User blog:Crazy sam10/Some thoughts surrounding Ghosts

Intro
This blog is just a few thoughts I had surrounding Ghosts and a few areas I feel came off unexplained, or unsung. This will mainly be about the Single Player. This will not feature much in the way of thinking about things that are already there, but what isn't.

The unexplained
Other countries - The state of other countries is never really explained much. While the intro mentions the Middle East was bombarded by the Federation, it doesn't go into much detail how this affected the other countries. And after the 10 years later section, it never mentions how these countries are doing, such as if they're stable or not, and the fact Europe has not got involved in the US-Federation conflict despite multiple treaties being place sort of begs for some kind of explanation as to what is going on.

Keeping a bit closer to the action however, the main countries to think about is South America, Mexico and Canada. South America doesn't seem to have much information on it, even Homefront gave more description as to how Korea became a full country again, not much information is given to South Americas merge, and it begs the question if the entire population agrees with the coalition, also one questions which country is running the entire thing, they seem to just be painted more as the bad guys than anything fleshed out. Moving on, another country that has little mention is Mexico, being sandwiched between South America and North America it questions what has happened to them. While the intro mission seems to indicate the Federation annexed them, not much is ever said in regards to their well-being, and I further go on to talk about Mexico in the "unsing" section, but frankly it seems like their lack of proper mention leaves a huge gap in the fleshing of the world. In a similar manner to Mexico, the lack of mention of Canada is also incredibly odd, and also has a section in the "unsung" area. As like Mexico, it is odd Canada also has no mention due to them being a border country, and having very good relations with the US, even putting aside things such as treaties and trade, the fact they also make no appearance, either in mention of physical appearance, is also strangely unexplained and greatly unfleshing.

Resources - Another unexplained fact is the US' resources. While we're told that the Middle East was horribly destroyed, causing issues to Oil, America still seems to have enough oil to run their entire fleet of aircraft and land vehicles, with no real explanation how they have this much resource, nor where it's coming from, which is greatly lore breaking when the game was pretty much marketed as a guerilla warfare game. Putting the oil aside, there's all the other resources as well, such as weapons and ammo which the US also seems to have plenty of. While I'm aware that compared to a lot of other countries America is very militarised country, after 10 years with seemingly no allies, it should be hurting in terms of resources, yet still seems to have more than enough to go around. And in terms of how they use their fleet, they seem to almost be somewhat careless in how they throw them into battle, whilst one would expect a defending nation to play cautious with their best equipment, they still seem to be throwing nearly everything into their conflict instead of any cautious approach. In a comparison, in Homefront, there is a mission where the player has to deliver petrol to the US army in order for them to use 1 tank. As such, it seems that the US has near unlimited resources pulled from what must be the great void, which sort of pulls away from the whole guerilla defence angle.

Federation competency - I bring this up, for more or less one reason alone. Somewhat tied with the resources section. How does the Federation not notice a US space rocket launch when it comes to the theft of LOKI? And somewhat furthermore, how does the US even have the resources to launch a vessel into space despite being in the position they're in? The fact that there's not even anything to show how the US got into space sort of takes from the experience as well, as not only is there the questions I just asked, but the fact they skip out the launch as well even further makes the whole thing unexplained, since at least then they could have some radio chatter. I'm certain there are plenty of other instances where the Federation should of done something obvious, but just didn't do it, but it's mainly the fact they allowed a US space vessel to launch without seemingly noticing that really takes the biscuit for me.

The unsung
Other countries - As much as I can reason away certain countries, I do feel the that there was great opportunity to feature some other countries in the campaign. My main two are Mexico and Canada. While seeing a European power would have been nice, at least having these two countries could appear, and not detract from the whole US invasion feel. Now for Mexico, they could easily have featured some freedom fighters, chances are they weren't annex peacefully and having a few levels where you play as a Mexican freedom fighter would of allowed for a new angle, since the US is apparently still under siege, whereas Mexico is fully annexed, allowing for a completely different experience. Best part about this, is it could show more about the Federation given the power they would have there, and not including this really felt like a loss.

Another country that would have been great to see is Canada. I'll be honest, in saying I do not know much about Canadian military, and I'm not sure much about their Special Ops teams. However, since Canada was never seen, or stated to be under siege by the Federation, levels of them would also has a great feel in that they would be attacking from a fully functioning country that is well stocked and not at worry of the current occupation. While I'm not sure exactly what role they could have played, it would of felt nice to add a little diversity to the entire story, and perhaps have the ability to see the enemy from multiple different angles, and think that makes these types of missions unsung.

Invasion of the US - Now by this I mean some missions from the US armies point of view on invasion day. Frankly, the fact that the story should the player, at the time a civilian, losing their house to sudden fast forward soldier, made the whole thing seem a bit unemotional. Now, while I'm British and seeing other countries destroyed won't impact me as much as my own country, the the fact we never saw the US army losing made me feel even less attached than usual. Now in Modern Warfare 2, they executed this perfectly by having all the radio chatter during the invasion, and seeing all the Russian Paratroopers beginning to land and you knew America had been invaded. And even during the battle of the White House, you fought that battle while it was occupied and still burning, and that had some emotion attached to it. Not having it take place years after the initial invasion. Now back on point, it would have been nice to have one or two missions in the prologue where you see the US beginning to lose against the Federation, which of been great for setting up some emotional attachment. And seeing the Federation perform so well against conventional tactics may of made the guerilla warfare used by the Ghosts feel a bit more like a victory since you'd be aware of what the Federation is capable of, instead of just seeming like the cliché bullet fodder.

Explanation missions - Now by this, I mean it would b nice to have more missions leading up to certain events. As mentioned before, I stated it was odd that the US launched a space vessel without the Federation noticing, so how about some missions where you capture a rocket launching facility (since we're supposed to believe that the US shouldn't have these in its current state), capture a radar system, so they don't detect the launch, and take out a few missile silos so that the they didn't shoot you down. This would of added much more gameplay and explanation to certain affairs. And again, since the game was supposed to be stealth, how about a few set-up missions, such as setting up the remote sniper without being spotted? Again, I feel cutting out segments such as this took away from the overall experience, and sort of left us with questions we're not going to get answered.

In ending
These are just the things on my mind, and I'll outline if I add anything new to the sections that I also think of. But these are just a few instances in the story that I feel were unexplained, or sad they never featured.