Call of Duty: Ghosts

It’s not the second coming of Christ, it’s merely another good product in a different wrapping. Ghosts is a great FPS but this time it’s not necessarily a great Call of Duty game. [13/2013, p.46]

Call of Duty: Ghosts is a solid installment, but it lacks creativity and innovation. Its new engine already looks dated in the face of the competition, and it eschews many of the solid concepts seen in Black Ops 2.

Going into a new generation of consoles this was the opportunity for Infinity Ward to really push the series forward. From a pure visual standpoint they do a pretty good job of that. However from a mechanics standpoint this is a very competent Call of Duty game that plays things safe. Everything about this game is solid, but does nothing from a narrative or gameplay standpoint to move the franchise forward.

Ghosts is certainly not a bad game, but it offers few surprises. Although Black Ops II wasn’t always successful, it felt like it was conscious of stagnation and attempted to push the series forward through player choice in the campaign and the introduction of the 10-point system in multiplayer. By comparison, Ghosts seems almost afraid of screwing anything up.

Call of Duty: Ghosts has a weak campaign and a good multiplayer. It's not the best game in the series and is definitely not a next generation game. Activision has missed the opportunity to painlessly move the franchise to the next level. Call of Duty will be a shadow of its grandeur, as long as it hangs on to old technology and a boring "future war" setting, and as long as the developers lack the guts to take risks, as they once did with Modern Warfare.

Outside of multiplayer, the campaign is a po-faced, nonsensical rehash of greatest hits long past. Extinction (Left 4 Dead meets Zombies) is a lot of fun, and Squads feels like a well-marketed shell for Black Ops' Combat Training mode...Multiplayer is still the star then, but it's diminishing with every return, its addictiveness tempered by over-familiarity.

Many will be satisfied by the simple existence of a COD game on the day next-gen hardware launches, but this is a missed opportunity nonetheless. The studio that defined the console FPS in the current generation has declined to do the same here. By the time it gets another chance, it may be too late.

Infinity Ward had a chance here to throw down the gauntlet for the next hardware generation, to set the new standard, to show that this hugely popular, much derided behemoth can dance to a different tune. It's chosen to play a Greatest Hits package instead.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is a huge step backward for this popular franchise. After the great Campaign Mode in Black Ops II, the simple 5-hour long Campaign of Ghosts is a shame. The Extinction mode alone could sell the game, but the overall competitive multiplayer experience isn't as good as the one we loved in the last episode from Treyarch.

Call of Duty is a series that is oftentimes criticized for making the same game year after year, which is of course totally true and Ghosts is no exception. It even feels like a step back. The campaign is devoid of anything interesting and even the online part feels uninspired. It’s not a bad game by any means but it’s like its predecessors, only worse.

Infinity Ward has really struggled to push the Call of Duty formula forward in any meaningful or significant ways. [Issue#142, p.96]

You’ll march through a campaign with an imagination as wide as its corridors, but be enthralled by a lavish if largely familiar multiplayer suite.