Call of Duty: Ghosts is out now; here’s our Call of Duty: Ghosts review.
Dogs are a bit like homing missiles, if you train them as such. And you can take a shooter to the sea, but you can’t make it change its spots.
Those are the bizarre idioms I’m beginning to learn after ten minutes or so in the sombre company of Call of Duty: Ghosts.
In the first of two videos Activision have okayed for viewing during E3, we get a proper look at pooch.
Via a camera sellotaped to his back, the dog becomes a sort of sentient stealth drone, controlled directly to scout out enemy positions. He comes replete with barks for use in luring baddies into gnawing range. The end result is that Call of Duty benefits from a couple of welcome Ghost Recon-isms – though the path through Infinity Ward’s ravaged America remains tight and unbranching.
On ravaged America: best prepare yourself for the harrowing image of a long-dead picket fence, torn open by the invaders with scant regard for its symbolic status. In all seriousness, though, the new setting has clearly allowed for some stellar new art direction:
In the second video, Ghosts go scuba diving!
Watching through, I spotted sharks propelling themselves purposefully about beyond the reef, and wondered how Infinity Ward plan to ensure the player sticks to the script in that most non-linear of landscapes – the ocean. Then: “Keep away from open water, bro. We’re not the only hunters out here.”
I imagine anybody bold enough to venture from The Path will be swiftly corrected by on of our finned friends, don’t you?
Given the fundamental change in locale, it’s astonishing just how similar the formula for level design remains – a series of scripted takedowns, followed by a bomb steered by the player to its target and a retreat through falling debris. It’s like we never left the shore.
Thanks, RPS.