Every Call of Duty comes with a single player campaign but for the most part, players are more interested in the online side of things with Advanced Warfare however, this could be about to change.
Responding to a fan who said this was "first year I'm looking forward to the single player game too," Sledgehammer Games co-founder Glen Schofield commented:
@xMaccabix It should be. The story alone has taken over 2 1/2 years to write.
— Glen Schofield (@GlenSchofield) May 14, 2014
The studio is making some key changes to the game replacing the map voiceovers of past titles with fully rendered cut scenes and a voiced protagonist, played by Troy Baker of The Last of Us and BioShock Infinite fame. Veteran Hollywood star Kevin Spacey will also appear as the game's villain.
Fellow Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey recently commented that the developer wants to create a scene akin to Game of Thrones' infamous Red Wedding in terms of the impact.
Schofield has also said:
"It's not just about the big moments; it's about the emotional moments. And they can still be big and bold, but it's to me, right now…at this point in our career and I think in video games, with the new consoles and the amount of fidelity you get with the characters, it's about emotional connections. Narrative is extremely important to us. Not that it isn't to others, but we pay an awful lot of attention to that."
"I just feel that video games is the next medium to be talking about a story. We need to be telling a story. It's not just a military story; this is about family, and camaraderie, and pain, and loss."
It certainly seems that the studio, which was working on a cancelled third person Call of Duty game before being tasked with helping Infinity Ward complete Modern Warfare 3, is taking story very, very seriously indeed.