Birthday Update!

Its my birthday today! The big 21!  Honestly, I don't really see the difference between this age or any other.  I know many of my peers are looking forward to the opportunity to buy alcohol, but that just isn't me.  So happy birthday me, and let's get started.

I wanted to talk today about Call of Duty: Ghosts, mainly because I played it on the PlayStation 4.  I will review the system on Thursday, because I want to focus on the game today.

The Single player puts you in the boots of a young soldier after the invasion of the United States by a group of South American oil barons named "the Federation".  As the protagonist, you fight as an elite special forces soldier (what else?) trying to remove the invaders.  And you fight with your brother and a special forces German Shepard named Riley.

The story is near-future, so any gadgets or weapons you use are either in development or are similar to today's armaments.  The weaponry is fairly diverse, but the lack of customization I was used to after Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in the single player was evident.  The story was very linear, with "Follow me" sections, and "We are going to split up and meet up later" events.  Either way, one travels fairly linearly in the levels.  As with many shooters today, Ghosts forces in a "wow" factor for most missions, usually with the player forced to operate some high-tech weapon to obliterate enemies.  I enjoyed using a remote sniper rifle to cover my squad mates as the advanced around a baseball stadium, but the challenge of defeating so many enemies was lost after the player was given such a powerful weapon.  I also found the enemies to be tough to kill yet posed no threat to the player unless they were equipped with an overpowered weapon (like rocket launchers) or swarmed the players position repeatedly.

The story was pretty lackluster as well.  The protagonist is tasked to stop the dastardly plans of the Federation, and doing so faces off against the main antagonist, a former Spec-Ops soldier.  The bad guy was brainwashed by the Federation and now is hunting down and killing all your comrades, so you run into him a lot.

So the multiplayer side.

Its Call of Duty, let's start there.  Two teams of six either killing each other or killing each other for objectives.

After CoD: Black Ops, I never really noticed a difference in the difference in weapon noises, but definitely in handling.  Assault rifles are useless in the game, as their "average" attributes make them outclassed by other weapon types.  Sniper rifles have the highest damage-per shot ratio, as do shotguns.  Sub-machine guns, or SMGs, are lighter and have ridiculous rates of fire.  And light machine guns carry the most ammunition for those who aren't afraid to spray around.  The assault rifles have average rates of fire, usually faster than LMGs, but slower than SMGs.  Their range is poor in comparison to snipers and LMGs, however, and they are next to worthless in close-quarters combat against SMGs and shotguns.

One logically thinks that the assault rifles fill in an "average" range.  This is far from the case due to the map layouts of Ghosts.  Most of the basic maps are mazes of short, wide hallways with tight corners.  The open layout means you can see targets clearly outside of cover, but there are hiding spots where some lay down for quick kills.  There is not a lot of viable cover in larger areas, and even when you are hidden behind cover, your opponent can usually shoot through it or can easily flank around you.

The environment was more aesthetically pleasing as well, with lush bushes and grasses, and high detail on background environments.  It felt like one was playing in the map, and not just dragged and dropped on.  Overall, I was not pleased with the game, as its story was shallow and the game play was not inventive or fresh.

Until next time.