Activision
Get ready to go hunting for bad guys in Call of Duty: Ghosts.
LOVED IT: Extinction mode is fun, solid - if short - campaign, new multiplayer additions are fantastic
HATED IT: Occasional graphical hitches
GRAB IT IF: You enjoyed Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, or the Battlefield series
There is no wildly crazy narrative that speaks to the future dangers of the Internet in Call of Duty: Ghosts. There are just wildly dangerous attack dogs. And brilliant multiplayer modes. And lots and lots of shooting.
With Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’s back to basics and strengths for Activision’s best-selling franchise. There was a point where the CoD series - and maybe all military-themed first-person shooters in general - tried far too hard, battling an outside world that saw them as the root of all real-life evil. But with Ghosts, Infinity Ward doesn’t worry about that. It just makes a video game.
You can’t help but realize that at the very start, when you’re running from a gigantic earthquake that isn’t an earthquake, or a moment later when you’re in a firefight in space, or a flash-forward moment later, when you’re controlling an attack dog in a key skirmish. It’s all completely action-movie, never once bothered by the undertones and messages that permeated Black Ops 2.
Unburdened, you’ll enjoy every minute of the campaign. It’s well-paced and well-built, focusing on a world conflict and an all-powerful device known as the ODIN. There’s a nice ebb and flow throughout the campaign, too, as you’ll go from interesting set piece (rappeling down a skyscraper and shooting your enemies is one) to more standard shooting fare, and it always feels big, even if the theaters of war are far more straightforward.
Where Battlefield 4 gives you vast options in plenty of arenas, Ghosts lets you stop thinking and simply fire away, playing with new old toys like that dog, Riley. Essentially a kinder, gentler reskinned drone, Riley is introduced as a new element, and his constant companionship is evolves into a highlight of the campaign.
The lone shortcoming of the campaign is its length; you’ll plow through it in just a few hours. Then you’ll turn your attention to the multiplayer modes for the next year or so and be completely happy.
CoD has always been about multiplayer, and that truly shines in Ghosts. The experience you’ve come to expect is here, so expect fantastic close-quarters shooting, and your usual suite of modes. Maps are perfectly suited to CoD’s brand of multiplayer, less about being vast and overwhelming (the Battlefield approach) and more about forcing you to run into your enemies.
The new additions to this multiplayer suite are less about the action and more about your characters. In a nod to the ever-changing gamer fan base, you can now create female avatars. And in an even bigger move, you now get to create and manage an entire suite of avatars, leveling up each one independently. On its surface, this certainly seems like a more-of-the-same move, a pointless addition, but it should actually add even more replay value to a fantastic multiplayer as you design and perfect soldier after soldier.
Extinction Mode is the last brilliant bit of this multiplayer. Really, it’s Tower Defense meets Borderlands, but it’s fantastically put together, the finest cooperative bit of the game. Again, it’s not revolutionary, but it is well-done.
And that’s the story of Ghosts. Activision’s shooter franchise has experimented in recent years, seemingly uncomfortable with its particular brand of relevance, but this year, Infinity Ward stopped all that. Instead of aiming for a gaming Emmy, it lets itself be a blockbuster, staying comfortable in its own skin.
And that’s just the way it should be.
Reviewed on Xbox 360
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