History VideoGame / CallOfDutyGhosts

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Federation are explicitly genocidal savages who, inexplicably, incorporate a number of resurrected YellowPeril tropes including "exotic Amazonian torture methods" and [[ManchurianAgent Manchurian agents]]. One of the first things we see Federation soldiers doing is executing civilians in the first level. Meanwhile, the Ghosts are, well, standard ''[=CoD=]'' protagonists, even being less morally ambiguous than the SAS/Task Force 141 from ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''.
** Most telling is what both sides do when they [[spoiler: commandeer their enemy's [[KillSat orbiting Kill Sats]]. The Federation launches kinetic rods at American cities, killing 27 million innocent people in a matter of minutes. They were targeting additional cities for destruction when Mosley and Baker destroyed the ODIN satellite, it's implied they were ready and willing to glass EVERY major city in North America. No military targets are ever mentioned. In contrast, when the Americans take control of LOKI, they only attack Federation military forces directly engaged in combat with them at sea or in the middle of the desert.]]

The tenth game in the popular FPS series ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''Ghosts'' was [[StillbornFranchise intended to be]] the start of an entirely new subseries for the franchise by acclaimed [=writer/director=] [[Film/{{Traffic}} Stephen]] [[Film/{{Syriana}} Gaghan]]. However, his talent and Hollywood success did not extend to the first-person shooter realm, and the ''Ghosts'' brand and storyline was retired after this one installment due to lackluster sales and criticism of its plot and villains.

The tenth game in the popular FPS franchise ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', ''Ghosts'' brings in a new story with all new characters.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than ''Videogame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2'' and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps3'' (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The President of Venezuela aka "The Boss" who is the leader of the Federation. Though Rorke is the Big Bad responsible for the plot, it's revealed in the rorke files that he's taking orders from him.He's also the one who ordered him to capture Logan so he can be turned into a ManchurianAgent.Though he never physically appears in the game.It is likely he will be in the sequel.

* ManbehindtheMan: while Rorke is leading the Federation military forces,Its made clear he's not the leader and even reveals in his flies that he's taking orders from his superior who just so happens to be "The Boss".

* TheDreaded: In the Rorke flies Rorke mentions that his "Boss" has no problem getting rid of his soldiers to capture another ghost.

* TheGhost: The leader of the entire Federation is mentioned a few times in the collectible intel items,but is never seen or referred to by name in the game.Rorke seems to hold him in great respect though,indicating he's a pretty dangerous dude.

* TheGhost: the leader of the entire Federation is mentioned a few times in the collectible intel items,but is never seen or referred to by name in the game.Rorke seems to hold him in great respect though,indicating he's a pretty dangerous dude.

* BiggerBad: The leader of the Federation is mentioned a few times in the collectible intel items, but is never seen or referred to by name in the game. Rorke seems to hold him in great respect, though, indicating he's a pretty dangerous dude.

* [[spoiler: TheStinger: After getting captured by Rorke, the last thing shown after the credits is of Logan being imprisoned in a hole in the Amazon.]]

* BiggerBad: Arguably the Ancestors in the grand scheme of things, as they are bringing about [[TitleDrop the extinction]] of the human race. They can command the different Cryptid species, take an insane amount of damage - comparable to a Breeder or Kraken - and have powerful psychic abilities. And they can form a barrier that negates any damage...

* WhiteMan'sBurden: [[Invoked]] by the Federation, who are depicted as so incompetent that they need to kidnap a white guy to lead their forces.

** The start of the battle to capture the Federation Space station is remarkably similar to the space battle in Moonraker

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: Besides the obligatory vehicle sections, ''Ghosts'' mixes things up a bit with an underwater scuba level and a final battle in outer space, apparently drawing inspiration from the James Bond films ''Thunderball'' and '' Moonraker'' respectively.

** The Federation commandos' rescue of Rorke is pulled from [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises]].

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps3'' (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps3'' (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/AdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/BlackOpsIII'' (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3 (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: Infinite Warfare. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

** AlternateContinuity: ''Ghosts'' is the only ''Call of Duty'' game that explicitly rules out being in the same continuity as the other games in the series[[note]]the timelines of the ''Modern Warfare'' and ''Black Ops'' trilogies -- counting ''World at War'', for which ''Black Ops'' is explicitly a sequel -- don't directly contradict each other, and one of the ''Black Ops'' Intel files ''hints'' at mentioning ''Modern Warfare''[='=]s Captain Price; returning the favor, one of Makarov's former associates in ''MW3'' was Lev Kravchenko[[/note]].

** AlternateContinuity: ''Ghosts'' is the only ''Call of Duty'' game that explicitly rules out being in the same continuity as the other games in the series[[note]]the timelines of the ''Modern Warfare'' and ''Black Ops'' trilogies -- counting ''World at War'', for which ''Black Ops'' is explicitly a sequel -- don't directly contradict each other, and one of the ''Black Ops'' Intel files ''hints'' at mentioning ''Modern Warfare''[='=]s Captain Price[[/note]].

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ModernWarfare trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than Videogame/CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to it not taking or improving anything from its predecessor and implementing some pace-breaking design choices, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3 (gameplay & aesthetics-wise) and sub-series kickstart: Infinite Warfare. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Federation are explicitly genocidal savages who, inexplicably, incorporate a number of resurrected YellowPeril tropes including "exotic Amazonian torture methods" and [[ManchurianAgent Manchurian agents]]. One of the first things we see Federation soldiers doing is executing civilians in the first level. Meanwhile, the Ghosts are, well, standard [=COD=] protagonists, even being less morally ambiguous than the SAS/Task Force 141 from ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''.

* BreakoutCharacter: While he's not personally in this game, Ghost from ''Modern Warfare 2'' was popular enough that the creators saw fit to model the entire unit after him.

* CallBack: The masks of the Ghosts are a modified version of the mask worn by Modern Warfare 2's Ghost. In addition, the dog's name is Riley, named after Ghost's real name (Simon Riley).

* SequelDifficultySpike: The main campaign is pretty standard ''Call of Duty'' difficulty, but the Safeguard co-op game mode is significantly more difficult than the similar Survival Mode from ''Modern Warfare 3''. You can survive much less damage in Safeguard compared to Survival Mode, while enemies have much more health and are super aggressive.

* AbortedArc: This game was meant to kickstart the spiritual successor series of the ModernWarfare trilogy in tone and gameplay. However, the game ended up selling way less than CallofDutyBlackOps2 and its reception was mostly mixed due to FranchiseStagnation, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3 and sub-series kickstart: Infinite Warfare. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up or ending.

** [[spoiler:Plus, it's apparent from the ending that Rorke is intent on turning Logan into somebody just like himself: a Federation-loyal Ghost-killer. Just like how Darth Vader attempted to turn Luke to the dark side.]]