Infinity Ward Goes Behind the Scenes of Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts will be made with a new engine, feature customizable multiplayer avatars, and give players a tactical pooch to befriend in the single player game.

Thanks to some leaky retailers the gaming world has know of the existence of Call of Duty: Ghosts for several weeks now. In spite of the spilled beans, Activision and Infinity Ward have stayed mum on the game, until today. Though the star of the show was obviously the newly named Xbox One, Activision used the console’s reveal event as an opportunity to officially unveil the latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise.

Central to Ghosts’ presentation was the idea of connecting the player more deeply with the game’s story, which takes place in a post-“event” United States where the American military has been defeated and you and your comrades are struggling to fight back against an un-designated foe. To inject some more emotion Activision enlisted Steven Gaghan, who won an Academy Award for writing Traffic, to help to craft a story that should take players a few steps away from the gung-ho nature of previous games. “They wanted emotional reality,” said Gaghan. “They wanted these characters to feel real.”

One character the developers seem to hope you’ll connect to is a new canine companion that will join your soldiers in combat. “One of the fascinating new editions to your squad is a dog,” said executive producer Mark Rubin. “This is someone you care about, this is a squad member. He does everything from sniffing out explosives to protecting the team.” His real world counterpart also looks adorable in his/her motion capture get-up.

Ghosts will be made using a new engine tailored to next-gen consoles. The presentation, in turn, did well showing off Ghosts’ visuals and how positively they compare to current Call of Duties. The new engine will be put to good use in various parts of the game, including multiplayer where players will be able to interact with dynamic environments, set traps and customize their own avatar for online play. The Xbox One will also have the benefit of timed exclusivity for all DLC.