Call of Duty: Ghosts

Shooter fans had a chance to see the Into the Deep mission during the Call of Duty: Ghosts live stream on Sunday, but an entirely different level was demonstrated for the press at E3. I had a chance to watch about ten minutes of the Federation Day mission, which tasks players with infiltrating an enemy-filled skyscraper in Venezuela.

It begins on a rooftop at night, and fireworks pepper the sky as the city celebrates a festival dozens of stories below. Along with a few other members of the elite Ghosts team, the player has to set up zip-line launchers. Once these launchers fire their lines to a massive skyscraper across the street, the Ghosts begin their assault.

Detaching their lines prior to reaching the enemy building, the team swings down and lands in a rappelling position on the side of the building. As the Infinity Ward developer at the controls snuck down the side of the building, an assortment of guards were seen playing poker and hanging out in an otherwise empty room. When one leaves to go to the kitchen, the Ghosts walk along the outside of the building until they have a good shot. The enemy is filled with bullets as he reaches for his mug of coffee, and the team moves back to take out his card-playing fellow soldiers.

With the room cleared, the Ghosts cut circles in the windows and enter the building. As the player arms a bomb of some sort and places it in what appears to be a server room, one of his teammates protects him by stealthily taking down patrolling guards. Once the bomb is armed and the coast is clear, the Ghosts hop back out of the windows and start to sprint down the side of the building.

A blissfully unaware guard stands on a balcony below, and the player detaches from his rappelling wire and kills him with a knife to the throat. The noise alerts his buddies, who come running onto the balcony to investigate. Slow motion kicks in as the player takes the knife out of the dead guard and throws it into the head of one of the living soldiers. The other baddie is shot, and the demo fades to an "In the interest of time..." text screen.

When the action reappears on the screen, something has apparently gone wrong. The building is on fire and rumbling as a collapse appears to be imminent. The player begins sliding down a rocky, angled floor as he shoots surviving enemies. Crashing through a window at the end of the sloped floor, it appears that the player is about to plunge to the streets below. On that note, the demo ends. 

Call of Duty has always been known for crazy set-piece moments, but Ghosts appears to be going above and beyond the typical assortment. The added power of next-gen hardware adds another layer to the insane sights that Ghosts will surely pump out on a regular basis.

Check out our other stories on Call of Duty: Ghosts to read more about the game's canine companion and Activision's next gen graphics.