Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game,[2] developed by Treyarch and published by Activision.[3] It is the twelfth entry in the Call of Duty series and the sequel to the 2012 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. It was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 6, 2015. A feature-limited version developed by Beenox and Mercenary Technology that only supports multiplayer modes was released onPlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Upon release, the game received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success.
Single-player campaign
Setting and characters
Call of Duty: Black Ops III takes place in 2065, 40 years after the events of Black Ops II, in a world facing upheaval from climate change and new technologies. In response to the drone assaults of Black Ops 2, several countries around the world have developed high-tech air defenses that render conventional air forces virtually useless. As such, most of the warfare between countries is done by covert operatives fighting behind enemy lines. Military technology has progressed to the point where robotics play a major role in combat, and both fully robotic humanoid drones and cyborg supersoldiers have been developed to fight in the battlefield. As a result, there is speculation and fear about an eventual robotic takeover. The game follows a team of black ops soldiers, like previous installments in the Black Opsseries.[4]
The campaign stars Christopher Meloni as Commander John Taylor, Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Hall, Sean Douglas as Jacob Hendricks, Rachel Kimsey as Rachel Kane, and Tony Amendola as Dr. Yousef Salim. Ben Browder and Abby Brammell respectively voice the male and female versions of the Player character. Other characters include Ary Katz as Peter Maretti, Rey Gallegos as Sebastian Diaz, Lynn Chen as Goh Xiulan, and Robert Picardo as Sebastian Krueger. Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch makes a cameo as a villain.[5][6]
Included in the game is the "Nightmares" campaign mode, which is a retelling of the main campaign with the plot changed to incorporate zombies and other supernatural beings. In this campaign, the lethal Virus 61-15 is released in various cities around the world, turning whoever it infects into zombies. In response, the governments of the world seal off the worst infected areas into Quarantine Zones and form the Deadkillers, cybernetic soldiers trained to exterminate zombies.
Story
On October 27, 2065, the Player (only referred to in subtitles by that name) and their partner, Jacob Hendricks, infiltrate a base in Ethiopia to rescue hostages from the tyrannical NRC. They are assisted by Commander John Taylor and his team of cybernetically enhanced soldiers. While the rescue is successful, the Player is critically wounded by a combat robot, necessitating the installation of advanced cybernetic enhancements to save their life. The Player is also given a Direct Neural Interface (DNI), which allows them to not only control their cybernetics, but also directly communicate with machines. With the DNI, the Player is given a virtual training inside their mind, with the help of Taylor and his squad mates: Sebastian Diaz, Sarah Hall, and Peter Maretti. Hendricks decides to undergo cybernetic enhancements as well.
Five years later, the Player and Hendricks are put under the command of CIA Agent Rachel Kane and tasked with investigating a CIA black site in Singapore that has gone quiet. While investigating, they find that the black site has been attacked by the 54 Immortals, Singapore's largest and most powerful criminal organization. After recovering the black site's stolen data, the Player, Hendricks, and Kane find out that Taylor and his team were responsible for the attack on the CIA black site. They go to investigate the last location Taylor's team visited: the ruins of Coalescence Corporation's Singapore headquarters, which had been destroyed in a mysterious explosion that killed 300,000 people. The Player and Hendricks discover a secret CIA lab hidden under the building, and Diaz, who is wired in to the facility's computer systems. The Player is forced to kill Diaz to prevent him from leaking secrets to the public. Hendricks connects to Diaz's DNI to try and find information, and discovers Taylor is trying to find the survivors of the Singapore explosion. Taylor then publicly releases the locations of every CIA safehouse in the world, forcing the Player and Hendricks to rescue Kane from 54 Immortals' retaliation in the Singapore safe zone. The Immortals' leader, Goh Xiulan, attempts to kill Kane and the Player to avenge her brother, who was killed in an earlier encounter, but is killed by the Player instead. Hendricks begins to suspect that Kane is hiding something from them.
The team then heads to Egypt to find Doctor Yousef Salim, one of the two survivors of the explosion. Dr. Salim reveals that he had worked on a secret project involving illegal DNI experiments on humans, and that his job was to comfort the emotionally unstable test subjects, using a calming exercise involving imagining a frozen forest. Taylor and his team then capture Dr. Salim, interrogate him, and then execute him. With the help of the Egyptian army, the Player, Hendricks, and Kane chase after Taylor, killing his remaining team members Hall and Maretti. The Player connects with Hall's DNI and discovers that Taylor and his team were infected by an entity called Corvus, a gestalt intelligence which was inadvertently created during the secret CIA experiments that resulted in the Singapore explosion. Corvus' influence eventually turned Taylor and his team mad, making them obsessed with finding the frozen forest, which Corvus believes is a real place, no matter the cost. The Player realizes that both they and Hendricks are infected with Corvus as well, and it is only a matter of time before they fall under its control. The Player and Hendricks pursue and confront Taylor in Cairo, where Taylor briefly regains his senses and tears his own DNI out of his head before being killed by Hendricks. However, Hendricks succumbs to the infection and heads for Coalescence Corporation's headquarters in Zurich with the intention of spreading Corvus to every computer in the world.
The Player and Kane head to Zurich to stop Hendricks, but are hampered when Hendricks hijacks the entire city's computer systems and turns its military drones on the local human defense forces. The Player and Kane manage to breach the Coalescence HQ, where it is revealed that the accident in Singapore was caused by experiments with the deadly Nova 6 gas, which the Zurich facility also has a stockpile of. Corvus uses the DNI to trick the Player into believing the gas is about to be released throughout Zurich, and Kane is killed when Corvus instead vents the gas into the sealed room she is in. The Player continues on and encounters Hendricks, along with the other Coalescence survivor Sebastian Krueger. Just as Hendricks kills Krueger, the Player also kills Hendricks. In order to stop Corvus' infection, the Player tries to kill themselves, but ends up inside a simulated world created within their own DNI. There, the Player is reunited with Taylor, who agrees to help the Player fight Corvus. Taylor explains that the only way for the Player to defeat Corvus for good is to initiate a system purge in their DNI. After fighting their way through Corvus' illusory forces, the Player manages to regain control of their body and purges their DNI. As the Player stumbles out of the building, security forces arrive and ask the Player to identify themselves. The Player then responds that their name is "Taylor".
The briefing of each mission, written in the form of Taylor's journal, reveals that the Player was actually dead shortly after their surgery, indicating that every event that happens afterwards is a figment of the Player's dying dream, based on Taylor's real experience as he and Hendricks went on a hunt for a rogue agent, Dylan Stone, as well as his team, all of whom were replaced with Taylor, Diaz, Hall and Maretti in the Player's dream. The summary was that the dream was created the same way the frozen forest was created, for the sake of allowing the player to die peacefully.
Nightmares
The Player wakes up only to be told by Dr. Salim that they are dead, and that the Player must recount their memories. The Player tells Dr. Salim that they are a Deadkiller who was sent to investigate the disappearance of Taylor's Deadkiller team. However, upon investigating, the Player and Hendricks discover that Taylor's team has used their DNI connections to disable the Quarantine Zone defenses all over the world. Teaming up with Rachel Kane, the Player and Hendricks chase Taylor's team all from Singapore to Egypt, eventually being forced to kill the entire team. However, Hendricks is infected by the same virus that turned Taylor and his team mad, and heads for Zurich. The Player discovers that Dr. Salim is in fact Deimos, the demigod responsible for unleashing the undead plague on humanity. Deimos had entered the Player's mind when they interfaced with Hall, and attempts to manipulate them into opening a portal to his home dimension, Malus. The Player is then contacted by another demigod, Dolos, who is sympathetic to humanity and seeks to kill Deimos, her brother. Dolos transports both the Player and Deimos to Malus, where Deimos is vulnerable. Under Dolos' guidance, the Player kills Deimos, ending the undead plague on Earth, but trapping the Player in Malus. Dolos then explains to the Player that her true plans are to kill every other demigod and supernatural being that can challenge her, and the Player agrees to help her.
Zombies
There are two confirmed Zombies storylines in Call of Duty: Black Ops III at the time of its reveal. The first story, "Shadows of Evil", focuses on a new group of characters: Nero Blackstone (Jeff Goldblum), Jessica Rose (Heather Graham), Jack Vincent (Neal McDonough) and Floyd Campbell (Ron Perlman), who reside in the fictional Morg City. Treyarch describes the new characters as "troubled individuals" with "a long and sordid history of past misdeeds". The four characters are thrown into a twisted version of the city, overrun by zombies, and are guided by a mysterious, unreliable figure called the Shadowman (Robert Picardo).[7]
"Shadows of Evil" acts as a prologue that leads into the core storyline, starting with "The Giant", which focuses on the alternate versions of the original characters: Tank Dempsey (Steven Blum), Nikolai Belinski (Fred Tatasciore), Takeo Masaki (Tom Kane) and Edward Richtofen (Nolan North), who were introduced in the Black Ops II map "Origins". Their story continues from where "Origins" left off, as they attempt to rewrite the other timelines' history. Other characters include the leader of Group 935, Doctor Ludvig Maxis (also voiced by Tatasciore), and his daughter Samantha.[8]
Story
In the year 1942, in Morg City, resides four individuals: Jessica Rose, Jack Vincent, Floyd Campbell and Nero Blackstone, all of whom have done heinous misdeeds in the past. Jessica, who intends to pursue a career in motion pictures, had an affair with a film producer, but then it was discovered by a photographer of the press, resulting in her inviting the photographer over to kill him. Vincent, who has been a crooked cop for a long period in his career, attempts to stop the mayor of the city from tracking him down, by silencing all his associates who could rat him out. Campbell, a boxer who hasn't fought for eighteen months, sought to get a shot at the champion title by defeating the number one contender, Tony King, by any means necessary, leading him to wearing brass knuckles beneath his gloves in their fight. Nero, a formerly successful magician, was caught up in large amounts of debts, accumulated by his wife, prompting him to set up an accident in order to kill his wife and recover her insurance money to pay off all the debts.
At one point, as all four of them gather under the Black Lace burlesque club, they are somehow put to sleep. They then wake up in separate areas of Morg City, each with a "Mark of the Beast" symbol branded on their left hands. They also find the city infested with zombies, and thus are forced to band together to survive. They then discover the voice of the Shadowman, a mysterious figure who offers to help them find redemption. After giving them a powerful artifact called the Summoning Key, he then guides them to performing sacrificial rituals, using close associates of the characters: Jessica's film producer, Vincent's police partner, Campbell's promoter, and Nero's lawyer. Each ritual would result in the death of the respective sacrifice, turning them into Gateworms, which are later used to open a gateway. Afterwards, the Shadowman reveals himself as a servant of the Apothicon, an ancient force of evil that once attempted to unleash the undead upon an excavation site in France. He then disappears, leaving the characters helpless. Above the skies of Morg City, a gigantic tentacle monster now overshadows the city. The four then set out to perform more rituals, summoning the Keepers, another ancient race that exists to prevent the Apothicon from roaming the universe. They eventually attract the attention of the Shadowman, who attempts to thwart their plans. However, they trap him within a sacrificial ritual, which kills him, allowing them to summon a giant Gateworm. The four then work together once more to destroy the giant Gateworm, sending a large energy beam upwards into the sky and destroying the tentacle monster. As they go to retrieve the Summoning Key from the Keepers, the German scientist Edward Richtofen appears out of a portal and grabs the key, thanking them for their effort, before leaving through said portal.
Following their battle against the undead outbreak in Northern France, Richtofen studied on the concept of alternate timelines, learning of the existence of different worlds and many incarnations of himself. He took an interest in protecting a timeline, where Samantha and Eddie (another alternate version of Richtofen) are innocent children playing with zombie toys. He set out to change the future, by traveling to other timelines and killing all of his incarnations. The three Allied soldiers: Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki, attempt to stop him from disrupting the established continuity of the timelines, but fail repeatedly. After several attempts, they arrive in another timeline, where the German won the first World War, in the Der Riese facility, only moments after Samantha and her father, Doctor Ludvig Maxis, were teleported away by this timeline's Richtofen. Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo attempt to convince this Richtofen to awaken their other selves, but are interrupted by the Origins timeline's Richtofen, who appears out of the teleporter and kills his other self. The four then band together to fend off the zombie horde once more. As the fight goes on, the characters find themselves affected by Element 115, and their personalities begin to mix with those of their original counterparts: Dempsey becomes more aggressive and loud-mouthed, Nikolai talks about drinking more often, Takeo constantly speaks in ancient Japanese proverbs, while Richtofen shows signs of schizophrenia. They also discover hidden radio recordings of Dr. Maxis, as well as other alternate versions of Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo speaking of their dimension-traveling experiences. Eventually, the group activates a beacon within the facility, allowing Dr. Maxis from another dimension to locate them.
Afterwards, the four travel to a medieval castle in Austria, named Der Eisendrache (German for The Iron Dragon), where massive deposits of Element 115 had just only been discovered.
Gameplay
Campaign
The campaign in Black Ops III is designed to support 4-player cooperative gameplay, allowing for bigger, more open level design and less corridor shooting. In addition, the player can customize their character's gender and appearance. The campaign features its own progression system, featuring unlock tokens which must be used to acquire different weapons and gears as they progress through the campaign.[9] The game features a "realistic" difficulty mode, in which players will get defeated if they are hit by one bullet.[10] Finishing all campaign missions will also unlock "Nightmares" mode, where players can replay the entire campaign with a new narrative, as well as zombies replacing most of the normal enemies.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer introduces a new momentum-based movement system, which utilizes thruster packs to allow players to perform slow boosts into the air, as well as perform wall running and sliding, all the while giving players complete gun control.[11] In addition to the Pick 10 class system from Black Ops II, Treyarch implemented a character system called "Specialists", where players can pick from 9 different soldiers, each with either a special weapon or ability unique to them.[12] A new "Gunsmith" feature offers aesthetic variations in weapon attachments, allowing various weapon customization combinations.[13] The Paintshop feature allows players to create their own custom prints onto specific portions of a gun, further emphasizing the depth of customization in the game.[14]
Zombies
Zombies features a new XP progression system, which allows players to unlock items in a similar fashion to multiplayer and campaign. Unlockable items include "Gobblegums", which grant players with temporary bonuses, and weapon kits that allow players to modify the appearance of the guns in each game. Shadows of Evilwas revealed as a new map for the Zombies mode on July 9, 2015 at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015.[15] The map features four brand new characters: Nero the Magician, Jessica the Femme Fatale, Vincent the Cop and Campbell the Boxer as the main cast, and takes place in a new setting called Morg City.[7]
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Development
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the twelfth game in the Call of Duty franchise, and the fourth entry in the Black Ops series. The game was the second to benefit under publisher Activision's three-year development cycle, the first being Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The cycle allows each of the development teams of the Call of Duty series (Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games) to develop games in a three-year timespan, as opposed to the two allowed previously. Black Ops IIIuses a heavily modified version of the IW engine used previously in Black Ops II.[16]
On June 9, 2015, versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were confirmed to be under development by Beenox and Mercenary Technology. These versions lack some features available on other platforms, such as the game's campaign mode.[17][18] On June 15, 2015, it was announced that as part of a new exclusivity deal withSony Computer Entertainment, all downloadable content for future Call of Duty games, beginning with Black Ops III, would released first on PlayStation platforms as timed exclusives. This ends a similar exclusivity deal with Microsoft dating back to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.[19]
A multiplayer beta was released for the PlayStation 4 on August 18, 2015,[20] and was released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on August 26, 2015.[21][22]All versions of the multiplayer beta ran for six days.
Music
Jack Wall, who previously composed the score for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, returned along with Brian Tuey providing some tracks.
Marketing
Reveal
Teasers have been released beginning with Snapchat links[23] appearing in the gameplay of Black Ops II as well as a teaser video released by Treyarch.[24] On April 26, 2015, the first reveal trailer for the game was released and revealed the return of the Zombies mode and beta access for people that pre-order the game for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The full game was released on November 6, 2015.[21]
Controversy
On September 29, 2015, the official Twitter account of Call of Duty was temporarily renamed to "Current Events Aggregate". It then began tweeting messages about real-life fashion, movies and a terrorist attack that takes place in Singapore. Activision later revealed that these tweets are fake, and served to promote the game's story campaign.[25] This marketing campaign was strongly criticized for faking news, and publisher Activision was blamed for being "irresponsible".[26][27] The game's director Jason Blundell said that the team was "shocked" by the negative reaction of the marketing campaign,[25] and offered an apology.[28]
Pre-order
Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Digital Deluxe Edition counterpart are available to pre-order on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The Digital Deluxe Edition comes with the season pass, which can also be ordered separately. Pre-ordering provides access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer beta and in-game items forCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare, such as custom reticles, an emblem, a calling card, and Advanced Supply Drops.[29] Sony also announced that the Black Ops IIIbeta would come to the PS4 first on August 19 through August 23, 2015.[30] The beta for the PS4 went live on August 18, 2015, several hours earlier than originally announced.[20] After the beta period ended, it was announced that all pre-orders would include the bonus multiplayer map "NUK3TOWN", a remake of the original "Nuketown" map, featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and in Call of Duty: Black Ops II as "Nuketown 2025".
Comics tie-in
A comic book titled Call of Duty: Black Ops III was announced on July 1, 2015. Serving as a prequel to the game, it was released worldwide on November 4, 2015 and was published by Dark Horse Comics. The story is being written by Larry Hama, while Marcelo Ferreira served as the artist for the comic book.[31]
Special editions and downloadable content
In addition to the Digital Deluxe Edition, other special editions include the Hardened Edition and the Juggernog Edition.[32] The Juggernog Edition includes a mini-refrigerator, a season pass and multiple in-game content.[33] A Collector's Edition bonus map for the Zombie mode, The Giant was announced. It is a remake of theCall of Duty: World at War map Der Riese, and features the original characters, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen.[8]
In December 2015, during Sony's PlayStation Experience event, Activision announced the first downloadable content map pack for Black Ops III, titled "Awakening", set to release first on PlayStation 4 in early 2016. The map pack contains four new multiplayer maps: Skyjacked, Rise, Splashed, and Gauntlet, plus a new Zombies map, Der Eisendrache.
Reception
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Call of Duty: Black Ops III received positive reviews. GameSpot awarded it a score of 7 out of 10, saying, "Black Ops IIIdoesn't offer anything remarkable to the series, but does just enough to maintain the Call of Duty status quo. The franchise, however slowly, continues its inexorable march."[42] Polygon also gave the game it a score of 7 out of 10, saying "Black Ops III 's biggest point of recommendation may be the breadth of content there, and that's a valid point of view. But Treyarch doesn't meaningfully move the series forward here."[46] IGN awarded it a score of 9.2 out of 10, saying "With fun 4-player co-op, new powers, and a fleshed out Zombies mode, Black Ops 3 is the biggest Call of Dutygame yet."[45]
According to Polygon, Black Ops III sold 'significantly' better than Advanced Warfare and Ghosts making more than $550 million in sales during its first three days of release.[47] Black Ops III was the top selling game in UK, beating outHalo 5: Guardians.
Awards
| List of awards and nominations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
| The Game Awards 2015 | Best Shooter | Nominated | [48] |
| Best Multiplayer | Nominated | ||
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