During Gamescom 2016, I had a chance to view some new footage of Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The new footage focuses on a mining asteroid and a new enemy.

At the beginning of the presentation, we learn that Captain Reyes and his team are sent to find out what has happened to a mining asteroid that went dark, when Reyes and his team get close they learn the asteroid is spinning wildly, with the sun rising and setting every minute. The team are about to leave believing their search and rescue mission to be over before it had begun, but as they begin to a rescue beacon plays prompting Captain Reyes and his team to attempt to rescue the survivors and find out what happened on the asteroid.

While on the asteroid, they have one major issue the rising and setting sun, if Reyes or anyone is not in a shaded part of the asteroid while the sun is up they will instantly die. Personally, I thought this was an interesting mechanic, while not unique it gave an increased level of tension to the mission. While the racing against the rising sun was interesting the mood of the issue was somewhat soured by a marine deciding to make silly quips about the situation, one example of this was the marine pointing to the dead body and saying something about the person being well done. I’m all for some levity in tough situations, but it annoyed me that he had to make jokes about a dead body, not once but twice.

Moving past the race against the sun, Reyes and his team enter the main base where they learn that the asteroid was used for more than just mining. Reyes then orders his team to split up and look for information, a move that ends with him making an aliens joke, which is responded by a quick middle finger by one of the female members of the team. Personally, I liked the alien joke as it was delivered better than making fun of a dead body, the team is in an unknown situation so why not try to raise some team moral with a dumb joke (If I was in Reyes position I would make the alien joke too).

As the mission progresses we enter a worker bot housing facility, the robots, which are all seemingly powered down appear to flinch and jitter as the power spikes due to the solar panels collecting too much energy, but as you slowly walk past them one reaches out and grabs a teammate (a cheap jump scare). Following the worker bot grabbing your teammate, all the bots begin to start waking up and attacking you and your team, the attack makes it obvious that the worker bots are responsible for the dead workers and scientists.

Following the reveal the worker bots are behind the killings the presentation speeds up and shows glimpses of the later part of the mission including rescuing some missing scientists, battling robots outside the base, and what appears to be a teammate dying as you escape the asteroid.

Overall, what the presentation showed was an interesting experience. It seems Infinite Warfare isn’t just about fighting the Settlement Defense Front (SDF), but also encountering other hostiles including robots. I also liked the use of environmental hazards and I hope that what I saw wasn’t just a one-off. In the end, the presentation did what Activision and Infinity Ward hoped it would do, it got me interested in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will be available November 4, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One.