Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Developer(s)	Treyarch
Publisher(s)	Activision
Director(s)	Jason Blundell Dan Bunting
Producer(s)	Ben Brickman Sam Nouriani
Designer(s)	Gavin Locke
Artist(s)	Colin Whitney
Writer(s)	Craig Houston
Composer(s)	Jack Wall
Series	Call of Duty
Engine	IW engine
Platforms	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. 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 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and was also the final Call of Duty title released on those platforms. Upon release, the game received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success.

Plot

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 II, 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 Ops series.

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.

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 and their partner, Jacob Hendricks, infiltrate a base in Ethiopia to rescue hostages from the tyrannical NRC, assisted by Commander John Taylor and his team of cybernetically enhanced soldiers. The rescue is successful, but the Player is critically wounded, necessitating the installation of cybernetic enhancements to save their life. The Player is also given a Direct Neural Interface (DNI) to control their cybernetics and directly communicate with machines. While undergoing surgery, the Player is given virtual training in their DNI from Taylor and his team; Sebastian Diaz, Sarah Hall, and Peter Maretti. Hendricks also decides to undergo cybernetic enhancements.

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. They find that the site has been attacked by the 54 Immortals, Singapore's most powerful criminal organization. Recovering the site's stolen data, the trio find out that Taylor and his team were responsible for the attack, so they go to investigate the last location Taylor's team visited: the Coalescence Corporation in Singapore, which had been destroyed ten years prior in a mysterious explosion that killed 300,000 people.

The Player and Hendricks discover a secret CIA lab under the building, and are forced to kill Diaz, who was wired in to the facility's computer systems. Hendricks connects to Diaz's DNI to find information, and discovers Taylor is trying to find the survivors of the Singapore explosion. Taylor then publicly releases the locations of every CIA safe house in the world. While Hendricks distrusts Kane, the Player, refusing to abandon her, defies Kane's orders and rescues her from the 54 Immortals in the Singapore safe zone by killing Immortals' leader, Goh Xiulan.

The team then heads to Egypt to find Dr. Yousef Salim, one of the two survivors of the explosion. Salim reveals that he had worked on a secret project involving illegal DNI experiments on humans, and that his job was to comfort emotionally unstable humans by using a calming exercise involving imagining a frozen forest. Taylor and his team then capture Salim and execute him after interrogation. With the help of the Egyptian Army, the Player, Hendricks, and Kane chase after Taylor, killing Hall and Maretti in the process.

Connecting to Hall's DNI, the Player discovers that Taylor and his team were infected by Corvus, a gestalt intelligence created during the secret CIA experiments to contain and monitor the thoughts of DNI users that ended up causing the Singapore explosion. Corvus' influence turned Taylor and his team mad, making them obsessed with finding the frozen forest, which Corvus is determined to prove is a real place. The Player realizes that both they and Hendricks are infected with Corvus after interfacing with Hall and Diaz respectively, and it is only a matter of time before they fall under its control as well. The Player and Hendricks pursue and confront Taylor in Cairo. Taylor manages to resist Corvus and tear his DNI out to avoid killing the Player, but is then killed by Hendricks. Succumbing to Corvus, Hendricks abandons the Player and heads to Zürich to interrogate Sebastian Krueger, the manager of the CIA experiments in Singapore.

The Player and Kane head to Zurich to stop Corvus, fighting through drone forces controlled by an infected Hendricks and eventually reaching Zurich's Coalescence Corporation's headquarters. However, once inside, Corvus kills Kane with Nova 6, the same unidentified gas that caused the Singapore disaster. The Player continues on and confronts Hendricks, who is holding Krueger hostage. After an unsuccessful interrogation, Hendricks kills Krueger, but is then in turn killed by the Player.

The Player then tries to kill themselves to stop Corvus' infection, but ends up inside a simulated frozen forest created in their DNI. Corvus tries to manipulate the Player into staying in the forest, created by a guilt-ridden Corvus after the Singapore explosion as a way for DNI users to live on after death, but a determined Player refuses. Taylor, also present after resisting Corvus and becoming a glitch in Corvus' programming, reunites with the Player, explaining that the only way for the Player to defeat Corvus for good is to purge their DNI. After resisting Corvus' last-ditch effort to control them and fighting through Corvus' illusory forces with Taylor's help, the Player purges their DNI and sacrifices themselves to erase Corvus. After the Player stumbles out of the Zurich headquarters, a ZSF soldier helping survivors asks for their name. Just before dying for good, the Player responds "Taylor."

The briefings shown before each mission (Taylor's mission reports) reveal that the Player actually died due to complications during their cybernetics surgery. As they lay dying on their surgery bed, they lived out a simulation in their DNI, based on Taylor's experience of he and Hendricks tracking down a black ops unit led by Dylan Stone (who went rogue after discovering the CIA black site).

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

Settings and characters

Like in previous games, the Zombies storyline in Call of Duty: Black Ops III is told in an episodic format, with one map, "Shadows of Evil", available at launch, and the rest to follow in the downloadable content season. "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).

"Shadows of Evil" acts as a prologue that leads into the core storyline, starting with "The Giant", which takes place at the German weapon factory Der Riese, a location previous featured in Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops. The story focuses on the Origins universe's version 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 prevent the events of the original timeline from ever occurring in other alternate dimensions. Other characters include the leader of Group 935, Doctor Ludvig Maxis (also voiced by Tatasciore), and his daughter Samantha. The first downloadable content map, "Der Eisendrache", takes place in a Group 935 fortress in Werfen, Austria, and features the appearance of Group 935 scientist Doctor Groph (also voiced by Blum). The second downloadble content map, "Zetsubou No Shima", takes place in a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, occupied by the Japanese research group Division 9.

Story

In the 1940s, in Morg City, resides four individuals: Jessica Rose, a burlesque dancer who intends to pursue a career in motion pictures; Jack Vincent, a corrupt cop who has had dealing with various mob gangsters; Floyd Campbell, an up-and-coming boxer who is out to win his fight by any means necessary; and Nero Blackstone, a washed-up magician who is caught up in his debts. All of them have committed heinous misdeeds in the past, in order to achieve their goals. 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, which results in the death of the sacrifices, 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 confront the Shadowman, and trap him within a sacrificial ritual, which kills him, allowing them to summon a giant Gateworm. With the Keepers' aid, 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, banishing them from the realm. 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 the 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 Maxis 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, resulting in the deaths of many alternate Richtofens. They finally arrive in a new alternate timeline nearly identical to the original, 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 the alternate 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. Eventually, the group activates a beacon within the facility, allowing Dr. Maxis from another dimension to locate them.

Using a giant robot within Der Riese, the four then travel to Griffin Castle, Group 935's fortress in Austria, in pursuit of this timeline's Dempsey, who is kept in a stasis capsule. However, as they arrive at the castle, members of Group 935 had already put him inside a rocket, set for the Moon base. Later, Group 935 member Doctor Groph attempts to contact the castle from the Moon, but is greeted by Richtofen, who poses as his other self. The four continue to work together once more, and bring down the rocket containing the alternate Dempsey's capsule, sending it crash-landing back onto the castle's courtyard. However, Groph activates a failsafe, preventing the group from tampering with the capsule. Richtofen then instructs the group to activate the Mysterious Pyramid Device located within the Moon base. They summon a Keeper from deep within the castle, who then temporarily displaces the MPD to the castle. Upon return, however, the MPD is damaged by Groph, causing the Keeper to be corrupted by the device, forcing the group to battle it and cleanse its soul. Afterwards, Richtofen uses the Summoning Key to override the defense system of the castle, sending a barrage of missiles at the Moon, destroying it along with Groph and all Group 935 members operating on it. As the four go to retrieve the alternate Dempsey, Richtofen reveals his plan to prevent their other incarnations from wreaking havoc upon the universe by killing them and absorbing their soul into the Summoning Key. After bidding farewell to his other self, Dempsey shuts down the capsule's life support by himself, allowing Richtofen to use the Key.

Afterwards, the group attempts to teleport to a Pacific island, where the Japanese research group Division 9 is holding the alternate Takeo prisoner. However, they end up on a Division 9 boat near the island, and are caught by the officers on the boat, who demand to know the origins of the Summoning Key. After a brief struggle, the boat sinks into the sea, while the group swims toward the island. As they arrive, they discover that Division 9 has been experimenting on the animal and plant life on this island, resulting in monstrous mutation of various kind. The four fight off a combination of undead zombies and mutated spiders, as they dive in deeper into the Division 9 facility. They finally discover the alternate Takeo, who has been mutated as well, into a horrific creature. After a long, ensuing battle, they manage to release him from the mutation. Takeo is shocked to learn that it was the Emperor who betrayed his other self and sent him to this island, out of petty jealousy. The young Takeo finally resolves himself, and allows his alternate self to commit seppuku, with him acting as his kaishakunin. After using the Summoning Key to absorb the alternate Takeo's soul, Richtofen then notes to the others that there is somewhere else they need to go to before they can go after the alternate Nikolai.

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. The game features a "realistic" difficulty mode, in which players will get defeated if they are hit by one bullet. 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. 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. A new "Gunsmith" feature offers aesthetic variations in weapon attachments, allowing various weapon customization combinations. 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.

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 Evil was revealed as a new map for the Zombies mode on July 9, 2015 at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015. 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. "The Giant" includes the original characters, Tank Dempsey, Edward Richtofen, Nikolai Belinski and Takeo Masaki. These characters return from the Black Ops II map "Origins", in their alternate timeline versions. They reappear in the first and second DLC maps, "Der Eisendrache" and "Zetsubou no Shima".

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 III uses a heavily modified version of the IW engine used previously in Black Ops II.

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. On June 15, 2015, it was announced that as part of a new exclusivity deal with Sony Computer Entertainment, all downloadable content for future Call of Duty games, beginning with Black Ops III, would be 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.

A multiplayer beta was released for the PlayStation 4 on August 18, 2015, and was released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on August 26, 2015. 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. The game also featured an instrumental score entitled "Jade Helm", provided by Avenged Sevenfold. Additionally, Treyarch's Sound Designer Kevin Sherwood contributed to the composition of the Zombies mode's soundtrack, including several new songs performed by Elena Siegman and Malukah for each of the maps.

Marketing

Reveal

Teasers have been released beginning with Snapchat links appearing in the gameplay of Black Ops II as well as a teaser video released by Treyarch. 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.

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. This marketing campaign was strongly criticized for faking news, and publisher Activision was blamed for being "irresponsible". The game's director Jason Blundell said that the team was "shocked" by the negative reaction of the marketing campaign, and offered an apology.

Pre-order

Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Digital Deluxe Edition counterpart were 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 provided access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer beta and in-game items for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, such as custom reticles, an emblem, a calling card, and Advanced Supply Drops. Sony also announced that the Black Ops III beta would come to the PS4 first on August 19 through August 23, 2015. The beta for the PS4 went live on August 18, 2015, several hours earlier than originally announced. 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". Owing to the lack of the campaign mode, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions included a digital copy of Black Ops as an added bonus.

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.

Special editions and downloadable content

In addition to the Digital Deluxe Edition, other special editions include the Hardened Edition and the Juggernog Edition. The Juggernog Edition includes a mini-refrigerator, a season pass and multiple in-game content. A Collector's Edition bonus map for the Zombie mode, The Giant was announced. It is a remake of the Call of Duty: World at War map Der Riese, and features the original characters, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen. A multiplayer-only starter pack for Microsoft Windows was announced and released on February 16, 2016. It features the multiplayer mode's core mechanics, though certain features, such as the Zombie mode and the Nightmare mode, were excluded. This version of the game is available for players to purchase until the end of February.

In December 2015, during Sony's PlayStation Experience event, Activision announced the first downloadable content map pack for Black Ops III, titled Awakening, and was released first on PlayStation 4 on February 2, 2016. Releases for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows happened in March 2016. The map pack contains four new multiplayer maps: Skyjacked, Rise, Splashed, and Gauntlet, a new Zombies map, Der Eisendrache, and several new gumballs for the Zombie mode. In March 2016, Treyarch revealed the second Map Pack, titled "Eclipse". The map pack has four new multiplayer maps, including a remake of the World at War map "Bonzai" and a new zombies map, "Zetsubou no Shima".

Reception

Critical response

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PS4) 84.70% (50 reviews) (XONE) 77.50% (6 reviews) (PC) 74.50% (5 reviews) Metacritic (XONE) 81/100 (15 reviews) (PS4) 81/100 (87 reviews) (PC) 73/100 (11 reviews) Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 8.5/10 EGM 9.5/10 GameSpot 7/10 GamesRadar 9/10 Giant Bomb IGN 9.2/10 Polygon 7/10

Call of Duty: Black Ops III received positive reviews. GameSpot awarded it a score of 7 out of 10, saying, "Black Ops III doesn'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." Polygon also gave the game 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." 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 Duty game yet."

Sales

Black Ops III sold 'significantly' better than Advanced Warfare and Ghosts, the two previous video game titles in the Call of Duty franchise, with Black Ops III making more than $550 million in sales during its first three days of release. In the United Kingdom, Black Ops III beat Halo 5: Guardians to become the top selling game. In November, Black Ops III was the top best selling game according to NPD's figures. Black Ops III later became the top selling game of 2015.

Awards

List of awards and nominations
Award	Category	Result	Ref.
The Game Awards 2015	Best Shooter	Nominated
	Best Multiplayer	Nominated

References

Notes

Footnotes

External links

• Official website