Call of Duty: Ghosts- Review

Like a good sequel should, Call of Duty: Ghosts doesn’t ignore the formula of fast, fluid gameplay that has made the series famous, but introduces a unique new premise, unprecedented player personalization, and sweeping changes that breathe new life into the multiplayer experience. It’s over-the-top and at times unnecessarily complex, but serves both current and next-generation consoles with ambitious new ideas and tremendous replay value.

Despite sharing a name with one of Modern Warfare’s best-known characters, Ghosts takes place in an entirely new Call of Duty universe set in the not-too-distant future. In a genre overwrought with antiquated Russian conflicts and ambiguous Middle Eastern terrorist threats, Ghosts takes on a refreshingly unique premise in which the threat comes not from the east, but the south: a federation of oil-rich South American nations rises to take over the hemisphere, pushing north and coming to blows with the U.S.

The prelude establishes a harrowing vision of a United States homeland that's broken but not beaten – not quite Red Dawn,  but not Fallout 3, either. It’s a space not often explored by modern shooters, and its mood is heightened by missions set in a besieged Santa Monica and the wasted remains of San Diego, to the tune of an excellent, somber score from David Buckley (The Town, Metal Gear Solid 4). But ultimately, time on the poignant homefront is short lived as the story goes behind enemy lines in Caracas, the Andes mountains, and other exotic locales.

Those might lack to familiarity, but the variety of environments keeps the campaign fresh, not only in terms of visuals, but in gameplay as well. Instead of just fighting waves of enemies through a linear stage at ground level, you’ll find yourself rappelling down skyscrapers, flying helicopters, having firefights in space, commanding tanks, scuba diving through shipwrecks, playing as a dog, and evading shark attacks. Each requires new strategy, acute situational awareness, and – in the case of the space and water missions – special consideration for verticality and physics.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Call of Duty game without elaborate setpieces, fierce shootouts, and tense stealth missions, and Ghosts delivers some of the most memorable experiences in the series. I felt genuine dread as the ground and buildings collapsed around me during orbital weapons strikes, the zero-gravity spectacle of the Federation’s space station ambush is awe-inspiring, and bursting through a highrise window as the entire building crumbles during the Federation Day mission is exhilarating.

But like previous CoDs, the story of Ghosts struggles to remain in focus amidst the fray of explosive cinematic moments and relentless firefights. Narrated loading sequences with stylized story animations push the campaign forward, but only last for one or two minutes before launching back into the action. It’s there, on the front lines, that much of the plot progression is presented and oftentimes lost.

It's by no means an achievement in dramatic storytelling — it's more about dumb fun — and it lacks the player-choice element introduced with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, but when given time to breathe Ghosts actually offers some interesting human drama. The story centers around two brothers, Logan and Hesh, their father Elias, and yes, their dog Reilly as they fight the Federation as part of the battered remnants of the U.S. military, and later as the elite Ghosts squad. The family ties, specifically the relationship between Logan and Hesh, made me care about the protagonists in a series that's habitually made its characters a dispensable commodity. The voice acting is decent overall, though there are periodic moments of cringe-worthy dialog, like one superfluous moment when Elias reveals he’s a member of the Ghosts. And then there’s Riley. Though the subject of many a meme at this point, Riley not only acts as a useful tool for recon and silently dispatching enemies, but is integral to several dramatic sequences, saving your character on more than one occasion.

The story stumbles in the second act when it strays away from the more evocative character focus in favor of a long stretch of back-to-back missions driven almost exclusively by guns-blazing combat. While not poorly done, this visually arresting, action-packed, but ultimately hollow middle stands in stark contrast to the effective first and final acts. On the bright side, that padded out my play time to roughly 10 hours, making this campaign one of the longest CoD single-player experiences.

Or, in the case of those for whom multiplayer is the primary focus, it handily gets out of the way other than to serve as the inspiration for map environments, equipment, and weapon design.

Ghosts preserves much of the look and feel of the traditional Call of Duty multiplayer experience, but introduces sweeping changes that make it more personalized, more diverse, and better balanced. At its core lies the expansive new Create a Soldier system, which affords us the ability to create and customize 10 unique characters, each with up to six loadouts, for a total of 60 available classes and 20,000 possible configurations. Create a Soldier also riffs on Black Ops II’s Pick 10 system, allowing you to forego certain equipment in order to outfit a primary weapon with extra attachments or enable extra perks. In all, there are an impressive 39 weapons, 12 pieces of equipment, 35 new perks, 36 scorestreaks spanning three categories, and various weapons attachments to choose from.

Create a Solider is ambitious in its scope, and the sheer breadth of options caters to and empowers every style of play. Whether you want to run around like a high-powered knife-wielding mutant or move stealthily through a map by using heightened senses, you can. But for all of its versatility, Create a Soldier is dauntingly complex next to previous Call of Duty games. Even after hours of matches and experimentation, I felt as though I had only begun to understand the nuances of each of the 35 unique perks and how to optimize my classes for a specific style of play. On the one hand, Create a Soldier’s depth will have enthusiast players honing their perfect loadouts for months, but on the other, it makes for a more challenging entry-level experience.

Or, in the case of those for whom multiplayer is the primary focus, it handily gets out of the way other than to serve as the inspiration for map environments, equipment, and weapon design.

Ghosts preserves much of the look and feel of the traditional Call of Duty multiplayer experience, but introduces sweeping changes that make it more personalized, more diverse, and better balanced. At its core lies the expansive new Create a Soldier system, which affords us the ability to create and customize 10 unique characters, each with up to six loadouts, for a total of 60 available classes and 20,000 possible configurations. Create a Soldier also riffs on Black Ops II’s Pick 10 system, allowing you to forego certain equipment in order to outfit a primary weapon with extra attachments or enable extra perks. In all, there are an impressive 39 weapons, 12 pieces of equipment, 35 new perks, 36 scorestreaks spanning three categories, and various weapons attachments to choose from.

Create a Solider is ambitious in its scope, and the sheer breadth of options caters to and empowers every style of play. Whether you want to run around like a high-powered knife-wielding mutant or move stealthily through a map by using heightened senses, you can. But for all of its versatility, Create a Soldier is dauntingly complex next to previous Call of Duty games. Even after hours of matches and experimentation, I felt as though I had only begun to understand the nuances of each of the 35 unique perks and how to optimize my classes for a specific style of play. On the one hand, Create a Soldier’s depth will have enthusiast players honing their perfect loadouts for months, but on the other, it makes for a more challenging entry-level experience.

When comparing the PS4 and Xbox One versions side-by-side, there’s little to no variation in textures and effects, but there is a discernible difference in resolution. While both are displayed at 1080p, the Xbox One version upscales the game from 720p resolution. In contrast, the PS4 version runs natively at 1080p, which makes character models, weapons, and environments look noticeably sharper and more detailed. The difference is especially apparent on larger-sized TVs, where pixel density weighs more heavily in picture quality.

It’s certainly going to be a sticking point for those who demand the highest fidelity experience, but the difference is harder to identify in absence of a side-by-side comparison.

Oddly, the Xbox One version makes no use of the haptic feedback motors built into the controller’s triggers, and the DualShock 4’s trackpad is used solely as a button to toggle the in-game scoreboard during multiplayer.

There is, however, one notable exclusion from current-gen. Historically, Call of Duty has limited a majority of its modes to 12 players, but offered an additional playlist that supports 18-player matches known as Ground War. While the larger-scale matches live on with the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, owners of the Xbox 360, Wii U, and PS3 versions are capped at 12 players. It’s a surprising step back for the series, and the larger maps could have benefited from the higher player count.

It should also be noted that my smooth multiplayer experience was hosted on a dedicated server hosted by Activision – and most of yours will be, too. Activision says that all platforms will use a hybrid of dedicated servers and peer-to-peer matchmaking, which should eliminate many of the lag issues we've seen in the past. If all goes well, the days of being tossed into a game hosted by someone 2,000 miles away on a dial-up connection will be behind us.

The Verdict

Call of Duty: Ghosts isn't a reinvention of the franchise, but proves there's still room for innovation within its existing formula. Though at the risk of overcomplicating things at times, its robust multiplayer gameplay, surprisingly fun co-op modes, and lengthy, challenging, and varied campaign makes Ghosts one of the best Call of Duty games to date.