The free-to-play multiplayer component is similar to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which sees two opposing teams, representing two hostile private military factions, compete in game modes to complete objectives.

[5] The first campaign follows a team of Global Risk Soldiers in the country of Azkharzia who are sent in to find and kill Black List officer Alexander Steiner.

The Global Risk team is led by Major Cavanaugh and consists of Captain Hall, Specialist Randall, and Private First Class Moralez.

Despite being out numbered, the survivors continue deeper into the mines where they find a facility housing a super computer known as Catalyst which is capable of predicting the future through human memories.

The mission is a failure, partly thanks to the intervention by the highly skilled and aggressive Global Risk General Maddox, but Logan successfully extracts some intel and passes it along to Cora Windsor, his teammate and technology expert.

Fontaine states that Nanodyne will turn him into a Ghost, a "weapon" with enhanced physical capabilities that is a future threat to the Global Risk and the reason why the PMC seeks to pre-emptively eliminate him, but will kill him if not stabilized by a device called EOE within the next few weeks.

Enraged by the loss of his recently bonded friends, Torres decides to embrace his new identity as a Ghost and fully activates his nanotech augmentations.

Declaring his loyalty to be with Black List rather than Fontaine herself, Torres later finds Nicholas to still be alive and, at his behest, reaches the abandoned base control center to reactivate automated defense guns.

He succeeds, resulting in much of Global Risk's air support being neutralized before a siege mecha piloted by Maddox directly bombards the control center, disabling the defenses once again.

Torres ends up besting and killing Maddox, throwing Global Risk forces into disarray and allowing Black List survivors to stand their ground.

In the epilogue narration, Cora laments that Ghosts have become a reality as foretold and will in time become a threat to the whole world, rendering the feud between Black List and Global Risk irrelevant.

[6] As Remedy at that time was exploring the idea of working on a first-person shooter, and planned on developing multiple projects at once, the team agreed to help Smilegate.