Call of Duty: Ghosts – A New COD for a New Generation of Consoles

Memories.

It was just over a year ago when I wrote my first article for the GC Blog. That article was about the Black Ops II announcement. I talked about how the game was going to explore the future of warfare, since that was the only place the franchise could go.

Earlier Call of Duty games had covered World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and current day conflicts in the Middle East. At the time, only place left to go was forward, because the franchise was bound to its “eras of time” gimmick.

But now that a new generation of consoles on the horizon, the time for a new kind of Call of Duty game has arrived.

Break free from the chains

Call of Duty: Ghosts is slated to be unveiled at the next-gen Xbox press conference later this month because, you know, Xbox and Call of Duty are tight like that. But with a new game comes a classic COD question: When does this new story take place?

The past, present, and future have already been done. Modern Warfare’s story has been wrapped up. What’s next? Well, game developer Infinity Ward is playing the only card it can and is starting fresh with a whole new story, setting the franchise free from its time-line chains.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Teaser Trailer

The story is in control

By essentially rebooting the franchise, the game can be driven by the story, and not the history of a particular era of time. With Ghosts, no one knows what to expect. In the past, any time a new COD game was announced, the excitement lasted until details leaked about when the game’s story was taking place. Once it was revealed that a part of Black Ops II would be set in the future, myself and every other gamer could already envision the game.

It’s not a surprise if you tell me

Because we knew what was coming, I cared less about the story and more about what kinds of neat futuristic weaponry would be in the game. It was like being told what you’re getting for Christmas. It’s still fun to open that gift under the tree, but the magic of not knowing what’s inside it is missing. The fact that Ghosts is an entirely unknown COD experience wrapped in first-person-shooter wrapping paper brings the excitement back to the story.

Ghosts is being developed by Infinity Ward with the help of Modern Warfare 3 collaborator Raven Software and newcomer Neversoft. Sledgehammer Games is sitting this one; Infinity Ward has stated that it’s working on new projects. Ghosts is being touted as a whole new FPS experience sporting an entirely new gameplay engine for the next-gen consoles (although it’s been leaked that the game will be available for current-gen systems as well).

Call of Duty: Ghosts is slated for release this year on November 5th.