History YMMV / CallOfDutyGhosts

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: After the Venezuelan economy collapsed in 2016 and the country spiraled into a political crisis, its depiction as a military superpower capable of attacking the United States became a lot less believable.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The United States government as a whole. The game expects players to be horrified when ODIN is hijacked and used against the US, but no mention is ever made of the fact that ODIN's very existence was a massive departure from real world policy against militarization of space.

** After getting a range buff, the Bizon became the most powerful SMG in the game, if not the most powerful gun in general. You could throw a muzzle brake on the Bizon and have the Steady Aim perk, and you had a gun that puts even Black Ops 2's SMGs to shame. You could just hose everybody by the hip. The gun was immediately nerfed back to its pre-patch state in May 2014 after outrage from the community.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** A flashback mission set in 2015 features an American surprise attack on Venezuela to assassinate a general. In 2019, an uprising attempt, backed by certain US politicians, largely failed.
** Moreover, after the Venezuelan economy collapsed in 2016 and the country spiraled into a political crisis, its depiction as a military superpower capable of attacking the United States became a lot less believable.

* TheScrappy: Gabriel Rorke is seemingly the least-liked villain in the series, chiefly due to his lack of charisma, [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil flimsy backstory]], and ability to have everything magically go his way at the drop of a hat. What sealed the deal however was [[spoiler:[[AssPull surviving being shot point-blank with a revolver]] ''and'' emerging from a train wreck not even mildly inconvenienced to get the last laugh on the heroes]].

** The first few levels of the game lean into the idea of a ''Call of Duty'' game in a post-apocalyptic setting akin to ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', but it doesn't last long before the game diverts back to old territory like base infiltration, tank battles and the like.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: To say the story is rather jingoistic would be the understatement of the decade, [[UpToEleven even more so than prior games that drew similar concerns.]] The United States are portrayed as heroic and justified at every turn despite having the equivalent of a space station ''orbital cannon'' without any explanation beyond for deterrence as to why, the Aesop of the Walker family strongly pushes the idea that it's a father's duty to prepare his son(s) for military service for the sake of the country, and the South American Federation troops are unanimously AlwaysChaoticEvil, civilian-slaughtering, America-hating bad guys in the most offensive way possible. Whereas prior Infinity Ward games had multiple perspectives and tried to at least show internal strife even in the [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare Ultranationalist Russians]] while emphasizing very specific villains being the real cause of turmoil, the only villains worth noting in ''Ghosts'' are Rorke, a traitor to America who wants to burn everything down because of an extremely stereotypical and infamous line of "[[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil Amazonian torture techniques]]", and the late General Diego Almagro, who wanted to straight up [[FinalSolution kill all US citizens]] with no reason given.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: To say the story is rather jingoistic would be the understatement of the decade, [[UpToEleven even more so than prior games that drew similar concerns.]] The United States are portrayed as heroic and justified at every turn despite having the equivalent of a space station ''orbital cannon'' without any explanation beyond for deterrence as to why, the Aesop of the Walker family strongly pushes the idea that it's a father's duty to prepare his son(s) for military service for the sake of the country, and the South American Federation troops are unanimously AlwaysChaoticEvil, civilian-slaughtering, America-hating bad guys in the most offensive way possible. Whereas prior Infinity Ward games had multiple perspectives and tried to at least show internal strife even in the [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare Ultranationalist Russians]] while emphasizing very specific villains being the real cause of turmoil, the only villain worth noting in ''Ghosts'' is Rorke, a traitor to America who wants to burn everything down because of an extremely stereotypical line of "[[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil Amazonian torture techniques]]".

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: To say the story is rather jingoistic would be the understatement of the decade, [[UpToEleven even more so than prior games that drew similar concerns.]] The United States are portrayed as heroic and justified at every turn despite having the equivalent of a space station ''orbital cannon'' without any explanation beyond for deterrence as to why, the Aesop of the Walker family strongly pushes the idea that it's a father's duty to prepare his son(s) for military service for the sake of the country, and the South American Federation troops are unanimously civilian-slaughtering, America-hating bad guys in the most tacticool Hollywood way possible. Whereas prior Infinity Ward games had multiple perspectives and tried to at least show internal strife even in the [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare Ultranationalist Russians]] while emphasizing very specific villains being the real cause of turmoil, the only villain worth noting in ''Ghosts'' is Rorke, a traitor to America who wants to burn everything down because of an extremely stereotypical line of "[[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil Amazonian torture techniques]]".

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: To say the story is rather jingoistic would be the understatement of the decade, [[UpToEleven even more so than prior games that drew similar concerns.]] The United States are portrayed as heroic and justified at every turn despite having the equivalent of a space station ''orbital cannon'' hovering in orbit without any explanation as to why, the Aesop of the Walker family strongly pushes the idea that it's a father's duty to prepare his son(s) for military service for the sake of the country, and the South American Federation troops are unanimously civilian-slaughtering, America-hating bad guys in the most tacticool Hollywood way possible. Whereas prior Infinity Ward games had multiple perspectives and tried to at least show internal strife even in the [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare Ultranationalist Russians]] while emphasizing very specific villains being the real cause of turmoil, the only villain worth noting in ''Ghosts'' is Rorke, a traitor to America who wants to burn everything down because of an extremely stereotypical line of "[[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil Amazonian torture techniques]]".

* {{Narm}}: How over the top the whole story is. The bad guys have not one single redeeming trait and just end up being so incredibly generic they make you wonder why they even bothered.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Due to the complaints about the standard game having many maps that are too big that slowed the pace of the game and encouraged heavy camping, Infinity Ward offered several small to medium-range maps in their [=DLC=] map packs. These map packs came too late as many players had already abandoned ''Ghosts'' and went back to older [=CoD=] titles before the first map pack was released.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There are virtually no likeable characters. Logan is a [[FeaturelessProtagonist blank slate]] who follows his father and brother with BlindObedience, Elias sends his children out into warzones without the slightest hint of concern for their safety and put them through TrainingFromHell at a very early age, Hesh is bland with [[DullSurprise terrible voice acting]], Merrick is a murderous BloodKnight who executes unarmed workers, Keegan is a FlatCharacter whose sole burst of characterization is his execution of an [[KickTheDog unarmed soldier begging for his life]], Ajax is the TokenMinority who [[BlackDudeDiesFirst dies moments after we first meet him]] and is [[ForgottenFallenFriend completely forgotten about another few moments later]], and Kick is a MauveShirt with no personality whatsoever who doesn't even need to die [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome for the game to forget to include him]]. RootingForTheEmpire is also off the table, as the villains are all genocidal racists who want to murder all Americans [[GenericDoomsdayVillain for reasons never elaborated on]], and of the four important ones, two show up for only one level before dying, and another is the leader of the villains, who never appears in person or is even given a name. The only one of them with any development is Rorke, who not only has a [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil crappy motivation]] (he [[FaceHeelTurn had been a member of the Ghosts]], but then another Ghost was forced to drop him from some scaffolding that was going to give out under their combined weight and kill them all, so now [[ItsAllAboutMe he wants to kill them]]), but is also an InvincibleVillain with PlotArmor so thick that [[spoiler:even when you kill him in the finale by shooting him directly in the face with his own HandCannon and leaving him to drown in a train that crashed into the water, he ultimately wins by literally [[UnexplainedRecovery coming back from the dead with no explanation]] five minutes later]]. All of the one-off playable characters are interchangeable {{Heroic Mime}}s with just as little definition as Logan, leaving perhaps only Kyra Mosely and Lieutenant Collins as even approaching likeable - and the former is [[WeHardlyKnewYe killed off after five minutes.]] At the very least, there's always [[HeroicDog Riley]].

** A lot of things involving Rorke in general are hilariously all over the place. From the infamous plane hijack scene that ''snaps a plane in half'' to capture it and set him free in a defiance of all the laws of physics, to his FaceHeelTurn being prompted by an incredibly cliché and pulpy "ancient Amazonian [[ColdBloodedTorture torture techniques]]" line, to [[spoiler:his AssPull survival in the ending just so he can produce a SequelHook]]. Every time the man is on-screen, an already over-the-top story becomes braindead stupid to promote an InvincibleVillain in the most absurd ways possible.

** After getting a range buff, the Bizon became the most powerful SMG in the game, if not the most powerful gun in general. You could throw a muzzle brake on the Bizon and have the Steady Aim perk, and you had a gun that puts [[UpToEleven even Black Ops 2's SMGs to shame]]. You could just hose everybody by the hip. The gun was immediately nerfed back to its pre-patch state in May 2014 after outrage from the community.

* UnfortunateImplications: As [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Ben Croshaw]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCtbhjDcTNI pointed out]], all of the protagonists are burly white men, bar three characters; a female astronaut [[spoiler:who dies within minutes of her introduction]], a nameless female helicopter pilot, and Ajax, the TokenMinority who [[spoiler:[[BlackDudeDiesFirst dies after about two lines]], and nobody seems very concerned when he does.]][[note]]To quote the review: "And, frankly, when that happened, the main characters displayed less emotion than when their dog got shot."[[/note]] All the other minorities are villains, often unsympathetic and just plain ineffective ones at that, relying entirely on Rorke to achieve their objectives. That's right: the only person out of the millions who work for the Federation who isn't portrayed as a weak, foolish coward... [[MightyWhitey is the one white guy]].

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There are virtually no likeable characters. Logan is a [[FeaturelessProtagonist blank slate]] who follows his father and brother with BlindObedience, Elias sends his children out into warzones without the slightest hint of concern for their safety and put them through TrainingFromHell at a very early age, Hesh is bland with [[DullSurprise terrible voice acting]], Merrick is a murderous BloodKnight who executes unarmed workers, Keegan is a FlatCharacter whose sole burst of characterization is his execution of an [[KickTheDog unarmed soldier begging for his life]], Ajax is the TokenMinority who [[BlackDudeDiesFirst dies moments after we first meet him]] and is [[ForgottenFallenFriend completely forgotten about another few moments later]], and Kick is a MauveShirt with no personality whatsoever who doesn't even need to die [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome for the game to forget to include him]]. RootingForTheEmpire is also off the table, as the villains are all genocidal racists who want to murder all Americans [[GenericDoomsdayVillain for reasons never elaborated on]], and the only one of them with any development is Rorke, who not only has a [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil crappy motivation]] (he [[FaceHeelTurn had been a member of the Ghosts]], but then another Ghost was forced to drop him from some scaffolding that was going to give out under their combined weight and kill them all, so now [[ItsAllAboutMe he wants to kill them]]), but is also an InvincibleVillain with PlotArmor so thick that [[spoiler:even when you kill him in the finale by shooting him directly in the face with his own HandCannon and leaving him to drown in a train that crashed into the water, he ultimately wins by literally [[UnexplainedRecovery coming back from the dead with no explanation]] five minutes later]]. All of the one-off playable characters are interchangeable {{Heroic Mime}}s with just as little definition as Logan, leaving perhaps only Kyra Mosely and Lieutenant Collins as even approaching likeable - and the former is [[WeHardlyKnewYe killed off after five minutes.]] At the very least, there's always [[HeroicDog Riley]].

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: There are virtually no likeable characters. Logan is a [[FeaturelessProtagonist blank slate]] who follows his father and brother with BlindObedience, Elias sends his children out into warzones without the slightest hint of concern for their safety and put them through TrainingFromHell at a very early age, Hesh is bland with [[DullSurprise terrible voice acting]], Merrick is a murderous BloodKnight who executes unarmed workers, Keegan is a FlatCharacter whose sole burst of characterization is his execution of an [[KickTheDog unarmed soldier begging for his life]], Ajax is the TokenMinority who [[BlackDudeDiesFirst dies moments after we first meet him]] and is [[ForgottenFallenFriend completely forgotten about another few moments later]], and Kick is a MauveShirt with no personality whatsoever [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome who doesn't even need to die to be forgotten about]]. RootingForTheEmpire is also off the table, as the villains are all genocidal racists who want to murder all Americans [[GenericDoomsdayVillain for reasons never elaborated on]], and the only one of them with any development is Rorke, who not only has a [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil crappy motivation]] (he [[FaceHeelTurn had been a member of the Ghosts]], but then another Ghost was forced to drop him from some scaffolding that was going to give out under their combined weight and kill them all, so now [[ItsAllAboutMe he wants to kill them]]), but is also an InvincibleVillain with PlotArmor so thick that [[spoiler:even when you kill him in the finale by shooting him directly in the face with his own HandCannon and leaving him to drown in a train that crashed into the water, he ultimately wins by literally [[UnexplainedRecovery coming back from the dead with no explanation]] five minutes later]]. All of the one-off playable characters are interchangeable {{Heroic Mime}}s with just as little definition as Logan, leaving perhaps only Kyra Mosely and Lieutenant Collins as even approaching likeable - and the former is [[WeHardlyKnewYe killed off after five minutes.]] At the very least, there's always [[HeroicDog Riley]].

** [[spoiler: The game's ending, which cements why [[TheScrappy Gabriel Rorke is so hated]]. He is shot point with a '''[[HandCannon .44 Magnum]]''' and left on a crashing train that fell into the ocean. Despite Hesh and Logan barely having the strength to move after the ordeal, Rorke [[InvincibleVillain walks off]] falling into the ocean and '''being shot''' so he can have the last laugh and make a SequelHook.]]

* EightDeadlyWords: This is part of the reason why it's considered by the fanbase to be the weakest game in the series: with massive ClicheStorm, no memorable characters to speak of, villains whose motives are never elaborated on (and are terrible when they are, in Rorke's case), and little CharacterDevelopment for anyone, it's pretty easy to not care about the cast.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Riley (the dog). He was created to be a BreakoutCharacter, and he ended up more popular than most of the humans in the game which led to Riley being kept alive after being wounded during the Sin City mission.

* RootingForTheEmpire: The game's choice of villains, a [[AlternateHistoryWank ridiculously powerful federation]] of fused South American countries with a bad case of OffstageVillainy, coupled with the DesignatedHero portrayal of the United States, had the obvious effect to make many players in the massive Ibero-American ''[=CoD=]'' fanbase sympathize with the bad guys instead. In particular, Latin American and Brazilian fans felt it hit just too near home that they were supposed to root against a miraculous socio-political reemergence of their own countries, and even some Spaniards and Portuguese found it hard to hate something that was basically their own countries away from being a [[ResurgentEmpire resurgence of their own historical empires]], especially in times where their position in the European Union has been called in question and has led some politologists to daydream with Hispanic unions.

* WhatAnIdiot: So many things had to go wrong for the Federation's hijack of the [[{{Killsat}} ODIN Satellite]] to happen. Firstly, the USAF had to leave the satellite severely undermanned, which allowed for a small crew of Federation troops to waltz in and wipe out most of the staff. Speaking of which, you'd think NASA would have tracked the Federation ship reaching for the ISS well in advance, providing preparation plans for the crew, but nope. This leads to the destruction of a few major American cities near the US-Mexico border and the deaths of millions of Americans, which would have been multiple times bigger in number if it weren't for the HeroicSacrifice of Specialists Mosely and Baaker. It's almost as if the Americans wanted their sworn enemy to come and take the satellite for themselves.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Those who somehow enjoyed this game either liked the increased multiplayer map size, or how the setpieces of the singleplayer are still well-made as usual.

** The fact that the Federation managed to sneak a crew of people into the ISS to hack the ODIN satellite, without ever being intercepted, let alone even detected by NASA in the few hours it would have taken them to get to the ISS.

* GameBreaker: On par for the course for any COD game, ''Ghosts'' has its share of these: