Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – The EXO

As its title suggests, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the most future-forward entry in the series to date. In fact, the action is so tech-centric that it treads well into a science-fiction scenario – albeit one that becomes more plausible every day. Powerful exoskeletons augment and improve every aspect of a soldier’s abilities; enhanced player movement and verticality come in the form of boost jumps and grappling, along with covert cloaking abilities and plenty more. Here’s a look at some of the more impressive tools in your exosuit arsenal.

The Exo Boost Jump introduces a new vertical dimension to the Call of Duty experience, letting you hover and float to get the jump on an enemy. The accompanying Boost Slide and Boost Dodge let you avoid gunfire better than any mere mortal, as does the Boost Dash, which lets you perform maneuvers in all directions while midair. All of these disparate moves can be chained together for some pretty remarkable combos, and can be topped off with a Boost Slam – an air-to-ground melee attack that enables you to crash down onto enemies and kill them with the impact. When it’s enhanced with the Overcharged perk, the Boost Slam will shock nearby enemies on impact.

The Exo Shield is essentially the most portable riot shield ever invented. It allows you to deploy a transparent – but nearly indestructible – shield to protect against enemy attacks for a limited period of time.

Stealth becomes a better option with your exosuit as well. Exo Cloak enables you to go transparent and get your enemies when they least expect it, for instance. Exo Mute reduces your character’s movement sound, similar to the effects of the Dead Silence perk from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

And don’t think for a second that they wouldn’t weaponize it: the Exo Launcher is a wrist-mounted launcher that can shoot a range of smoke, Semtex, frag and EMP grenades for fun and profit. Meanwhile, the Exo Trophy System can deflect up to two incoming enemy projectiles; it functions passively, and automatically destroys projectiles when they’re in proximity.

Finally, note that all of these abilities are enhanced with Exo Overcharge, which gives your exoskeleton a larger battery supply, so that all of these exo abilities can be used longer. Because like our phones, laptops, and all manner of wearable tech, a gadget is nothing without battery power.

But don’t just take our word for it – check it all out for yourself in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, available now for Xbox One and Xbox 360!