Call of Duty: Ghosts

By: Robert Murphy

In my down time waiting for the Xbox One to receive its heavy hitting games, I found myself looking for a game to play in the meantime and so since I chose to skip Call of Duty: Ghosts for the 360, I thought I’d try it for the One. CoD: Ghosts comes with a whole new storyline to follow, a once again solid multiplayer element and a new horde style game type for you all to enjoy called Extinction and the new game mode known as Squads. And while I was apprehensive at first about my purchase there was still plenty to enjoy for the latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise.

The main storyline of the game is set in a not too distant future, I would say sometime after Modern Warfare 3 but not as far as Black Ops 2 and paints a not too pretty picture for what the U.S. has to look forward to. We are introduced to two new characters to the series, a pair of young brothers named Logan and Hesh, who are fighting against a new organization known as The Federation. This faceless organization has caused the U.S. a fatal blow when they steal a weaponized space station and go on a little bombarding spree across America. The impact of this may be devastating or rather it would if we knew who The Federation was at any point in the game, no you spend most of your time facing down a low nothing lackey of the organization which doesn’t make for much tension. Throughout the single player you will feel short changed at least I was because for the first time I didn’t find much enjoyment out of the storyline in a CoD game. Many of the missions lacked originality and made you feel like you were doing the same missions over and over again. The only new thing to come from playing the story mode was the introduction of Riley, your canine partner who is really more Hesh’s dog than yours and didn’t really make a heart felt connection with you in the story so that’s a bust as well. What good can be said for story mode is that it does take you to some incredible places much like a CoD always does and makes truly great environments especially when you finally play that space mission you’ve waited for since Modern Warefare 2.

Where I did find my appreciation for the Ghosts though came from the multiplayer which is exactly what I expected it to be right from the start. Multiplayer is much the same solid gameplay that it has always been which is great and it also adds some new abilities such as sliding, peering around corners or objects and a interactive environment. For the first time players can open doors, blow down a tree or release smoke across the battlefield, while this is nothing incredible or on par with Battlefield 4’s level devastating triggers, it is still a nice quirky addition to the game. The new maps players will be fighting across are just as enjoyable as they have been in the past, they are all evenly made and a dream to play on.

Perhaps the biggest addition to come the games multiplayer element is solider customization and the ability to unlock new uniforms, face models, patches and backgrounds to go along with Call of Duty’s solid weapon customization. Players can now spend hours tweaking your character to look just the way you want him and also tweak your gun in much the same way with the massive selection to choose from. Outfits, skins and player models unlock as you progress in level but weapons now are bought through skill points that you earn doing any number of things during a match and aren’t to hard to come by. CoD: Ghosts also features the ability to play as a female character for all the female gamers out there as well.

Finally, we have the two newest game modes, Squads and Extinction. Squads is a new mechanic in which players can now set out and make their own squad of players controlled by AI to play against your friends with. While this seems like a solid and fun idea, it turns into you and another player killing each others bots in a team deathmatch fashion. Something that was meant to save this from happening was the Squads game mode known as Safeguard where your team faces down waves of more AI controlled bots, which is just as exciting as I made it sound. But then we have Extinction which is the new survival horde mode that changes things up from the zombie mode we’ve all seen before. Players now can work on 4 person teams and fight off waves of encroaching aliens, destroying nests and fighting to survive for as long as you can. I found this to be a fantastic addition to the game as you can easily level your character up with cash you earn as you fight back the alien menace. The only downside is the limited level choice being that there’s only one but with the recent addition of the DLC for Extinction that has change but for those of you who have been waiting it’s been a drag.

In conclusion, don’t hold your breathe for Call of Duty: Ghosts, the game while fun only had a major selling point and that was it’s continually enjoyable multiplayer element. Ghosts did very little in the way of shaking things up especially when it came to the story, the characters were nothing to write home about and didn’t suit the memory of the games name sake character. There also wasn’t any twist and turns to the story, no shocking moments, it wasn’t what you’d expect from a franchise that has always made a great story mode. As for the multiplayer, the ability to now customize your characters as well as your weapons makes for an enjoyable addition to game as you spend hours making a character you absolutely love right down to the gun you carry. Also the addition of the new Extinction mode may be great but for those of you who have been waiting for a new map I can’t imagine it has brought a lot of repeat pleasure.

Good:

- Multiplayer is still as solid as ever

- New character and gun customization is a fantastic addition to the game

- Extinction while fun may have gotten old with just one map to play

Bad:

- An uninventive single player story

- Doesn't do anything really in the way of innovation just adding on to past glories

- Squads is nothing but a bot death match mode and Safeguard mode pales when you think about the old Spec Ops game mode

- With a name like Call of Duty: Ghosts you expected more especially when you think about how we all loved Ghost……NEVER FORGET!!!!

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10