Call of Duty: Ghosts (Xbox 360) Reviews

  • Iceonfire89Iceonfire89238,049
    07 Nov 2013 09 Jul 2014
    35 27 53
    If you give a thumbs down, please leave a comment stating why. I can't improve my review if I don't understand why you don't like them. This is my first ever review and well.. be gentle.

    Also note this review contains spoilers which will reveal plot points in the campaign or other details you may not yet know, so please be aware of this going in!

    So the new eagerly awaited instalment of Call of Duty is here, breaking records already. Infinity Ward brings us Call of Duty Ghosts, many had high hopes for this game, previously the story lines Infinity Ward has infused into the campaign missions have always been enjoyable and engaging.

    I'm sure we can all remember the likes of Captain John Mctavish, Soap, Roach, Ghost and all the loveable characters we grew attached to in the modern warfare series. That story line was in my opinion the best brought to us so far by any Call of Duty game, leaving Ghosts with a lot to live up to.

    Many of us also wanted to know just what was going to replace special ops missions in the new title, before we have either had zombies or special ops/survival from call of duty games and were eager to see what the new game brought. From the trailer we could see the first glimpses of the new game mode, which appeared to be about fighting aliens.

    Lastly of course there's always the big one, the point on which for many the Call of Duty series rises as a great title, or falls into the abyss as a flop, I am of course talking about the multi-player. There are so many expectations that players had concerning Ghosts multi-player from cracking down on boosters to generally wanting an engaging fun experience.

    Lets get down to it.

    This game consists of three main parts which I will be evaluating; the Campaign, Extinction and of course the Multi-player.

    Warning spoilers ahead!!!


    The Campaign

    This game follows a brand new campaign story line centred around an elite unit of soldiers called the Ghosts; as Elias tells us at the beginning of the campaign the Ghosts are the very best, they survive against the odds and complete their missions where anyone else would fail, they are an elite fighting unit. The initial cut-scenes of the game centre on Elias telling us a story of how 60 or so ordinary soldiers were forced to hold off 500 men whilst trying to ensure civilian safety, over time they are whittled down to just 15 men; one which is sent to lead the civilians away whilst the other 14 stayed behind.

    The enemy knows they can't hold out any longer and attack, the last 14 hold their ground, they use stealth and cunning to slaughter their foes; they were unstoppable. A thick covering of blood and dust made them camouflaged and hard to spot, together they kept on fighting until there was only one enemy left, the story of these unstoppable foes penetrated far and wide from tales told by the one remaining enemy who staggered into the desert raving about Ghosts and serving to transform the soldiers into stuff of legend; the Ghosts are born.

    The game centres around two main protagonists who are Elias's sons; Hesh and Logan. The main enemy of the game is "The Federation" who have united South America in an attack on the North and have breached the Odin satellite installations used for defence by sending men directly to the stations in orbit to take them by force and are feeding the satellites coordinates of North American cities.

    The major antagonist of the game is a former Ghost named Rorke, who seeks to eliminate the Ghosts from the face of the earth. Rorke is a well designed character who actually manages to make the player want to take him down through acts committed during the campaign storyline. Hesh and Logan on the other hand weren't so well designed, I found myself not feeling any sort of emotional attachment to the characters throughout the storyline or particularly wanting them to succeed.

    This is one point where the developer slipped up, although I was not expecting fully engaging characters with a well developed likeable personality like the ones in the modern warfare series, which made you actually care when something happened to them or feel satisfied when they achieved their goals; I was expecting better. The lack of character engagement with the player in the story campaign is one that puts us off right from the beginning and makes us lose interest with the plot rather quickly.

    The campaign does feature underwater and space battles the like of which we haven't fully experienced before, the space battles in particular are quite fun and are also a bit of a welcome change from previous titles. There are also a few tank assaults which we get to head up; any change of scenery from one man and his gun is welcome in the campaign and lends it a new feel. We also get to use stealth and command Riley, a lovable but deadly attack dog which the player can either control directly or command to attack an enemy, this experience lives up to expectations and is fun to play with.

    During the course of the campaign after the initial story of the Ghosts is laid out there are literally no plot twists or anything to keep the player interested and I found myself prattling along through and wishing for any kind of change from go attack this and capture that it's important, next mission, next mission. It's boring, We get no new information on the Ghosts background or anything and the great start laid down by the first mission Ghost Stories just unravels.

    I found myself on the last mission bored out of my skull hoping something would happen, the last mission is really a massive slap in the face for call of duty fans and without saying too much leaves the whole thing wide open with lots of unanswered questions. Now this is obviously being left open for a future Call of Duty title but Infinity Ward will seriously have to get their act together and come up with an engaging storyline for it or I won't be buying it.

    You get no choice of weapons in the campaign apart from what you may find in the mission, the customisable load out option from Black Ops two was fun to play with and I'm disappointed that Infinity Ward didn't do something similar. Also disappointing is the lack of decisions, you have no control over how the campaign plays out; I enjoyed the non linear storyline of the previous title and seeing how my decisions affected the play-through.

    The AI in the campaign is half decent and will change from actually helping you clean up in some missions (after you damage an enemy 80% of the time your team mates would kill him) from other missions such as the space and underwater missions where the AI would invariably twiddle their thumbs and leave it all to you.

    Overall the campaign is pretty dull and doesn't follow on from anything, you don't need to play any previous title to understand any of it and can jump right in. There is little replay-ability on offer and much of the campaign is boring, after such a promising start the campaign seems humdrum with little effort or thought put in beyond the initial idea.

    Campaign Score: 5/10



    Extinction

    Many were apprehensive about how good this would be compared to zombies from Treyarch titles or special ops from Infinity Ward. I have to say though it's actually not that bad, Okay there is no real back story to this mode and we don't really find out why we are doing what we are. That is clearing several areas of alien infection and destroying the hives and creatures that inhabit them.

    I was surprised by how Infinity dealt with this, it seems to be a mixture of both zombies and special ops. Like special ops you can earn money to spend on new ammo, guns or placeable turrets and additional support. All of this helps to keep the alien hoards at bay, but like zombies we have to move through areas such as the town or the cabin to survive and come out the other side. It is more special ops with aliens and destroyable objectives than zombies but it is still an engaging experience and the aliens have you running around going Argh!

    Sometimes getting downed and revived by a team mate, it gets a bit hairy at places but it's like survival from mw3 mixed with aliens and several areas to complete, it's quite fun to play. Throughout this new mode you will rank up just like mw3 special ops and gain access to new upgrades and support to help you, this can be bought in game and in the Extinction menu.

    It can get kind of crazy, you need a good team as the aliens invariably get stronger the further along you get, although this mode can also be done solo which means less enemies and more help.

    Overall I think Infinity have created a balance between the two modes that offers up a fun experience for players. However it is plain to see this didn't have much imagination lavished upon it and reminds me fairly heavily of special ops.

    Extinction Score: 7.5/10


    Multiplayer

    This is without doubt what most Call of Duty fans buy the game for, the opportunity to pit themselves against other players and their friends in on-line battles. Traditional modes are back such as 6v6 team death-matches and kill confirmed along with the return of the popular infected mode from mw3.

    There is also a new squad system that allows you to compete as teams with friends or by yourself against other teams of AI, from what I have seen so far this is a very fun and engaging way to play, but if this isn't your thing and you prefer to just play multi-player solo or with the odd friend then you can of course just stick to that.

    Squad vs Squad involves two players and their squads facing off against one another.

    Wargame involves the player and five squad mates competing with enemy bots in a game mode you choose.

    Safeguard involves the player and up to three friends surviving together against waves of enemies but allows the use of perks and score-streaks.

    Safeguard Infinite is the same as normal safeguard but with infinite waves.

    Squad Assault involves the player and five friends/squad members fighting AI enemies from another players squad. You pick six squad members to defend a map, you then try to defeat them, if the AI wins then the person who owns that squad gets the xp, if not you do.

    The new currency in game is squad points, these are used to unlock new weapons and attachments as well as characters for your squad and strike packages. This is all of course unlocked by ranking up but you can purchase some items that require higher levels early by utilising your squad points, I find this a very useful feature to give you an edge.

    You can earn them by ranking up or by completing operations which are orders found in blue briefcases on the battlefield. The more squad points you have the more you can unlock.
    Each member of your squad has a name, you start off with mason and he has several customisable load outs.

    As you unlock other characters they become available for use and allow you a vast range of load outs you can utilise for many situations. Your squad members are fully customisable and you can tailor each one to just what you want, even their looks.
    One downside is the clan tag, you cannot make it whatever you want, many are already in use and only one player can have them, clan tags are longer this time but all the best ones are taken, I usually use my name but any permutation or combination of that is already taken.

    Strike packages replace kill streaks but work in the same way, everything from sat coms (enemies appear on map) and guard dogs to heavy air support and the helo pilot. You can also choose whether to use a support package tailored to help your team mates or an assault package which places more emphasis on things you can use to help you get kills.

    The perk system is different this time round, you have 8 points to spend any way you want, you can have 8 different perks that cost 1 point or 4 two points or two four point perks etc. The more points a perk is the more powerful it is and the more useful, choose wisely because it may mean the difference between winning or losing. All perks are unlocked by ranking up, you cannot spend squad points to unlock them, you can however get additional perk slots by removing your secondary, tactical and lethal grenades.

    There are 14 new maps to play on, I have played them all and frankly most of them seem dull and lifeless and lack a splash of colour. The menus take some getting used to and the customisation isn't very user friendly. So far I have come across boosters in fixed spawn games despite the removal of the tactical insertion, also back is host migration which happens less often but proves we do not have dedicated servers for the game. This is to be expected for any Call of Duty title, there will always be boosters and the games maker never wants to shell out that extra money to improve our gaming experience or combat the booster problem, removing the tac is not enough.

    The maps overall seem pretty good despite looking bleak. They appear well balanced that play well, There do not seem to be any overpowered weapons so far, there is a good mix of weaponry being used but it is early days, the guns are all fun with the assault rifle being a prominent choice as with all Infinity games. I haven't had any lag so far which surprised me, and the whole launch seems to have gone well and the servers seem to be able to cope with the millions of players worldwide. I will reserve further opinion of the multi-player until a few weeks into the experience but so far it's ok. It does not however live up to expectations and leaves a rather bland taste in your mouth.

    Multi-player Score: 6.5/10

    Achievements

    With TA being the site it is I could hardly leave this out, many of you will want to know how hard it is to 100% the game, like previous titles there are several types of achievements;

    Campaign based: The achievements for this section are fairly simple they all centre around performing certain actions within missions, they are easy to obtain and involve performing a certain action within the campaign, for instance shooting down both attack choppers or cutting a rope with an enemy still on it. There is one achievement worth 100gs which involves breaching a room on veteran difficulty whilst taking no damage, sounds hard eh? It's not, there's already several guides on how to do it and remain un-hit, I did it first try with no difficulty at all, even the worst cod player could do this.

    Mission completion based: These are achievements awarded for completing a mission, the 18 available in this game allow you to complete the mission on any difficulty you like.

    Campaign completion based: There is one achievement for completing the campaign on veteran difficulty, this is not as hard as previous titles at all and should present no problems.

    Extinction based: There are several achievements for Extinction which vary in diffculty, most seem to unlock from normal play such as achievements for reaching new areas, one requires you to rank up and another requires you to collect items, overall they are easier to obtain than some of the previous titles zombie achievements. The big one here however will be completionist which requires you to survive Extinction whilst completing every single objective, this can be difficult even with a good team, if you miss the challenge you have to restart.

    Collectables: There are 18 Rorke files (one for each mission) to collect throughout the campaign on any difficulty, they are as simple as previous intel collection achievements, simpler as there are less of them.

    The majority of the achievements are trivial and will have you getting at least 700-800gs no trouble at all, Extinction presents the challenge, surviving this mode will be the hardest thing you have to do, but then apart from one achievement it's really not that bad, a good team and cooperation are all that's required.

    My Final Thoughts
    The campaign is not very enjoyable and seems overly easy on veteran difficulty, Extinction is new and fun but I think the initial feeling will wear off; so the whole game hinges on the multi-player. My first impressions are good but they invariably change as things get nerfed or updated (think Black Ops two). We will have to see what the dlc and various updates bring, this may be another coffin nail for Call of Duty or it may bolster it, we shall see, I don't see the series dying out any time soon though, hope you enjoyed this review, I'm sure you all have your own views on the game so far, hope this is helpful.

    Happy gaming!
    3.5
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    Iceonfire89OK I edited it, it now tells you next to nothing revealing about the plot and focuses more on character design and how engaging the story is.
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 09 Jul 14 at 14:59
    tornprince2012Great work!!!
    Posted by tornprince2012 on 09 Jul 14 at 15:00
    Iceonfire89Thanks. :-)
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 09 Jul 14 at 15:15
    o DEEVIUS oGood edit, still some grammatical errors there but you can't be perfect smile. And yes you're right, the story does sound just as boring and unimaginative as the previous 7 COD's.
    Posted by o DEEVIUS o on 09 Jul 14 at 17:52
    Iceonfire89I'll scan for grammar lol.
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 09 Jul 14 at 17:54
    o DEEVIUS oI only noticed the use of the singular 'foe' in 'slaughter their foe' - this should be 'foes' plural. Also 'Ghost or Ghosts' is a name and should always have a capital letter. I didn't totally proofread it I just assumed there may be more, but even those are nitpicking, forgive me I'm like that.
    Posted by o DEEVIUS o on 09 Jul 14 at 18:09
    Iceonfire89No problem any or all criticism or feedback is welcome. :-)
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 09 Jul 14 at 18:16
    Iceonfire89Sorted.
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 09 Jul 14 at 18:28
    Col Double DI don't think we played the samecampaign because by the end of the game I could not look away, what with the tanks, space strikes train chase really deserved a 9/10
    Posted by Col Double D on 10 Sep 14 at 03:44
    Iceonfire89Space was good. Underwater was good too. But its the storyline i have real issues with not the mission environments.
    Posted by Iceonfire89 on 10 Sep 14 at 08:53
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