In a giant marquee on the rooftop of a car park in downtown LA, Activision has splurged all the details on the Call Of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer mode. Due out on 5 November, the latest title in the 100m-selling shooter series is shaking up the online component in what Mark Rubin, studio head of developer Infinity Ward is calling, "the biggest overhaul of multiplayer since the original Modern Warfare".
Among the most significant changes are the new squad set-up which replaces the customisable character classes of old. Now, players will be able to create and fully personalise up to ten individual soldiers, all with custom loud-outs, gear, clothing and appearances. According to Activision, there are over 20,000 combinations – and players will be able to select female character models. Every player starts with just one soldier, but as they level up, they earn new unlock points which can be used for items, or for opening up a new soldier. Every soldier can be prestiged just once, and now, when they prestige, they keep all their items. It's an interesting, more personal twist on the familiar class-based system, allowing fans to build a team of humanised characters, rather than anonymous class-based automatons.
Load-out options include more than 30 new weapons and a complete new weapon class, the marksman rifle, which operates either as a scoped sniper rifle or a single-shot assault. The game also features a dual render technology so when using sights, you still have peripheral vision around the eyepiece. Through the game, players earn squad points which can be used to unlock new weapons – but unlike in previous instalments, these can be attained in any order – you just need to have the right amount of points for the item you want.
There are 20 new kill streaks, including the ability to call in Riley, the game's highly trained spec-ops dog. Your canine scout will hunt and attack enemy players, and also bark when they're close, acting as a sort of tracking system. Other more familiar missile and aerial attacks have been re-tuned. "It seems that they've been designed so that they can be shot down quite easily," says Aliken. "I think Infinity Ward is trying to focus more on gun-to-gun combat rather than too much hectic stuff happening in the air. They're trying to balance it out a little more."
Strike packages are back from the Modern Warfare series, in their usual Assault, Specialist and Support flavours, though the number of air-based options have been lowered in favour of ground items. A new satcom station, for example, replaces the old airborne UAV, making them more vulnerable – unless they're well hidden. Oh and Death streaks have been removed – an announcement that drew a loud series of whoops from the audience.
Activision ended the global reveal event with news of the game's Prestige edition which comes complete with a head-mounted HD camcorder – like those used by soldiers in the game. "You can't count on much in this world, but you can count on Call of Duty," said Activision CEO Eric Hirschberg from the stage. And in a lot of ways he probably didn't mean, you sure can.
Anyway, Ghosts multiplayer extends and plays with the raw Modern Warfare experience without bending it out of shape entirely. Infinity Ward has learned a few tricks from Treyarch, but with the edition of squads and personalised soldiers it has moved things on a little in its own way. From here, it'll all be about the experience of playing – whatever shiny new additions are promised, that is the acid test. CoD has a particular feel, with its 60fps framerate and small, tight maps. In enclosed spaces, amid the noise and tension, balance is everything.
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