Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare managed to be the best COD game in years, thanks to gameplay that genuinely managed to shake things up, while retaining what made the series popular in the first place. This all made for a superb multiplayer experience (network issues aside,) but the single-player campaign did little to impress fans. Even a convincing performance from Kevin Spacey was unable to lift the campaign above the usual, formulaic series of linear missions, dotted with high-budget set-pieces and hilarious jingoism. One moment of Advanced Warfares campaign became particularly notorious, as it was so ridiculous it appeared almost as self-parody. During a sombre funeral scene near the start of the game, the player is greeted by the ludicrous message, Hold X to Pay Respects. And with that, any kind of emotional response from the scene instantly dissipates by the brutally cold prompt.
