Evolution in an iterative game franchise is obviously slow-going; it’s difficult to try new things when your games are released annually. The Call of Duty series has often been criticized for being the same repackaged game year after year, but a new console generation opens the door for innovation and the upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts seems to be one of the largest steps forward for the franchise since Modern Warfare took the world by storm so many years ago.
In addition to hiring writer Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) in a concerted effort to improve on the single player aspect, Ghosts seems focused on driving multiplayer further by introducing a slew of new refinements to expand on their current MP experience, including sliding, peeking around corners, and dynamic maps. Now, Infinity Ward has revealed a whole new game mode to multiplayer called Squads, which offers a whole new facet to the multiplayer platform.
Squads introduces a whole new level of competition to Call of Duty: Ghosts. Combining the unrivaled Multiplayer experience with cutting edge AI, Squads lets you play a variety of new game modes with your customized squad-mates. Play solo against another player and their squad, or cooperatively with friends, competing versus an AI-controlled squad. Best of all, the XP earned in Squads is directly connected to your Multiplayer progress!
In Squads, players create a number of different units, each with their own loadouts and customizable features, and drop into several different game types which test your ability to create a balanced, skilled team. There are a number of game types within Squads that allow players to play alone against AI or with friends, either co-operatively or against one another. Your squads will also remain active and gain XP even while you’re offline, which means multiplayer in Ghosts will have a level of persistence – Yes, Call of Duty is becoming even more addictive.
Squads looks like an interesting combination of traditional competitive multiplayer and online co-op along the lines of the Spec Ops game mode in previous CoD titles. If it works well, players will lose even more hours to the black hole that is Call of Duty multiplayer, and it’s a unique way for the series to differentiate itself from Battlefield, which continues to push open environments and vehicular combat as its foundation.
Grizzly Bomb 