About the game
Call of Duty: Ghosts is a 2013 first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the tenth major game in the Call of Duty series and the sixth made by Infinity Ward. It was released for PlayStation 3, Wii U, Windows and Xbox 360 on 5 November 2013, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One a little later.
Ghosts is a standalone entry that follows the World War II, Black Ops and Modern Warfare games before it. It keeps the usual mission-based campaign and open-ended multiplayer, and adds a near-future setting, more focus on tactical play, new Squads modes and orbital strike superweapons in multiplayer. Extinction is a separate co-operative mode that stands in for the Zombies modes from earlier games.
The campaign follows a long, high-tech war against the Federation of the Americas, a military dictatorship that rose out of South America after a global energy crisis. It begins when the Federation takes over the American ODIN space weapon network and destroys cities in the southwestern United States. The story follows the brothers Logan and David Walker, their father Elias and their dog Riley, and a group of special forces soldiers called the Ghosts.
Activision confirmed a new Call of Duty on 7 February 2013 and expected to sell fewer copies than Black Ops II on PS3 and Xbox 360 because of the move to the next console generation. Infinity Ward built the game on an upgraded engine and aimed for 60 frames per second on every platform. The multiplayer was built by Raven Software, Extinction by Neversoft, and the Wii U version by Treyarch. David Buckley wrote the score.
Four DLC map packs came out in 2014: Onslaught, Devastation, Invasion and Nemesis. Each added four multiplayer maps and an episode of Extinction. Xbox 360 and Xbox One players got each one about a month before PlayStation players, between January and August 2014. Pre-orders included a map called Free Fall and the characters Ghost and Soap from Modern Warfare 2.
Reviews were mixed to favorable. Critics praised the multiplayer and the Extinction mode and criticised the campaign and the lack of new ideas. Activision shipped about 1 billion US dollars of units to retail in the first 24 hours, but sales fell below Black Ops II, and the game passed 19 million physical copies by February 2014. Later retrospectives have mostly been negative.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 73 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: Destructoid 5/10, Edge 7/10, Eurogamer 7/10, Game Informer 8/10, GameSpot 8/10, GameTrailers 7/10, IGN 8.8/10, Polygon 6.5/10.
Extra content
Four DLC packs each added four multiplayer maps and a chapter of the Extinction mode, and each has its own achievements. A Season Pass covered all four. Xbox 360 players got each one first, but the Xbox 360 Store closed on 29 July 2024, so none can be bought now. Packs you bought earlier can still be downloaded again.
- Free Fall: A dynamic multiplayer map, a pre-order and Hardened and Prestige Edition bonus
- Onslaught: Maps Fog, Bayview, Ignition and Containment, the Maverick rifles and the Extinction chapter Nightfall
- Devastation: Maps Ruins, Behemoth, Collision and Unearthed, the Ripper weapon and the Extinction chapter Mayday
- Invasion: Maps Pharaoh, Departed, Mutiny and Favela and the Extinction chapter Awakening
- Nemesis: Maps Goldrush, Subzero, Dynasty and Showtime and the Extinction chapter Exodus
Good to know
- The Xbox 360 list has 91 achievements worth 2,000 gamerscore. 50 are in the base game for 1,000, and 41 more are in the four DLC packs.
- Michael Myers from the Halloween films is a playable character on the map Fog, and the Predator is playable on Ruins.
- The Wii U version was made by Treyarch, Extinction by Neversoft and the multiplayer by Raven Software.
- Pre-order copies carried the Free Fall map and the characters Ghost and Soap from Modern Warfare 2.
- The Xbox 360 map packs came out about a month before the PS3 ones.
- It is the first Call of Duty with sliding, leaning and object-interaction animations.
Made by
Writer Stephen Gaghan, Composer David Buckley.
