The Little Indie Game That Could - A Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

"AH I CAN'T SEE, EVERYTHING IS BLACK. Oh wait.."

Rating: 6/10

Verdict: Call of Duty: Ghosts is not a new experience. It changes up the formula a tad here and there, but not enough for me to get back into the series. Fans of the series should eat this up as a fun, fast, action packed game… while people who hate the series will find yet another bland military shooter that feels like paper. Pick your side, because Call of Duty is here to stay.

            I’m of the mind that a reviewer should embrace his or her biases, and make them known. I’m not trying to start an argument here (or maybe I am, I don’t know), but I don’t understand this obsession with objectivity. I’m not trying to say that you can’t try to break down the pros and cons of a game in the most unbiased way that’s possible, but a game that is boring for one may be an intense experience for another. Objective turns subjective pretty quick in a lot of cases, and that’s why I will always be upfront with anybody reading this about my own personal prejudices and desires (sounds sexy). It’s also the reason I’ve always enjoyed a system built upon multiple critics reviewing the same game, because that will give a more balanced opinion. Nobody reads my blog, so as much as I’d like to have multiple people reviewing things, it’s just not possible right now.

                So with that out of the way, let’s talk the newest entry in the blockbuster series – Call of Duty: Ghosts. Most people will know what this is, but for those few who don’t, Ghosts is a first-person military shooter based around an elite group named Ghosts, who are known for their great war skills, be it stealth or gunplay.  There’s also a tiny, insignificant sub-plot where the game takes place a few years after the US of A has fallen and the soldiers are fighting to get their country back.

                Call of Duty: Ghosts should please CoD fans, unless they’re the jaded kind that haven’t liked a game in the series since the first Modern Warfare but keep playing each new entry anyway -- there is no hope for them at this point. For the rest of them, I can’t see them being overly unhappy with the game as a whole. I got out of Call of Duty during Modern Warfare 3… just one day I stopped enjoying it as much as I had, and I wasn’t even a massive fan to begin with.        

                This is a major reason for the 6 out of 10. As a Call of Duty, I’d rate it very highly because the developers do what they do really well. If you want a more arcade-style twitch shooter, then CoD is fantastic. For people like me, who now feel that the game just feels like paper and doesn’t feed me like a heavier shooter like Killzone does, then it’s not that enjoyable. I do like it, just not that much, and I feel the game does some things better than previous entries, and some things worse.

                Firstly, I would say the campaign is a step down from what I feel is the best campaign in the series – Modern Warfare 2. I felt this way during MW3 as well. Many have criticized MW2 for its length, but I felt that it was fast-paced and exciting, partially because it didn’t really have time to wear out its welcome. Ghosts is a normal length campaign (8 – 12 hours like most games), but there’s a lot of “been there, done that” going on. There are action set pieces galore, but somehow it just manages to not be thrilling. When I wasn’t so familiar with the series, I could handle the format, but I have a harder time now.

                For example, the series has pretty much always told you what to do. “There’s a helicopter coming, get down,” and so you do. Rinse, repeat. It would be nice if it could get changed up a bit so we have more control over what goes on in the single-player. Let me call some shots outside of, “waiting on you, take the shot.” The game is linear and just gets you from Point A to Point B. Some don’t mind this, but after a game every year, it drains me. I don’t even find the big action movie-esque action as much as I used to. The one level where they open up the game a little bit for you is a welcome change, and I give them props for including that. However, in the end, I’m just a little tired of their brand. I feel that a lot of it just ends up falling flat.

                 The premise of the fallen Amerika is a good one. Setting you up like an underdog fighting for your country should make the game a little more personal and interesting, but it only achieves that mildly. Right from the beginning they stress the idea of family, but really, I couldn't bring myself to care that much because I know that Ghosts is focusing more on blowin' shit up. That's fine, but it just means another Call of Duty campaign with a story I don't care about.

                And you might as well forget about the dog. The dog was an unnecessary addition. There wasn’t really much potential to be extraordinary there, anyway, but you only use him in a couple missions. One of them is a boring stealth mission, however most of the time you just press a button and he attacks enemies. Okay, cool, I guess? It’s not bad, but it’s not good.

                Fair enough though, Ghosts, I know that multi-player is where you excel. Some people don’t even play the Call of Duty campaigns. So does the multi-player hold up? I would say yes, again, if you like what the series has always done, there’s a lot to like here.

                I give the series props for being like Halo and offering a bunch of interesting game types. As much as I love Killzone and their warzones, I’ve always hoped that Killzone would do a little more like Call of Duty in that regard (but only that regard), and offer more choices of games to play… even if I mostly play deathmatch, having the variety is nice. There is variety here. They’ve added some new games, and kept the classics. I can’t criticize them at all for this. There is still a lot of excitement to be had here.

                They also shifted the levelling system around a little bit, and this too is a positive, because using their new point system, there’s less of a gap between level 50s and level 1s, outside of skill. Never found Call of Duty to be as much of a skill-based shooter as some others, and this does a decent job of rectifying that a little bit. Good job on that too, but I still get murdered by everyone because I suck!

                They’ve also made environments a little more destructible. I’ve always said that making things more destructible is a next-gen idea that I can get behind, because it vastly improves the gameplay. Ghosts is no Battlefield, and even the combustible environments are a bit scripted and unimpressive. But they aren’t bad… they are an improvement, ultimately. Shooting a pipe and having smoke fill the area is a welcome inclusion, so I won’t hate on it or make fun of it.

                They also have online split-screen, which I loved about MW3 (and was the main reason I played it as much as I did), and since it returns, I have to say, thank you.

                If you are into the multi-player in the other games, you will like this. I enjoy it, but like my 6 indicates, I don’t love it. I probably never will again. I wasn’t even going to play Ghosts but life took me down this road anyway.

                The most interesting feature to appear in Ghosts is Extinction Mode. Instead of zombies, like in Black Ops, you have to drill hives and kill aliens. Even though it’s played mostly straight (god forbid they be funny), it’s nice to see Infinity Ward include a left-field choice like aliens in their military game.

                The best aspect is that it’s not just a copy of zombies, but it is similar. The aliens are more interesting rivals than zombies here because zombies are usually predictable and aliens jump up on things and attack in different ways. You can scavenge for things to help you out, and use the environment to aid you in your fight against them, and all-in-all, I’d say Extinction is better than Spec Ops in every way.

                Just as a final remark before my closing statement, Ghosts doesn’t push the system graphically, but I’ve never felt that CoD really wanted to anyway. It’s a good looking game, but it’s not awe-inspiring. I often forget to even talk about graphics because graphics matter so little to me in relation to everything else, but I know some people do so there you go.

                Call of Duty: Ghosts is a good game. Hell, it’s probably a great game, just not to me. At this point, Call of Duty can go fuck itself. Until it offers something new, or at the very least stops getting released every year, it will probably continue to get scores like this from me. But to the fans, I’m happy that you get another game.