TheCall of Dutyfranchise is in a pretty strange place right now. The release of last year’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfarereboot breathed new life into a tired series and the accompanying standaloneCall of Duty: Warzonebattle royal helped bolster the series to the best place its been in years. On the other hand,ongoing rumors surroundingCall of Duty 2020have painted a fairly bleak image of the game’s development cycle, and with no official word on the game near the end of July, it’s looking possible that this might be the first year without a new entry since 2004, excludingCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered.
Flashback to the last console generation launch, the world was in a drastically different place, andCall of Duty: Ghostswas being promoted as the beginning of a brand new generation ofCall of Duty, from the developer that started it all. Unfortunately,Ghostsreleased to mixed reviews from both critics and fansand is widely considered one of the worst games in the series comparatively, prompting Infinity Ward to move ontoInfinite Warfareand theModern Warfarereboot rather than develop a sequel. Normally, that decision would be completely fine; however, as time goes on, it’s starting to look like fans of its story will never get a resolution to one of the game’s biggest mysteries: the cliffhanger ending.
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A New Era of Call of Duty
From developer Infinity Ward, the original creators of theCall of Dutyfranchise (although far from the same team),Call of Duty: Ghostswas promoted as the beginning of a whole new generation ofCall of Dutyfollowing the end of theModern Warfaretrilogy in 2011. Fans had responded incredibly well to the character Simon “Ghost” Riley fromCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, mostly because he looked cool and had an element of mystery surrounding him, sometimes known asthe Boba Fett effect. Infinity Ward wanted to expand on the concept of a new special ops faction themed around the Ghost character, not unlike the kind of secret operations that inspired Treyarch’sCall of Duty: Black Opsseries, in hopes of creating the next big subseries.
Call of Duty: Ghoststakes place in an alternate timeline where the nuclear destruction of the Middle East led to the formation of the Federation, a superpower made up of oil-producing nations from South America in response to the economic crisis. The story of follows Task Force: STALKER a.k.a Ghosts, an elite military unit trained tocomplete secret operations behind enemy lines. The Ghosts are led by retired U.S. Army Captain Elias Walker and players take on the role of silent protagonist Logan Walker as they hunt down a former Ghosts leader that was captured by the Federation and brainwashed into helping them. An elite squad, secret operations, a brainwashed villain that knows everything about the Ghosts, and a German Shephard side-kick; the premise ofCall of Duty: Ghostsactually had a lot going for it, alongside a new engine and mechanics like the Slide ability (a staple in the series).
Call of Duty: Ghosts' Ending Explained
The ending ofCall of Duty: Ghoststook all of those elements and doubled down on it. Toward the end of the campaign, Rorke captures the player alongside Logan’s brother Hesh. and executes their father and leader of the Ghosts, Elias Walker. The player then has two separate objectives they need to complete: the first is to stop the Federation, while the second is to stop Rorke. Once the United States army gains control of the Federation’s LOKI space station and decimate its forces, Logan and Hesh ignore their orders and pursue Rorke to avenge the death of their father.
In a final confrontation, Rorke is shot in the chest by Logan and left for dead in the ocean while the player swims to shore and the screen fades to black, displaying theCall of Duty: Ghostslogo. What appears to be a clean and tidy ending quickly turns as Rorke appears, knocks out Hesh, and drags the player away, stating “There aren’t gonna be any Ghosts. We’re going to destroy them together.” In a post-credits scene, Logan is seen inside a pit in the middle of the jungle, indicating he is being subjected to the same torture and brainwashing that Rorke went through before he joined the Federation. For the first time, while the player was able to stop the world-ending threat, the villain still beat the hero, setting up Logan as a villain in a sequel that will never come.
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Could Modern Warfare Reboot the Story and Ending of Ghosts?
Infinity Ward’s decision to reboot theCall of Duty: Modern Warfareseries gave it the ability to play around with the past and revamp characters, missions, and narrative threads for a whole new generation. Not being tied down to existing lore is also a great way to fix past mistakes and do something completely fresh - look no further than fan-favorite characters such as Captain Price orSimon “Ghost” Riley, both brought back for the reboot with new backgrounds. If Infinity Ward has no interest in developing a sequel toCall of Duty: Ghosts(orInfinite Warfarefor that matter), one way it could address the ending is by incorporating some characters and elements of the world into the new reboot or their next game.
Rebooting those characters and stories to fit with the direction ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfareand its inevitable sequels, however, could use key moments such as the cliffhanger to help shape their origin, personalities, and role in the story. Alongside Gaz, Soap, and Ghost, Task Force 141 could feature a new character named Logan with a dark past that involved him being captured and tortured behind enemy lines by a traitor named Rorke. Infinity Ward wouldn’t need to expand heavily on Logan’s past beyond that or go as far as validating the existence of theCall of Duty: Ghostsin the rebooted universe but a nod to the past would be a great way to tie up a loose end and bring back another fan-favorite character (beyond a finishing move): the German Shepard, Riley.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfareis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
