A history in virtual warfare
As some of you are aware, the Call of Duty franchise has annualized and is one of the most, if not “the” best-selling game franchise.
This franchise gets handled by two different studios, who alternate their take on the legacy each and every year. One studio goes by the name of Treyarch, who oversees the most recent “Black Ops” franchise. The other studio, Infinity Ward, created the masterpiece Modern Warfare, that we fell in love with all those years ago. Since then, several big developers and programmers left Infinity Ward to create Respawn, an independent studio who’s currently working on Titanfall.
Infinity Ward by brand is the same, but the internal team has changed drastically, and so has this iteration of the Call of Duty franchise.
With their latest game, CoD: Ghosts, it adds on to an ever-growing plethora of changes; from the ability to lean around corners when in cover to the new multiplayer class systems. You even have a trusty canine side-kick named Riley.
Whew, what a rush…
When I came home, I immediately started the process of downloading the 5 GB’s of required installation to play on my Xbox 360. As soon as the kids went down for a nap, I began what would be an incredible rush of adrenaline and shock.
To say the opening to Ghosts is “great” would be an understatement; my eyes were wide and my mouth was left hanging open.
You begin in the black darkness of space as an astronaut doing some routine maintenance on a space station. Soon after reaching the station, where you just discussed how you wanted to get back home with a friend, you’re confronted with an atrocious act. Someone is attacking the space station, killing your fellow astronauts, and shooting rockets down upon the Earth’s crust, killing civilians and all. As crew members and adversaries are floating into space, explosions and their debris are scattered all around. You stop the barrage of missiles, but before you can count your blessings, you begin to realize you’re burning up as you and your deceased friends descend back into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The most exciting and awe-inspiring introduction of a game in years.
I found the campaign a blast, genuinely fun to play.
Cut away to another character you take control over on the ground in the United States, while all hell has broken loose in space. Hellfire missiles come raining down upon this unnamed city, destroying cars, homes, foundations, and people. Even earthquakes ensue and add to the list of life threatening dangers. The world is literally falling apart, and as an act of war. My character tries to figure out what’s happening, I’m frantically looking for my father while trying to keep up with my brother. We scale uneven terrain, run through collapsing, burning buildings and barely make it out alive. With so many questions to answer, like who’s doing this and why, the screen suddenly fades to black.
Welcome to Call of Duty: Ghosts, and that’s just the first 30 minutes.
A nice remedy to a very tired formula.
As the campaign progresses, the action ramps up to a gripping, pain-staking, anxiety-ridden thrill ride, only weighed down by a clichéd plot. These clichéd story arch and sudden twists to the plot had me rolling my eyes at certain points. Though this kind of story’s been told many times before. Scenes about a father saying “…you’re all I’ve got, son,” and lines like “…he was one of us, now he’s the enemy,” could be seen coming a mile away. That’s not to say the story is bad or underwhelming, far from it actually. Transitioning from such a great introduction to the rest of Ghosts, it’s odd how it almost takes a nose-dive into a predictable plot. I’d compare the theatrics to a Michael Bay film. It’s not completely original, but it’s done so well, with lots of pretty explosions, and actively decaying environments, it sits well with me.
It’s been a long time, old friend.
Though the story doesn’t try to push any boundaries, the intense gameplay and dramatic set pieces are on par, if not a bit larger in scale compared to previous installment. It’s been two years since I’ve played any Call of Duty game.
I found the campaign a blast and genuinely fun to play. If you’ve never given the story mode a chance, now’s the time to do so. The first 30 minutes will leave you begging for another rush of such visceral gameplay and eye candy. It’s been quite some time since a game has made my pulse elevate in such a way.
You know why I’m here
To a lot of people the main attraction, if not the only attraction, is the multiplayer.
I found the changes to the multiplayer allowed for a more personalized approach. This was a nice remedy to a very tired formula of look, shoot, kill, get shot. The nuances with leveling and selecting a class really revitalized the same old formula of having so many options available at once. I found it more difficult to call in air strikes, recon equipment, or other game changing package drops. The lack of air support really helps keep the playing field level. The ability to have a male or female character, which primary and secondary weapons you’ll have, figuring out which perks you can afford or even have room for; they all really bring a level of immersion I had yet to experience in the Call of Duty world.
Infinity Ward has changed how you unlock perks, which enhance your soldier’s basic abilities such as running further, or adding ammo piercing to your bullets.
You now use tokens to purchase these upgrades. You gain these tokens when you level up or complete challenges. The tokens are for buying side arms, primary weapons, sights, extra ammo, perks, and just about anything else you could think of. I found these changes to mainly just be aesthetic, as the core experience and idea behind leveling up is still in tact and incredibly addictive. Every time you hear a guitar riff and a base line, you know you’ve done something good mid-match.
This video of extinction mode is created by Section 18 on YouTube.
There are several multiplayer modes to experience your Duty this year:
Co-op modes:
- Extinction – You and up to four friends try to survive a terrible invading force. You have a set of objectives or goals to carry out, while trying to stay alive and upgrade to find better weapons that will suit the madness.
- Squads – Squads is basically Gears of War‘s “Horde Mode,” but with several different options of how you’d like to approach it. You and up to 6 players defend yourselves from 20 waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Squads has a few other options for match types as well. You and up to six other players, either fight alongside, or against each other, you can even mix it up with you working with the AI to take out the other players team.
Multiplayer Modes:
- Team Deathmatch – You and your team must reach the score limit before the timer runs out to see which team wins.
- Cranked – You are given a handgun and 30 seconds before you die, you stay alive by killing other people, which then in turn allows the opportunity to find a better weapon.
- Search and Rescue – This is much like a “capture the flag” typed game. You capture and bring back an item or person to your home base.
- Infected – The goal is to stay alive as long as possible. If an infected kills you, you then turn infected and attempt to take out the remain survivors.
- Kill Confirmed – It’s just like TDM but after you kill an enemy you must secure their fallen dog tag for the kill to count.
- Hunted – You start with limited equipment, such as a pistol, then acquire more weapons and perks via capturing control points.
- Free-for-all – One man for himself, shoot at anything that moves.
- Team Tactical – 4 vs 4 with varying objective type games.
The Skinny
At the end of the day this new version of a beloved franchise still holds up.
At the end of the day this new version of a beloved franchise still holds up. With much-needed improvements made, Infinity Ward has addressed a lot of personal issues with the annualized game. I found the multiplayer difficult to enjoy in the past, but with these new changes, it makes multiplayer feel just fresh enough to snag my attention, but not too different that I feel it’s an alienating experience from what I’ve grown to expect. The campaign is well worth your time, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this franchise may go for the next-generation of consoles. This is a must play if you enjoy first-person shooters.
Feel free to leave any comments down below. What do you think of the franchise? Do you like the changes Infinity Ward has made too? And don’t forget for all your gaming news and needs, check out @Gameskinny on Twitter or on the Web at Gameskinny.com.
By: @Coatedpolecat
