First let me say that I have played every CoD on Xbox 360 except for CoD 2, 4, and Black Ops 1. I have played all games at least 10 hours combined multiplayer, campaign, and zombies/special ops. In the cases of MW2, MW3, and Black Ops 2, I have played about a grand total of close to 3 weeks.I have played the multiplayer of CoD 3 and later, so I consider myself knowledgable of the series.
First I'll start with some general game aspects.
Graphics deserves about a 5/10. I feel that they are better than Black Ops 2, but are just a little polished over the Modern Warfare games. Its not a deal breaker for me since I care about gameplay more, but for many people it is.
Sound is about a 7/10. It is nowhere that bad at all, but nothing to scream about. Guns are what you would expect in an arcade/war shooter, to get excited about.
Now I will give my opinions on the campaign/story mode. I didnt finish it, but have played through over half.
I would rate the story about a 6/10. The developers made too much of an effort to start another Modern Warfare tpye series. Especially since my friend, who completed the campaign, said that he thought the story develops into a Ghosts 2. The developers also try way too hard to make the Ghosts look like complete heroes. They show hardly any emotion, are not memorable at all, and are not original at all. To sum it up, the story is a rental but nothing else memorable and worth a second playthrough.
The overall gameplay I would give a 8/10. It is fairly smooth and fluid, but there is parts that I dont enjoy at all. Trying to not give spoilers, there is a section where you must control the pressure of something. The controlls are way too sensitive and makes this section more difficult than it needs to be. One other comment I have about the gameplay is that the space section(which I am sure most people have seen in commercials) is absolutely ridiculous. Now, I know CoD is not realistic by any means, but I still would expect it to obey general physics.
Overall I give the campaign a 6/10. Its worth one playthrough as a rental, or maybe if youre an achievement freak like me you could buy it used and get all difficulties completed.
Now I'll move on to multiplayer. I do not use a squad but do play wargames(cause i suck with humans) although i have spent time with humans.
Layout/setup is probably an 8/10. The squad point system isnt as revolutionary as the devs have praised it to be, but it is quite cool. The guns/attachments/equipment is fine, pretty much the same as earlier games. The killstreaks are the same as well. But the perks are something I actually like in this game. You have a number of slots/point spaces to fill perks with. The weaker, less effective perks are worth one or two points, while the better, more effective perks are 3 or 4. They also organized the perks quite well, with categories for stealth, equipment, and even a category that puts a more(and quite good) arcade twist onto the game. Overall this game's layout is cool and works well, but not the revolutionary system that the devs were screaming about pre-release.
Now i get to gameplay. This covers actual gameplay, spawns, cheaters, lag, everything related to actually playing the multiplayer aspect of the game. This is the absolute killer for me. This will be a lengthy paragraph. I give it a 3/10. The gameplay is fairly similar to the campaign, and that is what keeps the rating at a 3. Spawns were terrible in past games, but in Ghosts they are absolutely atrocious. People spawn behind you all the time. Now I get to cheaters. They havent been too present since this is still a new game and bans are more possible, but you still get across the occasional cheater, which, of course, could be prevented with dedicated servers. Lag has the same problem as cheaters. Dedicated servers would make it better. And now, you cant even see the ping you have to the host. But despite all of these gripes, my worst is the tempo of gameplay. This is of course a personal opinion. The sides "controlled" by the teams are switched too fast. Sometimes you can have "controll" a side and 30 seconds later youre safer at the other side. Overall, this multiplayer is completely horrible to me, with te exception of the loadout system.
Now I get to Extinction. It is IW's answer to zombies, since the special ops in Modern Warfare games was pretty much done for. Extinction is better than multiplayer, but still not that good.
Loadout/layout system is about a 4/10. The loadout for extinction, unlike multiplayer, is not that well organized and is quite difficult to grasp at first. This is what gives the 4 rating.
Gameplays is worth about 5/10. All i really can say is extinction is not even close to as good as zombies's gameplay was. The money system, buying system, actual gameplay, and graphics are all sub-average and not what the devs praised it to be.
Pros:
Not terrible sounds
Well organized loadout system, especially perks
Neutral:
Overall Campaign
Cons:
Just about everything else.
Overall I give this game a 4/10. The only things it has going for it is the singleplayer gameplay(somewhat) and the loadout/layout system. It might be worth a rental, definitely if youre an achievement freak. Otherwise, I would avoid it.
For me, this could possibly be the last CoD i purchase. I might reconsider for the campaign achievements and possibly if they bring back zombies.