I'm
the kind of Call of Duty player that pops open the game case, gathers
up my buddies, and jumps right into the fantastic, addictive multiplayer
with less than a glance at the single-player and co-op modes. And
that's how I suggest you approach the latest entry in the Call of Duty
series. Call of Duty: Ghosts hits all of the Call of Duty bulletpoints:
precise controls, refined multiplayer gameplay, and a ton of content to
keep you coming back again and again. But it doesn't take any chances or
bring anything significant to the table, especially in the
single-player and co-op modes. Never before has a game in the series
felt so stagnant. While the shooter is a solid FPS experience all
around, it's missing the creative passion that made its predecessors
shine.
Call
of Duty: Ghosts' story takes you to a new, near-future era. Modern
Warfare’s Soap and Price are nowhere to be seen and have been replaced
by the young brothers, Logan and Hesh, who are fighting against a
fictional superpower called The Federation. Your faceless enemy remains
faceless throughout the game, with the story's only antagonist being a
uninspired Federation lackey. As a result of the enemy organization's
ambiguity, you never really know the motivations behind it hijacking a
weaponized space station and bombing the bejeezus out of the United
States, so why care? The plot plays out so by-the-numbers that you know
what to expect before it even happens, making every dramatic moment less
impactful, every cliched plot twist fall flat, and every line of
military jargon that much more cheesy.
But
what about Riley? Fighting with a dog through war must be an emotional
rollercoaster, right? Well, he has his moments of badassery and
distress, but he is more Hesh's best friend than he is Logan's (you).
So, all of the emotional attachment you experience is witnessed looking
in on Hesh and Riley's relationship--you're just the third wheel. In the
end, not having your own pet proved to be just another missed
opportunity to suck me into Ghosts' story and world. But don't blame
Riley, he's still a good boy.
The story's shortcomings could have been softened by memorable single-player missions, but these instead quickly become stale.
Call of Duty has always relied on its super epic set-piece moments to
create a memorable, action-packed experience. The frequency of these
intense scenes has been upped a notch in Ghosts, but the action often
fails to impress. Far too many of the levels break down like this: you
play sneaky for the first third, go guns-blazing for the second third,
and escape explosions, falling buildings, or overwhelming enemy forces
in the last stretch. When used sparingly, these sequences build
anticipation for the strenuous firefights of the coming battle, and give
a satisfying "whew"-conclusion to the mission. But here, the formula is
used so often that it becomes predictable, and thus leaves Ghosts
without much dramatic impact.
That said, the campaign does have its strong
moments. You'll shoot your way through new and interesting environments.
Floating through an orbiting space station in zero gravity, swimming
with the sharks in the ocean, and even manning a tank makes for a
visually intriguing contrast to the been-there-done-that feeling of the
repetitious and cover-centric on-foot battles. Infinity Ward has also
abandoned the pre-mission map loadscreens from previous games and
replaced them with stylish cutscenes that more clearly detail the next
step in the story, a welcomed addition.
The next-gen difference
With
the current-gen version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, the visuals are some
of the most impressive there have been in the series. You'll be getting
the same feature set on the PS3 and 360, minus the 18-player, Ground War
multiplayer mode.
If you're a stickler for playing
first-person shooters with as crisp and detailed visuals you can
possibly get, you'll want to save up and go next-gen. Otherwise, the
current-gen versions will do just fine.
Whereas the single-player campaign dipped below expectations, Ghosts'
multiplayer is right on par with what you'd expect, but not much more.
Yes, there are new elements like the ability to slide, peek out from
corners, interact with certain doors, and blow up sections of the map,
but the added features do little to freshen up the gameplay. Opening and
closing doors in particular can be almost completely ignored if you
aren't playing an objective-based team game, since there's no real need
to restrict the enemy team from an area of a map in a deathmatch mode.
The level destruction is limp, especially when you look at Battlefield
4's map-changing advancements with levolution. We've been blowing up
walls in other shooters for years, so watching a designated section of a
wall disappear in a C4 explosion is no big whoopdeedoo, and a
map-altering chemical nuke only works in one map. That said, the
competitive modes are still some of the best shooter experiences you are
going to get online thanks to the smooth-as-butter controls, vast
character customization, and map variety.
Ghosts'
biggest multiplayer addition is the soldier customization. There are a
ton of unlockable faces, uniforms, weapons, and streaks to choose from,
which you could spend hours tinkering with. The breadth is staggering
and a bit overwhelming at first. Perks, weapons, and streaks are no
longer automatically unlocked when you reach a level threshold--you
purchase them by earning squad points. Unless you're a veteran player
and know exactly how you want to outfit your character, you'll be doing
some guesswork and experimentation, which can slow down your progress.
On the other hand, with the huge number of options, you can truly create
a soldier that works exactly how you want him or her (you can choose to
play as a female soldier!) to function. Want to make a demolition class
with extra grenades, an underbarrel grenade launcher, and increased
explosive damage? Go for it.
Multiplayer
also includes new game modes: Most notably Cranked and Blitz. Cranked
is team deathmatch with a twist. Every time you get a kill, you have 30
seconds to kill again before you self destruct. It sounds like a blast,
in theory, but I rarely felt any pressing immediacy to score a
kill--either I found an enemy right away (resetting the timer) or got
killed myself with plenty of time to spare, negating the
rush-to-avoid-exploding concept entirely. Blitz was the most
entertaining new mode. It's like running a gauntlet as every player
attempts to move through the opposing team's defenses to reach the goal
on the other side of the map. Because any player on a team can score,
it's like playing a game of cat and mouse where you're both the cat and
the mouse all at once. Good times.
Outside
the multiplayer, you can also play with your friends in co-op. Infinity
Ward has broken the co-op into two different modes: Squads and
Extinction. Squads allows you to create a group of AI soldiers and play
alongside them in various team vs. team and cooperative modes. While the
concept of building your squad to challenge your friends sounds
intriguing, it really just boils down to: you're really just playing
multiplayer matches with bots. Even Ghosts' Safeguard horde mode
(another co-op mode in Squads), which pits players against waves of
mindless, gun-toting enemies, is bland, especially compared to the
thrill of fighting an army of enemies in the previous games' Spec Ops
co-op.
Then
there's Extinction, Infinity Ward's answer to Treyarch's Zombies. In
it, you'll have to shoot your way through hordes of encroaching aliens
as you attempt to destroy their nests, which are spread across the map.
Blasting away at the aliens in Extinction doesn't hold the same novelty
as shooting the undead, and the mode isn't as substantial an offering as
Black Ops 2's Zombies mode simply because there's less to do. There's
only a single Extinction mission to play through over and over as you
grind your way up the ranks toward additional unlocks and class types.
Until Infinity Ward releases new DLC Extinction missions, playing
through the same alien-infested town will make that grind a long one.
All
in all, Call of Duty: Ghosts takes the FPS formula established by its
predecessors and doesn’t innovate. Instead, it just adds more. You’ll
have more killstreaks and perks to choose from, more monsters to kill,
and even more explosions to stagger away from. And while you’re running
through a collapsing building for the hundredth time, the thrilling
sensation and excitement you felt in the previous games is numbed. There
are no memorable characters to hang on to, no jaw dropping twists--just
more of what you've already seen before. The seller here is the
multiplayer. The ability to completely customize your soldiers, the
polished gameplay, and a few entertaining additions will keep you coming
back to gun down your friends for hours on end. Just don't expect to be
blown away.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
NormalBeaconite
