The “Call of Duty” franchise is one of the best-known game series in existence, and it’s been receiving annual installments for several years now, establishing a huge fan base of dedicated followers. However, the fact that it was being released on an annual schedule was not just a blessing but also a curse for its developer, as fans eventually started expecting more and more from each new installment, and started getting quite disappointed by the game’s development at some point.
Popular opinion has it that “Ghosts” was the worst installment in the franchise, followed closely by “Modern Warfare 3” which came out two years ago. Perhaps not surprisingly, both were made by the same studio. What was surprising however, was that this was the same studio that originally made the game so popular – Infinity Ward, who developed “Call of Duty 4”.
Those who’ve been following the studio’s activities during that time might find all of this very logical though – after “Modern Warfare 2”, Activision and Infinity Ward entered a financial dispute which ended with the resignation of a large part of the studio’s creative talent. Developers who then went on to found Respawn Entertainment and made “Titanfall”.
And while many were praising “Titanfall” for feeling like “Call of Duty” with extra elements that have been missing from the franchise for a while, it was inevitable that Activision started copying the popular features of that game and integrating them into their own series.
And now, ever since “Advanced Warfare”, “Call of Duty” has had jetpacks and advanced forms of movement which really spiced up the gameplay and made it feel fresh. This trend is about to continue with “Black Ops 3” as well, which adds wallrunning and various other movement options. Players can slide around the levels, run and jump on walls, teleport, slam down onto the ground, and much more.
The game will also introduce some fresh new ideas for the weapons – for example, players now have an extra, third weapon, which is more special than standard ones but can only be used after a certain number of kills. Examples include The Annihilator, a powerful 1-hit-kill revolver, The Sparrow – a bow, or The Scythe, a heavy machinegun built into the user’s hand.
Main weapons are now heavily customizable as well – much more than in any other game in the franchise so far. Players can add up to 5 attachments per weapon, and that doesn’t even include the optical sight, which now has its own dedicated slot. And in addition to that, each attachment type now comes with multiple distinct visual styles, and it also affects the appearance of a weapon much more.
Because of this, players can create completely custom-looking guns, making them function exactly like they prefer, and then adding some fancy graphics to them through the skin editor. Customization seems to be a major point of this installment, and a lot of work has apparently gone into giving players enough options to create their perfect guns.
We don’t know if the “dynamic maps” idea that started in “Ghosts” and was continued in “Advanced Warfare” is going to see any action here, but players did like some of these elements in the previous games, so it would be a good idea for Treyarch to start thinking in that direction too, if they aren’t already. Although it might not make much sense this close to the release.