Interview: Tina Palacios Talks Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Underdogs, Multiplayer & Squads

As part of our time looking at Call of Duty: Ghosts, we had the chance to play a little more of the multiplayer, as well as hear about and see some of what Infinity Ward have planned for this new branch of the franchise.

We also had the opportunity to sit down with Tina Palacios, Senior Community Manager for Infinity Ward, and ask her about the game directly.

TSA: First off, I’d like to ask how you’re handling this transition to next-gen hardware, and juggling both new hardware and the current machines?

Tina Palacios: Well, when we got in the studio for the first time, we all sort of had bright eyes and were super excited. It was like a new shiny toy, and we got to explore what it was capable of.

Developing Ghosts on five different platforms simultaneously, though, has been a challenge. That’s why we brought in the help from Raven and Neversoft, because it’s such a huge undertaking to develop a game independently on each platform. It was important to us that no platform got more love than the other.

In terms of developing for next-gen, it also gave us a lot of time to experiment and try new things out. Part of that was the new engine and improving the rendering system and the audio system, effects, you name it!

It changed our art studio’s pipeline, so they’re making cinema quality assets, but because of that we were able to pare each of the assets down to fit onto each platform we’re making the game on. So current-gen definitely benefitted from that. On top of that, the audio team wanted to take this new venture and improve acoustics, so that’s going to work across all platforms too.

TSA: Have you felt at any point that the current hardware is limiting the scope of what you’re trying to achieve?

Tina: No, but it’s because we’re under that unique circumstance where we’re developing the game independently on each one. I think we foresaw that, so that’s why we decided to make everything simultaneously.

TSA: In terms of the storytelling, what are you trying to achieve with the plotting and the new universe you’re creating?

Tina: Well it was important to us that we wanted a story about underdogs. So a small group of soldiers that don’t have the best weaponry or the bet tech, or even raw firepower…

TSA: They do still have a fair bit of tech, though. Like the cameras mounted on the dog, Riley’s back?

Tina: Yeah, but there’s a huge difference between utilising Riley, and having a UAV up in the air!

This really opened up a lot of doors for us, because in previous CoD games, if you had to take out an enemy base you’d just send in an air strike or a bunch of tanks. That’s not the case anymore, because of the limited resources.

The Ghosts are an elite group of soldiers that hide their identity, because it’s important for them to go behind enemy lines and come out of it unscathed. They really just try to use what they have on them, so we’ve shot off missions where you’re underwater, fighting, and trying to remain stealthy because you’re going into enemy territory.

So, we’re going more with the stealth movements, but at any time you can just break stealth, and play the way that you want.

We really want people to connect emotionally to the characters.

TSA: Do you think a more personal story, where you can identify better with the characters?

Tina: Oh, yeah. I mean, in Modern Warfare, for example, we just had our characters and you didn’t really know their backstory, or why they were the way they were. That was definitely a goal for us from the very beginning with Call of Duty: Ghosts.

You’re going to see the main characters when they’re teenagers experience this event, then we fast forward to ten years later, and that’s when the story really kicks off. You’ll see how much they’ve changed over time, and you meet their family, find out how they encounter the Ghosts and join them.

TSA: Multiplayer is one of the core pillars behind Call of Duty’s success, and one of the major new features here is Squads mode. Where did that idea come from and what was the driving force behind that?

Tina: Customisation is a big part of multiplayer now, and just having more control over how you want to play online was important to us. Because you’re going to be able to customise up to ten soldiers, you’re probably going to spend a lot of time doing so, and unlocking weapons for each soldier, and that’s what the idea for Squads really came out of.

You can take you can take your six favourite guys, or girls – I love being able to say girls now [laughs] – and really see the fruits of your labour right in front of you, because they’ll play right beside you in certain mode in Squads. You can even set them up to protect a base or a map, whilst you’re at work or have gone to school, see how well they’ve done when you get home, and earn experience for it if they’ve done well.

So it’s going to be interesting, because even if you don’t want to play multiplayer and just want to play against bots and get a feel for what the multiplayer experience could be like, you’ll still be able to level up your soldiers and unlock things too. It will just take much longer than if you were jumping into the multiplayer.

TSA: So, is Squads always you playing against AI, even when in co-op with friends? Or can you play against other players and their squads?

Tina: You can play against another player and their squad, so it will feel like a one-on-one, but your homies with you, or your posse! [laughs]

TSA: [laughs] All your other personalities!

Tina: Yeah, but the cool thing that the multiplayer and programming team worked really hard on was being able to change their personalities based on their loadouts. So your soldiers are going to act differently based on the perks and weapons they have equipped with them.

It will be interesting to see some of the more hardcore players trying to find that right balance to fit their team. Then there’s people like my Dad – he’s going to hate me for this – he doesn’t like playing online, so he can play against bots and have fun.

TSA: For everyone that isn’t your Dad…

Tina: [laughs] I love how this is going to be in an interview!

TSA: [laughs] For everyone who still loves to head online and go toe-to-toe with others, how are you trying to reinvigorate the multiplayer for them?

Tina: Well, you know, one of the first pillars was giving the player the control over their destiny in multiplayer, but not only that, we also wanted to take inspiration from single player, and there may be those cinematic, over the top events that occur. We wanted to give a similar experience in multiplayer as well, so that’s where the dynamic map events kick in. Although they’re going to be different based on the map you play on, some of them may feel like, “Oh my God. This is happening right now!”

So on Strikezone, for instance, when you earn that KEM strike and you use it, and it destroys the whole map… that’s just one of those cinematic moments, where you’re like, “Wow!”

It was important to us that players will use the map or the surrounding environment to do well. I’m really curious to see how players are going to vet out once they see all of the maps.

TSA: Do you think the destruction is going to take a while to be taken full advantage of by players? I’ve played several matches on Strikezone, and seen the KEM strike just once, and I’ve not felt like I’ve seen much of the dynamic environments that are there.

Tina: I think it’s going to be a learning curve, on top of what players have already got to learn as they explore a map’s pathways. It’s just in addition to that, you’ve got to learn how to utilise it well. So yeah, there’s going to be a learning curve to it.

TSA: How much do you like running around as the Juggernaut? Is it the Juggernaut? I’ve forgotten what it’s called now!

Tina: Oh, we call it the Maniac, but he is a juggernaut. So, do I like doing that? Oh, hell yeah I do! [laughs]

I have a funny story about that actually, and I haven’t told many people about it. So, when we were developing Ghosts at work, there were always single player and multiplayer departments, but for multiplayer, we will usually play at the end of the day for maybe 3 or 4 hours. We’ve been doing that nonstop since we started development of this game, and part of that is being the guinea pigs for killstreaks.

So, a programmer threw in the Maniac without telling any of us, and when one guy got it, we were so pissed off, because at the time Maniac ran faster than he does now, and he was knifing people, and his health regenerated. There was no way that half of us could kill him, and we were getting so pissed off!

It was just one of those experiences that… I didn’t want to throw my controller or anything, but the way the Maniac works now is so much better than what we saw in the past, I’ll just say that!

But he’s a lot of fun, because for a lot of players, they just love running around and knifing, and this is a killstreak that they’re going to enjoy. The way we’ve balanced it is that your health won’t regenerate at all when you have it on, and so it’s much easier to take it down!

Unfortunately our interview was slightly curtailed by a cold call, which I rejected but still managed to cut off my final question and answer, and stopped my phone recording audio. Fortunately, this seems like a nice place to finish up, anyway!

Thanks to Tina for taking the time to talk with us. Call of Duty: Ghosts’ multiplayer will be playable at Euogamer Expo this week, giving you a taste of the new game modes, maps, graphics and customisation… and if you’re really good, Maniac.