Call of Duty: Ghosts

Description

Call of Duty: Ghosts marked the tenth major instalment in the franchise, originally developed by Infinity Ward with the Wii U version handled by Treyarch. Unlike the Modern Warfare or Black Ops subseries, it was conceived as a standalone entry with its own universe. The campaign depicts a near-future United States crippled by a devastating orbital strike, with players joining the covert “Ghosts” unit to resist a technologically superior enemy. The narrative alternates perspectives, including sequences as an astronaut and as Riley, a trained military dog whose inclusion marked a notable innovation in the series.

Multiplayer included customisable soldiers, dynamic maps with destructible elements, and new kill streak rewards, alongside the “Squads” mode that blended AI companions with competitive play. A major addition was Extinction mode, a cooperative survival experience where players fought waves of alien creatures, offering an alternative to the Zombies modes popularised in other entries. On the Wii U, the release incorporated platform-specific functionality, including second-screen GamePad features, Off-TV Play, and Wii Remote pointer controls, though it lacked the broader post-launch downloadable content available on other systems.

Although there was a good breadth of multiplayer options and the novelty of Extinction, the campaign relied on familiar tropes and limited innovation. Commercially, the game underperformed compared to its predecessors, partly due to its release during the transition to new console hardware and the platform’s smaller user base. Despite this, Ghosts had its experimental features and attempted to establish a fresh identity within the franchise. Activision would ultimately not bring Call of Duty back to Nintendo for well over a decade, not just for the Wii U but entirely skipping the market-dominating Nintendo Switch console.