Parents' Guide to

Call of Duty: Ghosts

By Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Bloody, frenetic combat makes this shooter for adults only.

Game Nintendo Wii U , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox 360 , Xbox One 2013
Call of Duty: Ghosts Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts Game: Screenshot #1
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts Game: Screenshot #2
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts Game: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 12+

Based on 76 parent reviews

Geoffrey chaves
Geoffrey chaves Adult
September 16, 2021
age 17+
First of all it’s rated m so if that doesn’t tell you somthing watch the trailer there’s a lot of close up slow kills that take like 2 min to end off the best rates m you can let them play is halo no gore all they say is hell it’s all about saving earth from Aliens not all of them are rated m as for ghost ops wait till there about 17 even still it’s not the best game I was given it the min I watched the trailer i didint even bother it’s very gory shooting I didint even end the first level get them halo if you want a shooting game it’s like Star Wars hope this helped

This title has:

Great role models
Too much violence
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Mauricio Fernando
Mauricio Fernando Adult
January 31, 2021
age 14+

VIOLENT MILITARY SHOOTER

Cod Ghosts, like any other Cod game, is a violent military shooter (the player can use several weapons to kill hundreds of enemies , in a merciless rampage), but the violence is not so gory (although blood and screams are employed in the killings). Occasional profanities, zero sexual references, almost nothing related to drinking and smoking.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 76 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Set mostly in the near future, CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS starts a new story line in the Call of Duty universe. America has been devastated by a flurry of kinetic missiles launched from space, and many of her greatest cities now lie in ruin. Players take on the role of a soldier working with what's left of the military to protect the now crater-pocked landscape from advanced forces encroaching from South and Central America. Action takes place in a variety of imaginative locales, ranging from the submerged wrecks of old ships to satellites floating in space. Players will also scale skyscrapers, fight through a flood, and pilot an assault helicopter.

Outside the campaign are three additional modes: the series' traditional, competitive multiplayer mode (which is where most players will spend their time), a new mode called Squads that pits players against computer-controlled opponents, and the alien-themed Extinction, a co-op mode for up to four players that involves finding and destroying alien pods scattered over a rural landscape.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (76 ):
Kids say (192 ):

Call of Duty: Ghosts looks amazing, especially played on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But it's not the game's graphics that impress so much as its depth and breadth of play. The campaign may be short and feature scenarios that strain belief (like zero-gravity space gunfights wherein you can get hit by bullets without decompressing), but most players will finish it in one or two nights and then spend weeks or months playing online multiplayer, which offers plenty of substantive evolutions that range from better-balanced combat rewards that don't drastically tip the odds in one team's direction to visually spectacular events that completely alter entire maps in seconds.

If traditional multiplayer doesn't interest you, there's Squads. Squads offers several new ways to play, like Safeguard, a mission type that has players defending against waves of increasingly skilled, computer-controlled enemies. And Extermination mode, with its class-based play that forces players to rely on each other to perform specific roles -- such as healer or resupplier -- may be the best cooperative experience yet produced in a Call of Duty game. That said, it would have been nice had the developers figured out a way to make online play a bit less off-putting for new players. Rookies with little experience likely will be creamed relentlessly for weeks or even months until their reflexes are honed and they become intimately familiar with the maps, weapons, and character-upgrade systems. Newbies can enjoy themselves a little playing against the game's computer-controlled bots until they've got the skills necessary for online play.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the impact of violence in media. Is there any difference between a series like Call of Duty, which depicts humans shooting other humans using realistic weapons in familiar settings, and other violent games with more fantastic scenarios?

  • Families also can discuss the depiction of women in games. This is the first Call of Duty to allow players to create female avatars in multiplayer mode. Do you think this empowers women, or does it feel strange to think that players will now have the ability to shoot and stab female characters?

Game Details

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