Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4/Xbox One) Review

A big portion of this review appeared in our PS3 version review of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is one of the most anticipated titles to arrive this year on next-gen consoles, along with its rival Battlefield 4. When the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were released several weeks ago, many gamers decided to hold out and wait for the PS4 and Xbox One version to arrive. Now that the next-gen consoles are finally here, many are now wondering just how much of an improvement did Call of Duty: Ghosts get in terms visual upgrades and just how fun is the game overall? Seeing how Call of Duty: Ghosts is the newest game in the long-running Call of Duty franchise, many hope to see a huge change in this new game.

The campaign offers gamers an enjoyable ride which is in the loosest possible sense of the word a ‘storyline’. There won’t be any awards won for the writing of the plot here but that isn’t what gamers have come to expect from the Call of Duty franchise. Call of Duty: Ghosts is the videogame version of The Expendables. The acting isn’t great and the storyline loosely strings scenes together, nevertheless the over the top nature and the sheer amount of explosions will see many enjoying every minute of it. Despite not being overly long, it crams in a lot of action and plenty of variety to keep the gameplay fresh and the game moving forward. This is as close most will come to living out a Hollywood blockbuster and therefore is worth playing, if not for the entertainment of explosions alone.

Treyarch’s Nazi Zombies is a fan favorite and Infinity Ward has attempted to design its own version in the form of Extinction mode. Allowing players to team up and cooperatively tackle objectives, Extinction mode is rather surreal. Unlocked by players on the first mission of the storyline, the gameplay revolves around players earning points and defending places from aliens. Yes, aliens are at last a part of the Call of Duty series. The way players must work together and spend points to purchase weapons works in an extremely similar style to that of Nazi Zombies. This makes the mode, despite being completely unique in design, seem at home with the franchise.

The release of Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 showed just how much those two consoles have aged as visuals are not in top-shape where it faced many problems like occasional screen freezes and shoddy textures. Fortunately, the PS4 and Xbox One version somehow alleviate the problems found in other versions as the graphics have improved dramatically. Gamers who have a bigger HDTV will see the big difference between the PS4 and Xbox One versions. Natively, the PS4 version outputs it at 1080p, that’s after downloading the single player patch, while the Xbox One is locked at 720p, though the console will upscale it. This is where the big difference comes in, when it comes to the textures, the PS4 version does it a little bit better as the Xbox One version has moments where the textures show its rough side. It’s not really anything too noticeable, but the differences are there when you compare them side-by-side.

Discussing about performance and experience, the next-gen versions get a huge lead. In the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, only up to 12 players can go in a match while the next-gen systems will allow up to 18 players. The six added players is something gamers will appreciate as there are maps in the multiplayer portion that are so big, where everyone decides to simply just camp – it’s an annoying experience but I’m glad I didn’t experience that on both the PS4 and Xbox One. As for the performance, the next-gen versions sees very little lag and one thing gamers can expect is improved latency.