Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the latest entry in the popular franchise published by Activision that continues to break sales records seemingly every year. Just so you’re not in for a shock later, you should know that Ghosts is a first person military shooter. Good, now that we’re on the same page. As has become a staple of the franchise, this entry brings an explosion-filled but messily written single player campaign, tons of multiplayer combat, and new cooperative modes called Squads and Extinction. Call of Duty: Ghosts is a highly complete and polished package that takes few risks to ensure the legacy of the franchise will carry on to next generation platforms.

It would be forgivable to understand why developers Infinity Ward do not want to fix what isn’t broken when it comes to multiplayer in Ghosts, but to present yet another thin, action-focused campaign just doesn’t warrant the same excuse. In the single player, a super weapon called the Orbital Defense Initiative (ODIN) is seized in space by the Federation, an apparent coalition of South American nations. This group then proceeds to destroy most of the southern United States with their own weapon, throwing the global economy into disarray and crippling the nation. Players take on the role of Logan Walker just as the first attack hits, and you manage to escape with your brother and father.

Jumping forward ten years, the United States continues to be in a state of disarray, with cells of resistant forces preventing the invading Federation from taking over the US from the south. You and your brother, David, are now operatives of one such resistance movement, led by your father. Through the course of the game, you will perform various military operations against the enemy, eventually meeting up with the elite Ghosts squad and being recruited into it. The Ghosts themselves are an elite group that’s both a tactical force and a symbol to fear for the enemy. The campaign is exciting with a few memorable set pieces, like rappelling down a skyscraper or having shootouts in space, over the course of a 5 to 6 hour story.

But if you think about the plot too much, many questions are raised about how exactly all of this is possible. The story remains predictable and thin, with more questions than answers and an ending that guarantees a sequel. At first, the post-apocalyptic setting works quite well, creating feelings of desperation and isolation. But it’s not long before you realize the Ghosts and US Army still have a navy, helicopters, jets, and tons of manpower. You get behind enemy lines with ease, get rescued at just the right moment, and still have the capability to launch into space, which curbs the mood the game tries to set early on. It’s not as messy as Modern Warfare’s globe-trotting, multiple-perspective campaigns, but it also doesn’t quite reach the highs of the original Black Ops. As such, Ghosts disappointingly retains the spectacle over substance approach, not taking the opportunity of a brand new sub-franchise to present a compelling narrative.

For many of the missions, you’ll be joined by a loyal K-9 named Riley. This pup is your trusted ally in battle and will accompany you during several missions, though as things get more intense he stops appearing. You’ll sometimes take direct control of Riley through his equipment and camera gear, to perform stealth assignments. It’s something new, but there are only a couple of these sections and they are fairly short. The rest of the time, Riley growls and runs around, seldom helping in combat. You can direct him to attack enemies manually, but by the time he reaches the target he takes too much damage from foes and simply runs back to you.

There’s no point changing what works from the previous games, and Infinity Ward has made little alteration to the gunplay. Your weapons feel fairly powerful, though some lack the desired punch, especially the handguns. Instead, changes have been made to the movement system. Contextual lean lets players peak around objects and naturally gain a new perspective, without using any additional buttons. Simply approaching an edge of a surface allows for peeks as to what’s ahead. A new knee slide mechanic lets you slide into a crouched or prone position from sprint, and get an edge on the unsuspecting enemy as you dive around a corner. This mechanic works well but has a little potential for abuse in the hands of skilled players. Lastly, new mantling animations are supposed to allow for fluent movement when jumping or vaulting over objects. However, through many hours of play, we never quite felt its presence or seen it in action very often.

Call of Duty: Ghosts features many new weapons across multiple classes. 8 Assault rifles, 6 SMGs, 4 LMGs, 4 shotguns, and 4 sniper rifles are at your disposal, alongside the new Marksman class. That new class falls between the assault and sniper classes, providing a mid-range scoped solution with enough rate of fire to stand a chance against encircling foes. The four Marksman rifles provide a good alternative for mid to long range encounters and have the potential to alter the balance in a match. As expected, you’re able to tweak multiple aspects of nearly all weapons, including various attachments, custom camo and reticule. Your item and attachment allotments are fixed (unless you select a perk to get an extra). The visual customization items are unlocked by completing various in-game objectives or by using the guns and attachments long enough.

A new perk system has been introduced that bears some similarity to the pick-10 system in Black Ops 2, but is more straightforward. It is based on allotment points, with each costing a certain amount, between 1 and 5 points. So for example, players may choose to equip 8 perks worth 1 point each, or two perks worth 3 points and 1 perk work 2 points, etc. The seven categories of perks are speed, handling, stealth, awareness, resistance, equipment, and elite; these are fairly self-explanatory, with abilities falling into whatever category they help players with. Speed helps draw weapons and sprint faster, resistance protects against common threats like explosive damage, equipment grants extra attachments and equipment, and so forth. This design is very flexible and most of the perks seem balanced well enough for their cost and usefulness. Unlocking new perks requires a certain XP level as usual, as well as squad points which we’ll touch on later.

Call of Duty: Ghosts marks the return of strike packages, which are divided into three categories. Assault works based on unlocking abilities after killstreaks, each costing anywhere from 3 to 15 kills in a row. Players can pick and choose any three they like, but can only use one ability at the same number of kills. So players could choose to get the new SatCom at 3 kills, followed by Riley at 5 and maybe a Maniac at 10. Or, confident players could stack their streaks to unlock abilities at 10, 11, and 15 kills for example. Once again, flexibility is the name of the game with Ghosts. The concept of kill streaks remains unchanged, however, and ensures that already skilled players will continue to dominate the game.

The previously mentioned guard dog and the Maniac abilities are new to the Assault package. The guard dog can be extremely useful as it watches your back and takes down foes that dare engage you, while the Maniac grants you an ability to become a deadly and fast melee fighter, or a minigun wielding tank. The ability to call in Riley is useful, unlike during the campaign, as it does not die with the player and can stay alive until killed by an enemy; though awkward stalemates happen if two enemy dogs meet. Maniacs, meanwhile, are powerful but perhaps have too much health given their abilities.

While Assault package concentrates on offensive abilities that unlock with killstreaks, the Support package works to debuff enemy forces and radar, and does not reset upon player death. The same flexible customization rules apply, minus the requirement to stay alive the whole time reaching the required number of frags. It’s a great choice for players who just can’t seem to string enough kills together required by Assault abilities, or those playing on a team and wanting to defend their allies. New streak rewards for this package include ability to fire laser guided missiles. The Helo scout ability, which sees a player take up a sniper rifle in a helicopter overhead, is not too dangerous because foes on the ground can simply headshot the player and end this ability right away. Finally, the Specialist strike package actually offers no abilities at all – instead your killstreaks unlock new in-match perks for your soldier.

Squad points are the lifeline of Ghosts, and are similar in concept to COD points from Call of Duty: Black Ops. Everything that’s non-cosmetic must be unlocked with these points. New guns, attachments, soldier profiles, customization items, perks, and killstreaks all require a few squad points to unlock. They are definitely a valuable commodity, so players must choose their unlocks carefully lest they wish to grind and earn some more. Further, unlocking a perk or weapon on one soldier does not unlock it for the rest of your squad. So there is an absolute ton of squad points needed before you can get the loadouts you want on every squad member. Although that will likely happen naturally if your goal is to prestige everyone, in which case Ghosts will be a huge time-sink.

Online play is still the main selling point of Ghosts and includes a high level of customization as with previous games in the franchise. This time around, instead of creating a custom loadout class to play, the progression has been broken up into actual individual soldier profiles. There are up to ten soldiers that can exist and these make up your squad, each with 1 level prestige. Thus, now you can achieve 10 levels of prestige though your squad. Each soldier earns separate XP and level, as well as their own individual unlocks in both weaponry and perks. You essentially have 10 completely separate progression tracks in multiplayer. For completionists, there is a ton of gameplay to be had here. The individual soldiers can be fully customized, from their names to actual visuals. Head, headgear, uniform, background image, and badge can be swapped out, again with more unlocks possible over time. As well, for the first time in the series, players can choose a female soldier to play as.

The soldiers you create stay with you through a majority of modes, and relate most directly to the new Squads mode. Squads is designed to allow players to play against AI with their team of soldiers, or even against other players and their Squads. Think of it as creating your personal army and having them battle it out against other CPU-controlled squads. If you don’t have enough soldiers unlocked on your profile to fill a match, random AI will join your team.

Squad Assault mode lets you directly challenge another player’s team, based on whatever map and mode the defending player has configured. The other player does not need to be present or even online, as Squads are a persistent experience. Squad Vs Squad is a direct confrontation mode, where you and another player go head-to-head with your respective squads. In Safeguard, probably the most enjoyable mode for pickup play, you and your squad or other players defend against waves of AI enemies, with weapons and perks dropping between rounds. Finally, Wargame simply sees you take on AI soldiers with your squad on regular maps and modes.

With so much focus on AI soldiers, there are some glaring issues. The artificial intelligence ranges wildly between deadly accurate and completely oblivious, and there’s not much behavior variety beyond guarding an objective and attacking enemy teams. Equipping sniper rifles seems to force the AI to play more defensively, but otherwise your squad doesn’t seem to care too much about their loadout. There’s also seemingly little skill difference between an AI squad full of level 1 soldiers taking on a highly-leveled team. So overall it’s a little disappointing from the perspective that Squads was supposed to provide some kind of AI revolution – instead it’s a good mode for new players to practice with against AI.

Probably the most interesting aspect is that regardless of how many matches your squad plays, your soldiers only level up if you are playing as that specific soldier. This of course goes back to being able to prestige 10 times through your squad, but it makes the whole experience feel less worthwhile as far as progressing a team as an RPG meta game. Your AI soldiers could be the best killing machines and dominate other squads, but they will gain no experience during the match.

Once ready to jump into competitive multiplayer, a familiar set of modes is available. Some classics return unaltered, including free for all, team deathmatch, search and destroy, infected, domination, and kill confirmed. New mode Search and Rescue combines search and destroy with kill confirmed, where players must complete an objective and have only one life, but can be revived if their team picks up the tags first. It’s a fairly competitive mode that adds further challenge to the usual pace of the game. In Grind, players must recover dog tags like in kill confirmed, but take them to the objective marker to score for the team, resulting in a fast paced mode with a rush of scoring.

Blitz is the simplest and most boring of the new additions, where the sole goal is to walk into the target area in the enemy team spawn. If you thought classic Call of Duty gameplay is too slow, Cranked is for you. This mode gives players a speed boost after first kill, also leaving them with 30 seconds to find another before they self-destruct. In full matches on small maps, the lime limit is a non-issue as you’re guaranteed to get a frag or be fragged within 30 seconds; while on larger maps and fewer playercounts, most of your deaths may come from this induced suicide as you struggle to find an opponent in time. Last but not least, Hunted mode is an interesting addition that brings something truly new. A team deathmatch with a twist, as everyone starts with pistols and just one clip of ammo, while crates occasionally drop from the sky in random locations with rifles and more ammo. Everyone rushes to resupply, creating pockets of heated gunfire and demanding that teams make every shot count.

The maps you’ll be waging war on are diverse. There are 14 of them in total, with varying settings and sizes to accommodate almost any game type. Stonehaven, taking place around a large castle; Prison Break, featuring a jungle area around a prison; and Whiteout, a snow map with multiple pathways, are particular highlights of bigger maps. Players will need good medium and long range skills here, with a multitude of tactical options and clever design that uses both width and height to create different approaches. Medium sized maps like Freight, Tremor, and Overlord are more of the classic Call of Duty variety. Again, multiple pathways are featured, but certain chokepoints exist. Smaller maps like Sovereign and Octane, inside an assembly plant and small desert town respectably, promote non-stop mayhem with limited flanking opportunity. Overall there is a good balance between maps and most are well designed with verticality. The larger ones could definitely benefit from more than the 9 vs 9 maximum player count that Ghosts offers.

A new aspect that features on all maps is a dynamic event. These events are map specific, and range from closing a gate to changing the whole map layout. It sounds interesting in theory, but the execution comes up short. One map features an event whereas the whole area is levelled with a tactical bomb and the rest of the round is played in the ruins, which is sort of interesting and impressive. Unfortunately, that’s the most noteworthy dynamic map. Other maps’ events are severely underwhelming, such as opening/closing of doors and gates, or lamp posts / gas station falling over. Sure, it can kill the players in direct vicinity, but all it does for the rest of the round is slightly affect player flow. Dynamic events add a new level of interactivity to Call of Duty, but compared to its competitors in the genre, the impact is miniscule.

Many of the events can be triggered by new Field Orders system, where players get tasks that they must complete. The first Field Order briefcase is dropped with the first kill of the match. Should you be killed before completing a task, you drop the field order and another player may pick it up and try. Field Orders include objectives like getting two kills while crouched or killing an opponent from behind. Successful completion grants a care package. Again, it’s a system that gives players even more to do during a round, and adds further diversity to the proceedings.

If you’re the sort of player who wants Call of Duty anywhere you go, the official Call of Duty app should be able to satisfy those needs. The second screen experience lets you preview and customize Squad loadouts, and displays a map during the match. It also ties into the Clan Wars metagame. If you’re a member of a clan, you automatically participate in battles against 7 other clans. Your objective is to domainte a specific game mode for a few weeks. Clans that successfully hold the top spot will be granted more customization gear to use, from badges to armor. Just being part of a clan and playing normally makes you a part of Clan Wars whether you know it or not, so rewards can be earned without even realizing the fact.

There is one more cooperative mode that is brand new to the franchise, called Extinction. It’s separated from the rest of the experience, as you earn XP and unlocks specifically for this mode. This four player cooperative survival scenario sees you dropped off in a Colorado town where aliens have taken hold. Your objective is to make your way to the main crater beyond the town, to pinpoint coordinates for a tactical strike. You must select a specific class before starting the game, which includes tank, engineer, medic, and weapon specialist. The classes carry a corresponding benefit, including more health, ability to increase drill’s defenses, revive others more quickly, or deal more damage. Then, there are four common perks to choose from. For your ammo drop perk, you can select from explosive, incendiary, and other types; for team support perk, you can drop armor, weapon handling, explosives and other bonuses for the team. Your third perk is a strike package, which offers a deployment of a sentry, vulture, or mortars. Finally, the equalizer perk offers either a shield, grenade launcher, or machine gun to wield in battle. By earning experience (you can prestige this mode), players unlock relics to make things more challenging, as well as new and stronger perks to equip.

The game begins with your squad wielding pistols. There is a cash-based system that earns you money each time you kill an alien or complete objectives. With more money, you can “buy” guns that are scattered around the area, set off traps in the town, and unlock strong levels of your equipped perks. Your goal is to deploy a drill at numerous infected hives while aliens swarm your team from every direction. Also as you progress, you also earn points that let your class become more useful. However each time you start a new game, everything resets, so you’re back to zero cash and pistols.

Extinction is certainly something different from the Zombie or Spec Ops modes in previous games, and it sounds good in theory. But there are a few too many annoyances. The narrative begins and ends so abruptly and with so little explanation that you’d be forgiven to think there must be more levels to play, but alas that’s likely to be DLC. The campaign itself is maybe an hour long, with a competent team. And that hour is not very exciting – enemies swarm from all directions, and all you do is shoot chaotically and activate perks as soon as you have the cash. These moments of defending the drill last for what feels like an eternity, only for you to walk 10 meters and do it all again. There’s no planning involved like in Zombie mode. The traps you set off are temporary, like turning on an electric fence or creating a line of fire, and are the same every time you go through the campaign. And even enemies themselves, of which there are only 3-4 varieties, spawn in the same areas. Thus, there’s very limited replay value and no good reason to keep returning to Colorado over and over as it plays out roughly the same every time. There is some fun to be had with Extinction during the first few runs, but it feels like a chaotic and repetitive alternative to the methodical and tense Zombie experience, and not as enticing as the likes of Left 4 Dead.

With a transition to next generation taking place, the Call of Duty franchise aims to get a strong foothold on the new platforms. With the PlayStation 4 version, the game has received a noticeable increase in visual fidelity. Audio design is a particular highlight, adding depth and various effects to weaponry, explosions, and environments for the first time in a series long known for subpar audio. In parts, the game easily lives up the maxed PC level of technical visuals. Special effects, particles, general debris and increased texture resolution all help to make Ghosts a solid looking title that still runs at a smooth 60 frames per second. However, its current-generation brethren clearly hold the game back a little, as you’ll often notice assets that lack details and have simply been increased in resolution. Character models and animations look good as well, but again more of an update to the PS3 version rather than a brand new creation. But as a debut next generation title in the franchise, Call of Duty: Ghosts looks solid on PS4 and the steady framerate makes a strong case for the game.

Call of Duty: Ghosts enters the next console generation with a very solid first outing. Numerous tweaks and changes help the game standout from titles past, though the campaign is a bit of a disappointment. The Squads system brings more progression to the franchise, and fans who want to create their team of super deadly Prestige soldiers have many, many hours of gameplay ahead. Map and mode variety is enjoyable enough to entice in new gamers while appeasing the diehard fanbase. Extinction mode is interesting, but is poised for some DLC to keep the action fresh. The game looks good on the PlayStation 4, perhaps not awe-inspiring for next-gen, but the framerate holds up wonderfully. Overall, Call of Duty: Ghosts is what fans have come to expect from the franchise, with that little bit extra to peak your interest again.

Disclaimer: Call of Duty Ghosts was reviewed at a multi-day event hosted by publisher Activision, which covered travel and accommodation costs. Over 15 hours was spent with the PS4 version. About an hour each was also spent with other current and next-gen platform versions.