Call of Duty: Ghosts – Power, Paranoia, and Orbital Tungsten Rods

[00:16] [Music]

[00:21] Call of Duty Ghost might be the worst

[00:23] game I've ever played. Now, that

[00:25] requires a lot of qualification and

[00:27] humming and hawing and generally being

[00:29] annoying, but such is the cost of these

[00:31] things. Ghosts occupies an odd place

[00:34] within the megalithic franchise that is

[00:36] Call of Duty. At this point, it sits

[00:38] roughly in the middle, being the 10th

[00:40] main title in a series with 21 full

[00:42] banner annual releases. It begs us to

[00:45] ask, what is a Call of Duty? Well, back

[00:48] in the late 18th century, modern nation

[00:50] states as we know them began to coalesce

[00:52] within a new ideology called

[00:53] nationalism, which will differentiate

[00:55] with a small N to distinguish it from

[00:58] the nationalist political movements that

[01:00] would arise in the 20th century. Within

[01:02] small N nationalism, people began to

[01:04] view themselves as part of a new

[01:06] national identity that encompassed or

[01:09] even superseded their local ethnic

[01:11] identities. This would lead to a bunch

[01:14] of stuff.

[01:20] As the story goes, when US soldiers

[01:22] started killing and dying during the

[01:23] Great War, it became necessary to start

[01:26] giving medals for doing a particularly

[01:28] admirable job of killing or dying.

[01:30] Additionally, it was felt that the US

[01:32] Medal of Honor had been handed out too

[01:34] frivolously during the Civil War, and

[01:36] the Medal risked being trivialized as

[01:38] over 3,000 had been awarded. Okay, this

[01:41] is just It turns out this was a huge

[01:44] boondoggle. Actually, a double

[01:46] boondoggle. Look, I had to play Call of

[01:48] Duty Ghost like a dozen times to make

[01:51] this. Y'all are going to sit there and

[01:52] listen to my goddamn research. President

[01:55] Woodrow Wilson ordered the War

[01:56] Department to do a review of the system

[01:58] and the committee in turn revoked 911

[02:02] legacy Medals of Honor. Boondoggle one

[02:04] is that apparently in the Civil War,

[02:06] tons of medals of honor, being the only

[02:08] award the military had at the time, were

[02:11] handed out for some pretty suspect

[02:13] reasons. Many had been promised

[02:15] basically as a recruitment bonus. Over

[02:17] 500 were awarded to a unit that had

[02:20] already gone home for a mission they

[02:22] didn't do. And Buffalo Bill wasn't even

[02:25] in the military at the time he did the

[02:28] thing that got him the medal. Boondoggle

[02:30] number two was that Buffalo Bill, for

[02:32] better or worse an American icon, had

[02:34] his Medal of Honor stripped from him the

[02:35] week that he died. Battlefield surgeon

[02:38] Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who got her

[02:40] recommendation from Sherman himself and

[02:42] spent four months of the war in a

[02:43] Confederate P camp, was one of nine

[02:46] civilian surgeons to be awarded the

[02:48] medal and the only one to have it

[02:50] revoked. She was also the only woman to

[02:53] have ever, even to this day, been

[02:55] awarded the Medal of Honor. Just to not

[02:57] leave that story hanging, she refused to

[03:00] return it to Congress and wore it

[03:01] proudly until she died in 1919 at the

[03:04] age of 86. Congress did eventually

[03:08] reinstate her award in 1977. However,

[03:12] amidst the bureaucracy and sexism, a

[03:14] phrase was born. Miller Oscar F. Major

[03:18] 361st Infantry is awarded the Medal of

[03:21] Honor for conspicuous gallantry and

[03:23] intrepidity above and beyond the call of

[03:26] duty. And 85 years later, we've got a

[03:29] video game franchise. Since its

[03:31] inception in 2003, the Call of Duty

[03:33] first-person military shooter brand has

[03:35] produced 21 mainline titles and 22

[03:38] spin-offs, originating as a cinematic

[03:41] shooter in response to Electronic Arts

[03:43] Medal of Honor games, which were

[03:45] themselves soft adaptations and

[03:47] expansions of the film Saving Private

[03:48] Ryan under the supervision of Steven

[03:50] Spielberg. The games are known for their

[03:53] giant setpiece levels, heavily scripted

[03:55] sequences, extensive voice cast,

[03:57] cuttingedge visuals, and just all-around

[04:00] high production value. Quickly though,

[04:02] let's introduce our corporate cast of

[04:04] characters. The franchise as a whole is

[04:07] published by Activision, now Microsoft

[04:09] Activision Blizzard King. The original

[04:11] game was developed by Infinity Ward, but

[04:14] after the success of the first game,

[04:15] Activision brought in a second studio,

[04:18] Treyarch, to begin working on a third

[04:20] game, while Infinity Ward worked on the

[04:22] second. The idea being that the sequel

[04:24] would drop in 2005. And then Activision

[04:27] would already have a sequel to that

[04:29] game, ready to go for 2006, which would

[04:32] give Infinity Ward 2 years to make the

[04:35] game after that. And then the game of

[04:37] Leaprog would continue. Eventually, they

[04:39] would need to bring in two more studios,

[04:41] Sledgehammer and Raven, to wrangle the

[04:43] ever ballooning scope. But we're getting

[04:46] ahead of ourselves. This plan for a

[04:48] yearly release paid off huge when the

[04:50] fourth game, subtitled Modern Warfare,

[04:53] smashed sales records and catapulted

[04:55] Call of Duty from being a merely

[04:57] successful franchise into being the

[05:00] video game franchise, a cultural

[05:03] shortorthhand for the idea of a video

[05:06] game. Indeed, Call of Duty was pushing

[05:09] the leading edge of production value so

[05:11] hard that the franchise became the

[05:13] definition of AAA video games. In the

[05:16] same way your grandmother could describe

[05:18] all video game consoles as a Nintendo,

[05:22] AAA video games could be simply a Call

[05:24] of Duty. Ghost, released in 2013, is the

[05:27] 10th mainline title in the series, the

[05:29] sixth made by developers Infinity Ward.

[05:32] The game follows two brothers, Logan and

[05:34] Hesh Walker, as they shoot their way

[05:36] through a series of nonsense levels

[05:38] strung together by a jingoistic plot

[05:40] rooted deeply in American insecurity

[05:42] that was bubbling up as the global war

[05:44] on terror solidly entered its second

[05:46] decade. It is the near future, the quote

[05:49] great energy producing deserts in the

[05:51] Middle East have been destroyed by war,

[05:53] cutting off much of America's energy,

[05:55] leading to a collapse and decline. In

[05:58] the power vacuum that followed, South

[06:00] America has been united or conquered

[06:02] under the banner of the Federation of

[06:04] the Americas, often simply referred to

[06:06] as the Fed. The game opens as two

[06:08] astronauts perform maintenance on the

[06:10] control station for the orbital weapon

[06:12] Odin, a kinetic bombardment system

[06:14] utilizing tungsten rods dropped from

[06:16] space, an impractical but popular pop

[06:18] culture weapon often shorthanded as rods

[06:21] from God. As they are performing the

[06:23] finishing checks on this decidedly

[06:25] military super weapon, the station is

[06:27] attacked and hijacked by Fed forces who

[06:29] gain entry by posing as an American

[06:31] supply shuttle. The Fed successfully

[06:34] target and bomb a large swath of

[06:35] Southern California, Texas, and Florida

[06:38] before the temporary prologue

[06:39] protagonist or prologist destabilizes

[06:43] its orbit and burns up in the

[06:44] atmosphere. That that sounds

[06:46] grammatically incorrect. So ju just to

[06:48] be clear, both the prologonist and Odin

[06:52] burn up in the atmosphere. Parallel to

[06:54] this, Elias Walker tells his sons the

[06:56] origin story of a fabled special ops

[06:58] team called the Ghosts.

[07:01] >> It was a different time, a different

[07:03] enemy.

[07:05] 60 men from tier 1 teams were sent to

[07:08] face down a force of 500 enemy fighters.

[07:11] Their objective to force the enemy back

[07:13] from a civilian hospital and keep its

[07:16] occupants alive.

[07:18] In this other backstory, in another

[07:20] time, another war, 60 men from a joint

[07:23] special ops team were tasked with

[07:24] guarding a hospital and they get

[07:26] obliterated over the course of a couple

[07:28] nights. 60 become 15 and eventually

[07:30] these remaining 15, they evacuate the

[07:33] hospital and send one of their own as an

[07:35] escort. Then the remaining 14 cover

[07:37] themselves in blood and sand and hide

[07:39] under the bodies to ambush the enemy

[07:41] fighters. The pros in this story is

[07:43] fluid, reverential, bordering on

[07:46] spiritual ecstasy. They are baptized

[07:49] with blood and anointed by the sand,

[07:52] then massacre the opposition with

[07:53] hit-and-run tactics that are so sick and

[07:56] badass that the one remaining enemy

[07:58] fighter goes crazy. He expressed

[08:01] warnings to others of a force so

[08:02] menacing and unbeatable, it could only

[08:05] be described as supernatural.

[08:07] He called them ghosts.

[08:13] God damn it. It's even got the ellipsus

[08:15] right there in the subtitles. I feel I

[08:18] feel like I feel like this is what

[08:21] folding ideas sounds like to people who

[08:24] don't like folding ideas. This literal

[08:26] campfire story is then interrupted by

[08:28] the rods from God falling on San Diego

[08:30] as the Fed uses Odin to obliterate

[08:33] basically everything south of Santa

[08:35] Monica. The body of the game takes place

[08:37] 10 years later, long after the war with

[08:39] the Fed has come to a stalemate. It's

[08:41] not really relevant to anything, and you

[08:43] need to dig into the codeex entries to

[08:45] sort it out, but basically the US

[08:46] military doesn't have branches anymore.

[08:48] It's all just one big blob, which is

[08:50] really just the underlying justification

[08:52] for the main characters, Logan and Hesh,

[08:54] to run around doing whatever the

[08:56] designers thought was cool. After a

[08:58] tutorial mission and some walk and talk,

[09:00] the boys are sent out to scout some fed

[09:02] salvage operation back in San Diego.

[09:04] their first big mission beyond the

[09:06] massive border wall the US has built.

[09:09] They are assisted on their missions by

[09:10] the game spectacle feature Riley, a

[09:13] trained German Shepherd and his doggy

[09:15] cam sneak attack.

[09:20] Despite the lengthy geopolitical setup

[09:22] and hell dump of backstory, the game's

[09:24] lore is extremely front-loaded and the

[09:27] meat of the game revolves around a man

[09:28] named Ror, a ghost and dad's former

[09:31] commanding officer. Oh, spoiler. Dad's a

[09:33] ghost. like that's why he knows all

[09:36] their backstory and stuff, but not like

[09:38] a cool ghost. He's just he's a he's an

[09:40] assassin

[09:42] special ops badass. I It's It's treated

[09:46] as a twist. It's You're supposed to find

[09:48] You're supposed to You're It's It's

[09:50] treated as a twist. They play it like

[09:52] it's a real twist that you didn't that

[09:55] you didn't see coming.

[09:58] >> But your father's not there anymore.

[10:04] Dad, this whole time you you were one of

[10:06] them. You a ghost.

[10:08] >> Try the ghost.

[10:09] >> So Ror, along with your dad was one of

[10:11] the original 14 ghosts who were anointed

[10:13] with sand after defending the hospital.

[10:15] And his psych profile is basically that

[10:17] he's Rambo, but like Rambo 3 or Rambo

[10:22] for Rambo. Not really first blood Rambo.

[10:25] Ror went missing in Caracus two years

[10:27] before the Odin incident and was

[10:29] presumed dead. When the Fed threatened

[10:31] all of South America and ordered all

[10:33] US-born residents killed or imprisoned,

[10:36] the US preemptively invaded Venezuela

[10:38] and sent the Ghost to assassinate Fed

[10:40] leadership in a mission that culminates

[10:42] in Federation leader General Elmagro

[10:44] ordering a missile strike on a massive

[10:46] dam overlooking the city. Now, this

[10:49] self-destructive action here, we're

[10:51] going to have to set aside the fact that

[10:53] America's enemies are so insane they'll

[10:55] nuke themselves, was already a recurring

[10:58] plot beat in the franchise by this

[11:00] point, so we can instead focus on the

[11:02] silliness of the scenario. If Western

[11:05] media gets accused of playing fast and

[11:07] loose with its audience's lack of

[11:09] knowledge of the rest of the world, few

[11:11] other instances will really compete with

[11:14] this game. stashing a billion gallons of

[11:17] water a kilometer in the air above the

[11:19] Caribbean Sea. So, the ghosts do

[11:22] successfully assassinate General

[11:23] Elmagro. You play as your dad, Elias,

[11:25] for this mission and shoot him yourself.

[11:27] But the helicopter crashes, Ror falls

[11:29] into the water, and after weeks of

[11:31] searching for his body, the ghosts are

[11:33] pulled from Caracus, and Ror is declared

[11:35] MIA. Since he's the antagonist, he

[11:38] obviously survived and now he holds a

[11:40] grudge against the ghosts for a

[11:41] combination of not rescuing him and not

[11:43] having the decency to die trying to

[11:45] rescue him. He was instead captured by

[11:47] the Fed and tortured in a jungle pit

[11:50] where they used all the old standards,

[11:52] isolation, temperature extremes, sleep

[11:54] deprivation, stress positions, keeping

[11:55] him wet, presumably direct physical and

[11:58] verbal abuse, and they feed him

[11:59] psychoactive poisons implicitly.

[12:02] This process stylized for the cinematic

[12:05] blows all of the white off of him as

[12:07] black alien crystals burst out of his

[12:09] skin. That's interesting iconography

[12:12] that might come up later.

[12:14] >> Broke was their ghost. Now,

[12:18] the perfect weapon to use against us.

[12:21] >> He becomes the main villain of the

[12:23] entire game. And he's Bane, the Batman

[12:25] villain. Specifically, the Bane from The

[12:27] Dark Knight Rises, a two steps ahead

[12:29] criminal mastermind with seemingly

[12:31] limitless resources to pour into a plan

[12:33] that uses lofty geopolitical ambitions

[12:35] as a smoke screen for a personal grudge

[12:37] against a couple specific dudes. There's

[12:40] a series of RO focused missions,

[12:41] including backstory, then an

[12:43] infiltration mission to find where he's

[12:45] hiding, an assault on the hideout,

[12:46] capturing RO, then getting hijacked by

[12:48] Ror's people and dumped in the jungle,

[12:50] after which the game switches to

[12:52] hardcore filler mode. There's a winter

[12:55] science facility level in Chile, then an

[12:57] oil rig level in Antarctica, then an

[12:59] underwater level in the Atlantic, then a

[13:01] factory level in Brazil somewhere north

[13:03] of Rio. After blowing up the factory,

[13:05] the team heads to a safe house in the

[13:07] remains of Las Vegas to hang out, where

[13:09] they get ambushed and captured by Ror

[13:11] again. Oh, you are right, Elias. I'm not

[13:16] a ghost.

[13:17] I'm the man that haunts them and sends

[13:20] them back to the other side.

[13:24] Dad, a ghost.

[13:25] >> There's a sinking aircraft carrier, then

[13:27] a tank mission, and a second space

[13:29] mission, and then finally you fight Ror

[13:31] on a train. The thing you learn in all

[13:33] of that faffing about, maybe a nugget

[13:35] permission, is that the Fed has cloned

[13:37] Odin. That wreckage way back in the San

[13:40] Diego level where Doggy Cam was a

[13:42] mechanic, that was Odin. And I guess

[13:44] that information isn't exactly hidden,

[13:47] but it's really downplayed.

[13:49] >> This is definitely the place.

[13:53] Stalker 6, we got something here. Looks

[13:55] like they're taking some wreckage.

[13:58] What kind of wreckage?

[14:01] >> Not sure. It's guarded, but we're going

[14:03] to push through.

[14:04] >> It's actually kind of amazing how good a

[14:05] job the game does of making this

[14:07] theoretically important discovery feel

[14:09] utterly beneath notice. The crash

[14:12] satellite looks unremarkable in the

[14:14] muddy brown gloom that pervades the

[14:16] game, and all leading lines direct the

[14:18] player away from it. You get a glimpse

[14:20] at the top of the hill, but the shape of

[14:22] the hill and the people shooting at you

[14:24] from down below pull your attention

[14:26] downwards and then to the left. When you

[14:28] exit the cave, the shooting is again

[14:30] coming from the left, pulling your view

[14:33] away from the crash site. Even when you

[14:35] exit the building and traverse a catwalk

[14:37] that goes right next to the satellite,

[14:39] the game makes sure there's people

[14:41] shooting at you off to the left, pulling

[14:43] your attention away from the wreckage.

[14:46] In glimpses and fragments, this crash

[14:48] satellite just looks like indistinct

[14:50] industrial wreckage. A refinery or a

[14:53] silo of some kind, not a grounded weapon

[14:56] of mass destruction. That's the reason

[14:58] everyone's in this mess in the first

[14:59] place. The only way to really appreciate

[15:02] that it's the wreckage of Odin is to sit

[15:04] around and explore. But this is a game

[15:06] that very much does not want you to

[15:08] explore. Cinematic shooters are 90% high

[15:11] gloss hallways. That's kind of the core

[15:14] pitch. You trade freedom to wander for

[15:16] extremely intricate scripted sequences

[15:18] and spectacle. Wandering off is almost

[15:21] always tightly constrained. A door that

[15:23] you aren't explicitly directed to open

[15:25] will almost never open. A side hallway

[15:28] that isn't part of a shooting arena will

[15:30] almost always deadend quickly with

[15:33] nothing to see. In the case of the Odin

[15:35] wreckage, poking around is explicitly

[15:38] punished by falling into radioactive

[15:40] kill zones, sending you back to the

[15:42] previous checkpoint. Curiosity in the

[15:44] genre is structurally discouraged. So,

[15:48] nominally, Logan and Hash were sent to

[15:49] San Diego to figure out what the Fed is

[15:51] rooting around looking for. But when

[15:53] they find it, they just go, I don't

[15:55] know, some big busted thing looks

[15:57] expensive. And are then immediately

[15:59] derailed by Ror capturing a ghost named

[16:02] Ajax, at which point the actual mission

[16:04] is discarded in lie of meeting up with

[16:06] Ghost's American Keegan and heading off

[16:08] to rescue Ajax from the ruins of Dodger

[16:11] Stadium. So, the fact that the

[16:13] Federation is rooting around in the

[16:14] wreckage of Odin is uncovered in chapter

[16:16] 3 and then deemed so unremarkable that

[16:19] aside from a stray mention in chapter 9,

[16:21] it isn't really relevant again until

[16:23] chapter 13 when the team stumbles into a

[16:26] factory loading up Federation Odin

[16:28] clones, a project called Loki, named

[16:30] after the shape-shifting infiltrator

[16:32] that ends the world. Now, here's the

[16:34] very important thing to remember about

[16:36] Loki. It is said out loud to call your

[16:38] attention to this. The important thing

[16:40] to note about the clone of the orbital

[16:42] penetrating rod weapon of mass

[16:44] destruction built by the South Americans

[16:47] is that theirs is smaller. It's less

[16:49] girthy. It's not quite as potent, but it

[16:52] is significantly more numerous.

[16:55] >> Yeah, these are smaller, but there's a

[16:57] lot more of them.

[16:59] >> There might be some symbolism in there.

[17:01] I don't know. There's another space

[17:03] mission where Americans hijack Loki and

[17:05] start raining hell down on South

[17:06] America. You drive a tank. You fight Ror

[17:09] on a train. You eventually shoot him and

[17:11] your brother and all of the windows

[17:13] crack like blow open and he drowns and

[17:15] you and your brother sit on a beach

[17:17] watching the world burn as the credits

[17:19] start to roll before the inevitable and

[17:21] tragic sequel bait when an apparently

[17:23] immortal Ror kidnaps Logan. That's you.

[17:26] And drags him off with a postredits clip

[17:29] implying that Logan is being subjected

[17:30] to the same jungle drug torture

[17:32] brainwashing as Ror was. So ghost falls

[17:36] apart in basically every way. Like if

[17:38] we're talking about a bad game, what are

[17:40] the ways in which a game can be bad?

[17:43] They can be just technically bad.

[17:45] Unstable as software that doesn't launch

[17:48] right, crashes frequently, or breaks at

[17:50] the programming level. That's one type

[17:53] of bad. It can be just not particularly

[17:56] fun to push the buttons like the

[17:57] responsiveness of it or the feedback

[17:59] that you get or the rewards that you

[18:01] get, the way that it respects or

[18:03] disrespects your time. Or it could be

[18:06] offensive on some narrative level. The

[18:08] story is full of holes. It isn't told in

[18:11] a way that carries the player through.

[18:13] Character motivations are vague or thin.

[18:15] Actions and consequences don't really

[18:17] seem to line up. And maybe it espouses

[18:19] some morally reprehensible worldview.

[18:22] Ghosts is all of these. So, the long

[18:26] story short behind all this is twofold.

[18:28] One is simply that games of this scope

[18:30] take, as a rule of thumb, about three

[18:32] years to make, and Activision had their

[18:34] studios cranking them out in barely two.

[18:36] While Ghost was not noted for its

[18:38] development crunch, this is because it

[18:40] was still so ubiquitous and normalized

[18:42] across the AAA industry in the early

[18:44] teens that it was deemed unremarkable. A

[18:46] contemporary Guardian article about the

[18:48] development of Ghost opens by talking

[18:50] about Crunch in an extremely

[18:52] matter-of-fact way, like how you would

[18:54] say that being a sailor involves the

[18:56] risk of getting wet. The second is that

[18:58] around the release of Modern Warfare 2,

[19:00] Infinity Ward went through a major

[19:02] upheaval. Studio co-founders Vince

[19:05] Sampella and Jason West had wanted to

[19:07] sever Modern Warfare from the Call of

[19:09] Duty brand, getting Infinity Ward a

[19:11] bigger slice of the record-breaking pie.

[19:14] When Activision caught wind of this, all

[19:16] hell broke loose. The two were fired.

[19:18] Then they sued Activision for basically

[19:20] manufacturing cause for their dismissal.

[19:22] Then Activision counters sued, calling

[19:24] them insubordinate and self-serving

[19:26] schemers who attempted to hijack

[19:28] Activision's assets for their own

[19:30] personal gain. This got very messy. It

[19:32] came out that Activision had a thing

[19:34] called Project Icebreaker that West and

[19:36] Zimpella alleged was a scheme to ou them

[19:38] from Infinity Ward. While Activision

[19:40] insisted in their defense that

[19:42] Icebreaker was merely a scheme to spy on

[19:44] employee emails in order to improve the

[19:47] relationship with the studio, in the

[19:49] fallout, almost four dozen devs departed

[19:51] Infinity Ward in solidarity, leaving a

[19:53] big old hole in Infinity Ward's dev

[19:55] team. While Modern Warfare 3 would

[19:57] ultimately come out on time, it was only

[19:59] because Activision brought in Raven and

[20:01] Sledgehammer to help finish the game.

[20:04] Afterwards, it was decided that the

[20:05] 2-year leapfrog cycle just wasn't enough

[20:08] time, and thus the third game out from

[20:10] that point would be developed by

[20:12] Sledgehammer starting a three studio

[20:14] rotation. All this required was for the

[20:16] folks at Sledgehammer to be brought

[20:18] fully up to speed, not just finishing

[20:20] assets for a game already in progress,

[20:22] but working from scratch with the new

[20:24] engine and all the various intricacies

[20:26] of making a Call of Duty. This added

[20:29] workload on the remaining Infinity Ward

[20:31] staff, creating a massive technical debt

[20:33] that would ultimately be paid by ghosts.

[20:36] None of the problems that plague ghosts

[20:38] are unique to it. Rather, Ghost is

[20:40] unique for suffering from every single

[20:43] problem that plagues AAA video game

[20:45] production. I have taken the liberty for

[20:47] the sake of pacing and shaking things up

[20:49] a bit of organizing all that into a

[20:52] numbered list.

[20:57] The focus in development was on getting

[20:59] the game ready for the launch of the

[21:01] PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which left

[21:03] the PC version in a pretty bad state

[21:06] with numerous development problems

[21:08] leading to frequent crashes to desktop,

[21:10] broken script triggers, and numerous

[21:12] soft locks. They fixed a lot of this

[21:14] over the years. It is a lot more stable

[21:16] these days if you play it on a modern

[21:18] machine, but it's still really easy to

[21:20] soft lock various levels because Call of

[21:22] Duty games are extremely complicated on

[21:25] a scripting level. If in chapter 2 you

[21:27] exit the tunnel into the LA River and

[21:29] immediately try and shoot down the

[21:31] helicopter, you can actually sort of

[21:33] shoot it down, but since it's supposed

[21:35] to come back later and you've already

[21:36] tripped the flag saying it's destroyed,

[21:38] it just never comes back for when you're

[21:40] actually supposed to shoot it down and

[21:42] the level soft locks.

[21:44] I hear more literal birds than I hear

[21:47] helicopters.

[21:49] All right. Well, only one option.

[22:03] >> The experience of the game, the game

[22:05] play itself is sluggish. Even sprinting

[22:08] feels more like a waddle. There is

[22:10] multiple vehicle segments that just do

[22:12] not function the way that you'd expect

[22:13] them to. The helicopter fights in

[22:15] particular have a very bizarre control

[22:18] scheme that I still do not fully

[22:20] understand. Lateral movement works more

[22:22] or less like you'd expect, even if it

[22:24] feels terrible. But altitude control is

[22:27] semi-automated within a very shallow

[22:31] layer. It's very awkward if you expect

[22:33] the helicopter to control like a

[22:35] helicopter.

[22:40] It's just kind of ugly. Even at the

[22:42] time, Call of Duty games were remarked

[22:44] on for being dominated by shades of

[22:46] brown green brown brown green gray

[22:48] brown, and gray. Online comic strips

[22:51] like VG Cats were already mocking this

[22:53] trend in 2007. And yet, 7 years later,

[22:57] Ghosts somehow takes that and makes it

[22:59] even worse. The brown gay shooter has

[23:01] effectively become an archetype, and

[23:03] Call of Duty Ghosts is its avatar. The

[23:06] game's average color is taupe. This

[23:08] actually brings us to our next point,

[23:10] which will hand off to Folding Ideas

[23:11] Mexican Office.

[23:22] A major marketing point was the hiring

[23:24] of Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven

[23:26] Gagan to pen the script. Now, Gagean won

[23:28] an Oscar for Traffic, a movie with its

[23:31] own, let's say, interesting relationship

[23:33] with Latin America. Traffic can be

[23:36] almost single-handedly credited with

[23:37] convincing audiences that Mexico looks

[23:40] like piss, which in turn became the

[23:42] visual language of hot places that are

[23:44] also dangerous, which became the visual

[23:46] language of war writ large, which is in

[23:48] part why Call of Duty Ghosts looks the

[23:51] way it does. In all fairness to Gagan, I

[23:53] just happen to have a copy of the

[23:55] published shooting script, and it

[23:56] doesn't say anywhere, "Mexico, a land

[23:59] the color of piss. Everything is a shade

[24:01] of piss, even the sky." So that one's

[24:04] more on Solderberg or well Peter Andrews

[24:06] who's just Steven Solderberg with a

[24:08] Carheart Beanie and a Leica. Gage's

[24:10] pedigree as a writer is honestly like

[24:12] most writers a little mixed. He wrote

[24:15] Traffic and Serriiana, but he also wrote

[24:17] Abandoned and The Alamo. And not

[24:20] relevant to Ghosts, but still funny. He

[24:22] would eventually write and direct the

[24:23] 2020 film Dittle starring Robert Downey

[24:26] Jr.

[24:28] >> Oh, good heavens.

[24:29] >> The writing of a video game is

[24:31] complicated. more so for a game like

[24:33] Call of Duty than most. But there are

[24:35] elements that we can pretty safely put

[24:37] in GageN's lap, like the mission

[24:39] briefings with their absolutely tortured

[24:42] stoic pros.

[24:43] >> The sand stuck to their skin like a

[24:45] shroud, changing them, anointing them.

[24:49] >> This is just kind of a whirlpool of

[24:51] hell. The performances aren't saving the

[24:54] script, but the script isn't giving the

[24:57] performers material worth saving.

[25:01] This whole time you you were one of

[25:02] them. You ghost.

[25:04] >> Try the ghost.

[25:09] >> The bulk of the story is very stupid and

[25:11] is plagued with obvious backfills that

[25:13] are emergent from the way that the game

[25:15] is made. The cinematic shooter is so

[25:17] reliant on massive setpiece events that

[25:20] they have become the cart leading the

[25:22] horse. This aspect is basically an open

[25:24] secret of how the game and an

[25:26] embarrassing number of modern

[25:27] blockbusters are made, but it is rarely

[25:30] as obvious as it is with ghosts. Cool

[25:33] moments were devised first. Production

[25:35] was started and artists and coders and

[25:37] scriptors were put to work building a

[25:40] sinking aircraft carrier years before a

[25:42] writer would be sent in to figure out

[25:45] why an aircraft carrier is sinking.

[25:47] After all, enemy gunships and boats just

[25:49] move around on predefined paths. The

[25:52] exact model of helicopter, the flags

[25:54] being flown, or the uniforms on soldiers

[25:56] can all be swapped later. For a big part

[25:59] of the process, they're just floating

[26:01] cubes and other placeholders. Anyway,

[26:04] even the dialogue and character

[26:06] interactions have the hallmarks of being

[26:08] as unintrusive and generic as possible.

[26:12] Characters are mostly an ephemeral

[26:14] presence, barking immediate orders into

[26:16] your ears.

[26:17] >> Siggon Riley, move to the next floor.

[26:19] >> The door's down. Flash now. Keep an eye

[26:21] on your death gauge.

[26:23] >> Clear.

[26:23] >> Clear your charges. Moving. Pick up.

[26:26] >> The why of what you're doing simply

[26:28] needs to be kept to a minimum presence

[26:30] so it can slot in easily at a later

[26:32] time. This is why every mission has on

[26:35] average one moment that actually

[26:37] matters. The character learns or

[26:39] accomplishes one thing frequently by

[26:42] watching a video or reading a document.

[26:44] And the significance of that thing is

[26:46] more often than not shuffled into the

[26:48] interstitial monologues that serve as

[26:50] loading screens. You're sent to blow up

[26:52] an oil derek off the coast of Antarctica

[26:54] in a bluff to lure away the Fed's navy,

[26:56] but that doesn't make any sense. Not as

[26:59] a plan and not as the motivation driving

[27:01] you through the mission. It's simply the

[27:03] results that you're told afterwards. And

[27:05] then later that diverted Navy just shows

[27:08] up and sinks the US's last remaining

[27:10] aircraft carrier. Anyway, the crashed

[27:13] Odin in chapter 2 is so conspicuously

[27:15] unremarked upon that it's entirely

[27:17] possible that it wasn't even decided

[27:19] what rubble the fed soldiers would be

[27:21] searching through at the time the

[27:22] mission was started. Like, not to get

[27:24] repetitive here, but this is the full

[27:26] exchange.

[27:27] >> This is definitely the place.

[27:31] >> Stalker 6, we got something here. Looks

[27:33] like they're building some wreckage.

[27:36] >> What kind of wreckage?

[27:39] >> Not sure. It's guarded, but we're going

[27:41] to push through.

[27:42] >> You don't interact with it. It's

[27:43] surrounded by killer radiation, so you

[27:45] can't try and do anything with it.

[27:47] Merrick and Keegan don't ask about it.

[27:49] And despite the fact that you were sent

[27:51] out explicitly to figure out what the

[27:53] Fed were doing in San Diego, this

[27:56] information is seemingly never relayed.

[27:58] The thought that the Fed is trying to

[28:00] salvage Odin in order to make their own

[28:02] isn't floated as a possibility, even as

[28:05] the characters are watching the Fed

[28:07] launch mystery ballistic missiles that

[28:09] NORAD loses track of after launch.

[28:14] >> NORAD was able to say conclusively, the

[28:17] missile launched in the Yucatan did not

[28:19] hit the USA.

[28:20] >> There isn't even a beat where a

[28:21] character puts two and two together the

[28:23] moment that they walk into the room and

[28:25] see Loki being loaded up. Even the bit

[28:28] with Loki is like, okay, they walk into

[28:30] the room, they see something, there's a

[28:33] bunch of radio chatter about it, and

[28:36] then they move on. This level could be

[28:38] 95% completed without the artists even

[28:43] knowing what's going to go in that slot.

[28:46] These events, these thoughts are all

[28:49] siloed from one another, interacting

[28:51] only through the narrow tunnels between

[28:53] missions. There is simply zero internal

[28:56] cohesion to the story. It's so obviously

[28:58] and shoddily a series of set pieces that

[29:01] were hastily strung together. It's

[29:03] actually difficult to keep them in order

[29:05] in the memory simply because there's so

[29:08] little logical connection between them.

[29:11] In the game, you infiltrate the lab to

[29:13] get files on the missile program, blow

[29:15] up the oil derek to lure away the navy,

[29:17] then sink the last destroyer guarding

[29:19] Brazil so you can sabotage the factory.

[29:21] But we could just as easily make it that

[29:23] during the factory sabotage mission, we

[29:25] uncover Loki. Then we blow up the

[29:26] destroyers so we can get access to the

[29:28] oil Derek, which as a one-two punch will

[29:30] lure the Navy in the Pacific towards the

[29:32] Atlantic so we can infiltrate the lab

[29:34] and steal the access codes needed to

[29:36] subvert Loki. All it would need to

[29:38] replace is a few lines of dialogue and

[29:40] the interstitial monologues. Other

[29:42] missions are less egregious, but never

[29:44] properly escape this artifact of their

[29:46] creation. missions are in the order that

[29:49] makes a reasonable amount of narrative

[29:51] sense while breaking up the mechanics.

[29:57] Many of these set pieces are extremely

[29:59] obvious in their influences. Again, it's

[30:01] basically an open secret that Call of

[30:03] Duty level designers just look for

[30:05] moments from movies and go, "Wouldn't it

[30:07] be cool if you could play that?" But, I

[30:10] don't know. It just feels so hack when

[30:12] the inspiration is so obvious. Ror

[30:15] allows himself to be captured for no

[30:17] particular reason except that it allows

[30:18] the game to recreate the opening of The

[30:20] Dark Knight Rises. One level is lifted

[30:22] in pretty equal measure from The Dark

[30:25] Knight and Transformers: Dark of the

[30:27] Moon.

[30:30] The game doesn't really have mechanics.

[30:32] It has the simulation of mechanics. In a

[30:36] typical game, hell, let's get saucy and

[30:38] say in a real game, the player is given

[30:42] a suite of interactions that they can

[30:43] perform, and it is then given to the

[30:45] player the freedom to figure out how to

[30:47] best string together these interactions

[30:49] to accomplish their goals. Ghosts

[30:51] instead gives you a gun and a context

[30:54] prompt. Things like night vision

[30:55] goggles, thermal optics, the dog Riley,

[30:58] a blinding strobe light, a motion

[31:00] tracker, and gas grenades aren't tools

[31:02] that you are given, tutorialized on, and

[31:04] then expected to deploy at your

[31:06] discretion. They are gimmicks that pop

[31:08] up at predetermined moments and persist

[31:10] in your toolkit for only as long as

[31:13] deemed necessary.

[31:14] >> Logan, sync up with Riley.

[31:17] >> Here we go.

[31:19] Now, there are a lot of compromises that

[31:21] are made in the service of the cinematic

[31:24] in cinematic shooter. The player is

[31:26] ultimately on rather tight rails with

[31:28] little freedom in how they approach the

[31:30] world. This is not inherently bad.

[31:33] Roller coasters are literally on rails

[31:36] and roller coasters are really, really

[31:37] fun. And at a certain level of

[31:39] abstraction, this is true about

[31:41] basically every game with a linear

[31:43] story. Using Doom 2016 as an example,

[31:46] while the player can backtrack through

[31:48] large areas of the game for a

[31:50] substantial chunk of the play time, this

[31:52] is ultimately little more than the

[31:54] freedom to hunt for collectibles as the

[31:57] actual bang bang pew pew rip and tear

[31:59] gameplay remains constrained to a

[32:01] predetermined shoot you must climb into

[32:03] if you want to rip kacadmon eyeballs

[32:05] out.

[32:07] [Music]

[32:08] The argument in favor of rails is that

[32:10] they are needed to provide a kind of

[32:12] tightly crafted experience that a freer

[32:14] sort of sandbox environment just can't

[32:16] deliver. But with that comes an unspoken

[32:19] contract that I as a player am seeding

[32:22] an amount of control in exchange for

[32:24] something impactful and the expectations

[32:26] that the rails will be reasonably well

[32:28] disguised. I shouldn't feel the rails

[32:31] because the path forward should simply

[32:33] be the one that I most want to go down.

[32:36] this way for khaka demons and their

[32:38] eyeballs. Call of Duty Ghost is littered

[32:41] with so many friction points, the poorly

[32:43] laidout levels, the obnoxious

[32:45] characters, the incoherent story that

[32:47] the illusion, the buy in just falls

[32:50] apart. You begin to notice that you're

[32:52] thrust into situations where tools you

[32:54] were given earlier would be useful, but

[32:56] you don't have them because they weren't

[32:58] actually tools in the first place. They

[33:00] were single scene gimmicks. There is a

[33:03] veneer of realism here in the sense that

[33:05] your commandos aren't going to be

[33:07] showing up with the same ever ballooning

[33:10] kit of toys to every single mission. But

[33:13] that realism shreds like tissue paper

[33:15] when a very useful tool like the strobe

[33:18] light is only functional within a single

[33:21] specific room. The fake commitment to

[33:24] realism results in frankly boring

[33:26] gunplay. Well, you will occasionally

[33:28] stumble across a shotgun or machine gun.

[33:31] By and large, you will spend the

[33:32] campaign cycling through a series of

[33:34] indistinct assault rifles. Step after

[33:37] boring step of the game is saturated

[33:39] with barked orders from your commanding

[33:40] officers, who perpetually sound pissed

[33:42] off that they even need to deal with

[33:44] you, giving the distinct impression that

[33:46] the game not only feels obliged to hold

[33:48] your hand, but resents doing it, too.

[33:50] >> You can stick with us, but you do what I

[33:52] say when I say it. Understood? Put all

[33:54] in a package, Ghost is a great

[33:56] simulation of what an escort quest must

[33:58] feel like from the perspective of the

[34:00] NPC.

[34:04] Help! I'm trapped in a numbered list

[34:06] factory. The bosses stole my passport.

[34:08] If you're reading this, tell my wife I'm

[34:10] still alive. Please send rescue.

[34:15] Ghosts are cringe. The amount of

[34:17] worshipful religious pros that is poured

[34:19] out talking about the ghosts is weird

[34:21] and embarrassing, especially given that

[34:23] the source of most of that is Elias

[34:25] talking about himself.

[34:27] >> And this really happened. So, the legend

[34:29] goes,

[34:30] >> but it really reaches the next level

[34:32] after Elias is killed. In the story, the

[34:35] ghosts are a quasi official interdep

[34:36] departmental unit consisting entirely of

[34:39] 14 people. There were 15 soldiers left

[34:41] at the hospital. One of them was sent to

[34:43] escort evacuees. 14 stayed behind to be

[34:47] anointed by sand. That event in and of

[34:49] itself is within the lifetime of all of

[34:52] the games characters. Merrick, Ror,

[34:54] Elias, Ajax, and Keegan were all there.

[34:57] They are first generation ghosts. Logan

[35:00] and Hash are implied to be the first

[35:02] initiated ghosts ever. From the events

[35:05] of the game, the ghosts are depicted as

[35:06] both quite new, very exclusive, and

[35:09] badass to the point that prior to Ror

[35:11] killing Ajax, the unit has suffered zero

[35:13] confirmed casualties. So, with all of

[35:16] this framing, it's all just so deeply

[35:19] cringe when Hesh spends a loading screen

[35:21] detailing all the ghosterary rights and

[35:24] customs like they're a deeply rooted

[35:26] tradition with generations of practice.

[35:29] In the event a ghost is killed, his

[35:32] remains are placed face down with his

[35:34] head pointed in the direction of his

[35:36] home, his weapon next to him. We do it

[35:39] this way so that when our fallen are

[35:41] taken to the other side, they can watch

[35:43] over us and keep an eye on our enemy.

[35:49] Let's talk about the dog. Ghost had two

[35:51] big elements that became the backbone of

[35:53] the marketing campaign for the game. The

[35:55] lesser of these is the affforementioned

[35:57] hiring of Oscar-winning screenwriter

[35:59] Steven Gagan to pen the script. The big

[36:01] one was Riley the dog.

[36:04] >> This is someone you care about. This is

[36:05] a squad member. He does everything from

[36:08] sniffing out explosives to protecting

[36:10] the team.

[36:10] >> Riley is only mechanically available to

[36:13] the player in two chapters. He's less

[36:15] like a squad member and more like a

[36:17] specialty grenade that you have access

[36:19] to for three specific gunfights. He's

[36:22] barely in the game. There's a whole

[36:24] thing in chapter 14. That's the one

[36:26] where your dad dies and Riley kind of

[36:28] appears out of nowhere and then gets

[36:29] shot and you need to carry him through

[36:31] the rest of the level. After that, they

[36:33] show him at the start of the aircraft

[36:34] carrier mission, the one where the

[36:36] carrier sinks. But since there's a 3

[36:38] days later fade in between, Riley is

[36:41] just sort of quietly ushered out of

[36:43] existence in the uncertainty of that

[36:46] transition.

[36:50] The political undercurrents of the story

[36:52] are repulsive and reflect the madness of

[36:54] an America trapped in a quagmire of its

[36:56] own making and desperate for a new

[36:57] villain. Diagetically, America is on the

[37:00] backfoot, is in decline following the

[37:02] collapse of the quote energy producing

[37:05] deserts and is embroiled in a defensive

[37:07] war against a superior foe. At least

[37:10] that's what we're told. Since so much of

[37:12] the story is really about Ror's personal

[37:13] grudge, the geopolitics sink into the

[37:15] distant background. America being in

[37:17] some nebulous decline is simply the

[37:19] prerequisite to justify the conflict to

[37:22] make it a fair fight. America built an

[37:24] orbital weapon of mass destruction when

[37:26] they were in decline. So, you know, take

[37:29] that for what it's worth. So, let's

[37:31] actually look at how ROR fits into all

[37:33] of this thematically. We have this soup

[37:36] of action set pieces strung together by

[37:38] a plot written around them. What emerges

[37:41] from that soup? The theme that comes

[37:43] through loud and clear is that Ror gives

[37:46] the Fed their potency. The plan to

[37:48] hijack Odin is cooked up by Ror. The

[37:51] attack on Santa Monica is Ror and Loki

[37:54] is Ror's doing. All the various filler

[37:56] tasks ultimately revolve around getting

[37:58] ahead of Ror. Ror is an attempt at

[38:02] dracializing an inherently racialized

[38:05] conflict. You simply cannot have a

[38:07] conflict between the United States and

[38:10] Venezuela without invoking the spectre

[38:13] of US interventionism in South America.

[38:17] >> What do you mean by political?

[38:18] >> That doesn't mean anything, right? The

[38:20] question is this a political game

[38:22] doesn't actually mean anything because

[38:25] it it's what does the word political

[38:27] mean to you? Do we touch topics that

[38:31] bear a resemblance to the geopolitics of

[38:35] the world we live in today? Hell yeah.

[38:36] Cuz this is the the that is the subject

[38:39] matter of modern warfare.

[38:40] >> Despite the developers insistence their

[38:42] games are simply good sugary fun that

[38:45] happens to resemble something in the

[38:48] shape of geopolitics, kind of like a

[38:50] candy cigarette. They do remain aware of

[38:53] the implications of the things they make

[38:55] and in the early teens were visibly

[38:58] sensitive to the push back. They

[39:00] received criticism for how the Arab

[39:01] factions in Call of Duty 4 were depicted

[39:04] with a nuclear suicide bombing. So,

[39:07] Modern Warfare 2 instead revolves around

[39:09] the threat of a duplicitous US general.

[39:12] And then in Modern Warfare 3, it was

[39:15] revealed that the nuke had actually been

[39:17] the machinations not of al-Assad, but of

[39:20] that game's antagonist, Vladimir

[39:23] Macarov. Ror is, in one sense, a safe

[39:26] antagonist. It makes the game about

[39:28] Americans fighting Americans, white

[39:30] people fighting a white person whose

[39:33] most vocal motivation is simple revenge.

[39:36] However, in the same way that the levels

[39:38] are generic vessels for McGuffins to be

[39:40] placed into at a later date, the natural

[39:43] end point of a production pipeline that

[39:45] demands endless crunch, ROR is the end

[39:48] point of corporate cowardice. There is a

[39:51] potentially insightful conclusion down

[39:53] the path of the greatest threat to

[39:55] America is America itself, but this is

[39:58] not that. The message here isn't civil.

[40:01] It's not suggesting that America has

[40:03] invested so much in outward strength

[40:05] that it has become internally brittle

[40:07] that the contradictions of American

[40:09] existence threaten the concept of

[40:11] America itself. The vulnerability isn't

[40:14] American hubris. The vulnerability is

[40:17] American subversion. The game plays to

[40:19] the sensibilities of an America in

[40:21] tension with the war on terror, the war

[40:23] in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan. As

[40:26] these wars were solidly entering their

[40:27] second decade, the narrative of a

[40:29] righteous war, always suspect in the

[40:32] first place was decidedly faltering.

[40:34] America's presence was clearly not a

[40:36] stabilizing force and they had become an

[40:39] intractable quagmire. So in Ghosts, the

[40:41] Middle East is simply written out of the

[40:43] picture in passive voice. The

[40:45] destruction of the oil producing

[40:47] deserts. No one's fault, just a thing

[40:49] that happened. The Fed, which is to say

[40:51] South America, is described as invasive,

[40:54] creeping, consuming, uninexurable force

[40:56] moving northwards to take over America

[40:59] for no reason but conquest. In the

[41:01] cutscenes, they are an organic oily mass

[41:03] crawling across the map and staining it.

[41:05] They are a perverting force, a

[41:07] subverting enemy that will invade

[41:08] American space, take America's things,

[41:11] and turn them against America. The enemy

[41:14] is both impossibly strong and utterly

[41:16] impotent. Their power is not strength in

[41:18] their own right, but their ability to

[41:20] pervert. Ror does not become

[41:22] disillusioned with America. That's not

[41:25] why he switches sides. While he

[41:27] definitely harbors a grudge against

[41:28] specific individuals, his heel turn is

[41:30] fully explained as brainwashing. He is

[41:33] tortured and drugged and converted into

[41:36] their ghost. And you know, there's that

[41:38] imagery. As the Federation torturers go

[41:41] to work on his soul, the whiteness is

[41:43] literally blasted off him and black

[41:45] crystals rupture out of his body as he

[41:47] becomes their operative. In an attempt

[41:50] at telling an underdog story, Ghost

[41:52] creates a world where American paranoia

[41:54] is fully justified, where American

[41:56] orbital weapons are good and right, but

[41:58] Federation orbital weapons are an

[42:00] abomination and also decidedly less

[42:02] potent, but more numerous. It is a world

[42:04] where the Fed is wrong to see America as

[42:06] an existential threat and behave

[42:08] accordingly. But it is simply pragmatic

[42:10] for America to assassinate Federation

[42:13] leadership. The hordes are coming.

[42:14] They're sending their murderers, their

[42:16] drug dealers, and their rapists to

[42:18] corrupt America. The wall is simply a

[42:21] necessity.

[42:24] [Applause]

[42:38] I don't think much if any of this is

[42:40] intentional. Rather, it is my belief

[42:42] that Call of Duty Ghosts is a

[42:44] thoughtless product. These are the

[42:46] consequences of a bad, albeit

[42:49] Oscar-winning writer simply trying to

[42:51] paint a broadstroke scene to efficiently

[42:54] communicate a stupid plot to an

[42:56] inattentive audience after he was handed

[42:58] a pile of half-built set pieces and a

[43:00] vague corporate mandate for the overall

[43:03] shape and tone. But in that

[43:05] thoughtlessness, in the reliance on

[43:07] stereotype and trope, Ghost tapped into

[43:10] an anxiety of the moment it was created

[43:12] in a desperate need for America to be

[43:15] righteous and justified, for its

[43:17] paranoia to be a foresight of something

[43:20] real. Given that we are now living in

[43:23] the consequences of that paranoia, the

[43:26] odious results of that anxiety, I find

[43:29] Call of Duty Ghosts repulsive. The worst

[43:32] game I have ever played.

[43:37] Wow, that sure was an episode, wasn't

[43:39] it? And to think he didn't even get

[43:41] around to mentioning the fish AI, the

[43:44] role of NORAD as the US military's head

[43:47] command, seemingly implying that Canada

[43:49] has been annexed, the controversy of the

[43:52] developers reusing motion capture data

[43:54] from Modern Warfare 2, the reality of

[43:57] American energy production, or the fact

[43:59] that Eminem song Survival was released

[44:01] as a pre-order bonus. Well, anyway, it's

[44:04] a long way back to Canada from here in

[44:06] Mexico where I most certainly am because

[44:09] I am in Mexico and most definitely not

[44:11] in southern Alberta. So, I'm going to

[44:13] get right on mossying. Until next time,

[44:16] keep your tango frosty and your LZ

[44:18] cleared.