Call of Duty: Ghosts

And the cracks begin to show.

The countries of South America come together to form The Federation, which turns a giant space missile platform against the United States.  Now a small band of elite soldiers must prevent the complete destruction of what remains.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 14 12 PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 6 6 1   7 0 1 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 0 0 9 4 0 3

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 6

I have a love/hate relationship with Call of Duty as a franchise.  After Call of Duty 4, the franchise seemed to all but drop single player as an experience and go purely for multiplayer.  It makes sense, since the multiplayer is really what made Call of Duty so ridiculously popular, but a game with a mediocre multiplayer can be saved by a good single player (i.e. Bioshock 2).  Unfortunately, while the core elements that I love about Call of Duty are all still present, Ghosts doesn’t seem to even attempt anything new to brush the dust off of this aging franchise (with one or two exceptions).

This is one of the exceptions.

Before you play this game, you should be aware that this is a Call of Duty game.  It is a fast-paced, hardcore FPS experience.  Players can’t walk into this expecting something completely different than the other CoD games because, in reality, that’s not what the fans of this series want.  The best parts of the single player and the multiplayer were both the things that felt most familiar.  The infantry, close-quarters gunplay was near flawless, the AI was competent, and some of the chapters of the campaign were absolutely amazing.  I loved the space battles in particular, since they seemed to take the best parts of the campaign and throw them into an entirely new setting with new restrictions.

But aside from this, some brief scuba sections, and some surprisingly poor tank sections, there really wasn’t much to make me feel like this was as awesome of an experience as even Black Ops 2’s campaign was.  Story aside, I appreciated the fact that Black Ops 2 at least tried to be different by allowing a fully customizable loadout and those brief, underdeveloped RTS elements.  Ghosts shines in the places where it tries new things, but those are so few and far between that I felt a bit disappointed.

Why does this seem familiar...

However, while I might prefer a single player experience, Call of Duty is now almost purely about the multiplayer.  In that regard, not much has changed.  There are some new modes and changes have been made to the unlock system, but something just seemed to be missing.  I don’t know if the maps were too big or there was too little to unlock or if what I had unlocked was just too confusingly different for me to understand right off the bat.  Either way, I didn’t enjoy myself as much with Ghosts’ multiplayer as I did with Modern Warfare 3.

Oh, hi Mother!

I believe how much the player goes through this game depends entirely on how much the player’s friends end up playing.  Trying to go through the multiplayer alone is a pretty boring experience.  With friends or a clan all working together, the experience can become much more enjoyable.  Unfortunately for Call of Duty, its competitors are stepping up their game.  Without even destructible cover, Call of Duty’s multiplayer is beginning to show its age next to other games.

Fortunately, there is one more mode that everyone who picks this game up should try.  The Extinction mode isn’t just another Horde mode.  A four-man team has to move a drill through a level, destroying various nests.  As the team gets closer to the core, where a nuke must be planted, the enemies get more and more difficult.  Weapon pickups and traps are littered throughout the map, which can be used to great effect.  While the mode may still have a few rough edges to polish out (most of them carryovers from the previous Zombie modes), it makes purchasing this game definitely worth the money.

Basically...

• Length - 6

The campaign is extremely short.  I managed to complete it on Normal difficulty in around 5 hours.  This is a bit unfortunate, since there were certain sections (like the space sections) that I would have liked to play more.  I could always go back to try and find the “Roarke Files”, but with no chance for customization, no alternate endings, and no other collectibles, the campaign is good for a single playthrough and not much else.

The multiplayer can give significantly longer gameplay.  There are a good number of different maps and modes that the player can try, and the weapons, perks, and killstreak rewards give a decent variety to the overall experience.  However, aside from a few new game modes that are worth trying, the multiplayer has reached a point of diminishing marginal returns.  If I had an itch to play a Call of Duty multiplayer, I’d likely return to either CoD 4 or Modern Warfare 3 rather than continue with Ghosts.

But, on the plus side, there is the extinction mode.  Four friends can easily hop on and work through waves of aliens together.  With the right set of friends in the right mood, I could definitely see the Extinction mode lasting a month or two by itself.

• Frustration Factor - 1

For those who have even a marginal understanding of the mechanics of a First Person Shooter, this game will be very straightforward.  There wasn’t a single time in the campaign that I felt frustrated.  Multiplayer can be a different experience, but the people I played with didn’t feel overpowered even when I was just starting out.  While it certainly gets easier for people who have new weapons unlocked, I don’t see how the game itself can ever become frustrating.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 7

This is the mildest Call of Duty game to date.  The campaign has a few times when blood becomes a bit more obvious in kills, but this is mitigated by the fact that most of the campaign violence and all of the multiplayer violence is very low-key.  Hits will result in some noticeable blood, but all blood disappears very quickly.  This can be lessened significantly if the enemy is killed from a distance.

Jumping/falling no-scope headshot with an LMG? I'll take that.

Normal melee attacks are also very basic and nonviolent.  The player quickly stabs an enemy, but the animation is completed so rapidly that it is pretty easy to overlook completely.  Most of the time the player will never get close enough to an enemy to stab them though.

Do I get to steal his dogtags?

There are some special melee attacks in the campaign, but these are scripted to only occur at very specific points.  Even so, the blood that comes from these attacks isn’t too significant and the attacks are over fairly quickly.

You might have to wash your gloves after this.

There is never any gore, even in explosions.  Enemies who are killed by explosions will sometimes go flying a few feet, but this doesn’t always happen.

If you ever throw grenades, that is.

The only time in the campaign when blood becomes a bit more noticeable is when the player is in space battles in the campaign.  This happens in two specific, surprisingly short sections.  Blood in space will float near the body, but will quickly disappear after it is emitted.  The only reason why it is more noticeable here is because it stays near the hit zone rather than falling to the ground.

It's going to take years to clean that up.

• Sexuality - 0

Sexuality is not a factor in this game.

• Substances - 1

The Extinction mode includes a perk that can allow players to see enemies highlighted, move faster, and even heal faster.  The perk’s description implies that it is done via some sort of hormone or drug.  However, this is the closest the game gets to including substance use.

• Gambling - 0

While one of the levels takes place in Las Vegas and includes some card tables, gambling is never discussed anywhere in the game.  As a result, gambling is not a factor.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 0

There are no modding tools available for this game.

• Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

• Anti-Law - 0

Anti-law is not a factor in this game.

• Online Community - 9

The online community for this game is infamous.  When discussions about online bullying come up, Call of Duty’s community is high on the list of repeat offenders.  This definitely has not changed.  Players repeatedly harass each other and call attention to themselves with speech that almost certainly only occurs because of the illusion of anonymity.  Call of Duty’s multiplayer seems to bring out the worst in some young teens.

But as long as a player understands that people are going to say something sooner or later, for the most part it isn’t an issue.  The game does allow players to mute other players (even though this is sometimes difficult to use in the middle of a match), and the players in the Extinction game mode seemed civil enough when I tried it.  And playing with friends will decrease the odds of harassment.

That being said, players with thin skin might want to avoid this online community.

• Extreme Sports - 4

While most of the time the player will remain on relatively firm ground in both the campaign and multiplayer, there are some times in the campaign where extreme sports become a factor.  For example, there is one chapter where the player will use a zipline to go from one skyscraper to the other in a major city.  However, before the player actually gets to the other skyscraper, he severs one connection and falls into the skyscraper (presumably on purpose, to turn a zipline in to a rappel line.  I’m not sure if this is actually possible, but it sure did seem painful.

This is the point at which I'd need a fresh pair of pants.

There are a number of zero-gravity and underwater sections as well.  These are some of the more memorable chapters, so the inclusion of underwater and space combat is definitely noticeable.  The game fails to mention, though, that if the player’s suit or oxygen tank were punctured with even a single bullet, he would die almost instantly.

Space combat seems like a very bad idea.

There are some other sections that involve high-speed vehicle chases, but these are fairly short and the player is never driving.

• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

• Miscellaneous - 3

Execution

Execution comes up a couple of times in the game.  There is one time when the game shows enemies executing civilians, but this is so quick that it’s somewhat difficult to notice and very easy to forget soon afterward.  The most obvious form of execution comes when the main antagonist executes the main character’s father.

It takes around six shots to kill the guy though.

Interrogation

There are a few times when characters are interrogated.  However, none of these involve any of the brutal interrogation techniques included in recent games.  Mostly these are punches followed by questions.

That looks mildly inconvenient.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

While the weapons of mass destruction included in this game aren’t of the traditional variety (meaning nuclear, chemical, or biological), the damage that they are able to inflict upon the world is demonstrated in nearly every chapter of the campaign.  The game seems to almost revolve entirely around the use of satellite-based kinetic missiles.  The missiles are fired from space, hit the earth with extreme velocity, and explode.  In the beginning of the game, this causes entire cities to be destroyed.

It seems a lot less devastating from space.