TheCall of Dutyfranchise has dabbled with a variety of both real-world and fictional conflicts over the years. It’s produced a horde of World War 2 games, some set in the Cold War, a fair few set in the present day, and a handful set in the near future.Call of Duty: Black Ops 2was part of that latter camp, at least when it first hit store shelves.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s campaignis split between two different time periods. The first takes players back to the 1980s, where they play as Alex Mason and Frank Woods on their hunt for the drug lord Raul Menendez. The second sees them playing as Alex’s son, David, who’s trying to take down an aged Menendez who now leads a powerful terrorist organization. This second half ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 2takes place in 2025, which was 13 years in the future when the game first released. We’ve just caught up withBlack Ops 2’s 2025 setting, but there’s anotherCall of Dutyentry that we’re close to lapping.
Time Is Quickly Catching Up With Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Duty: Ghosts is Set in 2027
Released in November 2013,Call of Duty: Ghosts' campaignopens up in the year 2017. Following a dramatic conflict in the Middle East, there’s a global economic crash, and many South American regions form a dictator-run alliance known as the Federation of the Americas. This Federation hijacks an ODIN satellite and uses it to launch a kinetic bombardment that destroys a handful of North American cities, before U.S. astronauts manage to self-destruct the station.
Call of Duty: Ghoststhen flashes forward ten years, and the rest of its campaign takes place in 2027. Following the ODIN attack, a brutal war between North America and the Federation of the Americas broke out. With the Federation having claimed Central America, its forces have become too strong to hold back, leading to a desperate attempt to take down the Federation once and for all. That’s where the titular elite team of Ghosts come in.
It’s less than two years until time catches up withCall of Duty: Ghosts. And in some ways, it already has.
Call of Duty: Ghosts' Future Technology Already Exists
LikeCall of Duty: Black Ops 2,Call of Duty: Ghostswasn’t set in the distant future, but only around a decade after its launch date. As such, there are no drastic leaps in technology likeBlack Ops 3’s exoskeletonsorInfinite Warfare’s spaceships. That said, there are still some things inGhoststhat could be considered slightly futuristic at the time of release that now simply exist.
Call of Duty: Ghosts' Killstreaks, for example, felt slightly futuristic when the game released in 2013. The Vulture, Gryphon, and Night Owl Killstreaks all see drones accompanying the player on the battlefield. The LOKI and ODIN Killstreaks see the player calling down orbital strikes and care packages from satellites out in space. And the Oracle Support Strike Package uses in-universe GPS to highlight enemies through walls.
While satellites aren’t used commonly in warfare just yet, drones are at the forefront of modern combat. And though soldiers can’t literally see people through walls, GPS tracking and high-tech surveillance are used regularly to pinpoint locations. Even by 2025, time has almost caught up withCall of Duty: Ghosts.
