Call of Duty: Ghosts Wiki : Everything you need to know about the game

Call of Duty Ghosts is fast paced first person, somewhat futuristic shooter that is serving as the 10th entry into the genre dominating Call of Duty franchise of video games. Developed by the well respected Infinity Ward, Call of Duty: Ghosts received a cross platform and cross generation launch when it received a staggered release in November of 2013.

Published by the now owners of the franchise, Activision, Call of Duty: Ghosts was made available on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U where it arrived to a good reception despite a lack of innovation on the formula.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay

Development

Activision on February 7, 2013 stated and confirmed that a new Call of Duty game was in development and would be released sometimes in 2013. On April 29, 2013 The Call of Duty Ghosts website went live and showcased a picture of a skull and a text that read, “Ghosts are Real”.

After the success of the Modern Warfare series, the developers wanted to create a whole new world with new characters, settings. Infinity ward executive producer Mark Rubin stated in an interview that, “It was not a hard decision, but a long decision. When we finished Modern Warfare 3, we had this big brainstorming session that lasted for weeks.

We all really knew we wanted to continue making Call of Duty. We wanted to create a new universe, or a new story at least. We wanted new characters and new experiences. The easy thing would have been – as we had finished the arc of Modern Warfare 1, 2 and 3 – to start a new arc within that same universe. That was the first step. But due to a lot of the changes we wanted to make with this new world, it really dictated out that we needed to make something that wasn’t Modern Warfare.” [reference]

The developers are also making sure that the next-gen consoles are not left out and confirmed that Call of Duty : Ghosts is also being developed for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Activision CEO of publishing Hirshberg stated in an interview, ”We have the same development team working on the games for the next generation and the current generation, because what this ensures is that the current generation isn’t an afterthought or something that is just outsourced. We want to be sure that we consider the things that are the innovations going into the next generation of games that the current generation can benefit from.” [reference]

Call of Duty Ghosts developers is also making sure that the graphics in the game are as realistic as possible. Mark Rubin the executive producer and development lead for Call of Duty: Ghosts stated in an interview that, “It’s beyond PC right now. It is these really big cinema-quality assets. And what we can then do is pull them down onto the various platforms. That way the assets are always the best that they can be for that platform. So you never have an average, you have the best for PC, the best for current-gen, the best for next-gen.

We are bringing into gaming a lot of little techniques and things that these guys have been doing in Hollywood for many years now. One of those techniques is something called “SubD”, which according to Rubin “is something Pixar developed, and Hollywood has been using it for years for feature film. Those guys have been using it in the pre-rendered sense, so it’s not real-time. But we developed it and brought it into the game so it is working in real-time. It has a pretty material effect on the way the game looks, and that’s the benefit of bringing these things in.” [reference]

The game won’t allow for user-generated content, so modding tools will not be available. Mark Reuben producer on Call of Duty: Ghosts explained in an interview, “It’s absolutely something we’d love to do, the problem lies obviously in security and also it’s a competitive game, and so if you give people too much access to those toys they can ruin other people’s experiences. The unfortunate part of this is there’s almost nothing I’ve seen out there that is people who have hacked the system who are doing good. The community would still try and break the game because they’re not trying to break levels, they’re trying to break people’s progression, or they’re trying to break things with, like, aimbots and all that kind of stuff”. [reference]

Story

The main premise of Call of Duty: Ghosts is set in 2023 and takes place after disastrous event that changed the world, as we know it. The United States is no longer recognized as a superpower. An unseen but deadly enemy is on the loose, but the fragments of US special forces from every branch came together to form an elite group of soldiers known as the Ghosts.

The developers of the game wanted to make the story more character driven, Zach Volker the Animation lead for the game stated in an interview, “This is the best story that Infinity Ward has ever put out in a CoD title. It’s more character driven – previous titles have focused more on big events, and you just kind of experience them. What we’re trying to do this time is focus more on being a character with other characters, telling the story of how they experience the events.

It’s still a Call of Duty title so don’t expect long cut scenes or anything like that – cinematic sequences are not our style. We try to stay away from the over-the-top in your face violence… no one’s going to strangle someone and force you to watch it – that’s not our style. We wanted to make sure we use the level of fidelity for something that’s worth more than shock value. But are we getting closer to overcoming the uncanny valley? Absolutely”.  [reference]

Gameplay

The gameplay in Call of Duty Ghosts has taken a different approach; the gameplay footage showcases the Ghosts scuba diving through the ocean. Once the player reaches the dry land, he will be joined by another squad mate and a German Shepard, which was retrofitted with a dog cam. This will allow the player to do multiple things, when accompanied with it. The player can give orders to the dog to take down an enemy. The game will also take players to various locations like Mexico, Brazil, California, Antarctica and many more.

The animation lead for Call of Duty: Ghosts, Zach Volker revealed more about gameplay. In an interview he stated, “Don’t expect to blow through walls or anything like that – and all the maps will be very different, but you can expect to see earthquakes starting; certain levels will have switches that will change the layout; certain levels may have a satellite that comes crashing down, and the first team to get to it and activate it will get a UAV.

It’s really a way of making the maps more asymmetrical – just giving players more ways to turn the tide. It’s very level specific. We’re not trying to make it an open-world game, and some levels will be more scripted and corridor-like. But there are levels that have been purposefully designed to be very open.”  [reference]

This wiki was last updated on 5th, January 2015.