In 2003 a shy team of developers made up of employees previously involved in the "Medal of Honor" project, plus new elements and more added over the years, managed to turn the gaming industry upside down with a product that has become a milestone. We are talking about Infinity Ward and their son: Call of Duty.
Before going into the merits of the last chapter called "Ghosts", we need to bring to attention a small introduction.
When a game bursts into the gaming industry successfully, bringing fresh air and snatching positive ratings in reviews, there is a real chance that it will be launched into the world of future investments. In practice, that it is continually resumed to succeed, on the one hand staying at the top of the preference rankings, and on the other hand seeing the original concept of the developers continuously updated.
On the other hand, a famous proverb also says it: "Team that wins does not change."
Call of Duty at the end of 2003 was a very popular game for three reasons: excellent multipalyer; care for the settings; historical accuracy in narrating the facts. After a few months, in 2004, the user claimed its total reliability for memorable challenges, and this is how after a single player of excellent workmanship, even if not baptized as a masterpiece, Call of Duty (from now COD) in multiplayer it showed very sharp claws.
It did not take long to understand that the developers would have been encouraged to a continuous and systematic optimization work from the follow-up. However, not always the games shot continuously manage to express a higher creative potential than their predecessors, or to keep the standard achieved. Unfortunately Call of Duty has fallen victim to this insane habit of churning out a title too quickly. Our test was profound and touched the threads of memory of old gaming sessions with previous titles. With tight teeth we finished the main plot and gutted the multiplayer as much as possible. Unfortunately we would have liked to see many of our fears become “ghosts”, instead they turned into reality.
We are in the USA, and while the world's economies are biting each other to obtain increasingly scarce power and resources, a coalition of South American states founds the "Federation", a formidable and highly organized military power first, then an economic one, which slowly kneels half the planet, a power to make anyone lose their minds.
The protagonists of this dramatic and also politically surreal story are the “Ghosts”. Elite team that in the past has been an important subject in some very dangerous missions and now made up of survivors who have become legend.
The events that will involve us find space in an America destroyed by a typical war of the XNUMXst century: based on cracked satellites and remote controlled rockets. The plot that will be introduced immediately in its entirety, does not hide implications that make the jaw drop to the ground. Indeed, from the first moments of the game the feeling of haste will begin to envelop our hands ready to fire hundreds of shots. Everything is narrated quickly risking to lose the thread during the interlude sequences between one level and another. The non-depth of the story makes you turn up your nose, and therefore shifts the focus from a discreet plot to the gameplay, in the hope of finding and trying substantial innovations.
Unfortunately we have to abandon the diplomatic dress to wear another more critical one. Call of Duty is a saga that has been going on for years at a fast pace. It does not take the genius of the lamp to understand that in projects completed in the very short term, the rate of substantial and incisive novelties is very low. Ghosts is a game that for most will be recycled, especially in terms of the technical sector that deserves a separate section in our speech, but let's go step by step.
The impact that you have with the title is first of all a story told in too big and fast steps, as mentioned before. In the DNA of the single player is a constant feeling of inadequacy and idea that the developers have worked in a hurry to glue the levels together with a story of decent and predictable quality.
The various sections are not long to dissect and even less experienced players will be able to complete the title without enormous effort in a few hours. Obviously, at higher difficulty levels, the guard must be kept high, but we are not faced with necessary strategy changes, also because, let's face it, artificial intelligence is at a basic level. The soldiers will just avoid our shots and shoot tons of them to take us out in no time. We have not seen positions, strategies or anything else. Our task for most of the time will be to kill and advance in levels with minimal interactions with the environment and armed snack companions right inside their underwear. The level design exhibits a good level of detail on the screen but the settings reveal pre-established linear paths without too much effort, and also quite annoying. Call of Duty: Ghosts in single player turns out to be a fun but obvious game, devoid of important news and above all impregnated with déjà-vu.
A mention should be made of animations and ballistics. The former are really unconvincing, especially in enemies when they take shots or have to move. For ballistics, on the other hand, the matter is dramatically more complicated. We are not dealing with a war simulator but we would have expected a greater care for weapons, on all fronts, and primarily of course that of combat. Anyone who wants to play COD: Ghosts in hopes of experiencing a well-thought-out war situation, and the need to aim to select their combat weapons by strategy: will be very disappointed. The linearity affects the title on all fronts, liming a mediocrity that could have been avoided with small tricks.
Only with the introduction of remote weapon management with a special and demonic satellite device, and the interaction with our faithful Riley, the game shoots two streams of novelty. But even these not very incisive.
COD multiplayer should make everyone take their hats off. After years, the game supported by a very active user community and continuous technical support from the developers, could have brought impressive news also to say good morning in an elegant way to Next-Gen. Unfortunately, all of this did not happen. The multiplayer of Ghosts is full of news and many minor improvements ready to give new life to our virtual, but the whole is far from organizing an epic game and above all ready to renew the name "Call of Duty". Indeed, in the introduction of some mechanics we experienced a bit of confusion in the menus. The less experienced in this case may need a lot of games to settle in and sit in the living room of the news.
Here are some of them:
-Possibility to perform sliding while running; lean out of corners and use cover points in greater safety.
-Maps richer in strategic points and others where it is possible to interact with objects.
-Customization of the soldier and the clan.
-Co-op mode up to 4 players called "Extinction"
The multiplayer supports the game and takes its place while the single is for a ride in no man's land. But even here, starting from a not very solid base, one runs the risk of admiring mediocrity, especially in the technical and graphic fields that we will explain between two mouse clicks.
From the announcement trailer, the programmers talked about an enhanced graphics engine. The discourse of "adding bricks" without upsetting the balance, to an already good product, has not convinced many, and honestly not even us. Actually Call of Duty: Ghosts, again, in the graphics field, has nothing. The engine is outdated and can't hold a candle to other similar titles (did anyone say Battlefield 4?) And it can't even wear a suit and tie and show up at the Next-Gen party. Particle effects are reduced to a minimum as well as light effects that rarely, in the occasion of glimpses, give luster to the latest generation graphics cards. Despite the presence on the screen of many details, and we repeat it, a good level design, the game is not convincing and indeed pretentiously offers a weak sector that even the current Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles can manage without effort.
For the audio there have been no substantial changes, on the contrary, the recycling of some sounds for grenades and other environmental ones could annoy those who are purists of innovation.
The physics engine acts discreetly but finds no way to express itself, since there are very few surfaces to destroy or spectacular sequences to animate. Closing the triad we can only define Call of Duty, in this last incarnation, a weak game on all aspects, and the technical one places a sword of damocles on the delicate neck of the saga for future developments. On Next-Gen consoles that we have had the opportunity to try several times, the graphic impact is the same as on the PC, a game that does not joyfully inaugurate the generational shift.
Strictly speaking, our test was held on a machine capable of running the Infinity Ward title at its full potential and in Full-HD without ever dropping below 30 FPS in really hot situations.
Call of Duty: Ghosts is a game that is not thrilling. Cold, obsolete, full of recycled content: it leaves no salient marks in the player's soul, who is amused but not fully satisfied. Fun, dynamic but free from important news; backed by a years old technical sector and a very weak single player that does not take the saga to a new level or open the doors to the Next-Gen. In multiplayer, as per tradition, things change but they are not exciting. The title breathes but not deeply. The entire product does not affect in a particularly evident way and instead shows, with strength, a lack of ideas due to the fact that the brand is driven by very high development rates distributed in too short a time. In conclusion, unfortunately it must be admitted that the saga has reached the maximum level of saturation. Ghosts was a big bet: lost.
