re going to take a look at what we know about the game at this point.
Infinite Warfare: What We Know
Below we unveil the details that we currently know about IW. This information was collected from various sources including other online sites, interviews with members of the Infinity Ward development team, and more. The point is – they’re facts.
Setting
Despite constant outcry from the Call of Duty community, Infinity Ward, like Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, is dropping players off in the distant future. While it’s certainly not on the lines of being an entirely fictional universe like you’d find in fantasy shooters such as Halo or Destiny, Infinite Warfare still seems… unrealistic to an extent.
The developers would have you believe the game takes place in the “near future” but, in all reality, we’re still many years away from blasting off into space with jet-like aircraft to participate in Star Wars-esque laser-blasting dogfights.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what year the game is set in, but it’s probably safe to assume that it’s at least 20-30 years out from present-day. The action of IW happens both on Earth and, yes, in space.
Plot
Infinite Warfare’s campaign tells a story of how the Earth has been completely wiped clean of all natural resources necessary for civilization to survive. As a result, practically all of the countries of the world have come together and created an organization, the UNSA (United Nations Space Alliance), to govern the usage of resources and creating new habits in space for humans to call home.
Scattered throughout the universe there are many different colonies, stationed on various planets that exist almost exclusively to collect resources from other planets to send back to Earth. In other words, humankind now lives off food, water, and other essentials gathered from other planets and asteroids.
Due to their high value these colonies are targets of hostile forces that wish to claim the resources for themselves. In order to help protect the colonies and Earth the Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO) was created.
SATO is a militant organization tasked with protecting Earth and the planets, asteroids, and other outposts in space owned and operated by the UNSA.
The antagonistic group of Infinite Warfare is the Settlement Defense Front (SDF), an unfriendly bunch that consists of insurgents that broke away from the UNSA. This faction is led by Rear Admiral Salen Kotch. The SDF declares war against the UNSA and attacks a major base of operations on Earth that weakens SATO.
This is where you, the player, come in.
You take on the persona of Captain Nick Reyes, commander of a UNSA warship called Retribution, and a pilot for the Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR). Reyes is appointed the leader of a group designated to stop Kotch and the SDF both on Earth and in the vast regions of outer space.
Main Characters
Below we’ve given a brief summary of each of the game’s main characters that are integral to the story line of Infinite Warfare. They are categorized by the factions they represent.
SCAR Characters
Captain Nick Reyes – The main protagonist of Infinite Warfare and the character that players take control over. As mentioned earlier, he is the commander of the Retribution and works with SCAR to help defeat the Settlement Defense Front.
Lieutenant Nora Salter – Essentially Reyes’ second hand “man”. Salter is the best pilot in all of SATO, has been working with Reyes for more than 10 years, and is also a member of SCAR.
Corporal Brooks – Another SCAR operative that accompanies Reyes and Salter.
ETH.3n – You didn’t think you’d actually get to play another futuristic Call of Duty game that DIDN’T feature a robot, did you? That’s right, ETH.3n, which is just an abbreviation for Enhanced Tactical Humanoid 3rd Revision, is a robotic soldier with human-like emotions that helps Reyes and SCAR in battle.
SATO Characters
Raines – Admiral Raines is the leader of entire SATO fleet. He is also a mentor to Lt. Reyes.
Kashima – Little is known about Private Kashima as of now. We will update this description once more information is available.
Omar – A staff sergeant that works with SATO.
SDF Characters
Salen Kotch – The ruthless leader of the Settlement Defense Front. He commands the Olympus Mons starship and is the primary villain in Infinite Warfare.
Factions
There are a few different factions in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare that you’ll need to familiarize yourself with to fully understand what’s going on in the timeline and why everyone is at war. Below we provide a summary of each one.
United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA)
The UNSA was founded once all of Earth’s natural resources were depleted. It represents many nations across the globe that are united as one to expand human life to the stars and keep people alive and well on Earth.
Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO)
SATO was created to protect Earth and its colonies within the solar system. It is a military outfit and a core group that assists players in battle against the SDF.
Space Combat Air Recon (SCAR)
A special operations group associated with SATO. They were specifically trained for combat in space. Your character, Nick Reyes, is a part of SCAR.
Settlement Defense Front (SDF)
Militant radicals and other insurgents that wish to control all resources within the solar system. They intend to weaken both the UNSA and SATO to hold power over Earth. This is the primary enemy faction within Infinite Warfare and the group that you are tasked with defeating.
Weaponry
We’ve had a very, very brief look at some of the weapons in Infinite Warfare so far. Most of them seem to be rather traditional assault rifles, SMGs, and other familiar types.
Vehicles
Activision has already pushed out a few different trailers for Infinite Warfare. Some of these feature large spacecraft, autonomous bots, and various other vehicles. As of right now, we know the names and purposes of a few, but not all.
Be sure to check out our in-depth guide to Infinite Warfare vehicles to learn about the ships you’ll get the chance to pilot, which ones you’ll just catch a glimpse of, and so on.
Movement System
This is something that literally every Call of Duty player has been curious about since the creation of Advanced Warfare. With both AW and Black Ops 3 featuring “enhanced movement” powered by the likes of exo-suits and thrust systems, it’s hard not to wonder what Infinite Warfare has in store for us.
That being said… it has now been officially stated that the game will feature a mix of classic gameplay and a Black Ops 3 style movement system. Both double-jumps and wall runs have been confirmed as being in the game.
We’re not entirely sure if we’ll see a thrust or slide, but it’s probably safe to assume that one or both will be in Infinite Warfare since they’re apparently utilizing a lot of the same movement features as Black Ops 3. Plus, in certain parts of the game there will be a ‘zero-G’ aspect which means movement will have to adapt to the lack of gravity.
The question is, however, will there be zero-G areas featured in multiplayer maps? That’s something that remains to be answered. As of right now, we know the no-gravity approach will occur in the campaign, but there’s no telling if it’ll make an appearance in online multiplayer matches.
