Call of Duty: Ghosts is the latest entry of the fabled franchise will be the first entry into the series on next-gen consoles, but much of the attention the game has received is directed at Riley the dog. The Navy SEAL dog in the game has taken on a life of its own, despite not originally having a large role in the game. As Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin told IGN:
"And during one of these sessions - where all kinds of ideas were collected from special notice boards we scattered all over the office - someone wondered what would happen if a dog appeared in Ghosts. This idea was well-received and we quickly decided the dog would be part of the squad. But at that moment, that was it. We had no bigger plans for the dog. Until we invited one of the specially trained Navy Seals and his dog to tell us about their symbiosis, the training, the special gear, etc. This was a game-changer for us; the role we had in mind for the dog multiplied by ten, just because of this meeting. And besides the interesting role of the Seal and his dog, we saw numerous gameplay possibilities,"
Nobody at Infinity Ward expected Riley to become the star that he was, even after studying actual military dogs for the game. Rubin revealed that after the Xbox One event the development team had to take Riley much more seriously as a character:
"We were really overwhelmed by what happened in the hours after we revealed the dog. Memes were all over the place and, of course, there was a really funny Twitter account [set up] for Riley within minutes. The funny thing was that all that attention also had an impact on the development team. Everything we had in mind for the storyline of the dog now became so much more relevant."
Look out for Riley (and the rest of the characters in Call of Duty: Ghosts) on November 5 for current gen consoles, and on next-gen consoles whenever they get a release.
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