Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Dev Explains Why Game Isn't Sci-Fi

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is set in the future, the year 2054 to be exact, but the world you'll get to experience is not one of science fiction. That's because developer Sledgehammer Games believes the Call of Duty series is strongest when it's grounded in relatable and believable experiences and situations.

"I think Call of Duty resonates because it's believable and relatable. It's always been one of the strengths of the franchise," Sledgehammer Games cofounder Michael Condrey told Game Informer in a new interview. The future that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will offer is a future that "we can relate to, that can strike sort of a zeitgeist," he added.

When researching for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Condrey said what they discovered was happening in the real world was actually "more fantastic than even the things that we were coming up with." He stressed that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, even though it has superhuman EXO suits and mechs, is grounded in reality. "It's not that fictional leap to a science fiction world you can't relate to," Condrey said.

Also in the interview, the reporter asks if a potential Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2 might include more sci-fi elements. Condrey and Sledgehammer Games' other founder Glen Schofield said their focus right now is on the first game, but, "We're keeping [the game world] in a place where another game can exist."

The most recent Call of Duty game, 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts, featured a series-first alien-themed mode called Extinction. Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops series, on the other hand, is well-known for its Zombies mode that lets you blast apart enemy Nazi zombies.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare launches November 4 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey is playing a prominent role in the game, which runs on a new engine that Activision says is capable of delivering "near photorealistic" visuals.