Call of Duty: Ghosts

"Everyone was expecting us to make Modern Warfare 4, which would have been the safe thing to do. But we’re not resting on our laurels. We saw the console transition as the perfect opportunity to start a new chapter for Call of Duty. So we’re building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players. We can’t wait to share them with our community."

- Mark Rubin "We've always had the power. Not anymore. All we have is each other. We're Ghosts, fighting for something that can't be killed."

- Unknown Ghosts soldier in the Reveal Trailer Call of Duty: Ghosts (also known as Call of Duty 10 or simply GHOSTS) is the tenth main Call of Duty game. It was developed by Infinity Ward, Neversoft and Raven Software. It was confirmed that a Call of Duty game was in development on February 7th, 2013, Ghosts was officially revealed on May 21st, 2013 via a Reveal Trailer during the Xbox One reveal. It was released on the 5th of November 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U, and was a launch title on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Set ten years after a devastating mass event, the United States of America is no longer a superpower, with its economy and government in ashes. The remainder of the nation's Special Operations Forces, the Ghosts, fight a newly emerged technologically-superior global power not for freedom, or liberty, but simply to survive.

Players are able to peek around cover while still being able to fire (leaning), slide, and customize their character's gender, patch, uniform, and many other features. They are also able to activate environmental hazards, rather than the hazards automatically activating without player interference.

Campaign
Call of Duty: Ghosts features a completely new setting, characters, and system, though it is in the same universe. It still features linear sections, but it is said to have "easter eggs" within the game to alter missions slightly. The setting of the game is a war-torn U.S.A. ten years after an ODIN strike, launched via satellite after a hijacking, devastated the landscape and invasion from the Federation, a conglomeration of several South American countries. The single player features a dog companion named Riley, fighting in outer space, a story featuring a team of "Ghosts," who are remnants of elite U.S. Special Operations Forces teams, and various other features.

Setting and Characters
The game's main protagonists are the Ghosts, a force of U.S. Special Operations personnel trained to conduct clandestine missions behind enemy lines. The unit is led by retired U.S. Army Captain Elias Walker (Stephen Lang). He is joined by his sons Logan and David "Hesh" Walker, along with Booth and Neptune, a trained German Shepherd named Riley, and Cdr. Thomas A. Merrick of the Navy SEALs.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is set in an alternate timeline from our world that follows the nuclear destruction of the Middle East. The oil-producing nations of South America form the Federation in response to the ensuing global economic crisis and quickly grow into a global superpower, swiftly invading and conquering Central America and the Caribbean. The game's main antagonist is Gabriel T. Rorke, a former Ghost leader who eventually turned into a traitor after being captured and brainwashed using torture and hallucinogens who now works with the Federation.

Plot Synopsis
The game begins with Elias Walker telling his sons about the legend of how the Ghosts first appeared. Meanwhile in space, the Federation hijacks the controlling space station of the Orbital Defense Initiative (ODIN), an orbital superweapon that utilizes kinetic bombardment, and use it to destroy several cities in the southwestern United States. Two American astronauts, Mosley and Baker, attempt to defend ODIN from falling into enemy hands, but are ultimately unable to stop them from firing it on the United States. With no other choice, the astronauts decide to scuttle the station by sabotaging its key systems, the explosion killing Mosley and causing the station to self destruct. Baker is then burned in Earth's orbit along with Mosley's corpse. Elias and the young Logan and David, "Hesh", narrowly escape the destruction of San Diego.

Ten years later, the United States has fought the Federation to a stalemate along a front that comprises the destroyed cities, also known as "No Man's Land". Logan and Hesh are part of a US unit commanded by Elias and during a patrol, they spot an American is working with the Federation who is called Gabriel T. Rorke. Soon after, the brothers are ambushed and rescued by members of the Ghosts who are seeking their companion Ajax, who was captured by Rorke. Logan and Hesh join the mission to rescue Ajax but arrive too late to rescue him and after he is killed by Federation soldiers, they reunite with their father who reveals himself as the leader of Ghosts. Believing his sons are ready to join his unit, Elias welcomes them into the Ghosts and they learn from him that Rorke once were their leader. However, during a successful mission to assassinate General Almagro, then president of the Federation in the capital Caracas, Elias is forced to abandon Rorke, who was presumed dead, but instead turned traitor and is now hunting down his former companions.

The Ghosts devise a massive attack in order to capture Rorke, but while flying back home, Rorke's men attack their plane and rescue him. The team then is forced to land deep into the Amazon Jungle where they witness a rocket being launched with an unknown purpose. Once reunited and rescued, the Ghosts storm a Federation laboratory in the Andes and obtain data regarding a classified operation in a factory at Rio De Janeiro. To secure a path to the factory, the Ghosts destroy the Federation's Atlas oil platform located in Antartica to lure the enemy fleet away from their objective and sink their remaining destroyer guarding the Brazilian coast. Once inside the factory, the team discovers that the Federation had reverse engineered the ODIN's technology and developed their own orbital bombardment system. After destroying the factory, Elias and his sons regroup in Las Vegas but are captured by Rorke who kills Elias in front of Hesh and Logan who later find an opportunity to escape.

Realizing that once the Federation's LOKI become operational they will be defeated for good, the United States pool all their remaining forces in a synchronized attack to take down an enemy space center in Chile while a small team of soldiers boards a shuttle to take over the Federation satellites in space. Once both objectives are completed, Hesh and Logan pursue Rorke to avenge their father and are seemingly successful, only to find out during the aftermath that Rorke survived their battle. Logan attempts to defend his wounded brother, but has his arm broken and is kidnapped by Rorke, with the former Ghost announcing his plans to brainwash Logan into killing the rest of the team. In a post-credits scene, Logan is seen being kept inside a pit in the jungle, presumably going through the same torture methods that Rorke went through.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode of Call of Duty: Ghosts includes features never before put into the Call of Duty series, such as character customization, dynamic maps, and many new movements such as sliding, leaning around corners, and better interaction with the environment. Sliding is done the same way as drop shooting on previous Call of Duty games. Leaning is done by standing close to a wall and pressing the ADS button. As an addition, the playable character now performs special animations when climbing objects (instead of their weapons simply disappearing off the screen), and crawling animations when prone return from Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In Call of Duty: Ghosts, guns do more damage than they ever have before, meaning that players die quickly but also get kills quickly.

The maps in Ghosts are bigger than they have been in the previous games in the Call of Duty series. Some maps have dynamic parts to them, such as the bus in Chasm or the Halon Gas in Sovereign. There is also more customization than there ever has been before. Players can change their character's head, headgear, gender, uniform, and many other accessories.

The system of prestige and unlocking weapons and attachments is completely different as well. In order to prestige, the player unlocks a squad member with squad points and ranks it up to level sixty. Once the player has leveled up all ten squad members, they become max prestige. In order to unlock weapons, attachments, and equipment, the player simply purchases them with squad points, or can wait until they reach a certain level. The player must unlock weapons for each individual squad member.

Players that pre-ordered Call of Duty: Ghosts received a bonus map, called Free Fall.

Along with the update for the Nemesis DLC, the game now has a "Fresh Start" feature, that works very similarly to the Fresh Start feature from Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Using a Fresh Start will reset the character's level to Prestige 0, Level 1, and will completely erase all combat statistics from their profile (Kill to Death Ratio, Win to Loss ratio, Preferred Weapon, etc.). There are two major changes to this system: The player must be at the highest level possible in order to use a Fresh Start (completed Prestige 10, level 60), and all weapon camouflages will not be lost upon using the Fresh Start. Fresh Starting and playing afterwards will almost always have a severe impact on the player's statistics, as their previous statistics in their Combat Record may not reflect their present statistics.

Weapon Camouflages

Ghosts has 13 weapon camos that can be unlocked by doing in-game challenges. "Spectrum camo" is available for those who pre-ordered the game off of the Microsoft Store. The Season Pass also unlocks a DLC camo called "Ice."

Downloadable Content
There are four map packs for Ghosts, being Onslaught, Devastation, Invasion, and Nemesis. These are followed by various customisation packs.

Season Pass
The Season Pass can be bought and downloaded for Call of Duty: Ghosts; it enables a pre-paid subscription that allows instant download upon release. Along with this, it includes the Team Leader customization pack, the "Seasoned Veteran" emblem, a background featuring Riley, and Ice Camouflage. Xbox season pass holders also received the Ripper SMG/AR on March 6, 2014 and April 4, 2014 for Playstation and PC users.

Onslaught
This is the first map pack in Call of Duty: Ghosts. It includes the multiplayer maps Fog, BayView, Containment, and Ignition. The Extinction map is Nightfall, which takes place in an abandoned Alaskan base. This DLC also includes the Maverick Assault Rifle and the Maverick-A2 Sniper Rifle. It was released on January 28, 2014 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and on February 27, 2014 for PC, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Devastation
This is the second map pack in Call of Duty: Ghosts. It includes the multiplayer maps Behemoth, Ruins, Unearthed and Collision. The Extinction map is Mayday, which takes place aboard the Stormbreaker out in the Tasman Sea in the South Pacific Ocean. This DLC also includes the Ripper SMG/AR. It was released on April 3 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and on May 8 for PC, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Invasion
This is the third map pack in Call of Duty: Ghosts. It includes the multiplayer maps Pharaoh, Departed, Mutiny and Favela. The Extinction map is Awakening, which takes place in the heart of Ball's Pyramid, Australia. This DLC does NOT include a DLC weapon. It was released on June 3rd, 2014 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It was later released on July 2nd for PC, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Nemesis
This is the fourth and final map pack in Call of Duty: Ghosts. It includes the multiplayer maps Dynasty, Goldrush, Showtime and Subzero. The Extinction map is Exodus, which has players fighting the Cryptid army in a city along with the Ancestors that were awoken in the previous chapter. Similarly to Invasion, this DLC pack does not include any additional weapons. It was released August 5th, 2014 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and September 4th for PC, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Personalization Packs

 * Xbox Pack
 * Festive Pack
 * Inferno Pack
 * Circuit Pack
 * Space Cats Pack
 * Ducky Pack
 * Molten Pack
 * Hex Pack
 * Heartlands Pack
 * Eyeballs Pack
 * Blunt Force Pack
 * 1987 Pack
 * Extinction Pack
 * Koi Pack
 * Heavy Metal Pack
 * Unicorn Pack
 * Bling Pack
 * Fitness Pack
 * Flags of the World Pack
 * Nebula Pack
 * Tattoo Pack
 * Skulls Pack
 * Hydra Pack
 * Abstract Pack
 * Leopard Pack

Customization Packs

 * Wolf Skin for Guard Dogs
 * Team Leader Pack
 * Classic Ghost Pack
 * Cpt. Price Legend Pack
 * Makarov Legend Pack
 * Soap Legend Pack
 * Extinction Squad Pack
 * Squad Pack - Resistance
 * Spectrum Pack
 * Bling Character Pack
 * Inferno Character Pack
 * Blunt Force Character Pack

Voice Packs

 * Snoop Dogg
 * Drill Instructor

Squads
Squads is a new game mode in Ghosts. In it, the player can play with AI controlled teammates or even with friends against AI. XP is shared between Multiplayer and Squads, so leveling up in Squads helps the player's character in Multiplayer as well. There are five modes within Squads:


 * Squad vs Squad: Involves two opposing players versing 1v1, with squad members filling in the rest of the team, making 6v6. This mode can be played on Team Deathmatch, Domination and Kill Confirmed.
 * Wargame: The player and five other squad members verse a team of six opposing bots in a mode set to "replicate" the full MP experience. This mode is available on Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed, Cranked and Blitz in online matches. In Local matches it can be played in these game modes plus Search and Rescue and Hunted. If the player has played Drop Zone, Reinforce or Search & Destroy in a Local or Private match recently then they will be able to play Wargame on these additionally if going into Recent Game Modes in Local matches.
 * Safeguard: The player and up to three other players take part in a match based on Survival in Modern Warfare 3, with Perks and Pointstreaks also involved. It can be played to 20 rounds.
 * Safeguard Extended: Safeguard with 40 rounds.
 * Safeguard Infinite: Safeguard with 100 waves.
 * Squad Assault: The player and up to five other players or squad members verse a squad consisting of another player's squad.

Perks
On August 14, in the Multiplayer Reveal, Mark Rubin introduced a similar customization system to  BOII' s Pick-Ten System for Perks:

"Every Perk has a set point value from 1 to 5, and you have 8 points to use how you want. So for example: I could choose 4 Perks, each valued at 2, or 8 Perks, each valued at 1. I could also choose to get rid of my Secondary and my Equipment and get up to 11 Perks."

The classic three-tiered perk system has been done away with, replaced by seven categories of five perks. These tiers are Speed, Handling, Stealth, Awareness, Resistance, Equipment and Elite. Speed will feature perks meant to allow the player to move faster overall, Handling will let the player move more consistently and better, Stealth perks will grant immunities to certain things in the game. Awareness perks will give the player a better overall view of the game, and what is going on around them, Resistance is set to grant resistance to common factors of the game, like explosives. Equipment will give the player's Tacticals, Lethals and Attachments a healthy boost, while Elite perks are more based around situational benefits.

Pointstreaks
Pointstreaks return from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and are available as Assault, Support or Specialist pointstreaks. Assault pointstreaks include the brand new SAT COM killstreak, "Riley": the five point Guard Dog streak and the new Maniac Juggernaut pointstreak. Support pointstreaks include the Ammo Crate (get ammo and receive a random weapon), the new MAAWS launcher and the Helo Scout.

Multiplayer Maps
In Call of Duty: Ghosts, for the first time, the player is able to alter their experience on each map, with Dynamic Maps being even more so than before. Examples given include knocking down a stack of logs, destroying a map with the new K.E.M. Strike killstreak reward, collapsing a gas Station and blowing up doors. There are limits to these factors though, and they are only available on preset spots (descriptions are under "Dynamics" in each maps' pages).

Locations

 * Gulf of Mexico
 * San Diego, California
 * The Caribbean Sea
 * Caracas, Venezuela
 * Antarctica
 * South Atlantic Ocean (Near Brazil)
 * Brazil
 * Low Earth Orbit

Extinction Mode


Extinction is a new game mode featured in the Call of Duty: Ghosts; the players' objectives are to kill the attacking aliens, but the other objectives vary between maps. Most have the player destroy Hives using a Laser Drill. It plays similar to Survival Mode, with various weapons and upgrades. As the player progresses through the game and completes challenges, they unlock skill points, which they use to upgrade their load out. Guns are bought throughout random spots in the map, and equipment and attachments are found by scavenging. There are 30 levels, with different defenses unlocked as the player progresses. Once the player reaches level 30, they prestige and have the option of using relics, which allow the player to level up faster. Every time the player prestiges, they can use one more relic.

An update added a new game mode to Extinction known as Chaos Mode, which acts like the similarly-named game mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 known as Special Ops Chaos. The player is put in a part of the map they choose to play, and they must pick up new weapons and other pickups to survive. It is timed rather than round-based, and it will keep going until the combo runs out after the time runs out, or if the players die.

Hardened Edition
The Hardened Edition includes:
 * Call of Duty: Ghosts' disc
 * Ghosts Insignia Pack (Player Pattern, Card, Background)
 * Official SoundTrack
 * Free Fall Bonus Map
 * Collectors Steelbook
 * Paracord Strap
 * Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass with Team Leader Pack

Prestige Edition
The Prestige edition includes:
 * 1080p Tactical Camera
 * Call of Duty: Ghosts disc
 * Ghosts Insignia Pack (Player Pattern, Card, Background)
 * Official SoundTrack
 * Free Fall Bonus Map
 * Collectors Steelbook
 * Paracord Strap
 * Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass with Team Leader Pack

Digital Hardened Edition (PC & PS3)

 * Call of Duty: Ghosts full game download
 * Digital Hardened Pack (Player Pattern, Card and Background)
 * Team Leader Pack (MP Ghosts Character head, Player Pattern, Card and Background)
 * Ghosts Insignia Pack (Player Pattern, Card and Background)
 * Free Fall Bonus Map
 * Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass

Next-Gen Upgrade
Call of Duty: Ghosts offers players the ability to transfer their progress from an Xbox 360 to an Xbox One or a PS3 to a PS4. This includes all multiplayer progress, including unlocks, statistics, and the Season Pass DLC.

Trivia

 * The first letters of the map packs for Call of Duty: Ghosts spell out ODIN: Onslaught, Devastation, Invasion, Nemesis.
 * In an interview with IGN, Mark Rubin said that the game's campaign will feature hidden sub-missions which can be activated by the player, but were not featured in the actual game.