Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

Maybe on PC it looks this good.

I want to get one thing out as fast as possible; I haven’t been a fan of the Call of Duty franchise in 3 years. Well, at least I haven’t been a fan of the multiplayer. I did enjoy the story in Black Ops and Black Ops 2, but other than that, they've had a falling out with me. Battlefield and Halo took over my life for a bit. But now, with a new CoD out and a new console generation hopping up, I can say this: I am intrigued.

When it comes to Ghosts, it feels a bit like a return to form for Infinity Ward. Yea, they've still got the big budgets, the over-the-top gameplay, and the often corny dialog, but Ghosts seems to be a return to what made people enjoy the franchise back in the days of the first Modern Warfare.

The story follows two brothers, Logan and Hesh, their dad Elias, and their dog Riley as they end up in a Red Dawn-esque dystopia. The Federation, made up of ALL of South America, has taken over the Home of the Whopper and caused some wreckage. What most people will notice is that you’re once again fighting the good fight as a one man (well, two man and a dog) army, running and gunning all over the American continent*. You fight through city streets, forests, factories, underwater, space; the usual. There’s even a CoD must-have, the flashback mission, which shines some light as to why the main villain wants a team of elite fighters dead. Like all of them. Though, there aren't that many to begin with.

I played on an Xbox, and although the graphics in game look dated because of the console, I will say that the between mission cutscenes are some of the most well put together and stylized I've ever seen, not only from Call of Duty, but from a video game in general. Instead of the seemingly strange black room with objective list we saw in the Modern Warfare games, it's more like the visuals from World At War, but very dark and crystal-y. I really enjoyed this part, and it’s a great way to break the tension between killing baddies.

The campaign lasted as long as a regular campaign in this day and age would for a shooter, clocking in for me at 5-8 hours. I was playing on Regular difficulty, because I don’t feel like putting myself through torture just to play a game. The game would definitely hit the 10 hour mark on Veteran, even for the best CoD players.

But, I know none of you are playing the game for the single player. Multiplayer is CoD’s bread and butter, and the Infinity Ward/Raven Software/Neversoft (three companies and one made Tony Hawk (that’s not good)) have taken some ideas from their best buddies over at Treyarch for the multiplayer.  The multiplayer sports a nifty variation on the pick 10 system from Black Ops 2, allowing you to fully customize the loadout. It can be kind of scary for newcomers when they open the perks page and see well over forty different things to choose from, but it does add a lot of depth, and you won’t know what the best combinations are for you until you try them, or just look them up online.

The thing that kind of disappointed me was the weapon selection. Every Infinity Ward Call of Duty seems to have a declining weapon count. I don’t know if this is because of the huge amount of perks, but it’s still kind of crappy. Another thing that makes a nice return is a currency system. This time, you have Squad points (I’ll talk about squads soon) that go between all your characters, and allow you to purchase weapons and upgrades. No more “higher level = better guns” nonsense. Everyone is at an even playing field as long as you’ve got the right amount of currency, you know, like real life.

Furthermore, the biggest addition to the game may be Squads. Squads is like create-a-class… but multiplied by 10, literally. Every time you unlock a character, they get their own set of classes, and you can pick what type of soldier they are when you unlock them. Your first guy could be an assault, second a recon, third a support, etc. You use these squads to select before matches, but the main thing they’re used for is computer controlled matches where you fight with or against a squad made up of your own teammates. And the AI in multiplayer isn’t as cheap as the AI in Black Ops 2 where they would snipe you from across the map when they had their back turned. These ones act a bit more like humans, but until we get “Soldiertars”, they’re still a little cheap at times.

And finally, we have the big baddy of them all: Extinction. You think Zombies was fun? Well, put it on crack, have it run for mayor of Toronto, and you have Extinction. And add aliens. This game mode is some of the most hectic action I've had in a while, and I will gladly welcome it to the CoD party mode team alongside Zombies. Similar to Modern Warfare’s Survival mode, you and your friends have to hunker down and eliminate an enemy threat. Each wave gets tougher, but you get money to buy new weapons, perks, upgrades and more, and you continue to use your Squad members in this mode as well. It can get very hectic, because the enemies move quickly and take a few rounds to kill. If they ever released a standalone game of Extinction and Zombies, I’d be in line on day one.

But, there are some gripes. It’s not all praise, as this is a Call of Duty game. In the single player campaign, there are far too many “’Merica!” moments, and your badassery gets to stupid levels, and can even stop being fun at times. Also, this is a game where South America is rising up and fighting the United States. Where are the other countries?! Where’s England? Where’s Russia? Where’s Germany? Where’s China, who make most of their money from the US? Where is Canada, the United States’ most treasured ally, and their secondary source for fuel? I may not always like the US, but I would defend them since I know my ass would be next with some of the biggest oil reserves in the world. Also, how did South America get such power and control? Would the US just blow them to hell if they tried attacking them or their allies? Despite what the campaign wants you to think, Political America is turned into a giant wimp and asks Military America to solve all their problems. If I were to look at this in a deeper meaning, it might be “Hey, America, stop being so dependent on oil, or you’re going to get your asses kicked when your main supply runs out and your new one is held above your head.” Maybe this is the first time I’ve looked at a Call of Duty game like it has something to say, but that possible message is overshadowed by the “’Merica’s a badass!” theme, which is sad, and I definitely think Infinity Ward should continue to build on this, cause there’s an obvious sequel coming to this game.

On the multiplayer end, things aren't as bleak… so far. The game seems well balanced, with no weapon having a huge favour over another, but the main problem for me, like it always has been, is the way people play the game. Instead of the fast paced run and gun shooting you see in the single player, people sit in corners and pop shot people running through doors, even when the game mode tells the player that’s not how the mode should be played. The game is still looted with campers, and some game modes don’t work well on some of the 15 maps that come with the game. It’s fun, but once you get into a match where people are 20+ levels higher than you, you know you’re at a disadvantage. Infinity Ward should have taken a page from Bungie and 343i’s book and figured out how to properly skill match.

However, I can’t say I’m not having fun with the game. The single player is interesting, and I think I may even play it again. The multiplayer is still a bit like modern Warfare 2 and 3, but that’s mainly because of the community and the size of some maps.

Overall, I’m going to give this game 8.5 out of 10. It has enjoyable gameplay, great animation in the cutscenes, a fun campaign, decently balanced multiplayer, some fun maps, and a great party type mode, too. However, the dialog can be irritatingly bad, the consoles show their age, the multiplayer community is still too camp-y, and some modes don’t work with some maps. It can be improved, and hopefully it will be in the obvious sequel, Ghosts 2.