This year, like every year, Activision will be rolling out the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. We’ve known about it for a little while, but at E3 2015 things really took off, with a batch of gameplay videos and developer interviews that shed much more light on what to expect this November 6, 2015.
We’ve been busy watching all the trailers and studying all the interviews, jotting down notes and trying to collect as much information as possible to present to you. As with every year, more Call of Duty information will trickle down all the way to the game’s launch, so we’ll be sure to continue updating you on any changes and additions as they happen.
The Backstory
The third installment of the Black Ops series will take place in 2065, a full 40 years after the events of Black Ops 2. Human beings are no longer strictly biological, as technology has changed the idea of what it means to be human. Scientists claim this is progress, and robotics play a massive role in combat, with super soldiers being used to fight the wars. There are rumblings about a potential robotic takeover, as the game follows a group of black ops soldiers who have super soldier capabilities.
The Campaign
Developers have stated that the AI (artificial intelligence) system that has been a part of Call of Duty for several years has been ripped out and replaced with one that is much more goal oriented. This will also be the first Call of Duty that allows four players to co-operatively play through the campaign. Previous Call of Duty games featured a single-player mode, sometimes a co-op/zombie mode, and then a standalone multi-player which is the staple of the franchise.
Zombies are Back
It was a fairly safe assumption that zombies would be returning for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, but as of right now this feature is being kept very quiet. We know they’re a part of the plan, both in terms of single player zombies and co-op zombies, but we don’t know much more. Treyarch is claiming that it’s their most ambitious zombie mode yet, and we believe them, but have yet to see anything solid that would allow our hype level to go off the charts.
Multiplayer Gameplay
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sort of turned the combat and movement in CoD on its head. Black Ops 3 looks to continue that trend, focusing heavily on movement in order to provide gamers with a more fluid experience. For example, all online players are given unlimited sprint, as well as a power slide and thrust jump that are tied into their thrust meter.
That’s not all, however, as some bits of multiplayer gameplay look as if it were pulled right out of Titanfall, with online players wall-running through high traffic areas and taking shortcuts. This system is said to work on risk/reward. It might be faster to reach your objective if you wall-run, but it also might take you through an area that is far more dangerous than the slow-going flank route.
Soldiers have also been overhauled, and of course gamers will be able to choose if they want to play as a male or female character. They will also get to choose a specialist (there are at least six types), which is a type of soldier with a unique backstory, characteristics and gameplay advantages. We didn’t get to hear a lot about this, but this will be tied into an in-game point system that will earn players both powerful weapons and passive abilities. For example, if you rack up the points online, you might end up with a deadly bow or gravity spike. We didn’t get much information on the abilities, except to say that you could earn them faster than weapons due to the fact they tend to be less deadly. These weapons and abilities are earned on a match-by-match basis and are likely not persistent from one to the other.
There will also be combat underwater in Black Ops 3, with Treyarch going so far as to place some of the game’s objectives below the surface. Players will be able to fire their weapons and throw grenades while submerged, but as expected the effectiveness will be somewhat impacted given the circumstances. Again, this was more of a tease than it was a reveal, so information is currently limited.
There’s a lot more to learn about Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (some of which is likely rolling out as we are busy posting this), and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on everything that we learn in the coming days, weeks, and months. For now, enjoy the multiplayer gameplay trailer that we have waiting for you down below.
