Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the best evidence in years of a franchise going through the motions.

The long-running joke about Call of Duty — generally espoused by non-fans — goes like this: Each year's installment of Call of Duty is only slightly different from the previous year's entry. It's not one of those ha-ha jokes, and similar bon mots have been lobbed at games like Madden for years.

But Call of Duty: Ghosts demonstrates an unwillingness to change much and presents a real shortage of new ideas. Ghosts is a step backwards from 2012's Black Ops 2 — and the weakest game in the series since 2009's Modern Warfare 2.

Multiplayer has long been Call of Duty's linchpin. Black Ops 2 took some innovative steps to reinvent the formula, especially on the character creation front. Call of Duty: Ghosts appears at first glance to take similar strides. It introduces the ability to fully customize the look of your multiplayer avatar, letting players pick from dozens of head and uniform options. It even introduces the ability to play as a female character for the first time in the franchise. But these customization options have zero impact on the gameplay. Instead, Call of Duty: Ghosts relies on a modified version of Black Ops 2's Pick 10 create-a-class system.

With Pick 10, players could spend up to 10 points, each point allocated to a gun, attachment or perk. Pick 10 was incredibly easy to understand, but it also allowed for a remarkable amount of customization. This has been replaced by an unnecessarily complex Perk Points system, where certain perks are given certain values. For example, you can either select five perks worth one point each or one perk worth five points each. You can also earn additional points by leaving secondary weapons or grenades behind.

It's a functional system, but it's a step down from the simplicity of Pick 10, which made character creation more digestible and enjoyable. This new system doesn't have any obvious upsides, and I can see it overwhelming newcomers.

Call of Duty: Ghosts makes more positive contributions to the series with a shift to ground-based kill streaks. Since the original Modern Warfare, players have needed to keep their eyes on the skies. UAVs and deadly helicopters, called in by successive kills, were often a frustrating nuisance, distracting players from the task at hand.

In Ghosts, the vast majority of kill streaks have migrated to the ground. UAVs are now SatComs that are more effective when placed in multiple locations. Players can also earn an attack dog to protect them at close range. In both cases, these kill streaks can be negated by standard weapons fire, without the need for special equipment like a ground-to-air launcher. There are still a few high-level, air-based kill streaks, but they lack the overpowering effectiveness of past years and are easily avoided or taken down with machine-gun fire.

This change takes the most frustrating moments of Call of Duty multiplayer — when you're being constantly obliterated by an unseen force — out of the equation. It's a smart decision that I hope carries through to future games.

The ability to unlock just about anything you want at just about any level is sure to be more controversial. Leveling up earns Squad Points, which can be spent to unlock guns, equipment, attachments and perks. None of the guns or equipment have level requirements, so they can be unlocked in any order so long as you have enough points to spend. Perks, on the other hand, do have level requirements, but you can pay a tariff of Squad Points to unlock perks early if you're so inclined.

If you know exactly what you want, you can have everything unlocked by level 20. This amount of freedom is good, though it does take some of the satisfaction and drive from leveling up, with only new badges and prestige icons to keep you moving through the levels.

Despite these changes to the multiplayer, Call of Duty: Ghosts too often feels like a me-too product, never breaking entirely new ground. Meanwhile, Infinity Ward has stripped out some much-loved features from Black Ops 2, including League Play, replay recording and player-created emblems. These elements were extremely popular with the Call of Duty and eSports communities, and it's hard to see their removal as anything but an overall step in the wrong direction.

Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer feels undercooked, but the campaign feels like it's frozen.

With the end of the Modern Warfare series in 2011 and the dawn of a new console generation on the horizon, Ghosts could start from scratch, with no backstory to hold it back. A new storyline and new characters in a new setting seemed like a great opportunity.

That freedom nonetheless results in one of the sloppiest storylines in Call of Duty history. In the near future, South America has unified as "The Federation" and become a major military player on the world stage. After some unseen conflict between The Federation and the United States, the two sign a peace treaty. This is quickly broken as The Feds invade a U.S.-controlled weaponized space station and use it to wipe every major U.S. city off the map.

This all happens in the first level.

The bulk of Call of Duty: Ghosts is set several years after the attack, with remaining U.S. forces attempting to hold off an all-out Federation invasion. The nation's only hope for survival rests with The Ghosts, a small group of highly trained soldiers that use guerrilla tactics against overwhelming odds. You play as Logan, who, paired with his brother Hesh, seeks to join the Ghosts and fight off the Federation menace.

Logan is mercifully mute, but Hesh... well, Hesh talks a lot. He's voiced by Brandon Routh of Superman Returns fame, and I couldn't help but pity him for having to read the lines he was given. Ghosts also introduces an antagonist so underdeveloped and uninteresting that I hoped that both he and Hesh would bite it by the end — all so we wouldn't be stuck with this pair for more games.

Ignoring the story, there are a few bright spots throughout the campaign. A nighttime infiltration mission on a skyscraper was well-paced and tense, as was an undercover mission set in a snowy mountain region. But these bits were far outnumbered by standard Call of Duty levels involving battleships being attacked by waves of enemies and dull assaults on research facilities.

Ghosts flails as it tries to find new and interesting ways for missions to play out. Throughout the game's climax, I often asked myself, "Why am I here? What is this even accomplishing?" By the end of the campaign, I was still scratching my head.

If there's one area that Call of Duty: Ghosts really nails, it's the brand-new Extinction mode. Extinction is a four-player cooperative mode — akin to Zombies in previous games but with new mechanics that make the experience far more rewarding. Unlike Zombies, which revels in its opaque, mysterious nature, Extinction provides a very clear objective: You and your squad must annihilate an alien horde scattered throughout a small Midwestern town. To do this, one of you must carry a drill to several alien hives and use it to destroy these hives as waves of aliens pour in. This all takes place in one giant map, and you can often choose which hives to destroy first, slowly making your way to the central hive in the middle of downtown.

Extinction is so enjoyable because of its focus on actual cooperation. Before starting an Extinction map, players can select skill loadouts, choosing from options like Medic to Assault to Body Armor to Exploding Ammo. As you progress through a match of Extinction, you'll earn skill points to spend in that session to increase these skills even further.

Ideally you'll have four players specced out with completely different abilities, and that variety will be what wins the day. Within two matches of Extinction, my squad and I were planning tactics and shouting for ammo refills. It's an obvious shift in intent, and Zombies fans may be discouraged by the lack of mystery. But for players just looking to have fun with friends, Extinction is the highlight of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is mired in a distinct lack of ambition. Outside of the stellar Extinction mode, Ghosts follows more often than it leads, bringing with it familiar missions, modes and experiences. Ghosts feels like an accountant's sequel, with just enough content to justify a new installment. It just never goes beyond that.