E3 2013 Preview: Call of Duty: Ghosts promises improved visuals

At E3 this year, Activision held a behind closed doors presentation for their upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts that will release later this year. With many press including attendees that went to the presentation, many were rather impressed. Is there really anything different about Call of Duty: Ghosts this time around? Yes, but not to an extent that the game will be unrecognizable.

Call of Duty: Ghosts promises to offer improved visuals than its predecessor thanks to the new game engine. With a whole new world being introduced in Ghosts, Infinity Ward wanted to make Ghosts an all new experience with new breathing environments to trek into. Textures of the environment have improved big time where it now shows high resolution textures. Based on the demo that they showed, it really is an improvement over their last work with Modern Warfare 3. More realism comes from the game, especially when smoke arises from a falling building. With the game coming out on next-generation consoles, I must say that the graphics really do look next-gen.

As for its story, Ghosts will once again deliver a better narrative as it’s written by Stephen Gaghan, who was the screenwriter of the hit movie Traffic. Not much has been revealed to the story except for a massive event has brought the United States to its knees. They did not reveal much of the plot, but Infinity Ward promises that it will be the best gamers have ever seen. In the demo that they’ve shown, we’ve seen the Ghosts fighting terrorist organizations again in both land and water.

In the two levels that they showed, part of the presentation focuses on the new dog that can act as a support. When they first announced the dog, I was skeptical as it looks gimmicky. In the demo, the dog was put into test and showed us how he functions. With the dog in your team, you can send him to the enemy’s location and be your scout. Sometimes the dog can help you take down an enemy without raising an alarm. The use of the dog in this game has its value and I can see the game being fun using the dog.

The last demo that they showed is when the Ghosts were underwater and in a mission called ‘Into the Deep’. In that level, it shows more of the capabilities of the visuals. The underwater level looks phenomenal as it has pristine detail into it. Textures are top notch and the transition from darkness to light are seamless. Not a lot was going on in the demo except the end where a missile was launched to the enemy fleet.

Based on what was shown, Call of Duty: Ghosts offers a slight improvement over its predecessor. The addition of Riley the dog may seem like a nifty addition, but I can see the excitement in using him. The two demos that they’ve shown still somewhat feel more of an arcade game. The presentation was solid, but it’s hard to get excited as the new additions aren’t enough to make Ghosts a revolutionary game