Call of Duty: Ghosts is a game developed by Infinity Ward, if you didn’t know that already of course, and is the first in the series to breach the gap between the current and next gen consoles. Being the Tenth game in the series you’d think this franchise would of gotten stale by now but it has definitely sold enough copies and generated enough attention to stick around for another release. Anyway, on with the review!
Story
The games begins you off in a storytelling cutscene of your father telling you about an old tale of a group of battle hardened and almost mystic soldiers known as Ghosts. The tale is ended shortly due to you, your brother and father having to get back home. On the way back tremors start to beseech you in increasing numbers and strength, making the family worry in their return home, their fears being justified when they find their hometown under space originating attack, explosions happening all over.
After the Hammer of Dawn- I mean space weapons have done their work on the world, we are told about the destruction they have caused, several cities being hit with 27million in casualties. 10 years later and our brothers have been initiated and worn into the army’s ranks, taking out the opposition known as the federation who were the ones behind the initial attack 10 years ago. Going through several locations you try your hardest to stop any enemy operations and halt their advance on your defensive.
The Ghosts make a quick appearance, with you being invited into their ranks to increase the amount of good you can do in the war. With the acknowledgement of the Ghosts you find out the man behind the Federation, a man named Rorke who was one of the original Ghosts but has turned on his comrades due to betrayal and a hint of brainwashing. Defend against the Federation, Defeat Rorke and win the war are your main objectives in the game. 1 man against an entire army, yeah this is a CoD game.
Besides the games main story there are collectables throughout the levels, one in each, which tell background and personal information on both place and people, delving deeper into the characters reasons for what they do. These are relatively easy to find, with few being too far out of your way
Through the 18 levels you will work up around 6-8 hours of gameplay, which is a bit disappointing but expected of a FPS nowadays. The story itself is rather linear and overplayed in this franchise, with the main game feeling more cinematic and scripted than anything else.
Gameplay
Ghosts hasn’t changed too much from its predecessors, with aiming done with the right analogue and movement with the left, firing is the same with right trigger to fire and left to aim down the sights, pretty standard. The entirety of the game is getting into cover, firing down onto your foes and advancing forward. The game sticks with it’s well known mechanic of “You must advance to advance” meaning the enemies are infinite, or your AI does nothing until you move onto your enemies, but with Ghosts it seems to have dialled down the amount of enemies thrown at you.
In Ghosts you go through several different chapters, those that are stealth orientated, ones where you have to go guns blazing and a few that put you in charge or firing and/or driving a vehicle. The vehicle parts of the game feel rather floaty, as piloting a chopper can be very unresponsive and context sensitive; the tanks are also way too fast in relevance to how they should be. Vehicles just don’t handle the way you would expect and kind of throw you off when you first get control of them.
Besides land movement you also have segments of the game that are in space or underwater, giving you 3D movement and increasing the range of directions you can take. Underwater is where the majority of the danger is, having to dodge bombs, sharks and sluggishly make your way to cover from enemy underwater fire. The space segments are beautifully handled, with the first making me very squeamish due to my fear of heights, and really feel like you expect them too.
Multiplayer
Ghosts seems to have improved on its previous version in its multiplayer, with better matchmaking, better balanced weapons and more modes to enjoy. The new modes included in Ghosts are: Extinction, a game mode similar to Zombies or a horde mode where to drill into alien hives and fight them off, Squads, where you and a team go against AI in modes like kill confirmed and domination and the normal multiplayer with Team Deathmatch, Blitz and a whole load more.
The maps themselves are numerous and rather different from one another, making a goo change of scenery between matches. Though some of the maps are done symmetrically and give no advantage to one team some of the maps seem to be too wide spread in areas creating more choke points and kill zones then needed. Some of the maps aren’t very efficient in their space or hit boxes either as I found my drop boxes landing on roofs and on the other side of fences outside of my reach.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
Advertised for its greater graphics, the 360 version seemed rather lacking in that department, with the skin meshes, especially for the back of the dog’s head; looking rather plastic to me with few details painted onto them. There is no out of the way design in Ghosts and the characters look rather samey and unimaginative, feeling like they are just slight redesigns of previous characters in the franchise. Whilst the explosions and backgrounds may look pretty, if you stop and stare at certain parts of the game you will realise the lack of detail there really is.
The sound in Ghosts has improved quite a bit as well, as gun fire is very pleasing the ear, albeit a bit loud a times, although the explosions and crashing sounds seem on par with previous releases making some parts of the game slightly dull. The music takes a backseat in Ghosts, similar to the other games in the series, only revealing itself in cinematic parts or when there is a lot of action and you are hiding to blink away the blood.
Even with all its improvements on previous releases Ghosts just feels like it doesn’t evolve or change much in its delivery. The Campaign gets boring very quickly, especially with its advancement mechanic. Multiplayer gets rather dull and repetitive quickly, though the AI Squads mode and Extinction are welcome additions to the game.
I give Call of Duty: Ghosts a 3/5, it’s a fun experience for a short time but can become boring and repetitive too quickly. If you own any of the other games in the franchise you would have mostly already played the majority of Ghosts already. If you own none of the CoD Franchise, Ghosts is in my opinion the best to own for its better multiplayer. CoD has become similar to sports game, the same game every release with updates and improvements.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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