E3 2013: Geekscape Games Previews ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’

When Call of Duty: Ghosts was previewed at the Xbox One conference, the aftermath felt like meme central. But between fish AI, “Collar Duty” jokes and lots of love for dogs, there was actually a game in there somewhere. Aside from the usual military shooter game play, the conference promised a weakened America, a new cast of characters and a much more desperate setting. These were all of the qualities I was keeping an eye out for when I stepped into Activision’s Ghosts presentation, and I was happy to walk out with a few surprises.

Ghosts will be the story of two brothers who are recruited by an elite squad of soldiers that tackle missions to protect a crippled United States. Traveling all around the world to locations such as Venezuela, The Caribbean and the deep, dark recesses of San Diego, each location was heavy on action. One mission had the Ghosts repelling down a building while picking off security forces on the way down. Another had them swimming underwater and blowing up a submarine with a torpedo launcher. All of this is made so much better by an obviously improved AI, so let’s hope the days of your team mates standing around looking into the distance while you get pumped full of led are long gone.

But who cares about the human partners! This game is all about Riley, the service dog that stole the show at the game’s reveal. What seemed like a simple squad member turns out to be so much more. In a dog focused stage, the main characters were able to give voice commands to their pet for various tactical functions. What’s even better is the game showed players taking direct control of Riley as he maps out paths, checks to make sure corners are safe with his back mounted camera and can even stealth take down enemy soldiers. Once the coast is clear, control comes back to the boring old humans to shoot stuff up. BUT… Riley was also seen being sent into rooms to ambush enemies and trigger breaches. On these sections alone, I’m more than excited to bury terrorists with an actual dog.

This is all framed with an overhauled graphics engine, including displacement mapping which makes terrain look even more realistic. New weapons include an underwater machine gun that’s based on real military tech, and more new guns are sure to follow. Multiplayer wasn’t shown in this demo, but as long as Call of Duty is in the title, you can expect plenty of multikills, upgrades and airstrikes when you take the fight online.

All in all, Ghosts seems like overhauling the story, the settings and adding a dog of all things might be the next step in the evolution of the series. I know that nothing I write will help or hinder this game’s ability to sell tens of millions of copies, but I’m more excited for Ghosts than I’ve been for a COD game in a long, long time.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is coming to the PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC in November.