History VideoGame / CallOfDutyGhosts

** Toward the end of the prologue, there's an amazing SceneryGorn shot of San Diego being destroyed by ODIN's projectiles while Elias, Logan, and Hesh are driving away in the truck. However, they're looking down on Downtown from a road on a hillside-- a vantage point that doesn't actually exist in that part of San Diego (at least, not with an unobstructed view of the waterfront). Their neighborhood also seems more in line with neighborhoods like Carmel Mountain and Rancho Bernardo in northern San Diego, many miles away from downtown

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
** The Federation manages to land helicopters on a U.S. aircraft carrier that is surrounded by escort ships. In real life, any helicopter that attempted to land on a hostile aircraft carrier would be shot down by the carrier group's air defenses.

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

** [[spoiler:A Black Ops leader being brainwashed into going rogue harkens back to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps''.]]

* DayOfTheJackboot: Unlike most examples of InvadedStatesOfAmerica, an alliance of South American states establishing themselves as a global superpower and invading the United States is a more realistic scenario than, say, [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld China]] or [[VideoGame/{{Homefront}} North Korea]] [[note]]China's relationship with the United States is more of an EnemyMine relationship where they are so economically dependent on each other that it is implausible for China to militarily invade the United States *yet.* And North Korea is laughingly poor economically and militarily; even China, North Korean's ally, is turning against them for their recent nuclear weapons program. And this doesn't even factor in the logistical nightmare of transporting an invasion force large enough to threaten the US across the Pacific Ocean[[/note]]. This is because, according to WordOfGod, South America is known to have a rich variety of natural resources, and this isn't far from TruthInTelevision in countries such as Brazil. [[note]]Venezuela, a country known to politically hate the United States thanks to Hugo Chavez and his continuing popularity post-mortem, and a long-standing history of bad blood between most of South America and old Cold War mentality propping up dictatorships, would have been close to Brazil with their petroleum reserves, but poor government management prevented this country from being so.[[/note]]
** South America's also closer to the U.S. than China or North Korea is, and they don't have to cross a gigantic ocean to invade it.

* DiabolusExMachina:[[spoiler: The game ends with Hesh and Logan, badly injured, finally able to kill Rorke, and savoring US's victory over the Federation, [[KillSat namely turning their own LOKI satellite on them]]. Logan turns for a breath, only to see [[NotQuiteDead Rorke himself]], brutally beating them up and taking away Logan to turn him into a loyal [[ManchurianAgent Federation Agent]]. Hesh's pleading screams don't help the matter.]]

* TheEmpire: The Federation (no, not that [[TheFederation Federation]]) is a ruthless, militaristic superpower based in South America whose goals seem to be nothing short of controlling the entire western hemisphere. To accomplish this they are quite willing to use torture, brainwashing, attacks against civilians, and weapons of mass destruction.

* 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/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' and its reception was mixed at best, with its online player population being only the half that of ''Black Ops II'', prompting Infinity Ward to follow on with a quasi-successor in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' and another sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare''. Consequently, players of this game were left with with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up.
* ActionGirl: Female soldiers are playable for the first time in multiplayer, not counting VideoGame/NaziZombies. A female astronaut named Kyra Mosley also briefly serves as your combat partner in the prologue mission. After the prologue, though, there are no notable female characters in the story.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Yes, guns ''can'' shoot in space, though obviously not as well as they do in atmosphere.[[note]]Even if the gunpowder is self-oxidizing to allow the gun to fire in space, exposure to vacuum may flash-evaporate the lubrication, to say nothing of leftover heat from firing [[{{Overheating}} having nowhere to radiate away from the gun]], meaning the parts would expand and prevent movement.[[/note]] And yes, there ''do'' exist guns that were specifically designed to fire bullets while underwater.

* 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/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' and its reception was mixed at best, with its online player population being only the half that of ''Black Ops II'', prompting Infinity Ward to follow on with a quasi-successor in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' and another sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players of this game with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up.

* HeroicMime: Much like previous ''Call of Duty'' games by Infinity Ward, the player character in ''Ghosts'' never speaks.

* TokenMinority: Ajax is the only black member of the Ghosts.
** And he is promptly killed off early in the game.

** The Federation manages to land helicopters on a U.S. aircraft carrier that is surrounded by escort ships, with none of them being shot down by missiles from the carrier or its escort ships.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Averted. It turns out that 12 years ago, the Ghosts assassinated the leader of the Federation, General Almagro. Obviously, this did not cause the Federation to collapse like they thought it would.

* 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/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' and its reception was mixed at best, with its online player population being only the half that of ''Black Ops II'', prompting Infinity Ward to follow on with a quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' and another sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players of this game with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up.

** In the same mission, Elias says that the Federation committed ''genocide'' against the North Americans in South America. Not only is this a downright pathetic and borderline offensive attempt at trying to make the Americans look like the oppressed minority, Rorke is obviously an American citizen who has not been killed, and in fact works for the Federation.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The Federation appear to have no real motive other than "blow up America", which they seem to want solely because they're the antagonists in a ''Call of Duty'' game. The entire faction has only four characters from it: Victor Ramos, TheDragon who appears for all of five minutes; General Almargo, who is there solely to be an assassination target and doesn't even have any lines; the leader of the Federation, who is TheGhost, and again has no lines; and Rorke, who was brainwashed into supporting the Federation (rather than performing a genuine FaceHeelTurn, so we have none of that pesky "character depth" getting in the way; his entire character consists of [[FlatCharacter wanting to kill the Ghosts for abandoning him]]) and thus can't show us any insight into their motives. We get no insight into their history, culture, or even their ideology. They seem to exist solely so that the Ghosts can commit all the [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene war crimes]] they want without looking bad.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Federation forces are in full retreat and their [=LOKI=] kinetic weapons platform has been taken over by American forces, but Rourke is still alive and he has captured Logan (who he intends to torture and turn into a fellow Ghost-killer).]]

* {{Homage}}: A few players have noted that ''Ghosts'' has several similarities to ''Franchise/StarWars''. Both feature good guys fighting for freedom against an explicitly evil empire (the Federation), Rourke is a former hero has fallen to the dark side similar to Darth Vader, and Elias Walker fills the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The game even has its own Death Star subsitutes in the form of kinetic weapons satellites.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:At the end of the game, Hesh calls down a freakin' ''rod strike'' for the ''sole'' purpose of killing Rourke, and not even it manages to succeed.]]

* UnreliableNarrator: Elias, when talking about the mission to assassinate Almagro, claims that Rorke was totally obsessed with killing him. When we play the actual level, the only implication that he's obsessed is when he shoots down Merrick's suggestion to abandon the mission entirely. Considering Merrick's reasoning for abandoning the mission is flimsy at best (if anything, the town being flooded would make their mission ''easier'' due to the Federation destroying most of their own men and the survivors in disarray), Rorke's decision comes off as fairly rational. Neither Ajax or Elias say a word in support of Merrick, either.

** Toward the end of the prologue, there's an amazing SceneryGorn shot of San Diego being destroyed by ODIN's projectiles while Elias, Logan, and Hesh are driving away in the truck. However, they're looking down on Downtown from a road on a hillside-- a vantage point that doesn't actually exist in that part of San Diego (at least, not with an unobstructed view of the waterfront). Their neighborhood also seems more in line with neighborhoods like Carmel Mountain and Rancho Bernardo in northern San Diego, many dozen miles away from downtown

The tenth game in the popular FPS series ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', developed by Infinity Ward, ''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.

* 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/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' and its reception was mostly mixed with its online player population being only the half of Black Ops 2, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up.

* AlienInvasion: Due to the popularity of the "Zombies" gameplay mode in the Treyarch-made ''Call of Duty'' games, Infinity Ward has included a new multiplayer mode in ''Ghosts'' titled "Extinction" where teams of players must defend an area against waves of attacking aliens.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Yes, guns ''can'' shoot in space. And yes, there ''do'' exist guns that were specifically designed to fire bullets while underwater.

** The Federation manages to land helicopters on a U.S. aircraft carrier that is surrounded by escort ships, with none of them being shot down by the carrier's missiles, or the escort ships' missiles.

* BreakoutCharacter: While he's not personally in this game, Ghost from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' was popular enough that the creators saw fit to model the entire unit after him.
* ButtMonkey / TraumaCongaLine: ''Ghosts'' is pretty much just one entire middle finger to Logan. So, the game starts off with him getting viciously thrown around by KillSat blasts that completely demolishes his entire hometown and probably kills all of his friends, all at age 16. So then, a decade later after becoming a Ghost, he falls out of a plane and plummets into an enemy-swarmed jungle all alone, and escapes by flinging himself off a waterfall, then he's shot in the stomach at point blank range (never gets any medical treatment for that by the way) and is then is forced to [[spoiler:shoot his father several times in the chest by Rorke before watching him get his brains blown out right before his eyes. So then Hesh and Logan go on a revenge-mission where Logan gets his ass brutally handed to him by Rorke, then the train they're on gets bombed and they're sent to the bottom of the ocean, where Logan is further beaten by Rorke and the two brothers just barely save themselves from drowning. So after finally killing the man who killed their dad, it turns out that Rorke is ''still'' alive, who promptly boots the recovering-from-nearly-drowning-after-a-train-crash Logan in the face, ''completely shatters his arm'', and drags him away from Hesh where he's then taken to the Amazon to be tortured in a hole for months until his mind is completely shattered and he's brainwashed into callously killing the Ghosts, his only friends and his own brother. ''Jesus''. ''Christ''.]]

* 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 with its online player population being only the half of Black Ops 2, prompting Infinity Ward to develop the quasi-successor to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps3'' and sub-series kickstart: ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. Leaving players with an incomplete story and SuddenDownerEnding with no follow up.

** The player also had to defend an aircraft carrier against being boarded in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2''.

* NextSundayAD: ''Ghosts'' and ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2 Black Ops 2]]'' both take place in roughly the same future time period. However, while ''Black Ops 2'' had many explicitly Sci-Fi technologies, almost all of the weapons and equipment seen in ''Ghosts'' are modern real-world gear, with the major exception of the orbital kinetic strike satellites. Justified in that being bombed into the stone age has restricted U.S. tech growth, while the Federation is an upstart nation that has had a lot of catching up to do in a very short period of time.

* ColonyDrop: The cataclysm that wrecked the United States was caused by the Federation hacking a kinetic weapons satellite and having it fire at major cities.

* {{Homage}}: A few players have noted that ''Ghosts'' has several similarities to ''Film/StarWars''. Both feature good guys fighting for freedom against an explicitly evil empire (the Federation), Rourke is a former hero has fallen to the dark side similar to Darth Vader, and Elias Walker fills the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The game even has its own Death Star subsitutes in the form of kinetic weapons satellites.

* IdiotBall: In "All or Nothing", the ''lands helicopters'' on an American aircraft carrier while the carrier's crew and escort ships all apparently forget how to use their point defenses.

** During the defense of Santa Monica, Logan takes control of drone A-10 fighters at several points in order to keep attacking Federation soldiers at bay. However, on one run, the drone he's controlling gets shot down and it crashes into drone control, effectively causing Santa Monica's defenses to collapse.

* SuddenDownerEnding:[[spoiler: The game ends with Hesh and Logan, badly injured, finally able to kill Rorke, and savoring US's victory over the Federation, [[KillSat namely turning their own LOKI satellite on them]]. Logan turns for a breath, only to see [[NotQuiteDead Rorke himself]], brutally beating them up and taking away Logan to turn him into a loyal [[ManchurianAgent Federation Agent]]. Hesh's pleading screams don't help the matter.]]

** 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, Lev Kravchenko was mentioned in ''[=MW3=]'' as a former associated of Makarov's[[/note]].

* [[YanksWithTanks Yanks with Tanks....and GHOSTS!]]: Well what did you think an InvadedStatesOfAmerica storyline would feature...the Germans?