Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)

FPS - Logan and Hesh Walker join the elite Ghost unit to fight against the Federation, a powerful enemy alliance that has devastated the United States with an orbital superweapon, and to confront the former Ghost named Gabriel Rorke.

PROS:

++ Riley. I love dogs so this is a no-brainer. Even though Riley was an underutilized mechanic, I still enjoyed the small stealth sections with him, and commanding him to kill enemies in combat.

++ Family dynamic. The characters had potential because this is the first time in the series we see a family dynamic within the main cast. It's just too bad that they received minimal character development, and I ended up not caring for them. But the potential was there.

++ Decent gameplay & presentation. Ability to slide and peek around corners was a good inclusion. Voice acting can be hit or miss, but overall, the game had solid voice performance and sound design.

++ Offline squads mode. Especially with these older games, I appreciate it when you can simulate all the multiplayer modes & offerings with bots. And it was a bonus that the enemy AI was decent enough to have fun with.

CONS:

-- Forgettable campaign. Don't get me wrong, there's some solid moments in the campaign. I quite liked the opening sequence, the underwater mission, the mission in which you rappel down and infiltrate a high-rise, and the very short stealth sections. But everything outside of these moments was very forgettable. The story, most of the level settings, many of the set-pieces, and even the characters were just "meh". A week from now I won't remember much of Ghosts. It's also a shame that it ended in a cliffhanger but it'll probably never get a sequel.

-- Extinction mode. Props for trying to create a new mode outside of Zombies and Spec-Ops, but Extinction is just not that fun. Maybe it's more fun with friends, but I was able to beat the only map available in my first try solo. I don't see why I would be compelled to replay it and grind new upgrades if it was easy enough to beat when I was level 1. But even if this mode was more challenging, the gameplay loop grew monotonous in my first run (plant drill, defend against aliens until drill is done, upgrade, move to the next) and I was done with the mode.

Misc:

Multiplayer is dead. Couldn't play any real matches with other players.

I picked up the 360 disk for 5 bucks at a game shop. I played through the campaign on Regular and completed it in a single session, no problem.

The story was your classic, boring, "good guy turns bad guy so now we gotta get the guy because he knows our secrets", super overdone trope filled nonsense It was made worse by the fact that the whole thing was a family affair to boot. Incredibly dull and forgettable as COD stories go.

The combat was your standard COD issue weaponry. Nothing new or innovative, but the guns felt satisfying to shoot as they usually do in COD games. The AI was not particularly savvy either, but its hard to measure the intelligence of bots in old games with titles like The Division running around.

Despite the weak story and the dumb AI, the game was still quite enjoyable to play. I loved the variety of the missions and both the folks at Treyarch and Infinity Ward know how to crank out some entertaining set pieces to fight over. Everything from an urban landscape in a flood to zero g combat in low earth orbit. Good stuff.

Lastly, the new hook for the title was the addition of Riley the dog. While I found it mildly amusing, the mechanic wasn't well executed. When you ask Riley to stealth kill, they strap you into the driver's seat. Honestly, Riley would have been a much better tool if I just had a way to give the dog commands without taking control. Because of the invasive way you interact with the dog, I largely ignored the gimmick unless I was forced.

I ended up giving the title 4 stars because at heart, the game is a solid shooter with a lot of fun set pieces where you can murder your way to victory in true COD style. Just don't forget to bring the pooper scooper.

Call of Duty: Ghosts was such a average and mediocre experience, that I quit the series afterwards. Looking back at that decision now, I missed nothing.

Nowadays, it is the same game every year, with new subscription plans, season passes and other corporate crap.

But back to “Ghosts”. What can I say? Rushed story (so the focus can be placed back to multiplayer), unchanged graphics, sound, features, gameplay mechanics. It is just the same game as Modern Warfare 2 or 3, with some little tweaks here and there.

In Call of Duty: Ghosts, you play as the special “Ghosts” squad and take on the role of Logan Walker, the son of the squad leader Captain Elias Walker. You start in 2014, in a flashback in which “The Federation”, a group of multiple countries in South America, hijacks a space station of the United States. This space station has a orbital super weapon (of course it does) and the Federation uses this gun to destroy several American cities. Captain Walker and his kids nearly escape the destruction of San Diego.

Ten Years after this, the Federation is expanded even more and is now attacking U.S. soil. The Walker brothers fight in this war to defend the border, accompanied by their loyal trained war dog Riley. They attempt to rescue a fellow “Ghost squad” member called Ajax, but fail miserably and he is killed. They meet up with their papa, who is the leader of the Ghosts and together they go on a mission to kill Captain Rorke, an old buddy of Elias Walker who has been brainwashed to become a Federal commander.

They infiltrate multiple bases, ships and factories and discover that their own ODIN defense systems are reverse engineered to a bombarding system called LOKI. They blow up the factory Rambo style and regroup in a safe house in Las Vegas. However, they are captured by Rorke and poor papa is killed by him. Filled with vengeance, the Walker brothers pursue Rorke but this ends badly. Logan is captured and, in the final scene, showed in a cage in the jungle in the middle of nowhere, ready to undergo the same torture that Rorke himself endured at the time.

A sad ending, for a somewhat sad game. The few parts in which you play as Riley the war dog where cool, but they were short and far between. Overall, the campaign was very short and I finished it in one play setting.

Like I mentioned, nothing changed in term of visuals, it is exactly the same engine as the previous games. It looks fine enough, but it has nothing special to comment about.

Audio wise, idem. Same sound, generic music this time, and nothing worth of note.

There is a new Extinction 4-player co-op mode in Call of Duty: Ghosts, which I did not like. It was just Space Shooter: COD edition. Maybe this could be the redeeming factor for some, but sadly, not for me.

When I finished Call of Duty: Ghosts, I felt hollow. Every feeling of accomplishment was lacking and after I shut down the game, and uninstalled it, I was done with the series.

Maybe I am just too old for this stuff, but the charm that the series once had, is overshadowed now by corporate greed. It is this series, along with FIFA, Rainbow Six, and Madden that all give me the exact same feeling.

From my own personal experience, I would not recommend this game.

first play

played on gt730 i3 7100

The Game itself is not a great one, liked the story of ghosts going against ghosts. The graphics are too intense/resource heavy didn't need to be that much, but I get that the call of duty franchise is trying to put a huge ton of graphics to cover their lack of good story or music i.e gameplay.

But the game is not that much of a disappointment either, the final few missions from the underwater mission are really fun to play. I always play in the veteran setting but even at that these missions felt good and easy, had fun till the game-ending.

the tank, space, and train missions are fun to play, but not that impacting, I probably won't even remember the story but will remember the missions and the fun I had.

That is the sole reason I gave 4 stars, if not would only give 2 stars.

The Cutscenes are unique that is the reason I give 2 not 1.

But would not play again anytime soon. the story lacked depth, and the graphics are too resource-heavy so lagged a ton, and played at a really low setting too. the dog missions and past missions are not interesting at all.

could have put more stealth options, since the title is ghosts, but not every mission is a bang full.

Well had fun.

played this game in a new pc with rtx 4060 and amd 7700x config on windows 11,

game is still good in terms of ui, but what i told earlier still holds up, the brotherhood story or the father son relation is very light and the villain(rorke) doesn't seem to have good motivation. guns are alright, even played in veteran mode may be its me who got used to competitive shooters this seemed easier than i remember, but had fun when playing the game, not worth to get in to my favorite lists but ok game, can play once as a binge gaming session.

Call of Duty has long been a franchise that feels at odds with itself. What began as a fairly respectful look at actual World War II battles started to shift into something entirely different with the success of the series' fourth installment, Modern Warfare. Since then, it seems like CoD has been a series trying to figure out how to balance both sides of itself.

Post-Modern Warfare, I've found the Call of Duty franchise to be a struggle, a series that has tonally been a mess, frustratingly disinterested in telling a decent story in its campaign, and trying to appeal to two different masters. A game like Black Ops II, as I wrote in my review, felt like the team would've preferred if there was no human player involved, and several installments since MW have felt like a series of challenges to just shoot the non-white players.

While Call of Duty is a franchise most people play for the multiplayer, due to my internet limitations, I've never really been able to explore that part of the series. CoD had solid campaign stories in the past, but as the game shifted into a stronger multiplayer focus, the campaign has certainly struggled because of that. Similarly, I'm not a huge first-person shooter fan. I like FPS games just fine, but I'm not the type of person to sink hundreds of hours into them (well, not since GoldenEye, at least). But like Super Mario or Street Fighter, Call of Duty is a franchise that always feels comfortable to me, and especially in the most recent installments, I've felt myself struggling to care, wanting to keep going with this series, but not really enjoying myself in the process.

I say all this because I had an absolute blast with Call of Duty: Ghosts. This is the first time in a while that I have felt completely sucked into a Call of Duty game, enjoyed the variety of levels, and felt like an active participant in this story. After the last few installments, I've really questioned whether or not I wanted to keep going with this series, and with Ghosts, I'm glad I did.

Call of Duty—for a while now—has felt like it was restrained because of an attempt to keep things "historical" or somewhat based in reality. Ghosts throws that out the window. Within the first level, the player is shooting enemies in space and blowing up satellites. While I miss those early days of WWII campaigns in CoD, I'd much rather them go big like this and try something wholly new than try to pay respect to the past, while they're far more interested in, well, more modern warfare.

At times, Ghosts kind of feels like a greatest hits of this franchise, and that's totally fine with me. Again, with the games that came before Ghosts, I felt myself losing all interest, trekking away in bland levels that never assisted me in trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. And while, yes, Ghosts can often feel like just going from point A to point B and shooting everything in between, Ghosts makes that fairly straightforward level design work for it.

Plus, I love how contained Ghosts is. I get so tired of trying to remember what Modern Warfare or Black Ops characters I'm supposed to still care about. With Ghosts, this is a fairly bland story, but it's a standalone story nonetheless. And the story is surprisingly bleak! The focus is on telling an interesting story, not an easy one that wraps up nicely.

Is Call of Duty: Ghosts a great game? Not really. But it still restored my faith in this franchise, and found myself enjoying this series in a way I haven't in years. I'll be interested to see what I think of the PS4 era of CoD going forward, or if this was just a fluke that was slightly better than the games that came before it. For the first time in quite some time, I'm hopeful about the next games I've yet to play in the CoD franchise, and that's saying something for a series I was completely ready to give up on.

Het is alweer twee jaar geleden sinds ik echt serieus veel heb gegamed. In de tussentijd speelde ik wel eens een potje FIFA of zelfs een keer en van de tien Call of Duty’s in mijn bezit, maar echt serieus voor een spel zitten en zien wat er gebeurd had ik lang voor mijn brein bespaard.

Tot deze maand. Ik besloot om even kritisch na te denken wat ik nog echt wilde spelen. Uit de 500 games die ik in de kast heb staan heb ik er 10 uitgekozen. De eerste die door de PlayStation 3 zou worden verslonden, was Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Dat spel heeft geschiedenis, zelfs voor ik de singleplayer opstarte. De game kreeg ik gratis bij het Power Unlimited abonnement, dat ik drie jaar vol heb gehouden. Nu heb ik (bijna alle) PU’s al gelezen, maar het spel – buiten af en toe een potje multiplayer dan – nog niet aangeraakt.

Dus ik begon de singleplayer. Het was cool, de sfeer was neergezet: een licht-postapocalyptisch Amerika waarin een geheime, ondergrondse factie met de naam Ghosts schimmige acties voerden. In een van de eerste missies verkenden we de wereld, die gesloopt was door een krachtige, kunstmatige aardbeving. Bij ons hadden we een hond, Reily, die al sluipend vijanden uitschakelden. Maar zo hier en daar stond een groepje vijanden die met helicopters overal troepen vandaan wisten te halen. Wij waren in de minderheid. Wij waren rebellen.

Tenminste, totdat Call of Duty echt begon. Helaas verviel het in een paar uur in de meest generieke Call of Duty tot nu toe. Nu heb ik Call of Duty 4 en Modern Warfare 2 sowieso helemaal uitgespeeld, beiden gemaakt door Ghosts-ontwikkelaar Infinity Ward, dus ik ben redelijk bekend met hun actieshooter. Sindsdien was iedere missie die volgde een been there, done that-situatie. De deja vu’s bleven maar komen.

Het is een militaire shooter, maar eentje die qua missiestructuur, verhaallijnen en personages niet eens zijn best doet om origineel over te komen. Het speelt prima en vertrouwd, maar vaak net té vertrouwd. Daardoor raak je ook in een bepaalde flow en begrip – eentje die in het einde van The Typing of the Dead ontbrak.

Qua verhaal heb je geen enkele reden om dit te spelen. Ergens halverwege slaat het volgens mij een groot deel over om maar in het midden actiemissie na actiemissie te presenteren. Zelfs de stealthmissies die later kwamen, voelden geforceerd. Het was dan ook in het midden een enorme uitdaging om door te spelen.

Als dit je eerste Call of Duty-game is, lijkt het me een hele toffe ervaring. Het is in wezen een interactieve Michael Bay-film. Maar wanneer ze het enige stukje plot in een post-creditsscène (want dat is hip) terugdraaien, begonnen mijn ogen echt hard te rollen.