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Call of Duty: Ghosts, the 2013 shooter from Infinity Ward published by Activision, was not hated by critics. It was hated by a large share of players. The main complaints were a single-player campaign that felt absurd and checklist-driven, a series that seemed to be repeating itself, multiplayer maps too large for an 8-versus-8 player count, too many killstreak rewards, and reports of crashes, freezes and lag. Its launch also landed in a difficult window for the franchise, with sales that trailed its predecessor.
Critics and players reached different verdicts
The clearest way to see the problem is to compare the two sets of scores. Professional reviews were mixed to positive, while player scores were strongly negative. The gap is the first thing to understand, because it shapes how the rest of the criticism reads.
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| Measure | Value | Source and conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Critic Metascore | 78 (“Generally Favorable”) | Metacritic, checked 8 October 2026 |
| All-platform user score | 4.7 (“Generally Unfavorable”), from 2,382 ratings | Metacritic, checked 8 October 2026; ratings and labels change over time |
| PlayStation 3 user score | 3.0, with about 66% of ratings negative | Metacritic PS3 user-review page, checked 8 October 2026; volatile |
Critics tended to fault the game for specific choices rather than rejecting it outright. Players were more blunt, and many of their scores came from a handful of recurring grievances, covered below.
The single-player campaign
The campaign was the most frequently attacked part of the game, and the criticism falls into three threads.
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A story that felt absurd
Tom’s Guide, in its review titled “Review: Call of Duty: Ghosts — Modern Borefare”, listed an “absurd single-player campaign” among the game’s cons. Gaming Nexus said the campaign felt almost as though it had been marked off a checklist, and that description captured what many players felt: missions that hit expected beats without building much momentum. Players on Metacritic and IMDb used similar language, calling the story boring, “standard patriotic” or nonsensical.
Dialogue and performances
The Sixth Axis review, dated 5 November 2013, described the lines as hammy and the performances as inconsistent. The effect was that dramatic moments, which the game relied on, often landed flat.
Riley the dog
Riley, the military dog introduced in the reveal trailer shown at the Xbox One unveiling in May 2013, became one of the game’s best-known elements. Activision’s Daniel Suarez told NBC News in 2013 that Riley “really became a meme in his own right.” The marketing worked, but the attention did not translate into a better campaign. The Sixth Axis said Riley’s AI behaviour broke the sense of a lifelike world quickly, so the character that drew the most publicity also became a symbol of the campaign’s shortcomings for some players.
A formula that felt familiar
Wikipedia’s summary of critical reception says reviewers faulted the game for rehashing familiar concepts and for a general lack of innovation. Push Square, in a search excerpt, described the series as becoming stagnant. For players who had played several previous entries, Ghosts offered few new ideas that stood out from the established template.
There was a counterpoint. PlayStation Trophies said Infinity Ward had done a “damn fine job” beefing up the existing engine. The technical upgrade was real, but for many players it was an improvement on the same formula rather than a new direction.
Multiplayer maps and the player cap
Multiplayer was the second major source of frustration, and it was more specific than the campaign complaints. The problem was not map quality in isolation. It was how the maps interacted with the number of players.
Maps too big for 8 versus 8
Ghosts’ multiplayer matches used an 8-versus-8 player count on large, sprawling maps. Several reviewers and players said this produced long stretches of running with little contact, and that the open layouts made camping a rational strategy. An IMDb user described the maps as very big, with players spending much of their time running around in 8v8, which promoted camping. A Metacritic user writing on the Onslaught DLC page said the on-disc maps were among the worst in the series’ history because they were too big for the small player count, while the DLC maps, which were smaller to medium in size, played surprisingly well. Sportskeeda’s coverage made the same broad point, though its wording was muddled, so it is clearer to describe the complaint as slow, sprawling maps.
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Killstreaks and a half-baked Squads mode
Sportskeeda also cited too many killstreak awards and a Squads mode that felt underdeveloped. Together with the map issue, this made multiplayer feel slower and less rewarding for players who wanted fast, constant contact.
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What players did like: Squads and Extinction
Not every mode drew the same criticism. Squads brought bot matches back to the series, and The Sixth Axis said they did a fairly good job overall. ComicBook.com was less generous, saying Squads had potential but lacked depth. Extinction, the co-operative mode, was among the best-regarded parts of the game. Critics praised it, though it did not build a lasting audience the way Zombies did. ComicBook.com attributed part of that to Extinction having an ending rather than being endless.
Technical problems at launch
Players reported crashes, freezes and latency in both single-player and multiplayer. These reports came mainly from user-review excerpts rather than systematic testing, so the specific frequency and the platforms affected are not established. The reports matter because they compounded other frustrations: a game that felt slow and repetitive was also described as unstable at times. No comparable body of PC performance evidence was found for this article, so claims about PC stability should not be inferred from the console reports.
Launch timing and sales
Ghosts launched in November 2013 alongside the eighth-generation consoles. Wikipedia reports that the game failed to meet Activision’s expectations and sold significantly less than its predecessor, Black Ops 2, and that this marked the start of a franchise slump. A figure of one billion dollars in sales within 24 hours is widely reported for the launch, drawn from Wikipedia and ComicBook.com summaries; the original publisher of that figure was not verified, so treat it as a reported claim. No published unit-sales figure was found, so the commercial comparison rests on the qualitative reporting rather than exact numbers.
The timing contributed to the mood around the game. Players were adjusting to new hardware, and expectations for a successor to a very successful predecessor were high. Ghosts was judged against that backdrop as much as on its own terms.
Was it really that bad?
The fair answer is that Ghosts was not uniformly disliked. Professional critics gave it a generally favourable score, and critics praised the multiplayer and Extinction. Some players argue it has been over-hated; a Steam user said they could not believe it ranked among the worst Call of Duty titles. Some user scores were pulled down by narrow complaints, such as the removal of weapon upgrades from multiplayer, rather than by a wholesale rejection of the game. Retrospective reviews are generally negative, however, and the game ranks low in most series lists, so the broad consensus among players remains unfavourable.
Is Ghosts worth playing now?
Ghosts is most worth playing for readers who want to see the series’ 2013 direction and for those interested in Extinction, which is the mode most often singled out for praise. Readers who want a campaign with strong writing or fast, map-focused multiplayer should look elsewhere in the series, because the campaign criticisms and the 8-versus-8 map problem were consistent across reviewers and players. Physical copies still circulate as used or collectible discs, so check the platform and condition before buying.
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