There's a palpable sense of excitement among the gaming community: we're about to enter a near-unprecedented period in the lead-up to Christmas, in which two new consoles will arrive, backed up by a glittering array of blockbusting games.
Arguably the biggest (at least, now that we've all got our copies of GTA V) is Call of Duty: Ghosts. Appropriately, given its name, but annoyingly for gamers, CoD: Ghosts has remained somewhat elusive and shadowy since it was unveiled at the E3 Show in June (although a multiplayer event did map out that side of the game on a macro level). However, publisher Activision and developer Infinity Ward have begun to redress that balance, with an event in the City of London, in which we were treated to a fleshing out of details, as well as hands-on multiplay on the Xbox One. This is what we discovered.
Single-player campaign
OK, we know that these days CoD games are supposed to be all about the multi-play, but there are still plenty of traditionalists around who like to play it solo, and now that we've seen some of it, we're convinced that, for a CoD game, Ghosts' single-player campaign should be refreshingly original and innovative.
"At E3, we mentioned that in Ghosts, America has been rocked by an attack – because of this mass event, it is no longer a superpower," explains Infinity Ward's community manager, Tina Palacios. "Resources are very scarce, America is in disarray, and even the military is crippled at this point. Our characters are growing up in this world and we fast-forward about 10 years; that's where our story really kicks off.
"You play as Logan, alongside your brother Hesh, throughout the whole campaign. This is a first for us – we've never really given an origin story to our characters before, but we really wanted to go for it. But not only that; we want to focus on a single squad: the Ghosts.
"You and your brother heard about the Ghosts growing up, but you never really got to meet them, because it's very important to them that they hide their identity – that's why you see the masks and the face-paint. The reason for that is that they pose the biggest threat to the Federation, which is our new superpower enemy. They are very small in numbers, so it's crucial for them to fight behind enemy lines without being seen. You eventually come across them and join up."
Alongside you and your brother, you'll also have a dog called Riley who, Palacios asserts, will operate as a proper character in the game. He has the ability to detect enemies, scout with a camera on his back and fight viciously on your behalf. Palacios gives a nice little insight into the development process when she says: "We didn't really know what we would do with Riley until we met Navy SEALs and their dogs. They brought them into the studio, and we saw the gear they wear, and got to see that they are serious members of the squad."
As part of the demonstration, we were shown what may well be the opening mission of the campaign – a scene-setter, it prefaces the entrance of Logan, Hesh and Riley, but explains what happened to America. It takes place on a space station, where the American military is about to test-fire a new weapon it has created called ODIN – the Orbital Defence Initiative – which contains giants rods that can be dropped onto Earth, triggering the same sort of blast as a nuclear device, but without the radiation.
Unfortunately, the space-station is overrun by the Federation, and despite some nifty shooting in zero-gravity conditions, you're unable to prevent them from dropping ODIN's deadly payload on every major American city – all of which are reduced to rubble. Thisnicely sets up the game's premise in which you're cast as a kind of American guerrilla. CoD: Ghosts certainly won't have to fight any allegations of glorifying the Stars and Stripes, and its storyline should be much more interesting as a result. Although we can't say how substantial it will be – Palacios steadfastly refused to provide even a ballpark play-through time.
Squads – somewhere between solo and multiplay
Another aspect of Ghosts which is completely new to the Call of Duty franchise is a new gameplay mode called Squads. Previously, Infinity Ward had rather nebulously described it as existing somewhere between single-play and multiplay – essentially playing like multiplay, but with liberal use of AI-controlled bots.
Palacios fleshed out the concept considerably: "Squads is separate from single-player and multiplayer. You'll create a squad of six of your favourite soldiers, and you can play with them, by yourself, against bots, with your favourite soldiers as team-mates. Or you can play with up to five of your friends as squads online. Or even pit your squad against other squads one-on-one.
"Squads has various modes. In Squad v Squad, you can compete against other players one-on-one. In Solo, you pick your five favourite soldiers against a squad of bots; that replicated the full multiplayer experience. There's a four-player co-op mode called Safeguard, inspired by Survival in Modern Warfare 3. You face waves of enemies, and get all the toys, like Perks and so on. And in Squad Assault mode, you and your friends play in an epic six-player co-op match against an offline player squad."
Palacios was keen to emphasise that Squads is designed to be accessible to those who find CoD's full-blown multiplayer side intimidatingly challenging. Indeed, it sounds like a great means of learning the skills required to survive in multiplay against gentler bots. She confirmed that you will earn XP in Squads, although more slowly than in full-blown multiplay, and that one key aspect of Squads is setting each of your soldiers' load-outs very carefully, as that will effectively determine their fighting personality.
Multiplay: coming into focus
The multiplayer side of CoD: Ghosts is the game's most crucial element – it will have to not just satisfy but enthuse a massive and unbelievably fanatical tribe of gamers. Infinity Ward has been nailing multiplay since CoD 2, though, so it knows what its audience likes. Clearly, the starting point for Ghosts' multiplay was that of Modern Warfare 3, and Palacios confirmed that feedback from the MW3 community has coloured the developer's approach to CoD: Ghosts.
Strikes and Killstreaks
Palacios went into the key aspects of Strikes and Killstreaks in some detail: "We've brought back the traditional Strike packages from MW3, but the key thing to remember here is that we really took on a lot of user feedback before creating these.
"In the Support package in MW3, a lot of people were upset with us for including the stealth bomber, because it gave people a lot of kills and it was a support Killstreak, so you didn't necessarily lose your Killstreaks when you died. So we took that out, and you won't see Killstreaks like that in this package. Essentially, your Killstreaks are about helping your team-mates in a unique way. The support strike package today is Satcom. It's our UAV system. You throw it on the ground, so the first one you get gives you eyes-on for your team-mates. By the fourth one you get, you'll get a directional UAV and really help out your team.
"We also have the MAWS: it's a laser and a rocket launcher. I know that sounds like something you can use really quickly in front of other opponents, but the key thing to remember is that when you shoot off these rockets, they're going to split off and then come back together, so you have to have really good aim to use them well."
Perks
Palacios also outlined some of Ghosts' Perks, after explaining that the Perks system has been subtly altered so that you're no longer forced to choose Perks from different categories, although they are still categorised so that you can get an idea of what they do. The intention, she says, is to let people play how they want.
"Dead-eye is one of most expensive: when you get consecutive kills, you do more damage next time you shoot your weapon. There are guys in the studio who love to run around with shotguns, and by the time they get to their third kill, people are dying pretty quickly. Takedown prevents enemies from seeing where I killed their team-mates – if you don't want people rushing you when you've killed someone, this is really useful."
Clan Wars and Blitz
Palacios added some crucial detail to something that until now had remained mysterious: Clan Wars, the so-called meta-game that comes as part of the free CoD app for iOS, Windows Phone and Android. Clan Wars games will take place over a period of two weeks; every fortnight, clans will be able to pair up against each other and enact an epic battle over territory. The longer you hold your territory, the more points you get, and the team with the most points at the end of the fortnight will win the war. There will be certain objects in the game that you will only be able to get by winning Clan Wars.
And she also unveiled a hitherto unmentioned multiplayer mode: "Blitz divides the map into two different territories, with a portal on each side. The object of the game is to get your team through the enemy portal to score a point, then it will send you back to your side."
Hands-on with multiplayer
After the presentation, we got some hands-on experience of CoD: Ghosts' multiplayer – thrillingly, on the Xbox One. Our overall impression was that CoD fans are unlikely to be disappointed, to say the least. CoD: Ghosts looks magnificent on the Xbox One, but the only real difference between the current-gen and next-gen versions are the graphics, so the fact that perhaps the most impressive aspect was the new-found fluidity of movement bodes well for those intending to play the game on their existing hardware.
It wasn't long before players began mastering the knee-slide move, which lets you lurch forward onto your stomach while firing, ending up completely prone and therefore presenting a much smaller target to your opponent. That move requires confidence that you will take out your enemy before they can strafe, though, adding a couple of new techniques to the CoD multiplayer mix.
We also fell foul of the Maniacs a few times – a Killstreak that turns you into a Juggernaut with a sprint and a knife. They are absolutely deadly but, Palacios explained, have been balanced by having their health regeneration removed.
The maps we tried out, too, were stunning: one took place in a convincingly snowy environment, combining caves and the interiors of buildings. They seemed both easy to learn and surprisingly spacious.
Call of Duty is, arguably, the biggest franchise in the games world – Rockstar Games, with Grand Theft Auto, may dispute that, but GTA only appears once every four or five years whereas CoD, with its twin developers is a hardy annual. The bad news for the nay-sayers who feel that a franchise as long-running as CoD must surely start to lose its appeal sometime soon is that, perhaps energised by the advent of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, Infinity Ward seems to come out with the freshest and most ambitious Call of Duty for years. If anything, the CoD juggernaut is picking up speed, rather than juddering to a halt.
