Call of Duty: Ghosts - success is inevitable. Review. Call of Duty Ghosts - modern first-person shooter (review) Call of duty ghosts game story

(Wii U version)

Game tested on PC

Ghosts' single-player campaign opens with a sprightly, action-packed scene in Earth's orbit. Space is not just called the last frontier for humanity - looking at the plot of "Ghosts", you sincerely hope that space will open up new horizons for Call Series of duty.

But reality puts everything in its place. Call of Duty: Ghosts is an unimpressive, deeply secondary shooter that exists solely to provide Activision with its planned quarterly earnings. Well, also to understand how to work with next-generation consoles - in a vague transition period, in which it is now game industry, for developers and publishers, this is even more important than money.

⇡ Don't stop

Apart from the aforementioned opening scene, the "single" part of Ghosts has nothing particularly interesting or exciting to offer. The unfolding events cause melancholy, because they represent a mandatory program already seen a thousand times. Mandatory rides in a tank, a mandatory stealth episode in the jungle, a mandatory chase scene with the shooting of pursuers ... And if in last year's Black Ops 2 the situation was at least brightened up by numerous forks and entourage of the near future, then this was not brought here.

It is not surprising that the characters involved in such a straightforward paramilitary production do not evoke any emotions in the player at all, including due to mediocre voice acting. Especially in this regard, the actor who played the role of Hash, the brother of the protagonist, “distinguished himself”. At the sounds of his tired and indifferent voice, I want only one thing - to go to bed as soon as possible.

About halfway through the campaign, the Unexpected happens. Plot twist, but it does not induce melancholy, as the scriptwriters probably intended. Only one thought arises in my head: “Finally, I have been waiting for this for an hour.” Apparently, everyone in Infinity Ward understood this and, in order to distract us from heavy thoughts, they added one more character. More precisely, the face.

The dog was supposed to give some novelty to the gameplay familiar from a dozen predecessors - but what the four-legged fighter named Riley does does not go into any gates at all. Morally prepared us for the neutralization of the helicopter pilot trailer, but no one expected other equally meaningful tactical actions from the dog. How do you like, for example, the episode in which Hash explains dog that she is required to break a window, break into a building and kick out sitting inside opponents through the door? Forgive my sarcasm, but such gifted animals are the future of military operations, next to which are giant walking armored vehicles Black Ops 2 didn't even roll.

In moments when we are not controlling the dog (either Riley has a three-digit IQ, or here the neural interface of the future is one of two), Call of Duty: Ghosts appears as another representative of the series without the slightest glimpse of originality. We are still hiding behind some shelters, shooting at opponents sitting behind other shelters; sometimes the action is diversified by the need to run away from the thrown grenade. But nothing will happen until you get up and run to the next trigger - only the constant movement forward creates at least some illusion of dynamism of what is happening. Even the heroes themselves do not hesitate to talk about this, shouting with enviable frequency about the importance of continuous running.

⇡ All Quiet on the Western Front

Well, the fighting dog is with her, with this campaign. It is not for nothing that many Call of Duty fans argue that the single-player component is traditionally just an appendage to the network, and these games are purchased for the latter. Unfortunately, Ghosts does not make the expected step forward in this regard, preferring to chase its own tail in circles.

There are, in fact, only three game modes here - this is capture the flag, as well as team and single "deathmatch". The rest are minor variations on the original formula - if you remember the so-called mutators from Unreal Tournament, then nothing more needs to be explained. And if this is what you wanted - another Call of Duty, the same as last year - then you will not be disappointed. There are enough small changes, innovations and edits to plunge back into the abyss of online matches. For example, it became possible to set appearance your character, and also play as a woman. But personally, it seems to me that Infinity Ward was simply afraid to shake up the long-established mechanics that suit the main consumer audience.

Hypersensitive reactions of the local tank are suggestive of go-karts

The big surprise should have been cooperative mode Extinction is a kind of unexpectedly declared alien colleague of Zombies from Black Ops. But the aliens here are pale and inexpressive, like Hash's voice, so shooting them is not very interesting. The same can be said about the locations - the action takes place in some nondescript cities, dotted with fleshy shoots escaping from the ground.

In addition, literally every sneeze in Extinction costs money, which gives the impression of walking through a provincial amusement park. Want to activate an electric fence? Five hundred dollars. Or maybe shoot at the oncoming freaks with a six-barreled shotgun? Seven hundred fifty, please. Would you like to change weapons? If there are fifteen hundred, you can pick up a shotgun lying over there. common sense in such a system no more than in a shepherd who understands tactical delights. In general, if you want explosive co-op - play Left 4 Dead or Zombies from the previous parts. Moreover, the necessary four people in Extinction are not always recruited - and this is at the start, when interest in the game, in theory, should be as large as possible.

⇡ The situation is stable

The level of execution of all the above components of the game does not allow calling it a real “nextgen”, even though Ghosts will visit the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But what about graphics? After all, at the presentation of the console from Microsoft, it was said about the new engine, we were promised hitherto unprecedented level of visual component and such detail that we can see even the dirt under the nails of the fighters.

Later it turned out that the narrator got a little carried away and in fact Ghosts uses a modified predecessor engine. So the graphics turned out to be appropriate - modified, but not revolutionary at all. The only thing that impresses is the really cool facial animation, but otherwise, no revelations. A standard picture that looks good in some moments and literally screams about its venerable age in others.

And if we talk about the visual style, then everything here is generally sad. Black Ops 2 at least experimented with the design of futuristic vehicles, which gave the traditional military shooter some external novelty. Here, everything is somehow ... typical and standard, despite the epic scale of the war and its consequences.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but "standard" is the best definition not only for certain aspects of the game, but for Call of Duty: Ghosts as a whole. But Infinity Ward and Treyarch alternate each time to have more time to work on the next project. It's all the more surprising how a game that hasn't changed much from its predecessor can be so buggy. It refuses to run in the Russian version, slows down regardless of the settings and configuration of the computer, works unstably in network mode (there are crashes in the system and loss of communication with the host) and demonstrates thousands of other flaws to millions of buyers.

All this, however, is completely unimportant. Because these same millions have bought, are buying and will buy Call of Duty. And it is unlikely that the order of things will change in the foreseeable future. Even if the dog, instead of learning new tricks, will continue to grow old and wither away.

Advantages:

• those who are just starting their acquaintance with shooters and cannot compare will surely like it;
• there is a German Shepherd here - and who doesn't love German Shepherds;
• standard Call of Duty, everything as ordered.

Flaws:

• complete secondary nature of everything - from gameplay to visual style, plot and general mechanics;
• another Call of Duty - whoever passes by will not lose anything.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Video:

Drone operators sit in a specially equipped trailer. Somewhere far away, in the East, the drone itself flies across the sky. One employee controls, the other presses the button and opens fire. Request from the command: raze that shed to the ground. Once, and the rocket flew. A few seconds remain before the collision with the object - as a small figure appears from around the corner; it seems to be a child. Explosion. There is a suspension in the air, dust and smoke, there is no more a shed or a figure.

"Did we kill a child?" - the gunner breaks down. "It's a dog," they say from the control center. "Can a dog walk on two legs?" one operator nervously asks another. Be that as it may, such fortune-telling in front of the screen is sand through your fingers. The war for these people is somewhere out there, far away. They sit warm, press the buttons, and the world becomes a few fighters less. Even in such a war, people earn terrible depression and post-traumatic syndrome.

No face

This is just a small sketch of the stress of operators involved in modern military conflicts. those that take place in call of duty: Modern Warfare . And here and there you look at the screen, press the buttons. Houses explode, people die. There is only one main difference - from modern warfare Infinity Ward made the most powerful game series in terms of its media impact. The reasons for its success can be written for a long time, but regardless of your attitude to the franchise, it has largely influenced the way the first-person shooter genre looks today.

Poor Riley seems to have cryptorchidism, but that doesn't affect his fighting spirit. He steals a helicopter no worse than a professional mercenary.

Remarkably, with the development of the series in Activision decided that the player clearly lacks the destruction of the Eiffel Tower or the terrorist attack in London. It is necessary to raise the stakes, the escalation of the conflict must reach a critical point.

artistic intent Call of Duty: Ghosts- this is not to build something out of yourself with a claim to originality and habitually work out a program already familiar to the players. Everything is very sincere - we again have a military shooter with spectacular scenes. And in an attempt to surprise us, he generates really chic situations. Shootouts in space! Oil rig assault! Fast paced car chase thin ice! All this, in theory, should touch the player, make him sit numbly in front of the TV with his jaw dropped and fluttering military butterflies in his stomach. War is cool and fun, not PTSD from flying a drone.

Well, that escalated quickly

Call of Duty: Ghosts doesn't begin with a top-secret military operation or a nervous defense of the New York Stock Exchange against Russian invaders. Everything is much more prosaic. The forest, the sun shines through the crowns of trees, a veteran warrior at a picnic tells his two sons a story about an invincible partisan detachment of "ghosts", which, it seems, can handle any operation. The best of the best, true professionals. Young people do not believe and ask dad not to invent any nonsense. Here, outdoor recreation is under threat, and after a moment you can no longer remember about the picnic.

Surprisingly, Lara Croft coped with the wolves much better than a squad of trained fighters.

Bad news: The US is under orbital bombardment. Blame the Federation from the countries of South America. The catastrophe is truly large-scale, the number of victims is incalculable, but the survivors have been heroically defending the scorched earth for ten years. Not that America has suffered in any way. The US has enough tanks and helicopters - the army seems as omnipotent as ever. Enormous aircraft carriers, crowds of GIs, an abundance of ammunition and guns ... If the Confederation managed to penetrate the orbital station and open fire on America, wouldn't it have been easier to disable key warehouses and military bases? What is the point in destroying civilian facilities if, after the bombing, cleansing units are sent into the country?

The soldiers have a radio-controlled rifle, but the ghost squad uses it only once in the entire game.

Parallel to the war between the Confederacy and the United States, another, personal conflict unfolds. The protagonist's father leads the "ghosts" and his sons, of course, join the group. Previously, the exemplary operative Roark served in the squad, but during one of the operations they had to sacrifice in order to save the rest of the squad. Roarke got out and held a grudge, and then the South American experts brainwashed him. The fighter was saddened even more and became an evil hunter of "ghosts". The only way stop such a dangerous person - murder

Like this. Sincerely, on the forehead. There are good ones, there are bad ones, and now take the gun in your hands and don't ask too many questions. If only because they should not arise. Everything is so familiar and familiar.

War every year

It makes no sense to describe and analyze the mechanics of Ghosts, because the gameplay has not changed a bit, and there are no people left in civilized countries who do not know what Call of Duty is. But if, by some amazing coincidence, you spent the last ten years on desert island, and this magazine was washed ashore by a wave, then we recall. We simply move forward through the level, often incredibly narrow, shoot at opponents, get distracted by staged scenes and shoot again. Actually, everything.

A rare moment when you can stop in Ghosts and calmly look at nature.

It would be unfair to say that there is absolutely nothing new in Ghosts - for example, the game has underwater and space levels where you can also maneuver in a vertical plane. In addition, under water, weapons work on somewhat different principles. The problem is different - the game looks like a set of arbitrary stages. Occasionally a spark of originality slips through, but otherwise these are hateful interiors of bases, some kind of jungle, more bases, an oil rig and again corridors of bases.

The monotony of locations is also depressing because the setting of Ghosts allows you to place the action anywhere. Did their job well Treyarch in Black Ops 2- just remember the amazing level with a floating hi-tech island. There is nothing comparable here.

But there is plenty of borrowing ideas from Ghosts. In some missions, Infinity Ward decided to take as a source of inspiration The Last of Us, but misinterpreted the image of a destroyed America. In the story about Joel and Ellie, lush vegetation is the result of the work of nature, which has taken precedence over civilization. In Ghosts, the design of the corresponding levels was copied only so that a person would see something familiar and think to himself: “What a great fellow, I caught the reference!”

One of the most interesting situations with weapons is quoted by the movie "Kick-Ass": in a dark room, we turn on a powerful strobe light and kill a dozen people.

Shootouts in space are strongly reminiscent of a scene from the movie " moon racer”(only without laser rifles), the episode on the skyscraper brings to mind the Bullet Storm. Borrowing reaches a very indecent scale when it turns out that the developers transferred an entire scene from Modern Warfare 2. The only difference is that there it was the final, and in Ghosts the moment was set at the beginning of the game. Never before has the assembly line joke been so close to the truth.

Any complex one-button action is necessarily accompanied by a hint almost full screen.

Moreover, the game does not feel moving forward. Black Ops 2 was a furious shooter, it had enough nonsense (the most popular boiling point is a ride on a horse with a grenade launcher in hand, from which it was necessary to destroy tanks and helicopters), but Treyarch honestly tried to present all this nonsense with a frivolous face and even added the game has some interesting mechanics. For example, the non-obvious choice in story missions and side quests with a tactical component. Treyarch honestly wanted to go beyond the usual Call of Duty scheme, and they wanted to praise the game only for that. When you look at Ghosts, you sincerely wonder why the developers did not develop the successful ideas of their colleagues.

ghosts have fun

Since we started to compare games from different developers within the same series, it is necessary to remember that Black Ops was a rather cruel project where murders were shown without cuts. People were torn off their arms and legs, explosive bolts for a crossbow did not leave a living place from a person. Ghosts is much more sterile in this regard, like most other military shooters. The enemy is impersonal, most often hidden behind a mask, and shooting at the enemy does not evoke any emotions - neither “What kind of horror am I doing?”, nor “Wow, how terribly it scattered around!”. It's not that we are apologists for cruelty in games, but if we are to make a shooter in which shooting and killing take 90% of the time, then it is desirable to work them out properly. In the same Battlefield 4 not the most interesting rivals, but the interaction between the player and the weapon is excellent: each barrel sounds different, you get pleasure from shooting, unlike Ghosts.

Future technologies! Monitors work without being connected to power.

Nevertheless, rolling your eyes in annoyance and throwing the controller at the wall still does not work. The game has some nice moments. Take, for example, the task of robbing the Federation base. The mission begins in the spirit of the original Medal of Honor- we penetrate the object in a strange form, carefully remove the guards and steal the car.

The operation is undercover, we need to steal top-secret data. For the time being, no one reveals the detachment, but minor difficulties arise on the metal detector. We have explosives and drills in our bags, it will be extremely awkward to explain their presence to the guards, so we suddenly kill the guards without raising the alarm.

There is nothing surprising in this scene, but ten minutes later our squad is trying to get out of the secret complex in the same way, and we see the consequences of their actions - plastic bags with corpses, blood dried on the walls, panicking soldiers ... We are finally shown what fun shooting at people leads to, and it’s unusual to see this in Call of Duty. This seems to be one of two situations where Ghosts manages to pretend to be real.

In practice, our detachment always faces superior enemy forces.

Another positive point is a dog named Riley. The dog of the new generation, knows how to strafe, hijacks helicopters and is generally capable of bringing a whole detachment of healthy men with weapons to tears. Besides, Riley is the only one who doesn't give us orders, it's the other way around. When an evil shepherd is on our side, the hero can highlight opponents, and the dog obediently follows orders and tears apart exactly those who are needed. It can be seen that the mechanics with the dog worked out for a long time.

It seems that the dog was originally planned to be used more often, but after a million stupid jokes, Internet users realized that turning Ghosts into a K-9 simulator is not worth it. But in vain, because the dog in the game is not at all annoying, on the contrary, it brings variety and helps to fight the enemy much more effectively than oblique and blind partners.

Enemies in Ghosts are of the same type, especially serious, like creepy armored mercenaries from Modern Warfare 2, can not be found.

Another thing is that interaction with the dog is limited to the "face" command, remote control in specially designated areas and one more action, which is better not to talk about because of spoilers. It is not clear why then all the fuss was started with the promotion of Riley in an advertising campaign. With the same success, one could say that a tank, a helicopter, as well as a radio-controlled sniper rifle play an important role in Ghosts.

Riley appears in just a couple of episodes and, to be honest, does not change the gameplay at all. In place of the dog, it is quite possible to imagine some kind of assault drone or a three-rotor helicopter from Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Yes, and on the consoles of the current generation (as well as weak PCs), episodes with a dog look extremely unconvincing: Riley almost always runs through the bushes, which on the Xbox 360 and PS3 look just shameful.

Step to the side

If during the first level, when rockets are flying from the sky and destroying the free democratic states of America, if you hesitate a little and stare at the catastrophe in full swing, you will automatically count as a failure. Or get hit by a car. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Ghosts is directed for you and any attempt to deviate from the death scenario is like that. This is normal, they did it before, but for some reason in this game, any actions outside the plan entail a whole bunch of problems.

In traditional already for a series of "secret" tasks, you can raise the alarm. If earlier you were either instantly killed for this, or asked to start the segment of the level again, then in Ghosts you can easily cope with superior enemy forces and then stumble upon an unpleasant bug. Scripts can fail in the game, checkpoints can break. Partners stop moving, missiles do not fly.

Once we managed to explore half of the level with partially working scripts. In theory, the title detachment was supposed to carefully make its way through the tall grass and hide from the enemies, but the soldiers simply stood and did nothing, and the opponents, even when they came close to us, silently ran past. Of the less annoying problems: if you run ahead of your teammates, they can get so upset that they just stop moving. This happened to us twice. The problem was resolved at the checkpoint.

I'm not myself

It can take a long time to talk about what Ghosts turned out to be and what it should have turned out to be. But by and large, we have two complaints about the game.

If we are to make a beautiful rail production with explosions and destruction, then the player must somehow be immersed in the game and in no case should this effect be disturbed. In Ghosts, there is still a barrier between the game and the person holding the controller. Once again we see inscriptions in the style of "you are injured, quickly for cover" and "press the button to cut the lines." Or they killed the hero with a grenade, and they ask us: “Try not to die so stupidly anymore, pay attention to the corresponding indicator.” All these hints and design decisions in the interface constantly pull you out of the game, remind you that this is just computer entertainment. It is clear that the warning system is made for people who are not familiar with video games, but the irritation does not go anywhere.

Most often, we nervously run after our comrades - and woe to the player who decides to get distracted from what the developers have planned.

Second problem. With the stated idea - America is in decline, the opponents are numerous, there is no hope of victory - we are still shown a sterile, faceless military shooter without any attempts to develop this idea. It is not interesting to shoot, to follow the development of events too. Faded or borrowed quotes don't help either.

Inserting the game disc into the drive, you look forward to how the squad of "ghosts" will covertly operate behind enemy lines, survive with all their might and come up with cunning plans to destroy key enemy targets. And instead, you are offered a hundred times seen conflict of the “one against a hundred” format, and we win the victory without straining at all. Surprisingly, Modern Warfare games do a much better job of Ghosts: there are hide and seek in the thick Ukrainian grass, and sniper missions, and an attack on a TV studio, and an idiot-daring prison assault, and many other episodes in which you feel like you are alone. and no power of the American army will help you out.

The skyscraper climbing and silent elimination sequence looks great, but it's too reminiscent of the old Silent Scope shooting range.

After all this paramilitary mess, you already take the ambiguous multiplayer for granted. From the trailers we were shown before the game was released, it seemed that the multiplayer battles would be relatively slow-paced, reminiscent of what we valued so much in MW2 multiplayer. The reality turned out to be more severe. The dynamics here do not lag behind BO2, but the developers screwed up in the details. The main problem is the levels.

In the same BO2, each map was a very logical, carefully designed labyrinth, having studied which in detail it was possible to navigate through it almost with eyes closed, foreseeing where the enemy might come from. In Ghosts, almost all locations are a strange amorphous pile of obstacles: at any given time, the number of directions from which an enemy can attack is so large that it is physically impossible to control everything. As a result, the battle turns from a logic puzzle into a simple charade "who will notice the enemy first and release all the ammunition at him." Considering that you die from fewer bullets here, and the mini-map is nowhere near as informative as in the Treyarch games, you get much less pleasure from Ghosts multiplayer. And even the fact that submachine guns no longer solve the situation does not save.

Rapper Eminem reads in the credits of the game the evil track Survival, which says that he was not ready to become a millionaire ("Wasn't ready to be a millionaire, I was ill-prepared"), but he had no equal in skills and technique ("I was prepared to be ill though, the skill was there"). So, if Eminem has not lost his grip and is still holding the blow, then with Call of Duty the situation is exactly the opposite. The series is successful, sells well and has already become accustomed to fame, but by the last release it has ceased to bare its teeth. If Activision doesn't come to its senses, the next Call of Duty may not pass natural selection.

Replay Value:

cool story:

Originality:

Easy to master:

Gameplay:

Sound and music:

Interface and control:

Did you wait?

From a topical reflection of reality, Call of Duty has evolved into a toothless shooter with a toothy dog. To comply, the dog is discreetly pushed aside.

"Average"

Freeze

Highlights of Call of Duty

Call of Duty has always been famous not for the gameplay, but for the abundance of unexpected memorable scenes. Incredible crashes, accidents, explosions and almost somersaults with machine guns - the developers showed such things that it was difficult to even imagine in games before. We decided to remember the brightest events

P.S. Beware spoilers! If you still haven't completed the games in the series, but want to fix this gap, close your eyes and turn the page.

call of duty

Great things start small.

The introduction of the first full-fledged mission was suspiciously reminiscent of the Medal of Honor: night, none of the comrades nearby, in the hands of a carbine. But as soon as we went a little further, planes cut through the sky, dozens of allies landed on the ground, and Fritz with machine guns looked out of the windows under the explosions. Here the player understood that ahead of him was a much more exciting adventure than it might have seemed initially.

"Not one step back!"

Not everyone knows, but before starting Call of Duty, most of the employees of Infinity Ward made the iconic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault within the walls of another studio. And the famous landing on Omaha Beach is their work.

Having fallen under the wing of Activision and changed the name, the developers did almost the same thing, but even more convincingly and brighter: all they had to do was move the action to Russia, take the weapon from the player, give five rounds of ammunition and use the infamous order “Not one step back!” .

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Welcome aboard.

Escape from a sinking ship in the game is now hardly surprising, seen a hundred times already. However, that very first mission from the fourth part actually set the pace for the entire game, and even the whole series. Landing-clearing-explosion, a run along a banked ship to epic music, and at the end, which has already become a signature jump towards the ladder of a departing helicopter - now it seems like an ordinary routine, but then players around the world were shocked by the level of production. Unforgettable experience.

Death in first person.

During this short scene, almost nothing had to be done - it was only allowed to turn the camera around and watch the horrors happening on the streets of the Arab city. The horrors that will very soon enter our lives - they did not take the hero to a prison from which to escape, and not to the next task. The path lay to the place of his own execution.

The stealth mission in Chernobyl was shown before the release, and it instantly became a cult. The gameplay of hide and seek in the grass could not surprise us with anything: we were told what to do, we did it. A step to the right, a step to the left - and the task had to be started from the very beginning. However, it turned out to be so tense and atmospheric that even just watching it was terribly interesting. We crawled right under the noses of the enemy detachments, shot the guards with a pistol with a silencer, and in the final we eliminated an important bump from a sniper, taking into account the direction of the wind. There was nothing like this either in the Call of Duty series, or in military shooters in general before.

Nuclear explosion.

Few decide to kill the main characters, but very brave people worked in Infinity Ward of those years. After the spectacular explosion and crash of the helicopter, it seemed that everything would work out: here he is, the hero, still alive, albeit not quite healthy. With such thoughts, we literally crawled forward, looking at a huge nuclear mushroom and collapsing buildings. But then the picture begins to gradually darken, and at some point the character falls dead. And Call of Duty breaks another important barrier.

Call of Duty: World at War

Acquaintance with Reznov.

Most of the time, the campaign of the fifth part was more tiring than enjoyable. However, everything changed as soon as Comrade Reznov flashed in the frame with the characteristic voice of Gary Oldman. Together with him, we got out of the mountains of corpses, hid from wandering Fritz, arranged a sniper duel, ran away from a burning building and hunted for a high-ranking general. At such moments, I wanted to fall in love with the game ... until the action again returned to the boring confrontation between the Americans and the Japanese.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Let's go to plan "B".

The partner of the protagonist was taken at gunpoint by a whole detachment of well-armed fighters. "What to do?" - Go to Plan B! - "What's the plan?" - "Just press the button!" Boom! The explosion on the horizon was a surprise not only for the enemy soldiers, but also for the player himself. But there was no time to be surprised, because there is another colorful shootout and an unforgettable escape on snowmobiles ahead.

Running on Brazilian rooftops.

We don't even remember the last time we were stripped of all our equipment in Call of Duty. But there is no time to remember when an angry mob of well-armed and very aggressive Brazilians rushes behind you. We ran along the roofs of some shacks, bullets whistled around, and on the screen, in addition, a timer was ticking, counting down the time until the departure of the allied helicopter. After the release of MW2, a variation of the foot chase began to be inserted into their games by all and sundry.

"Not a word in Russian!"

Probably even people far from the industry (especially various deputies) have heard about this scene. No one dared to send the players in droves to kill civilians, either before or after the release of the game. It was only at that moment that it became clear that the outrageousness of the series had reached truly unthinkable proportions.

Earth in the porthole.

After the nuclear explosion in the fourth part, it seemed that it would no longer be possible to surprise us with something like this. It wasn't there! In MW2, we were taken into space and allowed to see from the perspective of an astronaut how this very explosion blows the space station apart. By the way, we also had to observe the consequences of the tragedy on the ground, walking in the rain from helicopters. And then already under the present - from the water. And all this in a frightening silence ...

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Escape from Vorkuta.

The return of our old friend Reznov! This time we have to escape together from the Vorkuta Gulag. Nothing supernatural happened during the riot, but firing a catapult under Gary Oldman's Russian accent and chasing guards on motorcycles was a lot of fun.

Russian roulette.

If Infinity Ward has always surprised us with explosions, sudden deaths or murders, then Treyarch for their third Call of Duty decided to go a little from the other side and break the applause in a different way. The moment when the main characters were forced to play Russian roulette with a loaded revolver was very tense and cinematic.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Attack in London.

Apparently, unable to offer anything else, the developers used the cheapest way to touch a person and squeeze out a tear. It didn’t work out for everyone, but many still remember the moment.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Mason's death.

With a certain moment It has become a tradition for Call of Duty developers to kill the main characters beautifully, and in Black Ops 2 they have outdone themselves. All that was needed was to force the player to do it ... himself.

Give paw!

Dogs in video games

The developers of Call of Duty talked about the dog Riley almost with sacred awe - they say, look what a significant role we assigned to our four-legged friend. As it turned out, Infinity Ward they were a little cunning: the shepherd in Ghosts whines somewhere in the background, her role in the project is rather episodic.

Nevertheless, they made us think, what other games have used dogs and how interestingly? For obvious reasons, we won’t talk about all sorts of Nintendogs, but we won’t leave the appearance of animals in “big” projects without attention.

as an enemy

Like it or not, most often dogs appear in games as a small enemy - this is a given that you have to put up with. There are so many examples that we won't even try to list them all. Who cares about zombie dogs from resident evil or wolves from tomb raider ?

The most memorable meetings happened in the games of the series call of duty and Medal of Honor. There, the aggressive dogs wanted to click on the nose rather than gently scratch behind the ear: the four-legged ones suddenly jumped out from around the corner, quickly reduced the distance and tried to gnaw the hero's head. At such moments, the only thing that saved was a combat knife hidden in his bosom (although he did not help in the early parts either).

Despite the interesting idea, the "dog" gameplay in Dead to Rights: Retribution itself did not cause much enthusiasm.

Another interesting example of enemy dogs can be found in a recent Splinter Cell: Blacklist. There, not only did they bite painfully, they could, in addition, reveal the hidden hero, smelling his scent. This made the task more difficult, though not much, but certainly did not make the mission easier.

But most of all the blood spoiled us, of course, the dog from the ancient duck hunt for NES. The villain made faces and scoffed in every possible way in case of failures, and we could not teach him a lesson for this!

Like a story character

The dog may well be a full-fledged character. Of course, dogs rarely get dramatic and serious roles, but sometimes a person’s friends still manage to light up in the frame and evoke certain emotions. Yes, in the old Heart of Darkness(1998) the boy Andy traveled to the Shadow World to retrieve his stolen pet Whiskey. The dog was rarely shown to us, but it did not matter - he served as a kind of MacGuffin, a walking motivation to pass. Well, sort of like Princess Peach to Mario.

Among his kind, perhaps Sam from Sam & Max had the honor of playing the most important role in the games.

A somewhat similar role was assigned to fleas in the scandalous trilogy postal. Champ, the protagonist's dog, has been the subject of many jokes; in Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend we hysterically rescued him from the nursery, and already in the third part from Champ there were more problems than tears of tenderness: the wayward animal bit some homeless person, and her unfortunate owner received a subpoena.

Well, we can’t help but recall the eared Woof (from the English woof - woof) from Beyond Good & Evil, which lit up only in a couple of episodes, but sunk into the soul of everyone who went through this magical adventure. The dog did not represent any value for the plot, but played to enhance the exposition. The lighthouse lawn scene was one of the most touching in the game and did a great job of showing the transition from peacetime to outright conflict.

Companion Dog

After the enemy dog, the companion dog is in second place in popularity. We are sure that many of you immediately remembered the games of Peter Molyneux, the second and third parts Fable, where a devoted dog was one of the main features of the gameplay. You could play with him and send him on a treasure hunt, and in battles he did not leave the hero for a second. And the little friend was very interesting to watch. You rarely see such cheerful and sweet teammates in games.

However, the dog was only cute if you played a kind character. The villain's pet sparkled with red eyes, and his coat was covered with unpleasant lichen. We think that even the Koreans would not pay attention to such a “charm”.

Almost the same game tasks were performed by dogs in another action-RPG - Torch light. True, there the animals were able not only to bite the devils hard for one place, but also worked like cargo animals: they could be sent directly from some dungeon to the city so that they ... sold the loot accumulated in huge quantities! Yes, not very realistic, but the benefits are tangible.

Another series in which the four-legged were not in the last roles - Fallout. In the first part, it was possible to tame Dogmeat (Dogmeat in the English version), a living reference to the Mad Max movie. The owner of the dog, according to the description suspiciously similar to Max, was killed, but the animal still tirelessly waited for him on the threshold of the house. And only the main character could bring the animal to life by feeding or pretending to be the owner (for this it was necessary to wear a leather jacket). After that, Dog for the sake of his new master was ready for anything.

The dog also appeared in the second part, and in the continuation that came to the rescue after some time, one could already meet her descendant - which is typical, with the same nickname. AT Fallout 3 The dog managed to extract the contents of locked boxes, found supplies and weapons, and also selflessly rushed into battle with the hero - because of which she died too often.

The dog was so fond of the players that in addition Broken Steel even the ability “Puppy!” appeared, which allowed, in the event of the death of a flea friend, to take one of his puppies with him (by the way, the whole gameplay is built on this tokyo jungle, another game featuring dogs).

Other quadrupeds have also appeared in the Fallout games. Better than others, the cyberdog Rex, who speaks K9, as well as the dog that brings misfortune to everyone around, succeeded. The loser dog as a phenomenon is especially curious - a shabby dog ​​with a glass eye, seeing the hero, began to follow him, after which the "luck" characteristic inevitably dropped to one!

chop chop

Small but interesting roles went to our smaller brothers and in Rockstar games. Yes, in Red Dead Redemption in some missions, they helped to quickly detect lewd criminals. And in a recent gta 5 we were taking care of a fat Rottweiler Chop, which, however, was not very useful. Yes, in one mission he really helped the heroes find the enemy, but the rest of the time he just ran after the ball and silently crap in front of the house. Curiously, morning poop in slippers was allowed to be avoided - it was enough to train the dog using a special application on iOS.

And finally, a special role was assigned to the dog in the series Dead to Rights. The shadow was a full-fledged partner of the main character - a tough and unprincipled cop. She helped us look for terrorist explosive devices and detours on the level, gnawed the throats of the enemies and then brought the lying weapons in her teeth. In a word, it was no less useful than human partners in other games.

Fable 2 is probably the first game that comes to mind when we mention our four-legged friends.

AT Dead to Rights: Retribution the developers went even further, giving us a look at the world through the eyes of a dog. The game at such moments turned into a stealth action, and now we had to deal with the opponents on our own, scare them with barking or look for the enemy along the tracks left.

It was possible to run and bite the villains in dragon age : since each party member in DA can be played, the dog was no exception. There the hero became the owner of a dog of the ancient breed Mabari. Such dogs have always been valued for their devotion to their master and their extraordinary mind.

It is impossible not to remember one of the heroes Sam&Max- a talking dog detective. Unlike his partner, the slightly unstable and overly active rabbit Max, Sam is fully dressed, almost always calm and well-mannered. In fairness, it should be noted that these characters began their journey back in comics in 1987, but over time, their names became firmly associated with the quest line of the same name.

By the way, latest games the series was developed by the studio Telltale Games, which we owe to the transition from the big screen of another fluffy hero - the dog Gromit from Wallace & Gromit.

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As you can clearly see from the article, a lot of time will pass before the dogs find their worthy use in games. And Ghosts against this background is far from the worst example.

However, one cannot fail to note the fact that even the smallest appearance of our smaller brothers in games can deliver a lot of pleasant emotions. We hope that in the future there will only be more such meetings, but for now, at least one worthy candidate looms on the horizon - Valiant Hearts: The Great War. And there, you see, the rest will slowly catch up. The main thing is that we should no longer be placed on opposite sides of the barricades - we are somehow tired of feeling like a flayer.

The Call of Duty series of first-person shooters, released with enviable regularity, among gamers has long established itself as something extremely spectacular, juicy and exciting, but at the same time (and we are talking solely about the plot) a little stupid. The entire series was often compared to the films of director Michael Bay, who is much more interested in shooting spectacular scuffles of huge robots than delving into the plot twists and turns of his own creation. For Call of Duty: Ghosts, in order to put an end to these comparisons, in addition to a damn exciting action, a decent story was also composed.

The plot of Call of Duty: Ghosts

So, the future is not far away, and America lies in ruins. The reason for this is the events described in detail (or rather, shown) in the prologue and, in order to avoid unnecessary spoilers, the events are not very pleasant.

Enemies from the outside are trying to finish off the once powerful country, and then a resistance detachment comes into play, after which, in fact, the project was named. Ghosts. Main character- one of the members of the squad named Logan Walker, and this is exactly the character whose view from the eyes we will enjoy throughout the single company.

Walkthrough and game modes Call of Duty: Ghosts

The single company, as if trying to beat the high bar of entertainment and epicness of what is happening, set by the once revolutionary MW 2 at that time and fixed by the third part, offers players a huge set of non-standard, and most importantly, mouth-opening situations. There will be skirmishes in space, and the fall of two skyscrapers, and a shepherd dog knocking a helicopter off course, and, finally, battles under water!

But the most "delicious" part of the freshly released Call of Dutty Ghost game is the multiplayer modes that you can get involved in seriously and for a long time.

Multiplayer Call of Duty Ghosts

It must be said right away that all COD fans who spent hours and even days behind multiplayer battles in previous parts, will be satisfied this time.

The mechanics have not changed much, and this is good, but, nevertheless, several interesting innovations still took place.

First of all, this applies to the game modes "cal of duty guest". to standard « Team fight» , "Every man for himself" and a small modification of the usual flag hunting called "Blitz" added a few original modes. For instance, zombie mode now turned into "Infection", and its main feature is that the dead players turn into infected monsters, thus reducing the whole essence of the game either to survival or to the total infection of all gamers on the map.

Also interesting "Cranked" mode, which migrated to the series straight from MW3. The goal of the game is to kill any of the members of the opposing team in thirty seconds, otherwise you yourself will die. If you still managed to get a frag, then the timer gives another half a minute to search for opponents, and so on until the end of the round. This mode contributes to the study of maps, so you can’t really camp here.

By the way, about camping. The developers have also made available for multiplayer “the same dog from single player”, so now every gamer has at his disposal his own dog, who will gladly finish off the next camper sitting in the corner. As you can see, even the creators of Call of Duty: Ghosts do not approve of gatherings in secluded spots.

Separately, it is worth mentioning also about the maps in the call of duty guest, available for multiplayer games. The dynamics inherent in online shootouts from past series has not disappeared anywhere, and all thanks to the compactness, and in some places also the change in landscape (not Split Second, of course, but still) maps.

On one of the zones, you can use a strike from a space station that can shake the surroundings and even blow off the head of one of the statues, another map is significant for the presence of a chest with which the player can shoot down a satellite that kills enemies and jams all electronics for a while. And each of the presented cards has such small “chips”, and finding them is a real pleasure.

How to buy Call of Duty: Ghosts

Buy new part shooter can be both on Steam and order a licensed disc with the game in any of the online stores. It is also worth considering that in addition to the regular edition (link), there is also an extended edition (link), which, in addition to the game itself, includes several bonuses that are pleasant for fans.