Games We Play: Call Of Duty Ghosts

With the next gen systems popping up on everyone’s doorsteps and gamers gathering their pennies for black Friday, there are a few games making a debut and getting grandfathered into the current gen systems weeks before. Call of Duty: Ghosts is one such title.

Ghosts starts a new sub-series in the Call Of Duty Franchise to coincide with the release of the EIGHTH GEN CONSOLES, and as such anyone who bought the game for the Xbox 360 or PS3 can get the game for only $9.99 at certain retailors (*cough* gamestop *cough* *cough*) when you trade in the game for the next gen version. The game also allows you to carry over your experience from the current gen to the NEXT GEN with a Call of Duty account.

The multiplayer mode remains relatively unchanged from the games of the past. The lobby has a very similar look to the previous games except given a nicer and ghostly blue hue to match the theme of the game, but for its purpose it functions, and you can find everything you need to relatively easy. That being said, the multiplayer has various game modes to play in such as: Search and Rescue, Cranked, Free for All, Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy, Domination, Kill Confirmed, Infected, and Blitz. Now being a multiplayer for a game series 10 games in, there is little room for improvement. Yes Call of Duty: Ghosts repeats the same general formula as the other 9 games, and they release one every year: that’s fine, if it aint broke don’t fix it.

It’s a business, you could say the same thing with Assassin’s Creed or Halo or the Sonic and Mario franchises. However seeing as they release a game every year, they make a very small change to the multiplayer, its maybe a few guns added or removed, one or two new game modes, 12 dozen new maps but that’s it. It’s the same thing, there is very little change to the formula, but change frightens and angers gamers, so let’s leave it at that. My other problem with multiplayer is the foul language being dropped every two minutes. Now I actually enjoyed this game, it’s been a while and it brought back nostalgic memories of playing with my brothers, however hearing people cuss every time they screw up or someone bests them ruins it.

Now I’m not just talking F**K or S**T or A**HOLE, I’m talking Racial and derogatory slurs, people being called C**T and F*G left and right, I honestly heard the N-word dropped 12 times in the span of a minute, by 4 of the people in a game of 8. It makes the experience less fun, and deters me away from actually playing online or the game in general. Now I can’t stop them, but it honestly ruins the experience for me.

The game introduces Squads mode. Squads functions similar to the general multiplayer of the game, except you’re on a team of gamers and/or AI fighting against another team of gamers and/or AI. The game modes are Squad vs. Squad, Wargames, and Safeguard and the system pairs you up with people who are generally within your rank so as to make it a fairer fight. Squads overall is just a generally nicer multiplayer experience and the game recommends you play squads before jumping into the multiplayer. It adds a nice twist to the multiplayer experience, great for beginners, and no one is dropping foul language like it’s about to become illegal.

Now everyone loves Zombies, especially since we got to play as Nixon, JFK, McNamara and Castro in Black Ops. However seeing as Ghosts is made by InfinityWard and World at War, Black Ops and Black Ops II are made by Treyarch, we don’t get to kill Zombies this time around. Instead we get a similar mode called Extinction, which has you killing Aliens. Now these aren’t your typical little green men, these are animalistic infestations aiming to take control of earth and become its new dominate species. The game mode of extinction has you using a drill to destroy the hives while the players defend it, so the game mode functions similar to zombies (i.e. its round based, buying guns, how many rounds can you get through before dying). While its no zombies, I can honestly say it’s just as good, of course knifing an alien when you’re out of ammo isn’t like putting a bullet through a zombie’s head.

As this is a new series in the franchise, naturally there is going to be a new campaign. The game is set in an alternate timeline: following the nuclear destruction of the Middle East, all foreign oil dependent nations start to collapse. In the midst of the global chaos, the oil rich countries of South American form The Federation, quickly conquering Central American and the Caribbean. The game opens with a retired Army captain telling his sons about the legend of the first appearance of the GHOSTS: a force of U.S. Special Operations personnel trained to conduct clandestine missions behind enemy lines. While this is happening the federation is hijacking the US weapons satellite ODIN (Orbital Defense Initiative) resulting in the destruction of the outer most states of the United States. The game follows the Ghosts and their newest recruits Logan and David “Hesh” Walker, as they battle against the Federation. The newest addition to the campaign is the ability to play as the units attack German Sheppard Riley, either by having him attack an enemy while you charge head first into it, or by having him survey the area in secret and taking out anyone who could stop your team. The campaign has an interesting storyline, with some interesting twists and a good ending. If nothing else in this game interests you, I highly suggest getting it just for the Campaign.

Overall the game is a good addition to the series. It however has suffered in the market, with many critics criticizing the campaign and multiplayer for being too familiar and repetitive. The sales suffered as well. Despite shipping $1 Billion worth of games, it still fell short of black ops II due to the fact that many gamers are unsure about purchasing it due to the release of the EIGHTH GENERATION around the corner. All in All, I’d have to give this game a B- : the story intrigued me, Squads allowed me to ease back into the series, Extinction is a welcomed change to Zombies, but it’s still feels the same as its predecessors and offers little in terms of development.