The Vehicles of Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare

With Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward is looking to reignite the Call of Duty franchise by tackling the final frontier, casting players as a commander leading a desperate war against a brutal army of space fascists. Luckily, players will have a few vehicles to use to their advantage in the fight.

The Jackal
The Jackal is one of Infinite Warfare's most eye-catching features as well as one of the more notable additions that sets the game apart from every other entry in the series. "The Jackal is a multi-functioning attack jet that's good for in-atmosphere flight, VTOL flight, and space flight," lead vehicle artist Dan Savage explained to us. During a demo we were shown during our visit to Infinity Ward's offices, we are able to see The Jackal in all three flight forms. Early on in the segment that takes place in Geneva, Reyes is able to call in the Jackal via remote to rain down machine gun fire on enemies and provide support. Later in that same level, Reyes boards the Jackal and breaks through Earth's atmosphere with an armada of ships to take on the enemy in a off-rails space dog fight sequence that wouldn't be out of place in Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica.

One of the biggest elements that Infinity Ward wants to emphasize with Infinite Warfare is the game's seamlessness and to have varied sections of the game flow together in a unified way. During the aforementioned  first level, we watched as Reyes went from fighting on the ground with soldiers to riding a Jackal into space and taking down an enemy battleship without ever seeing a loading screen. This seamless quality might sound like a minor technical achievement but the flow this opening sequence has helps sell the world that Infinite Warfare is trying to create as well as making it seem much bigger than it actually is. It's an impressive illusion anyway you cut it.

We were not able to get hands-on time with Infinite Warfare, so I can't speak to how the Jackal controls in and out of combat but the various demoes we saw suggested the vehicle had quick handling and was relatively easy to use.

The Retribution
The Retribution is the battleship that Reyes suddenly finds himself in command of after The Settlement Defense Force's brutal attack on Earth. The ship, modeled after navy battleships, serves as the hub area for the campaign, a place for you to test out weapons and interact with your crew members before each mission. The Retribution will change as the campaign goes along, with certain story events affecting the environment, like repairs after an attack.

Design director Jacob Minkoff says that one of the more interesting challenges during Infinite Warfare's development has been balancing the amount of influence the team has taken from NASA and Navy when designing the space ships in the game. "It's a unique challenge anytime you are grounding something to make it realistic so that it's recognizable, but also then see enough change that people can still why something may still be happening in the future. An aircraft carrier may be in service for 50 years. That means you can see technology from the '70s next to technology from the '90s next to technology from today."

Indeed, The Retribution is less slick and polished than most warships in science fiction. Corridors and hangars are grey and steel, with everything seems to designed for practicality, with backups in place if the current tech fails. It's a ship that seems like it's been around for a long time and is lived-in in a believable way, with crew members gathering around television screen to watch for updates on the war effort against the SDF.

The Olympus Mons
The Olympus Mons is the pride of the SDF fleet, a massive battleship that's almost twice the size of The Retribution. To make matters worse, The Olympus Mons is actively tracking you throughout the campaign like an interstellar Jaw pursuing its prey. This probably means there's a good chance we'll see an epic all-out battle (or two) between the two battleships.

Mech suits and more?
Infinity Ward wasn't ready to talk about vehicles outside of the Jackal and various battleships, but during gameplay footage we what appeared to be mech suits (though they could have easily been robots as well) and troop carrier ships that could possibly serve as vehicles for the player to commandeer.

Our exclusive coverage on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will continue all throughout June, so keep checking the hub for deep dives into the weapons, characters, and interviews as we journey to the stars with Infinity Ward's new take on the longstanding series.