The game acts as a standalone installment in the wider Call of Duty franchise in lieu of the World War II, Black Ops and Modern Warfare series that preceded it.

In Call of Duty: Ghosts, the story is mostly told through the eyes of Logan Walker, with several other playable characters, including an astronaut specialist named Baker; Sergeant Thompson; Elias Walker, member of Ghosts and Logan's father; and the newer option to play as a German Shepherd, Riley, the first non-human playable character in the franchise.

"Octane", "Prison Break", "Tremor", "Freight", "Stormfront", "Siege", "Warhawk", "Sovereign", "Overlord", "Flooded", "Strikezone", "Whiteout", "Stonehaven" and "Chasm" are the maps that are in Call of Duty: Ghosts so far.

The map takes place in an Alaskan research facility, 14 weeks after "Point of Contact", and introduces two characters central to the story: Dr. Samantha Cross and Cpt.

The map takes place on board a Naval ship, 26 days after the events in "Nightfall", and introduces two more new types of Cryptids: The Seeder (Which looks like the red seekers) but is bright orange and spawns' plantlike turrets that shoot projectiles at the players, and the Kraken, the large, multi-tentacled boss at the end of the chapter.

The game's main protagonists are the Ghosts, a force of U.S. Special Operations personnel trained to conduct clandestine missions behind enemy lines.

He is joined by his sons Logan and David "Hesh" Walker (Brandon Routh),[12] along with a trained German Shepherd named Riley, Captain Thomas A. Merrick (Jeffrey Pierce), and Gunnery Sergeant Keegan P. Russ (Brian Bloom).

In 2015, during the Tel Aviv War in the Middle East, oil fields were destroyed during the conflict, causing devastation for numerous nations including the United States and its NATO allies.

Three years later in 2017, U.S. Army officer Elias Walker tells his teenage sons Hesh and Logan the legend of how the Ghosts, an elite coalition of all U.S. Special Operations units, first appeared.

U.S. Air Force astronauts Baker and Mosley sacrifice themselves to self-destruct the space station and prevent ODIN from launching other payloads further inland.

Hesh and Logan are part of an Army special unit under the command of Elias and are accompanied by Riley, their loyal military-trained German Shepherd.

The brothers return to Santa Monica, California, where U.S. forces hold out against a Federation assault and reunite with their father, who reveals himself as the leader of the Ghosts.

Because of this, Rorke, formally the leader of the Ghosts, convinced the U.S. government to send him and Elias on a military operation in the Federation's capital of Caracas to assassinate the general.

In a last-ditch effort, the U.S. Navy pools all its remaining forces, including its last aircraft carrier USS Liberator, in a synchronized all-out assault against the LOKI space station.

The Extinction story takes place in an alternate reality following the events of the first mission of the Ghosts campaign, where the ODIN strike unearths ancient creatures known as Cryptids upon mankind.

Following the Federation's attack on ODIN Station and the strike that decimated a large portion of the United States, a stray missile hit Caldera Peak, Colorado, revealing a colony of ancient creatures called Cryptids lying dormant below it.

However, one of the doctors working at Nightfall, Samantha Cross, began to fall under the Ancestors' influence, and slowly became one of their hypnotic spies, capable of telepathic abilities.

Cross fell into the Ancestors' control even more, and upon full possession, she began to summon the Ark's guardian, the Kraken, to protect the Cryptid colony and kill Archer and everyone aboard the destroyer.

Cross arrived and amputated his hand, then forged a temporary alliance with him, as she attempted to explain the Ancestors' true motives, and her reasons for not siding with them.

CIF Team One was later dispatched by Castle to find Archer as well as retrieve the Cortex, a device containing tissue samples of an Ancestor's brain.

He came in contact with CIF Team One, and ordered them to protect the Exodus launch site, allowing the remnants to escape Earth into outer space, away from the Cryptids' influence.

In the midst of the operation, Cross regained contact with the survivors, reasoning CIF Team One must sacrifice themselves to activate the Medusa, a psionic weapon capable of eradicating all Cryptids within a three-mile radius, and give mankind a chance to overcome extinction.

On April 29, 2013, the official Call of Duty website was updated with a social media mosaic that filled up every time a user logged into the site via Twitter or Facebook.

[30][31][32][33][34] On August 14, 2013, American rapper Eminem's "Survival" featuring Liz Rodrigues, with production by DJ Khalil was premiered in the multiplayer trailer for the game.

Pre-ordered versions of the game included a bonus "dynamic" map called Free Fall and also got Simon "Ghost" Riley and John "Soap" MacTavish from Modern Warfare 2 as playable multiplayer characters.

On the multiplayer map Fog, Michael Myers from the Halloween film series appears as a playable character, obtainable by earning a care package by completing various challenges via Field Orders.

[49][47][44][48][46][45] IGN praised the sequel for introducing "sweeping changes that breathe new life into the multiplayer experience" and called the campaign "lengthy, challenging, and varied".

[57] Both also welcomed the new character customization feature and game types in multiplayer, particularly Extinction which was called "tremendous fun" and "an interesting strategic dynamic".

[73] VideoGamer.com praised overall gameplay, saying it "seems more refined and enjoyable than Black Ops 2" but criticized the campaign calling it a "po-faced, nonsensical rehash of greatest hits long past".

[62] Despite shipping $1 billion worth of units to retail channels within 24 hours of the game's launch, overall sales were down compared to 2012's Call of Duty: Black Ops II.