Call of Duty Ghosts Review

I’ve never been big on war-themed games.  I played the original Call Of Duty games on PC back in the day.  While I did enjoy them, it just gets boring real fast for me.  I grew up reading a lot and watching horror movies like a junky who needed a constant fix, and still read and view in the same manner, so moving from area to area killing humans in a wartime scenario just doesn’t cut it for me.  I need a monster to jump out and try to rip my head off.  So for a long time I swore off COD, Battlefield, and all the others that guys in my age bracket stand in line for.

When I saw the commercials for Ghosts, I was drawn in.  First off, it’s a post-apocalyptic setup of sorts.  It’s not a sequel to any of the other games in the franchise.  Think of it as a spinoff if you must, a new set of characters set in a parallel universe where the world has gone to Hell.

You play one of two brothers who are one the ground when an oribiting weapon belonging to the United States is hijacked by a group called The Federation.  Blasts of light and flame fall from the sky, and you and your brother spend the first few minutes of the game running through houses as they break apart and fall into a deep chasm that is opening up in Hollywood.  As the houses sink into the abyss, you find yourself jumping onto and dodging the earth itself as you try to get to your father before the whole city crumbles under your feet.  I couldn’t help but think of the scene from 2012 where they’re trying to escape the falling city in the limosine.  It’s a lot like that.

So, in one fell swoop, the United States goes from being the boss of the world to being a third-world country sitting on the crumbling remains of a continent.  The South American Federation is doing its best to come in an occupy what remains of the US, and while we still have a struggling military, the only real defense against the constant onslaught is an elite military troop called Ghosts.

I believe there are two kinds of tales.  There are story-based tales as well as plot-based tales.  Plot tales work toward the final goal, whatever it might be.  Kill the boss at the end and bring peace to the world once more.  Story-based tales focus on the story, if I’m not being too redundant.  And while every game is all about the plot, writer Steve Gaghan does an amazing job of making us care about the story as well.  You’re not just fighting through the eyes of people on the screen.  We get to know them, to root for them.  When I started playing this game, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was enjoying the game itself, and not just working toward an end goal.

One of my favorite characters in the game is the dog, which belongs to your brother in the game.  The dog’s name is Riley, and he’s a very handy weapon when he’s called upon.  He can be ordered to take down straggling enemies quickly and quietly, and you can even take control of him and use him to scout out unknown areas.  He’s a lean, mean stealthy killing machine.

I believe that feeling a connection with the characters is an integral part of any story, be it a book or a movie or a game.  By the time I finished the game, I was actually sad that they were no longer a part of my life.  That’s a good thing.  It means that the writers and developers put more than just time into the game itself.

Now onto the graphics and sound.  Graphics have come a long way in the last few years, and I think another ten years will give us games that are so realistic we’ll find it almost impossible to believe they’re computer generated and not live action.  Ghosts has a new graphics engine that provides higher details and better lighting than any COD game before, and from what I’m hearing it’s going to be be even better on the next gen platforms.  But even playing this game on a 360, I can still see the amazing detail they’ve strived to incorporate into the graphics.  During the space scene (Yes, you get to be an astronaut for a while) the view of earth and space from the space station is postively breathtaking.  It’s easy to forget you’re sitting in your living room.  Is it a monsterous step from previous COD games?  Not really.  But it’s a pretty nice improvement.  Next gen consoles will tell the true tale.

There’s a brand new sound system in Ghosts that makes sound ultra-realistic.  Every enviornment where different noises would be heard, like a huge empty bunker or a tight cramped tunnel, the sound engine alters the given sound to reflect that environment.  If an explosion rattles a window or something of that nature, or causes something hanging on the wall to shake, you’ll hear it.  And as I said before, it’s going to be even more realistic on the Xbox One and PS4.

The only real downside to the Campaign mode of the game is the obscenely short play time.  The entire campaign from beginning to end took me just a hair over four hours at regular difficulty.  I started playing at noon and was finished before dinner was on the table.  I would love to say it’s because they put so much time and effort into making a great game that four hours was more than enough, but that’s not the case.  The real reason is that the general public wants Multiplayer more than anything.

I hate playing games online.  I stopped playing multiplayer back when Left 4 Dead came out.  I’ve met the most asinine people in my life through the headset of an Xbox 360, and it really ruins the game for me.  I like friendly and even heated competition, but when they start slinging racial and homophobic slurs, I’m out.  Though it is hilarious to see those same people get killed and then accuse others of cheating.  I’m not saying every online gamer is like this, but I’ve seen a lot more of it in certain types of games.  But since this is what the world wants, Ghosts delivers.

Multiplayer begins with the Create a Soldier feature.  You can build your soldier from over 20,000 combinations of head types (including women), bodies, protective head-gear, armour and uniforms. You can take your soldiers and use them in Create a Squad mode, where you can unlock up to ten slots for you creations, and these can be customized to the max.

When you take your characters into battle, the AI system controls your other characters, and you can go up against Squads from all around the world in solo or co-op modes.  You can even battle against all-AI controlled squads.  There’s an offline deathmatch mode where you can battle squads built by others.

All the old perks from previous multiplayer COD games are there, with a few new ones.  Riley, the brothers’ dog, is available in multiplayer.  He can be used to sniff out hiding enemies, then growls and barks when he finds one.  If you are killed on the field, he attempts to seek out the person that did it for some cold-blooded revenge.  I love that dog.  There’s also the Night Owl, a futuristic drone, and a floating Heli-scout that has sniping capabilities.  All these are available for use in Multiplayer.

There are new modes available in Ghosts, included Cranked, where you have to make a kill every thirty seconds or you explode, and Search And Rescue, which is a rework of Search and Destroy, where players revive each other to keep the game going.

With new modes also comes new maps and changes in movement.  You can battle it out in a dilapitated town in front of a crumbling strip club, or fight for your life in a destroyed shopping center.  There’s even an arctic map loaded with ice tunnels and wooden structures for cover.

Movement has been altered a little.  Fluidity has changed, though not for the better or worse.  It seems there’s more swaying when running than in previous games, which might make taking a shot while at a full sprint a little more difficult.  Also, when hiding behind something, you automatically lean out when you take aim.

Well there you have it.  Ghosts in a tightly compacted nutshell.  I had fun with it, although I wish the campaign had been at least twice as long.  I did enjoy the multiplayer, only one person felt the need to run his mouth, and someone took him out with a long-distance sniper rifle, so it was gratifying.  If you’re looking to kill a few hours and then spend days killing others on online battlefields, I think Ghosts would be right up your alley.