Call of Duty: Ghosts
Producer: Activision
Release Date: November 5, 2013
Platform: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PC, WiiU
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter
Hollow Men
Written by Jesse Seilhan
The Call of Duty franchise is one of the most popular in all of entertainment, not just gaming. Year after year, a new title hits the shelves just in time for the holidays and billions of dollars are spent by the hungry masses. Quality concerns have been raised as of late, as the once dubbed “B-Team” in charge of producing the Black Ops versions of the title are now the most popular and the originators of the Modern Warfare series, Infinity Ward, are left scrambling to catch up. They scrapped the Warfare name and have instead tried to start a new line of narrative in Ghosts, a near-future take on what happens when the enemy takes control of some massive technology and attacks the United States. If that sounds familiar, it is probably because Black Ops II did the exact same thing last year but went further with it in order to add cool robots and drones to the arsenal. Ghosts tries to cement its place in the shooter world by being the first COD to hit next-gen consoles, but with a muddled story and a few steps back in the multiplayer universe, Infinity Ward might have missed the target.
For the majority of people, the single-player campaign is where the least amount of time will be spent. Those that desire to see what crazy story your military bro is caught up in this time will potentially be disappointed. Gone are the iconic characters like Soap and Captain Price and in their place are two brothers and a dog named Riley. The dog has a few playable sections where he treats enemy throats like a chew toy. You can take control over Riley and stealth your way through some passages before taking the owner back and shoot dudes until the mission is over. The much ballyhooed space mission is short, sweet, and real odd, something Call of Duty rarely capitulates. The standard jungle, snow, and water sections are back, as they seem to be legally binding this far into the franchise’s career. However, halfway through the campaign is when you get to control the Ghost characters and the really fun story missions begin. You rappel down buildings, infiltrate enemy bases, and race your way through giant iced expansions in some of the most thrilling moments of any Call of Duty game.
As usual, the multiplayer is the real star of the show. Ghosts features some of the classic deathmatch and objective options , but does away with some fan favorites like Headquarters and other Black Ops modes like Gun Game and One in the Chamber. Instead, we have Crank and Search & Rescue, the former focusing on fast-action and the latter combining Kill Confirmed and Search and Destroy. The big addition is Extinction, a new mode that copies the Zombies phenomenon of the Black Ops series but instead pits players against giant space bugs. There are multiple enemy types that continuously attack a central location, ripe for your team of up to four to defend. The matches follow similar suit to the undead missions of Black Ops, opening up new paths and areas with each wave until you reach the final objective. This mode is surprisingly fun, however that enjoyment quickly declines if your team does not communicate or decides to leave halfway through. However, with the right group and a good strategy, this mode can be the best on the disc and offers some much needed variety in a game built around shooting dudes in the face.
Every year, the choice to buy or not rests solely on what you want out of your first-person bulletfests. The single player is underwhelming, not just to prior entries, but also to most modern military shooters. The Extinction mode is pretty fun, but unless you have a consistent group of cohorts that will help you slay the aliens, you may find the randoms lacking in cohesion and cooperation. That leaves the competitive multiplayer modes, stuffed as much as they have ever been, with massive personalization options. If this is your main draw, welcome to another year of consistent competition and steep DLC.