It’s that time of year again, the time where the big game publishers release all their annual titles in time for huge holiday season sales. One of the main titles fighting for supremacy this year is Call of Duty: Ghosts, the first Infinity Ward game outside of the Modern Warfare series since Call of Duty 2 eight years ago! Yes, a new Call of Duty sub-series was probably overdue, so how does the latest Call of Duty fare?
Call of Duty: Ghosts boasts four different game modes for players to sink their teeth into. Campaign and Multiplayer are the two everyone expects, but Extinction and Squads are completely new.
To begin, there’s the single player Campaign, which definitely feels longer than any other COD campaign I’ve played before. Unfortunately, despite a slightly increased longevity COD’s campaign is still little more than glorified shooting galleries. Take cover, shoot enemies, move up, repeat. It’s a tried and tested gameplay formula, and it works, but it started to get somewhat monotonous years ago, and Ghosts’ longer campaign sometimes drags it out far longer than what you would want. That’s not to say the game is in any way unenjoyable, but following a linear pathway doesn’t stimulate the excitable gamer in me.
The campaign follows the story of two brothers and their father, who turns out to be an exclusive and high ranking soldier, a Ghost. The thing is, the storyline from that point onwards turns into something all too familiar. If you have played the Modern Warfare games, then you basically already know what happens, and the storyline doesn’t really offer any surprises. Unfortunately, when compared to the alternating storyline possibilities in Black Ops II, Ghosts’ story feels like a step back for the series.
Although overall being a competent and enjoyable campaign, it is still little more than a shooting gallery, and to be honest, if feels like Infinity Ward were running out of ideas, especially when you encounter a mission late in the campaign which takes place on an aircraft carrier - an aircraft carrier which, save for minor differences, seems to be identical to a Black Ops II multiplayer map.
Onto the multiplayer, often regarded as the most robust part of the Call of Duty pie and undoubtedly what many people get the most playtime from. Ghosts’ multiplayer takes elements from several COD games and fuses them into a coherent whole. The “Pick 10“ system originating in Treyarch’s Black Ops II makes a comeback, allowing you to switch unused items or gadgets in your loadouts for attachments or perks, and happily, this system has been simplified, allowing you to quickly and easily implement five or six perks into a single class loadout, if you so wish. Items are unlocked with Squad Points, which are similar to BO2‘s Unlock Tokens.
When in battle, everything is much as you would expect from Call of Duty multiplayer, and your play style has been catered for. All the weapon types you’re used to are here, and fans of Infinity Ward’s last COD title, Modern Warfare 3, will likely find that their favorite weapons have returned, and are very faithful to how they have always been. A new addition to multiplayer mayhem are Field Operations, small missions you may acquire after defeating an enemy. These missions are usually simple enough; “Kill two enemies whilst crouched” or “Kill one enemy with a headshot”. Completing a Field Operation will reward you with a Care Package and some Squad Points. Although you are completely free to ignore Field Operations, I found myself altering my style of play in an attempt to complete them, making multiplayer slightly more interesting.
Unfortunately, Call of Duty: Ghosts on current-Gen platforms suffers from one of its best assets: Ghosts’ maps feel bigger than ever, and are made to accommodate large player counts, but absurdly, the maximum amount of players in any online game is 12. This flies in the face of much older COD titles that have allowed numbers of 18 players in Ground War and other special game modes. More players can fill a lobby on next-gen platforms, but those of us with the game on current-gen may find these large maps are mostly empty, and it’s entirely possible to run around for far too long without finding a single enemy.
Game types vary, and some favorites return, like Infected, along with the series staple modes such as Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination and their Hardcore varieties, although the lack of All or Nothing and Gun Game feels like a majorly missed opportunity.
Squads is the first of two brand new game modes, but it plays more familiarly than you may expect. Squads is essentially comprised of a variety of multiplayer game modes made to play with either a group of friends and bots. Within Squads you will find Wargame, Squad V Squad, Squad Assault and Safeguard. All of them use the same maps used in multiplayer mode, and all of them ultimately use varieties of multiplayer game modes, some of those game modes you will find yourself fighting against bots, or alternatively, leading a team of bots. The bot AI does feel sharper and more human-like than it has in any other Call of Duty game, but ultimately, there is no question that this is more of a multiplayer variation, as opposed to its own full-fledged game mode.
But what does have its own full-fledged game mode is Extinction. Infinity Ward’s solution to Treyarch’s hugely popular Zombies mode has you heading through a very large area, slowly demolishing alien hives with a large drill. Teamwork is the aim of the game, each player can customize their own loadout and even drop ammo packs and ballistic vests to assist one another. Extinction, even though it is heavily inspired by Zombies, really does feel like its own entity. Aliens move about independently, jumping around the level and flinging acid at you and your teammates. Whilst the aliens are sparse, Extinction is quite simple, but once they start flanking you it quickly becomes a tense and exciting game. Unfortunately, the odd sense of humor found in Zombies is completely absent from Extinction, but luckily that doesn’t stop it from being a fun game mode, even if it still isn’t as good as Treyarch’s insane Zombies.
Graphically, current-gen Ghosts is pretty much the same as Black Ops II. Although everything feels clearer and sharper than it was in Modern Warfare 3, it hasn’t taken any leaps forward; I even noticed a few textures which looked positively ugly. Luckily, for the most part Ghosts does the job, and even has some really pretty and impressive vistas during the single player campaign, but if graphics really matter, then it’s probably best to wait for the next-gen offering.
All of Ghosts’ pretty (and not-so-pretty) visuals are accompanied by its soundtrack, which is, frankly, disappointing. Ghosts is following Black Ops II, which had an entirely fresh original soundtrack composed by Trent Reznor, famous for Nine Inch Nails and The Social Network, in comparison to that, Ghosts feels very dull when it comes to audio. Sure, the sounds of guns firing and explosions are all still present and still sound great and atmospheric, but there’s little to nothing to add to that. It just does not achieve the same sort of style and substance that Black Ops II had in spades.
