Here we are then, the annual Call of Duty reveal-o-thon; this year in the guise of Treyarch’s Black Ops 3. As expected by almost everybody on the planet who’s ever played a videogame, the release date is 6 November.
Pretty much all of the stuff leaked (but unconfirmed) on Friday has turned out to be true. Black Ops 3 will have a four player co-op campaign, it has very Titanfall-ey sounding movement with wall-running and boost jumps and stuff, there will be ‘specialist’ characters in multiplayer, and, as the end of the reveal trailer makes awfully clear, there’ll be a zombies component at some point.
According to the PR-splurge, this Call of Duty is going to be experimenting with allowing players outside corridors. Probably by necessity, as a four-player co-op campaign set inside an area no bigger than an aeroplane terminal tunnel would be a bit cramped and shit.
I wouldn’t necessarily expect Black Ops 3 to be full of wide-open spaces and freedom of choice, but it does sound like there’ll be zones similar in size to that bit at the start of Battlefield 4, or Crysis 3. The trailer doesn’t have much in the way of confirmation, but there are a couple of areas in it which look playable and sort of large. But it still features a lot of enclosed, narrow corridors too.
Apparently, you’ll be able to customise your co-op campaign character to some degree too, rather than being a pre-determined Soldier McGenericMan.
The reveal seems pretty campaign focused, but there are a few details about multiplayer ‘specalists’ available as well. These are named characters, with infantryman Donnie ‘Ruin’ Walsh (handy skills, gravity spikes with area-of-effect damage, and a limited speed boost) and futuristic criminal type Zhen Zhen (one-shot-kill hand cannon, and streak-score-increasing combat focus) two of the four announced so far.
Battle robot Reaper (a minigun, and, er, limited time travel) and Brazilian scout Alessandra ‘Outrider’ Castillo (compound bow, highlighting enemies in the local area) are the other two. Five more will be detailed at a later date, taking the total to nine.
Players have to choose before the start of a Black Ops 3 multiplayer match whether to make use of a specialists’ Power Weapon or Power Ability. You can’t use both in one match, it seems.
Treyarch appear to be throwing PC players a hope-bone too, as several sites are citing a commitment to make the PC version a “priority.” So far, this translates to making the game scalable across lower and high-end rigs, and support for 4K resolutions.
There’ll be a beta of some description, which those who pre-order will get access to.
Here’s the trailer, followed by some screenshots which are just stills from the trailer.
