As you may have noticed it’s November, well it is when I’m writing this! And that means another Call of Duty instalment is upon but this year sees the return of Infinity Ward. The past 2 years we have seen Treyarch take control of the Activision juggernaut with Blops and Blops 2 so will Infinity Ward return in a blaze of glory or will it be time to call Ghostbusters…..
Set in a time not too time from today, Call of Duty Ghosts presents a new enemy for you to try and take down, The Federation. A conglomerate of South American states under one banner taking down nations around the globe. You’re part of task force with your brother, tasked with attempted to take down from the inside The Federation and their infamous leader “Rorke.”
As you may have noticed through the tidal wave of memes Call of Duty now has added a dog to your squad within the squad. Riley. This really is symbolic of something which Ghosts clearly trying to throughout its campaign. That being to add a sense of attachment between you and your character. Remonstrant of the past IW games with Price and MacTavish maybe? Does the game achieve this? Well it does in places but you’re not really treated to the same sort of banter and action that Soap and Price gave you over 2 games. The potential is there though. And there is a lot of scope to play with as the story is full of little plots that can be branched out.
The campaign on the whole has all the bells and whistles that you may well expect from the Call of Duty franchise, with the added shark. Yes I said shark, the game makes use a wide range of environments including the deep sea. That’s all well and good but the story seems to just drag you to and from different places, it’s almost as if the screen writers have said, “Let’s go deep sea diving then let’s go to the polar ice caps and we can’t forget space.” Although very well presented and linked well through cut scenes which add to the drama of the situation. The campaign feels a little rushed in relative terms to the multiplayer. Well it’s no surprise seen as it’s the most popular multiplayer game out there!
As you delve into the new instalment of online from the franchise the menus are a mesh of where to buy things and who to buy. For the first time in its history Call of Duty allows you to purchase individual characters which also brings in another piece of history for Call of Duty, you can play as a woman. Never been done before apparently, very PC. But I digress! Multiple load outs and combinations are available to the player with Infinity Ward claiming 2000+ different combinations.
But with its depth brings negatives. It’s a mess. Literally, I was completely confused at times what was going on with perks and killstreaks. That being said it is important to note once you get to grips with the thing you find everything quite easily but for the first timer I just wanted to play and not die every time I spawned. Finally I felt ready after tinkering and purchasing different weapons and attachments I loaded myself onto a map called Stonehaven.
The detail in this map is incredible for a 360, it looks great in places and the map is well designed. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on Xbox One! (Stay tuned on AG for that review) But, and it’s a massive one, this map is symbolic of a problem on Ghosts, the maps are too big for the 360. The player count is 12 on Xbox 360, this is scaled up to 18 for Xbox One players which solves the problem that some of the maps on Ghosts have.
But what about the 360 version? With no Ground War it’s not possible for the 360 player to take advantage of the greater sized maps on the game which is a shame because they make up around 40% of the maps on game. I wandered round for I’d say a fifth of the game time (2 mins ish) multiple times without seeing anyone. It got awfully dull, fast, which is something that has never happened on CoD for me mainly because you don’t have time to think before someone shoots you!
Some of you though will love this, it’s a snipers paradise and the return of Infinity Ward means that sniping is much better than on Blops 1-2. The gameplay is rougher and rigid which goes back to the days of MW 2. Sadly it doesn’t replicate the heights MW2 hit in terms of gameplay, but the overall feeling I came away from the multiplayer was when playing this game on Xbox One it will be a much better game.
For Call of Duty lovers you probably won’t be interested in whether or not to purchase the game, because you most likely will already have it, but for those pondering a purchase on 360 but have or are getting the Xbox One, hang tight because I have a good feeling that this game will be unlocked through the power and improvements the Xbox One will most likely bring.
Ghosts sees the new addition, a new mode called Extinction. The sceptics among us, and I was one of them at the start of this review. Will say it’s just changed the name from Zombies to Extinction. That’s not the case, Extinction is a hybrid. Its horde meets Zombies with the element of progression and an element of a real challenge that Zombies lacked. This new attraction adds value to the overall game but can become sour and boring once you get to the later levels. It’s definitely worth a slice of your multiplayer time though, but it’s not something to get excited over.
Ghosts is by no means the worst game in the series but it’s not the best either, with the arrival of the Xbox One Ghosts has shown a glimmer of potential on the 360 which is good news for gamers in general. Could Call of Duty Ghosts be the stepping stone for something great in the future? Quite Possibly.
