This game was played on the Wii U.
There is an issue I have found in yearly franchises, often many of these series lose something that makes them fun or great among others. Taking Mario for an example, we have slowly been losing interest in this franchise because of how overused the character has been, yes, we do see a few standouts here and there, but we often don’t care as much as we want to. I often also believe this to be the same case with Call of Duty for all of its many yearly entries, there is surely a whole lot about these games that just feels like we have seen it far too many times before, whether it is in another Call of Duty game, or just another game in general.
This is still completely true in the latest entry in the series, Call of Duty Ghosts, for all it adds, it still feels very much the same. While this could be criticized I don’t particularly think this causes any issue in Ghosts. For what we have seen in the past, Ghosts adds enough new to balance this and manages to be a fun experience.
I may have thought this a little bit after playing the previous entry in the series, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, but Ghosts restores my faith in this series. The game still maintains some of the weak points of past entries, and those weak moments in general but Ghosts still manages to bring enough new that you generally don’t think about it.
Multiplayer remains the staple of the game, where you spend many hours of your time, similar to Black Ops 2 we have seen many new modes made to give us more fun. Grind takes the ideas of the old Kill Confirmed mode and makes it more of a struggle for points, you still have to collect dog tags from your opponents when you take them out but you then have to avoid being killed as you race to checkpoints around the map to hand them over and collect points. Blitz mode is a race to the opposing team’s checkpoint to score points while they do the same to you, on both sides players try to stop each other from reaching their goal. Infected is a race to survive, as one of the people in the battle is given the job of taking out everyone and making them infected, surviving here is never easy unless you find somewhere to hide.
Each of these modes add a lot to the overall experience that is in Ghosts, adding new layers of fun and excitement that gives you more to enjoy.
Even the new maps deliver a great experience. From the Prison based map, to the Factory, each provides a fun place to fight that is more often than not a great place to visit. Added into this is the new layer of destructibility that exists on specific maps, not a lot can be destroyed but there are many moments where you can destroy gas cylinders or even open and close selected doors. This all easily builds into making certain maps far more interesting.
The decision to tone down on kill streaks was also a really good one, mostly we have seen the removal of a good portion of air based kill streak rewards. I found this better because it is nice to not suddenly be mowed down by a random Stealth Chopper, overall it makes things a bit more balanced in multiplayer combat.
The new Squads mode sees you being able to build up and train a series of people you can use for online play. Mostly you spend your time choosing your squad members, weapons classes and fighting AI enemies to improve what each member can do. The only problem is that this is not much fun to do, as you are likely to spend more time dealing with people and their abilities then actually playing, plus fighting mostly AI enemies is not as fun as being able to fight real people.
The new Extinction mode, which replaces Zombies from Black Ops 2, on the other hand, is a whole lot of fun to play. You are set a simple task of fighting Aliens that have descended upon the earth and destroying their hives, armed with a handgun you must strive to survive across the landscape as best you can. Playing this mode alone is not as fun as it could be, but getting some friends around is a great experience as you all watch each other’s backs and achieve so much more than in single player where you often feel cheated when you can’t last long.
The single player campaign in Ghosts is a bit of a step back from what we got in Black Ops 2. Infinity Ward has opted to play the campaign safe and keep it shorter, and remove the choices that could be made to see different things happen that affect the end game. Playing it safe wasn’t an overly bad thing however, as the campaign is actually fun all the way through, I did find the characters to be pretty one dimensional and completely stereotypical for this genre of game, such as your father who only has his two sons left in the world, the once good guy who has joined the bad guys, but it is easy to look past. For the weakness of the characters and the campaign as a whole, Infinity Ward has crafted a short but fun campaign.
The story is pretty pointless at every turn and shows what it truly is, which is nothing but an action game set to give you a few standout experiences. Even with this I find I couldn’t have cared less, from its opening moments the campaign is non-stop fun and the action keeps you engrossed all the way through. It is short and sweet, bue never outstays its welcome and more often than not just pushes you into the next fire fight and bit of action.
Call of Duty Ghosts is a reminder of just how good a Call of Duty game can be, given that this is the first game in the series to hit the next generation of consoles, I believe we have gotten the best one for the transition, even if I am playing on the Wii U. I just hope that future games in this series do take note from this, as Ghosts is a whole lot of fun and has enough new to be different. Whether you are playing on the now last generation of consoles or the new current generation consoles, Ghosts is a fantastic game. Essentially Ghosts removes the stagnancy that was plaguing the series, and is one entry in this beloved franchise that can’t be missed.
