It's that special time of year again people. No it's not Christmas, or Easter or even your Birthday (well it might be but we don't care), it's that event that happens once a year, every year and a lot of people get excited for it. It's the release of 2013's Call of Duty.
This time around it's perhaps more cataclysmic since it's happening right around the time of the launch of the latest Battlefield - it's main FPS competitor - and the next-generation of consoles, with many looking to this latest CoD, Ghosts, to lead the way with next-gen visuals and gameplay.
While it'll be some time before the feelings of individual gamers like yourselves begin to trickle through, the first batch of reviews from many a website and publication are now in, so let's take a look at what they said and get a general consensus for how good the game really is.
Well right off the bat, pretty much everyone is toeing the "it's more of the same," line, suggesting that really, if you've played a Call of Duty game within the last couple of years, you've experienced this all before.
The visuals are prettier sure, the Infinity Ward branded set pieces are epic as ever and the single player jumps between run and gun moments, stealth sequences and more open areas where you get a little more choice about how you deal with the situation. However, as usual the story is nonsensical and doesn't really have much bearing on what you're doing, even if the fate of the world is in your hands as always.
Not everyone was thinking more of the same with the campaign though. A few reviewers criticised the pacing and locations, suggesting that they just blurred together and were far less well put together than previous Call of Duty games. Overall it's fine and there are some great moments, but IW has done better.
The multiplayer of course, is where the meat and potatoes of these sorts of games are. As much as they cost to the create, single player experiences in big budget AAA shooters are six hours long at most, so if you want to get your money's worth in a game like this, you better like multiplayer.
Fortunately the new squads feature eases you into it a bit better, letting you experience the maps and weapons options against mostly bots. This was praised as a way to help introduce new players to the game, but similarly the new customisation option was cited as being overly complicated and unnecessary.
Other reviews criticised the fact that major Esports features had been removed between Ghosts and Black Ops 2. League Play, replay recording and player created emblems have all been removed, leaving one reviewer wondering why, when they were so popular?
Of course it's not all about Team Deathmatch though, there are other game modes to enjoy. One, called Cranked, was a particular favourite, with you running around with psuedo-super powers but are forced to kill within a specific time frame. It's frantic and exciting, something that the rest of the game is lacking to some extent.
Extinction has also gone over very well. The Infinity Ward answer to Treyarch's zombies, the mode drew praise for being frantic and offering choice and map size that most of the rest of the game doesn't. For once CoD isn't acting like a corridor shooter and it's done it by ripping off every other humans vs aliens game that's come out in the past few years.
Performance wise, the whole thing looks better on the PS4 and PC by a noticeable margin (the Xbox One reviews are embargoes until November 12th), but the PlayStation 4 struggles to maintain its frame rate. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions look fine, but you know which platform to get this on if you can: PC.
Overall, Call of Duty Ghosts does what it says on the tin, but even for those that know it's going to be more of the same may be starting to tire of it at this point. Should you get it? Sure, if you like this kind of thing or if all you play on your Xbox are CoD and FIFA, but maybe have a look around at what else is out there.
While Call of Duty might tick the boxes for what you want it to do, there are so many games out there that are trying new things or at least offering an experience that doesn't just list from one game to the other with the bare minimum of innovation. You deserve more than that as a gamer.
Overall the game got an average of 8 - 8.5/10, though I saw one 6.5 and more than a few 7s. CoD is slipping for sure.
