The hour long reveal event that kicked off the day’s festivities has been widely viewed and publicized. In fact, simply typing in “ghosts” in the Youtube search bar brings up the trailer as well as the hour long presentation that was started with an appearance by CEO of Activision, Mr. Eric Hirshberg. Mr. Hirshberg seemed genuinely “giddy” to get though his opening statement and allow us all to see some of what this new title will offer. Although, he did make one statement about CoD‘s foundation that went on to encapsulate all of the afternoon’s action, “One essential ingredient to the brand is fun.” On the face of it, this seems self explanatory. Yeah, of course. We’re talking about games here, right? That’s the point. I think what he was getting at, though, was during the process of producing Ghosts, the enjoyment being had by the player will be the zenith objective. All efforts put into the new title, launching November 5th on the current generation of consoles (and eventually ONE and PS4), must calibrate to, as he put them, those “holy shit” moments that the series is meant to consistently deliver.
Following Mr. Hirshberg was Mark Rubin from Infinity Ward. Mr. Rubin promises that Ghosts will feature the “biggest overhaul in multiplayer since Call of Duty 4.” To that notion, he began to list some new innovations that will make themselves more evident come the holidays. Things like Squad Points, which will open up the item unlocking system so that anything can be accessed when the proper credits have been accrued. Or the fact that Classes will be superseded by extensive character customization to which each player gets ten “Squad” slots for different builds, all with a “budget” for equipping the proper amount of weapons, attachments, Perks, etcetera. A deal with MLG was unveiled, as was a beefed up Clan structure, and even a CoD Mobile app that promises unparalleled remote access into the multiplayer realm on-the-go. These points will have to become more relevant to the game in good time. For now, I can only speak with confidence about what I was shown. The “meat & potatoes,” backbone that all of this garnishment will be served along side.
The cornerstone of a great shooter is how it feels to play. Time and effort can’t be wasted fighting with the mechanics when there’s other people to shoot. The studios that work with Activision on the two arms of the CoD brand understand, and have classically observed this area particularly well. During the play test, Ghosts was no different. The first word that came to my mind after the first match was “fluid.” There is a heightened level of fluidity that runs unabridged from round start to match end. As much as I enjoy currently playing Black Ops 2, which is my favorite CoD since 4 by far, there are plenty of times I get a “jerk-y” sensation. Small to medium “bumps in the road” that sort or rattle the in-tuned senses. I didn’t get a whiff of that here. Trotting, sprinting, drawing, firing, throwing equipment, even switching weapons was smooth. I feel that a lot (if not most) of this has to do with the 60fps being pumped to the displays. This is the best example of the higher frame rate I’ve witnessed to this point. I’m talking a greatly noticeable difference in the way all things moving on the screen seem to “flow.” Pulling LT to peer down range had an uncannily “natural” appeal to the action. Verisimilitude isn’t a phrase readily employed when talking gameplay mechanics. Although with the new hardware, I think that’s going to change. Which brings me to the next stop.
To my knowledge, the console stations were running computer system units that I imagine are meant to mirror the Xbox ONE architecture. I tried my best to sneak small peaks into the inter workings behind the walls. And although quick glimpses is all I could muster, I definitely didn’t see anything that resembled a Magnavox VCR. What was ready, however, was the console’s controller. Despite some mixed reviews during conversations with others after the event, my personal impression was very positive. It does look a bit “bulkier” than the current 360 pad, but it was actually much more light weight when comparing it to the wireless model. It felt comparable to the wired 360 stick on the scale. The face buttons had about the same tactile response and depth, so the changes only seem to be cosmetic, at this point. But the thumbsticks and triggers have went through quite the adjustment. The sticks seem slightly shorter, but a “springy-ness” makes up for the abbreviated stature. Gestures send a little more feedback, the way a stiffer core golf ball does. This, coupled with a more rigid “ring” pattern enabled more precise positioning. The triggers have about the same range of movement and “draw back” pressure, but the sides of them flair out. So, what is currently immovable plastic is now a tapered portion of the trigger. This allows for a more comfortable resting position for the index fingers.
Two new items explicitly mentioned in the briefing that was relevant to the day’s play test include the Knee Slide and Contextual Leaning. The Slide works as you might imagine. When transitioning from sprint to crouch, the character can extend one leg, fold the other underneath, and launch forward while lowering stance to the crouch position in one smooth motion. To be fair, I only executed it a couple of times. For one, I didn’t feel the instinctual “need” to pull it off because I normally crouch when completely disengaged from enemies. And two, I’m so used to yanking back the left stick to get out of sprint when changing position that I would subconsciously forget to keep the thumbstick spammed up to initiate the slide. The occasions I did do the proper pad work, it felt natural and could be quite the advantage in CQC scenarios. Contextual Leaning was a mystery to me for most of the day, right up till the last hour of play. When and how to make it happen wasn’t stated in the briefing, so I was just going to write it off as a feature missed, until a sniping duel commenced. I was approaching up a hill, when I started taking fire. Luckily, the round spared me enough health to take some makeshift cover behind a tree. Mind you, my character was nose in on the arbor, hoping no part of me was still exposed to the shooter. As I slowly nudged the LS to get a peak, voilà, the head and torso slyly peered out as waist and legs stayed tucked behind. As soon as it was executed, I immediately thought about the countless hours I spent playing Rainbow Six 3. Ghosts only allows this feature when perched behind cover, so no worries about accidentally slipping into it while doing normal movement. I can’t wait to experiment with this ability again and see if it can be used effectively. While all this is good, what wasn’t so sterling was the “overall” improvements to dealing with objects and scaling them. I thought vaulting over structures, hurdling past blocks, and climbing ladders was just as clunky as always. IW and Co. has plenty of time to really come through on this point before release day, but needless to say they have some work to do in this regard.
One odd aspect I noticed that I wasn’t actively aware of until the day ended was the character models. For some reason, the MP soldiers seem more proportioned and better built. Now this could be attributed to the new hardware, but I doubt the 360/PS3 releases will feature different mock ups. The models had a more defined stance within the map. All movements (forwards, backwards, standing, prone, crouched, sweeping around corners) featured a realistic texture. Also, the female warriors were built with similar affluence. The women aren’t overtly de-feminized, nor are they outright sex symbols. They look, well, believable. The voice overs for them shares similar homage. They don’t sound like Barbie, but they also don’t have the tones of Patty and Selma Bouvier. Again, didn’t think I would realize this portion of the game, but it speaks to the craftsmanship at work in these categories.
Of course, what’s a shooter without guns, and Ghosts sports plenty of options and variety. During the test, just one or two of each type were unlocked, as well as only a handful of attachments. The Assault Rifle class is the average (average as in usual, not harking skill level) player’s arm of choice. Old reliables like the M4A1 will return this fall. At the event, however, the head liner in this class was the oddly named Honey Badger (to which spawned many “this gun doesn’t care” and “this gun takes what it wants” jokes). I tend to describe it as a short range AR. Doesn’t have the down range ability in terms of accuracy as it’s brethren, but the suppressor being integrated speaks to it’s ability to be a good close quarters option. Get the drop on someone using an SMG, and the extra “payload” should equate to a kill. Speaking of subs, the ones featured on Wednesday were awesome. I myself prefer ARs, but the Vector was deadly with it’s high rate of fire. After a couple of matches, though, I found my go-to, lead dealing partner. The MTAR has changed sides and is now an SMG branded as the MTAR-X. Not as lightening fast as, say, the Skorpion, but has way more accuracy past point blank. And the iron site is awesome, with a circular design and a green marker in the middle to line up shots. It reminds me of the Peacekeeper in its versatile nature. Needless to say, I know what gun I plan to unlock first in the full version, if it’s not offered initially.
One of the things I consistently gripe about in CoD MP is how OP some of the shotguns are. If I’m two feet from someone, and they slug me, I should die. Absolutely. No questions asked. When I’m 30 feet from them, and the Kill Cam reveals they didn’t tag me flush, and I still die? Problem. Luckily, I didn’t have those kinds of interactions. Now, a lot of things could factor into this. One, perhaps the shotgun we got to use, MTS-255, has just absolute crap range. Two, people who use shottys haven’t yet had enough time with it to test it’s limits. Three, in lieu of the LAN environment, 0 ping times might take away the “coin flip” nature of playing online. Or it could be that this class will now be designed better. I toyed with it in a few games, and it felt heavy, bulky, a little “hard to handle.” But if I squared up a shot against someone close enough and pulled, they were pushing up daisies. I hope this edge stays when the game goes gold. The last type I’ll mention is the new hotness from IW. Between sniper and AR lies the Marksman Rifles. Marksman tools are meant to have the soul of WW era CoD guns like the M1 Garand. These are single shot (by default), weight-y pieces that have a sweet tactile response when fired. You feel like every bullet could end the life of a combatant, when it actually takes two or three. Without adjusting settings, the IA-2 sported a 3.5x zoom that showed of that handy-dandy new Dual-Render scope deal. When pulling LT to peer down range, about 65% of the “zoomed” portion of the screen shows the scope design and lens. The remaining space shows what’s going on in the immediate periphery. So, it won’t be necessary to come out of range every few seconds to check for dudes/chicks “cutting across.” Outside of being useful, it just looked cool and actually seemed to have a pseudo 3-D effect because of the “layered” perspective. One successful experiment with the IA-2 that worked better than originally anticipated was dumping the assigned scope for a Red Dot. This shortened the prospective distance while still offering the upped payload found in the Marksman group. It’ll take some practice, but once the proper single shot cadence is learned and usual map tendencies are understood, this adjustment could make a capable enough player in the right position assume complete map control and make completing objectives for their team mates WAY easier.
Quickly, I’ll go through what was used for Equipment. Two different Lethals became available: the I.E.D and the Canister Bomb. I.E.Ds are what looks like a medium sized burlap bag with a charge inside that has a decent blast with sub par splash radius. A few of the guys on my teams were confused and thought it acted like C4. And while it does “stick” to walls and things, it blows up automatically after a few seconds. It’s not a remote charge. It did, at least, have a good toss distance. Which is something I cannot say about the Canister. Literally, it can’t be thrown farther than a few feet. I even looked up in an effort to “get some air” underneath it and nope, didn’t help. To it’s credit, if a tango is close enough, they’re getting demolished. Just have to make the “drop” count. Ghosts apparently has a Flashbang 2.0 as a Tactical choice. Holding down the bumper before tossing displays a four quadrant ring. And each portion glows red the longer the button is pressed down to report more clearly how much time is left before it goes off. The detonation is also pretty swift, with three concussive bursts instead of just one. And they’re hella effective. Good placement of it can make the difference in an intense medium to long range exchange.
Now on to the aspects that really separate CoD from other FPS titles on the market: Perks and Strike Chains. The Perk choices themselves haven’t drastically changed, but the way they’re assigned has. If an attachment is placed on the primary weapon for a particular Squad member, eight points are allocated to the budget. Within Perk types (Speed, Handling, Stealth, Awareness, Resistance, Equipment, Elite) each choice is given a point value, from 1 to 5. So you could ham up on 1s and 2s like Sleight of Hand, Strong Arm, Scavenger, Lightweight, Extra Tac, and Hardline. Or you could opt to take two “heavy hitters,” such as Danger Close and Deadeye. After talking to some folks after the event, it seems a kind of Chess match will reveal itself once again with choices. I was chatting with Max “OddSlice” Mallow from ESN. He noticed that a few choices were completely check-check. One of Elite’s two point features is called Ping, which grants the position of nearby enemies after a kill. Cold-Blooded in Stealth, though, gives undetectability by player targeting. So a solid strategy for Perk-ing based on character build will be as important as ever within the new system.
Strike Chains return, and have some crazy cool options. Again, because of the “beta” version of the playable builds, not much was offered. The featured bonuses included: SAT COM, Guard Dog, and Maniac. First, SAT COM has replaced UAV. Not in function, but in form. Instead of an unmanned drone that floats at low elevation to collect movement, a ground based installation with a mini-satellite dish handles the detail. So finding it becomes an on-the-go proposition instead of looking up and scanning the sky. Speaking of, the HUDs radar map seemed bigger than in the past. It had a “wider” perspective, which made it easier to identify likely movement. It also shows more information. For example, when an enemy is located on the same level or floor, their marker shows solid yellow. When they’re on a different plane, the center of the circle is blacked out. Go Bloodthirsty, and out comes Riley! Guard Dog unlocks a trained German shepherd that will bark when enemies are near and even attacks un-targeted foes. Battling with the companion can be tough, as his Kevlar vest takes a decent amount of shots. Shooting the head/shoulders region is the best bet, but that means he’s coming right forward and is going for the throat. The one really tight thing about Riley is that he stays through respawns. As long he himself isn’t killed, he’ll “wait” and keep on doing what he does. The last one is the nine chain called Maniac. This unlocks an “ammo drop” that, when called in, offers a full-on juggernaut suit of armor and a combat knife. Maniac mode disables the use of the primary, so stabbing is the way. On the face of it, this sounds like a disadvantage. Nope. The Maniac is about twice as fast as the other soldiers, and an asinine count of rounds is needed to take him/her down. They’ll have to be some sort of nerfing before the game is released. Otherwise, this will draw the ire of everyone that wasn’t some wussy knifer in the MW2 days. A related item to these is something called Field Orders. There is one per match and is rotated like a game of hot potato. The qualifications for the bonus can range from “Humiliating” and enemy to getting two kills while crouched. Fragging the person with the “briefcase” makes it available for retrieval. “Execute” the order, and a special item can be “delivered” to a specified location. The coolest one uncovered Wednesday was the K.E.M Strike. This acts like a Nuke. It kicks off a five second countdown timer, kills everyone on the other team that’s spawned, and changes the look and layout of the map to resemble a bomb going off in the area for the remainder of the match. Very awesome stuff.
The match types showed off some classic choices and a couple of newcomers. TDM and Domination were on display, and felt right at home on all of the maps shown. The rules are the same as they’ve been for years, so no notable changes to report. The first of the new ones is Search & Rescue. This is a remix mash-up of Search & Destroy with Kill Confirmed. Two teams, one bomb, two plant points, with only one spawn, just like S&D. Or is it? Yes, the general format is the same, but a death drops a set of dog tags a la KC. If a ‘mate picks them up before the baddies do, it gets that player “off the bench” and back into the game. If the frag is “confirmed,” that player is eliminated for the round. This felt disjointed during the play test, but only because of the circumstances. Most people didn’t know each other, and it was rare that you would be playing a round with familiar industry members because of the “pick up and play” nature of the event. Further, no one knew the maps. And even by the end of the day, one or two crude strats had surfaced, but nothing extensively structured. When Clans start playing and actual map knowledge is gained, I think this will be a valued edition to the play list. Having said that, if I could choose just one MVA (Most Valuable Aspect) of the entire afternoon, it would unanimously go to Cranked. This game type is an absolute blast (pardon the pun)! A TDM template is in place, with a huge twist. Once a kill is complete, a 30 second timer begins. If another kill isn’t strung along before the timer ends, the soldier blows up. This simple adjustment made a world of difference. All of the sudden, the players on the other team became secondary to just resetting the timer. It’s kind of like the phenomenon when regular people are capable of extraordinary things when faced with certain death. Personally, I’ve never shot with that level of accuracy and determination. I’ve never concentrated on character movement to that extent. And I’ve never felt more confident that I was going to kill EVERYONE on the other team, or I’d die otherwise. Everyone I talked to absolutely loved it. And although I doubt it’ll be in the match type rotation at MLG or UMG, I could easily see Cranked being most people’s favorite addition to Ghosts.
Another make or break category to online based shooters is map selection. If the places to play suck, the game will probably suck, too. There were three that populated about every match during my time in the chair: Octane, Whiteout, and Strikezone. Octane was the one map that featured those nifty Dynamic Map Events. This medium map takes place in a sand and dirt bowl featuring a handful of dilapidated multi layered buildings with a boarded up gas station as the centerpiece. The roof of the pawn shop offers good cover, until the pawn sign is destroyed by an explosive device and makes the top portion of the structure attainable to ground bullet fire. The overhang of the fuel pumps at the station can be toppled over to squish anyone unfortunate to be in the vicinity upon “TIMBER!” This event also turns it into cover from snipers across the way, which limits their effectiveness to assume map control from just the one perch. Whiteout is a snow laden map that is great for objectives. A large-r layout created defined points for S&R as well as Domination A, B, and C sites without being unnecessarily large and cluttered. This map was the “prettiest,” as the falling snow effects as well as the buildings, rock formations, and ice paths shined through greatly. The last one, Strikezone, is a small location based on the outdoor concourse of a baseball stadium. The ups and downs of the stairwells coupled with some narrow hallways creates a CQC paradise. Every time Cranked on Stikezone was listed as a choice, this immediately got my vote as well as me spamming the vote button hoping the game would glitch and give me an extra tally.
In terms of presentation, I have just as many questions as I do observations. In terms of basics, things look and sound awesome. The defined lines and colors. The detailed character models, weapons, map objects, everything. It all was very impressive. Although, it wasn’t anything that I don’t think the current gen can’t handle. Yes, IW might stretch the hardware for all it’s worth. But it all looked like an upgrade as opposed to an overhaul. So the fact that the test was done on next gen architecture, my question is are things going to look better than this on the ONE/PS4 versions, or are all systems getting the same design package? Same goes for the audio. Sure, it all sounded awesome, and loud, and the VO work with the new AI call outs worked ingeniously. Tactical Audio Design with so called Reverb in cramped spaces? Didn’t hear too much of that. Is it done? Is TAD strictly a new hardware addition that will be absent from current systems? Only time will tell. Again, things are good, really good. All the extra “frills,” however, seem to be M.I.A at the present time.
Before I close, I would just like to give a huge thanks to Activision and Step 3 for having me out for the reveal. It’s awesome that our site gets to cover these incredible press events every year, and we owe much appreciation to everyone that orchestrates our trips. Thank you.
So what do I think? Well it’s been a few days since I’ve returned to Lexington, and I have to say I feel the same way I did two minutes after leaving the LAN. I played the best CoD multiplayer since 4. Again, this is based on a gut reaction from 5 hours of playtime, on three maps, with limited customization options, and a restricted list of match types. So yes, there will be plenty more to judge once the game is in the hands of millions across the globe this fall. Although I think this could speak to the upcoming game as a positive. We were only given a portion of what’s in store, and I’m still dying to play again.
Mr. Hirshberg said the cornerstone of the franchise’s MP appeal is fun. For me, that can be defined with one particular moment I had within a match. A TDM game on Octane was coming down to the wire, with either team only needing five more downs to seal the deal. All the sudden, I experienced something I hadn’t felt with a CoD title in years. That moment of heart fluttering nearing the end of a close contest, where every move, every shot, every decision has discernible weight on the outcome. The previous two Modern Warfare outings didn’t captivate me enough to invest that deeply in terms of emotions and competitive spirit. And the fact that I didn’t personally know any of my team mates or opponents only speaks more to this effect. I don’t even want to think about how nerve wrecked I would have been if I knew the others personally.
In the latter stages of the day, when most had turned in and started writing about their experiences, I was still playing. Not because I felt like I needed to, but because I didn’t want to stop. And that’s about the highest praise I can give something off of such a brief exposure. All of the sudden, November 5th is way too far away.
…Just one more thing.
During a match on Octane, I started noticing some things I thought were kind of interesting
“Huh, that’s different.”
“A little odd. But okay”
“Wha? ‘Dead Inside?'”
Does this mean Infinity Ward is going to infect Ghosts with ZOMBIES?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Stay tuned…
