Call of Duty Ghosts Review - Ghosts are real and you get to join their squad in Infinity Ward’s latest adventure

Written by Brandon Hofer on November 13, 2013

Reviews: Call of Duty Ghosts is a brand new adventure with a new cast of characters, including your canine companion Riley.

Call of Duty Ghosts is Infinity Ward’s latest entry into the Call of Duty series and brings with it a whole new story. Instead of going for Modern Warfare 4, Infinity Ward elected to start a new story arc with Ghosts and bring in some new additions and concepts with it too. One of the new additions to this year’s game was Riley, the dog that goes along with you on certain missions and offers assistance. Riley is a highly trained member of the team and there will be certain instances where you will depend on his contributions to either gather intel or flush some enemies out of a house so that you can dispose of them. The times that I got to play as Riley was interesting as you were obviously playing from a dog’s perspective and that offered its own advantages. There was a time where I briefly hid under a vehicle and it was also easier to hide in the grass and sneak up on an enemy as Riley. Additionally, there was also a camera on Riley which is how you helped to gather intel for your unit. Riley didn’t come along on every mission but for the missions he was there I was happy to have him as he definitely saved me on a couple of occasions.

The story for Call of Duty Ghosts centers around a father and his two sons who are all soldiers and a former soldier trying to hunt down and eliminate the Ghosts. The story for Call of Duty Ghosts is one that I enjoyed going through as I feel Call of Duty always puts together great campaigns with that action movie mentality. That said, as it stands right now, the Ghosts story isn’t as good as what we saw in Modern Warfare. That could definitely change as I assume there will be more games following this story, however, for right now, I feel the first Modern Warfare game had a more powerful story than the first Ghosts game. There were some really great moments that I enjoyed such as walking down the side of a building or remote sniping someone and I look forward to what I assume will be Ghosts 2 in a couple years.

Aside from the campaign there is obviously some multiplayer modes. First this the traditional multiplayer itself. After you click “Find a match” you will be asked whether you want to play standard multiplayer, hardcore or clan vs. clan. The hardcore playlists feature hardcore game mode variants with no HUD and limited health. The clan vs. clan playlists (new this year to Ghosts) has you face off against another clan in 4v4 clan battles. The standard playlist is where most people will go and here is where you will find 10 different types of games to play. There is your standard team deathmatch, search and rescue, infected, kill confirmed, domination, hunted, free-for-all, team tactical, cranked and blitz. Cranked and blitz are the new modes this year that offer a different experience than what you are used to. Cranked is a fast paced mode where kills can give you extra abilities and 2x scoring. The caveat to that is once you kill an opponent you have 30 seconds to kill another one or you will die yourself. You need to chain kills to stay alive which can make games really hectic. In Blitz each team has an objective zone at their base. You need to enter the enemy team’s zone to score points for your team. It might sound a little bit like domination but you only have to enter the enemy team’s zone here, you don’t have to hold it down to accrue points. Once you enter the enemy team’s zone there is a ten second cool down period. So if you have your whole team surrounding the area then only one of you can score every ten seconds. Once you do score you are warped back to another location on the map so that you can’t just camp out there and score non-stop, you have to earn it. During my time playing online everything seemed to run smoothly for the most part. There seemed to be the occasional hiccup but it wasn’t a regular occurrence.

The next multiplayer portion of Call of Duty Ghosts is more cooperative with Extinction. The Extinction mode is a new four player co-op game that offers a mix of survival and base defense to the experience. When you first start out you find out that you need to get rid of these hives that are everywhere. The way you do that is by placing a drill next to the hive and allowing the drill to do its work as you protect it from an onslaught of enemies. If the enemies attack it too much then the drill is going to become damaged and you will have to repair it which can be a bit hard to do that and stay alive at the same time. This is a mode where your team really needs to work well together if you want to succeed. Obviously every time you take down a hive and move on to the next one the difficulty gets progressively harder. It might take longer for the drill to do its job or they might just throw a bunch of enemies at you. Additionally, you only start the round with a pistol and limited ammunition. As you progress you will earn money that you can use to purchase upgrades such as more ammo, a gun turret and more. As your character levels up you will eventually earn different types of ammo that are more powerful, the ability to change your pistol type, what class you are, the strike package you have and more. It’s an interesting new mode and one you should definitely have fun playing with friends.

Then there is the squads mode. This is where you build your squad and can compete against AI controlled opponents in a variety of game modes. Within this mode are four different game types for you to choose from with Squad Assault, Squad vs. Squad, Safeguard and Wargame. In Squad Assault you have to lead your squad to assault the enemy HQ. You can choose to invite friends to join your squad or challenge their squad directly. In Squad vs. Squad it should be pretty self-explanatory as you go head to head with another player and their squad in a variety of game modes. Safeguard is essentially the game’s horde mode and here you have to survive 20 waves of enemies that will become increasingly difficult. If you have ever played a horde mode on any other game you pretty much know what to expect here. Wargame will allow you to sharpen your skills and train with your squads against a team of bots. Squad HQ is where you can create your soldier, look at the leaderboards, check out the history of your squad and much more.

Call of Duty Ghosts also has a nice level of customization at your disposal for when you are creating your own soldier. Like in previous titles in the franchise, you can customize your loadouts with a primary weapon, secondary weapon, a lethal weapon such as a frag grenade, a tactical weapon such as a concussion grade, your perks and your strike packages. With your perks you have a set number of points you can use so you will need to balance what your needs are vs. what you want and work on unlocking some of the higher level perks. The strike packages work like they have in the past where you need to pick whether you want the assault, support or specialist. Each one has its pros and cons depending on your playstyle and then you can customize what you want whether it is a trinity rocket, support squadmate or earn extra perks through your streak. It is a nice level of customization that you can spend quite a bit of time in making your perfect soldier.

Call of Duty Ghosts is the latest entry in one of the biggest franchises in the world. Speaking from a gameplay perspective if you have played previous Call of Duty titles then you know exactly what to expect here. Everything runs really smoothly and handles great. The story is not my favorite, however, I did enjoy it and will run through it again trying to get the rest of the achievements. The multiplayer is a lot of fun, especially if you have friends and there really is something for everyone. I really liked that variety where you can have the traditional multiplayer experience for those who want it, the cooperative experience with Extinction, the ability to form your own squads and clans and more. If you are a Call of Duty fan you definitely need to play this title. It is a lot of fun and has something for everyone.