For the game's single-player campaign mode, Sledgehammer employed veteran actors Troy Baker and Kevin Spacey in lead roles.

The game features several significant changes; unlike other installments, Advanced Warfare does not use a traditional heads-up display (HUD); instead, all information is relayed to the player via holographic projections from the weapon equipped.

[8] It uses pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes, similar to Call of Duty: Black Ops II, to assist in the story aspect of the campaign.

The player can upgrade detection, armor, resistance, tactical, lethal grenade, sprint, recoil, flinch, reload, quick aim, and battery.

The content of each supply drop is randomized, and can range from weapon variants to player customization items, as well as bonus experience points (XPs) time.

[21] Exo Zombies plays similarly to the original Zombies game mode that has been featured in Treyarch's Call of Duty games since Call of Duty: World at War: up to four players must survive against endless waves of undead enemies, with an optional story quest that can be completed at any time during a match.

A terrorist group called the KVA, composed of former Chechen separatists led by Joseph "Hades" Chkheidze (Sharif Ibrahim), begins staging attacks.

By 2055, Mitchell and his team fail to prevent a more sophisticated KVA from forcing a nuclear reactor meltdown on Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle.

The KVA launch simultaneous attacks against nuclear power plants worldwide, irradiating numerous cities and killing 50,000 people.

It reveals that Irons executed the technologist after learning of the planned global attacks, and deliberately allowed them to happen to improve Atlas' power and profit.

The team discovers that, despite destroying the laboratory, Irons is planning a preemptive strike on the United States via an Atlas attack in San Francisco.

After Cormack dies, the others discover that Irons is preparing to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles loaded with Manticore against every military base in the world.

Following a failed attempt to contain a riot at a prison in New Baghdad, Atlas releases the Manticore bioweapon in order to quell the uprising.

Eventually, the group is rescued by Sentinel Task Force operatives, but their leader, Captain Lennox (Bruce Campbell), claims that Oz is the source of the zombie infection.

Lennox reveals to the other three that Oz was once part of Sentinel, and that he was present at the prison when Atlas released the Manticore bomb, making him one of the first people infected.

They set the ship to self-destruct, but before they can extract in an emergency pod, they briefly encounter Oz, now fully zombified while retaining his intelligence.

The group escapes and decides that Oz must be eliminated, and head to a nearby Atlas underwater survival facility, the Trident Retreat.

After a long fight, Oz is finally killed, and the group proceeds to burn his mutated corpse, vowing vengeance against Atlas.

When asked if the action-adventure game was also in development, Hirshberg then stated that the Sledgehammer team was fully focused on Modern Warfare 3 and that their own title had been put on hold.

[1][46][47] A 1-terabyte Xbox One console bundle with a Sentinel Task Force-inspired hardware design, and a digital copy of the Day Zero Edition, was also released by Microsoft as a tie-in.

[46] The trailer contained a variety of futuristic technologies, including cloaking aircraft, twin-rotor drones, hover bikes, "spider" tanks, specialized weapons, powered exoskeletons, threat-detection grenades and gloves that allow their wearer to climb up walls.

[46] On June 9, 2014, E3 2014 was opened with a new gameplay trailer for Advanced Warfare that showcased features such as swarms of drones resembling birds and infrared enemy identifiers.

[53] An advertisement revealed that the collector's editions will include a bonus multiplayer map, "Atlas Gorge", which is a remake of the map "Pipeline" from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; an Atlas Digital Content Pack, which includes two bonus weapons, a custom character helmet, a player card, five in-game "supply drops" and a single-player upgrade token.

However, he criticized the single-mission level design for being similar to the previous installments, as well as a predictable, disappointing plot twist, unimpressive co-operative mode and clumsy vehicle-involved single-player mission.

Albert gave praise to the Exo suit, while despite not having full use during the campaign, was a welcome addition for multiplayer which made it more intuitive and fun.

He also praised the accelerated pace of rewards given to players who level up during multiplayer, citing supply drops of cosmetic items, new weapons and temporary perks like double experience points as examples.

[73] Daniel Tack from Game Informer gave the game a 9/10, praising the unprecedented amount of fast movement, extensive multiplayer weapon customization, excellent visuals, well-executed single-player, varied multiplayer modes and distinct and interesting single-player levels, but criticizing the predictable plot conclusion and non-impactful weapon upgrades.

He praised the strong selection of dense, vertically challenging multiplayer maps, three-dimensional and liberating movement, coherent and fast-paced campaign, smart storytelling, exciting and dynamic gameplay, lifelike characters and movie-like presentation, but criticised the game for being a bit similar to the previous instalments as he stated that "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare just doesn't have the power to break through the expectations of the brand".

[70] The game garnered mixed reception from USgamer, awarding it with a 3.5/5 and stating "Advanced Warfare executes the formula competently while adding a handful of bells and whistles like mechs, laser cannons, and double jumps; but Sledgehammer Games seems reluctant to really cut loose and push the setting to its fullest potential, making Advanced Warfare a solid but ultimately unexciting entry in the series.

[79][80][81] The phrase has since become detached from its source, becoming an Internet meme in its own right, sometimes used unironically: during the tribute stream for the Jacksonville Landing shooting, viewers posted a single letter "F" in the chat.