Ghosts is definitely a real attempt to overhaul and update the multiplayer in the Call of Duty franchise, while still holding onto that core gameplay and feeling which has made the series a constant go-to for online gamers.
It’s still a very slick experience, and will maintain the series’ absolute goal of running at 60Hz throughout – though I was told that I was playing on a PC, rather than an Xbox One – but for all the snarky comments when it was previously unveiled, it does look rather good. It holds onto a particular style which, though it’s still all about gritty near-future warfare, somehow manages to look different to the nearest competitors.
Before battles begin, it’s quite pleasing to see both male and female troops being represented within the myriad of customisation options. It is naturally a purely cosmetic change, but a nice and important inclusion regardless, amidst the myriad of options to pick camouflage patterns, face paint, helmets and so on.
It’s part of a fairly big overhaul of the loadouts, too, which sees you picking perks of various point values from a large grid divided up into the seven categories, such as Speed, Awareness and Equipment. These can be mixed and matched to your liking.
A slightly faster reload speed could be combined with a sonar-like pulse triggered after each kill to mark enemies on your mini map, givingyou an upper hand just after vanquishing someone.
The kill streak rewards also have a nice twist, where the Assault package retains the need to chain kills together in a single life, rewarding you with things like a guard dog, who will attack nearby enemies. However, the Support package doesn’t reset upon death, so you will more regularly be able to take advantage of the Night Owl drone and a rocket launcher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5umF6z9x9A
The game modes were nice and varied as we worked out way from 4 vs. 4 Team Deathmatch to Search & Rescue, where one team must collect a bomb and deliver it to one of two target objectives. It’s like Search & Destroy, but you can revive fallen comrades by collecting their dogtags, encouraging you to stick together.
Blitz is actually tricky to explain; you must reach your enemy’s goal, whilst defending your own, but there’s no ball or flag to carry, and any player can trigger it. Thankfully there’s a cool-down time after scoring, so any players loitering can be hunted down.
With just eight players, the gameplay wasn’t quite as frantic, and especially on S&R, where you only have the one life, there was a justifiable level of caution. Then again, Team Deathmatch was naturally at full tilt the entire time.
Depending on the map you’re playing, there could be the appearance of large-scale events which change the face of the battle. These will vary in scale and size, but could open up new areas, and affect the balance of power in a particular struggle.
The three maps I saw already had a fair bit of destruction to them, set in a post-war world in which the US has been ravaged by a variety of forces, so that there was a lot of rubble and collapsed architecture already on show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUX_TQ1GKhI
However – just as with Battlefield 4’s level evolution – I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed by what I saw. Part of this will have been down to the limited time I had with the game, but one map seemed to merely have a petrol station which you could collapse (I believe that this was player triggered, the one time I saw it happen), whilst another saw a huge KEM strike hit it and level the entire map.
This KEM strike did certainly reduce the entire map to rubble, and it was quite disorienting to suddenly have everything look completely different, with just a handful of familiar landmarks, but I was disappointed not to be able to witness to the strike itself. It just felt like I was killed suddenly by the strike, and then as soon as I respawned, the map was a wasteland.
Ghosts is careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and keep that familiar core for fans of previous entries, but at the same time brings a lot of additions to character customisation, loadout selection and map transformation. Not to mention being able to aim for 1080p and 60Hz, finally on par with many of its major competitors. This might not be a wholesale revolution, but it’s a big enough evolution to be worthy of note.
Pidge
But it is! Balancing!
I have 100mb Broadband for a reason. COD is not on my PS4 to purchase list. It always has been but after MW3 and BO2, I am no longer interested!
yiddo
Nah, I’ll stick with Killzone thanks. COD has got too stale. They will NEVER top COD4 again. Ever.
tonycawley
The series has been in pretty much constant decline since cod4. The treyarch efforts just don’t play as well online, most noticeable I thought during black ops 2. Since this isn’t by them it may end up ok but I’m still not interested.
This may end up good and it may be one of the highest reviewed games in next gen release window, but I think I need to give cod a break, same old gameplay with minor adaptations doesn’t cut it for me any more.
yiddo
I just miss COD4. I really do. The feeling of playing that was so refreshing, and I never got bored of it. Truly a brilliant game in every aspect.
Kennykazey
I’ve not bought a CoD game since MW2, so I’m interested in picking this up. But I’ll wait to read some reviews first as I know I’m getting Killzone and probably Battlefield 4 as well to play with friends (and with boats it’s finally back at the scope of the good old games). So it need to impress for me to bother.
OneShotWook
Stefan you may be able to answer me on this as i really havn’t seen it asked anywhere this year.Are they still using I.D’s quake 4 tech?
Stefan L
id Tech 4 was the Doom 3 (and Quake 4) engine, but was never part of anything to do with CoD games, the first of which was running on a heavily modified version of id Tech 3 – the very popular Quake 3 engine.
Ever since CoD 2, Infinity Ward have been developing their engine themselves. At this stage, there’s practically nothing left from Q3 in Infinity Ward’s engine.
This is the biggest single rewrite and change of the engine since Modern Warfare, I believe. New hardware has meant that they have a real reason to do anything more than just tweaking and optimising.
OneShotWook
Thanks for the answer Stefan.
doug
I just hope they have more maps in the ground war playlist cos that’s all I play
tonycawley
Aye, I’d put +1 here but it’s frowned upon so I won’t. Ground war really is better, more players, more action, more fun. Hoping next gen brings war games on more epic scales, rather like mag. Limitations of 6v6 or whatever really has got in the way this gen.
OneShotWook
Thats pretty much why i asked about the tech being used Tony because as far as i can see 1080 by 60fps is small potatoes when you have 12 people in a 6×6 grid.
I’d rather see them look for numbers to as thats where long term variety comes to bear imo.
Eldave0
Definitely agree with this. Ground War is awesome fun but there are only so many times I can play Grind before I’m left wanting a better map selection
Ouninpohja
Words totally fail me as to how people can still be gullible enough to buy these on an annual basis.
Whether it was just COD 4 being far ahead of its time,or they’ve run out of ideas. Because they’re all copy and pasted from it ever since.
Bet they’re still using the Slow-mo “Grab the Gun” and save your companion in time somewhere in the campaign. Just like MW had :)
Eldave0
Will be living on this game once it releases on X1. Absolutely loved BLOPS2 and am still working through some of the trickier medals and challenges. It’s developed a lot of hate (don’t all popular things?) but for me its the best shooter series on the market by some distance. November really cannot come soon enough.