This review is by Daniel Jones of spong.com ...
Whenever I’ve played a Call of Duty campaign in the past, I’ve always waded my way through firing thousands of bullets, killing thousands of enemies while earning tens of achievements. I never really enjoyed the campaigns, I just sort-of played them because... well, just because.
That, however, changed in the first three missions of Ghosts.
I’m not going to tell you that Ghosts is hugely different from previous CoD campaigns. Neither am I going to throw the kind of words you’d find on a Game of the Year edition at you: OUTSTANDING, EXPLOSIVE, UNMISSABLE...
OK, it is kind of explosive, but that’s beside the point. What sets Ghosts apart from any other CoD campaign is the level of empathy Infinity Ward has achieved. That and a storyline that isn’t just “this terrorist guy’s going to blow up the US because he doesn’t like them, so you have to stop him”.
In previous CoDs, I’ve found that characters are just mannequins with guns – if one died, you’d just replace him with the next one and nobody would really care. In Ghosts, however, the story is based around two brothers, Logan (you) and Hesh, and their relationship with their father Elias and their German shepherd Reilly.
Yep, Reilly. You’ve all heard about Reilly, right? No? NO?! Well, Reilly’s the Solid Snake of German shepherds – he’ll silently prowl through the grass, wait for a group of enemies to split up and proceed to maul them one-by-one, and he does it without being detected.
As for the actual gameplay in Ghosts, it doesn’t stray too far from the very worn Call of Duty path. You’ll find yourself running around armed with (usually) a customised assault rifle and a pistol sidearm, mowing down wave-after-wave of enemies while inching forward towards your objective.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing either, I actually quite enjoy these sections, and there are often plenty of explosions to keep even the most critical of gamers interested.
What I do think is missing from the story mode, is class customisation. Now, I understand that Blops II (I never played it) gave players the option to choose their load-out before commencing on a mission – I’ve never understood why we haven’t always had that option - but that’s only a minor niggle.
Anyway, back to the gameplay: not all missions are like a Sylvester Stallone movie - there are (of course) those infamous stealth levels that first surfaced with the “All Ghillied Up” mission on the first Modern Warfare title.
These type of missions always have been my favourites, and Ghosts certainly isn’t lacking them. On more than one occasion, you’ll find yourself stranded in some jungle or another armed with only a knife, a pistol and a heartbeat sensor. You’ll be tasked to make your way to an evac point, with tens of enemies between you, and your chopper home. This makes for tense gameplay and ghost-like combat.
As well as these missions, you’ll find yourself escaping crumbling buildings, having firefights in space, rappelling down skyscrapers, scuba-diving with sharks and flying a helicopter.
Overall, the story is much more inviting than any CoD campaign I’ve played to date. You’ll feel as though Logan’s story is your own, you’ll partake in intense firefights and stealth missions alike and you’ll come out the other side thinking “right then, it’s multiplayer time!”
So, without further ado, let’s talk multiplayer!
Now, before I go any further, I’d like to clarify that I never actually played Blops II. Why, you ask? Well, to be completely honest, I don’t have an answer for you. It was just one of those games that was never particularly high up my ‘to play’ list, and it gradually got further and further down the pile.
Eventually, I’d completely forgotten that I ever had intentions of playing it, and next thing I knew, I’d been given a copy of Ghosts and asked to review it.
Anyway, we’ve gone off-course. By missing Black Ops II, you’ll understand that I also missed out on a few new features that Treyarch introduced – most of all, the “pick 10” system.
Basically, what this meant was that you had 10 points to spend on your load-out. You could distribute those points however you saw fit, but each piece of equipment cost you a point, so if you had an assault rifle with two attachments, that’d be three points gone.
Ghosts follows a similar method, and we’ll talk perks first. As standard, you have eight perk points. Perks each have a point rating from one-five, and you’re free to distribute your perk points as you wish. Essentially what this means, is that you could have eight one-point perks, one five-point perk and a three-point perk or any other combination you choose.
Interestingly though, you can choose to throw out your secondary weapon and equipment if you feel like 8 perk points isn’t enough. Doing this will reward you with 11 perk points, which again you’re free to distribute as you please.
As for weapons, attachments, equipment and kill streaks, you unlock squad points as you level up and complete challenges. New weapons/attachments/equipment/kill streaks cost squad points, so rather than unlocking them as you level up, you can choose what you want and purchase it when you’ve earned the correct amount of points.
It’s a very interesting system, although a little confusing when you first start to use it. I personally think it’s much better than the old way, and gives you plenty of control over how you play.
In Ghosts multiplayer, we have all the old favourites such as Team Deathmatch and Domination, but on top of that, we also have a couple of new entries; Extinction and Squads mode.
Now, I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve all played some form of Nazi zombies on one of the Treyarch entries to the series. Am I right? Of course I am. Well, Extinction follows a similar path. Alien… things… are attacking, and you (and up to 3 other players) have to make your way around a map destroying their hives.
It’s not quite that simple though. See, these aliens get thicker and stronger the further you progress. Lucky for you though, you earn points from kills which can then be spent on supplies, new weapons and other power-ups.
Around the map, you’ll find little piles of rubble or lockboxes that you’re able to search. Doing so will often reward you with an extra $200, some ammo, or even a weapon attachment to help you repel the alien hordes.
At the minute, I haven’t had very much time with Extinction, but from what I have played, it’s rapidly-paced fun and I’m definitely looking forward to putting some real time into it.
As for Squads mode, it’s your job to build a team of 10 soldiers, and outfit them in the same way as the competitive multiplayer mode (perks, equipment, weapons etc).
You’ll take control of one member of the squad, and the AI will control the rest. Once you’re happy with your team, it’s time to jump into one of the game modes, whether that be a one-on-one against another player and his squad, or a Survival game in which you have to control points on the map as you’re bombarded by wave after wave of infected AI enemies.
Squads has a nice variation in its game modes and offers a less stressful alternative to the competitive online multiplayer. Players that are new to the series will definitely benefit from putting a few hours into squad games before heading online. As for CoD veterans, they’ll either love the mode as a casual alternative to online multiplayer, or they’ll think it’s a complete waste of time.
Overall, I think that Ghosts has one of the strongest CoD campaigns to date, the customisation for the competitive multiplayer is great, although fairly confusing to start with, and squads mode offers new players a nice alternative to the stressful competitive multiplayer. As for extinction, I’m really looking forward to rounding up three mates and spending a night (or several) destroying alien hives.
Pros:
+ Empathetic feel to campaign with a much better storyline
+ Customisation is much more immersive
+ Extinction mode has potential to be great fun
Cons:
- Class customisation can be very confusing to start with
- Still no customisation on campaign
- Campaign isn’t massively different from previous entries
SPOnG Score: 4/5
Source: http://spong.com/
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