Funny story. Many years ago I was invited out to Treyarch on the back of a hugely successful Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, to see what the next game would be like. At the time, no one expected the B team to move too far off their WWII base, and so it was without surprise I was sat through a session detailing World at War. There were major changes, obviously. Expectations had been set very high by Infinity Ward’s foray into modern conflict, and these were being met with a revamped engine, a follow-on multiplayer that introduced vehicles and Gary Oldman.



The funny part of this story is that, while doing a studio tour, we were being shown some of the new tech Treyarch was bringing into their revamped version of the engine. As a point of focus, the key showoff point was propagating fire and how it was being used in both multiplayer and single-player. It was impressive, but there was also a water component that was a little glossed over.

“What about water in multiplayer?” I asked with wide eyes.

“It’s something we’ve payed with,” replied studio head Mark Lamia. But it never eventuated in the final product in any meaningful way. Thankfully they never stopped “playing” with water, and while it’s but one part of a much larger picture in Call of Duty: Black Ops III, its significance should not be downplayed. For myself, armed with one such anecdote it stands as a pillar of design and iteration. It’s proof that while in IW’s shadow for a long time, Treyarch has always had its own spin and direction on the Call of Duty franchise.

Out at their studio once again this year, we were shown just a small portion of the next entry in their long-gestating Black Ops take on Call of Duty, but true to Treyarch form, what we saw was not how it’s usually done. In years past with other Call of Duty games we get put in front of a big projector and watch a huge slice of campaign gameplay, packed with as much explosive Call of Dutyness as possible. It’s always shown on Xbox and multiplayer is left as a ‘surprise’ for pre-E3. This year we were packed into Treyarch’s small theatre where we did see a bit of the game’s campaign, which I’ll build on in a minute, and were told unceremoniously that it was now a full four-player co-op affair from start to finish. We were told Zombies would be back and as expanded as ever. They talked at length about some of the future tech the game would feature and none of this was co-branded with Microsoft’s platform.



The information didn’t stop there, either. Well, actually it sort of did. For the first time ever, campaign was brought to an abrupt halt and they began to spill their multiplayer beans. On top of this, we were told that at the end of our presentation we could actually get hands-on. There’s a very good reason for the early MP information and hands-on dump too, and that’s because Treyarch does not want you (or us) confusing what they’re doing with what Sledgehammer did with Exo movement in Advanced Warfare.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer is fast. In fact it might actually be the fastest multiplayer game I’ve ever played (note: I have not played Counter Strike).

To a room of *almost* boos, we’re told the signature Treyarch MP dive is gone, but it’s now been replaced with a slide that can also become a powerslide. On top of that, mantling has been given a boost and while we’re at it, you can also now properly wall-run. Running the wrong way on a wall? You can actually change direction mid-run and go back the opposite way. Moreover, jump now comes with a jet-boost dealie. It’s very much like the one in Evolve complete with cooldown, but here it serves the player with speed. And coming full circle, you can now use water.

You can swim and while you’re swimming you can also shoot. In fact when you’re doing any of this you can shoot. It’s part of team’s “guns ready” philosophy that means they never want to disarm the player for choosing a movement option. And, just to continue the trip-down-memory-lane development thing with Treyarch I kicked all of this off with, remember that at one time Treyarch was also a studio working across the Tony Hawk series and this is important because stringing all of the aforementioned movement together is like pulling off a perfect line in any of the THPS games where you could link the systems together.



Sledgehammer’s Exo movement system was definitely a game-changer, and I’d actually argue successful use of it in MP is largely more challenging than Treyarch’s system, but that’s because this studio’s new traversal model is built around changing how you fundamentally think about approaching any mode on any map in Call of Duty. And it’s meant to be wholly adopted by the paying masses. It’s going to be the stylish players who Tony Hawk the whole thing who will likely emerge as the better players, and in many ways it feels like it’s been iterated to a point so as to stop both campers and kill-hogs who fail to play any of the game’s modes the way they should be.

But wait, there’s more. On top of all of the above comes word that alongside your regular Create-a-Class character, you can also now play with a “Specialist”. These characters are built loosely off other videogame archetypes, and there will be nine of them in the final game. They can also be leveled up. They each have unique equipment and abilities which can be triggered after meeting score requirements -- think of it like activating a special ability in Destiny, or any modern fighting game. How teams balance based on the inclusion of these playable characters is going to be interesting, and how dedicated clans adopt them should create a unique spin on the eSports side of Call of Duty. I’ll be looking at them in deeper form later this week, so stay tuned.

We actually played multiplayer on PS4, too. It’s a big deal really. And while no one offered any insight into what the relationship with Microsoft would be this year, it was effectively a telling change. And man, did it feel smooth. Honestly, I haven’t had this much fun playing Call of Duty in a long while -- burnt by the mess that was Ghosts, and although I thoroughly enjoy Advanced Warfare, it was more of a love-letter to Treyarch anyway. And I just love wall-running in games, and sliding and hovering and swimming. Chaining it all together felt natural and easy, and not once did I think they either overshot the mark, or under-delivered. This is definitely game-altering stuff.



So on that vaguely talked-about campaign stuff. Drop in, drop out co-op with four people is a big deal, but maybe not so much when you consider the series’ corridor history. Purists might remember just how much Treyarch was trying to change that in Black Ops II, where a handful of levels had multiple paths and sometimes even multiple endings. There was discussion at this event about how they want conversation involving their game to have different hooks for different players. As a result of this, and four-player co-op they realised the AI system for the Call of Duty series just had to be rewritten. So now we have AI that reads how players are teaming up together, and through more than 20 different emergent systems, reacts in a way designed to challenge you and shut you down. Fish in a barrel, this apparently is not.

There’s also talk of a system called Direct Neural Interface (DNI) which allows you to not only find parts of the map that can be weakened, or used to your advantage, it means you can effectively take over other technologies around you with a passive and active upgrade system called Cyber Cores and Cyber Rigs. How you earn them, what the cooldown is, or how it’ll play out in single-player is still to be fully revealed, but you will have a unique single-player character who levels up through a unique progression system. You’ll also have the option to choose your loadout for each mission, and you’ll even have a safe house you can deck out with medals and Trophies or Achievements. It’s a bragging rights pad your buddies can come in and check out, and will likely have a stack of Easter Eggs, if Treyarch plays the game they usually do.

And Zombies, of course. I touched on it in as much info as they did as well. We’re just told it’ll have its own story, its own upgrade system and will sate dedicated fans of the mode, and then some.



Year in, year out there’s a lot of talk about Call of Duty. Some good, some bad, some tired and some not at all because people have either switched off or are just too fatigued. But as they’ve done with every entry, Treyarch is trying to excite fans and bring the deserters back out of the woods. They’ve been given more reign here than I’ve seen any other team have, and that includes the original IW mob. Suggesting that a Treyarch Call of Duty is ambitious is like saying “milk goes on cereal” but at least you know they can pull it off, and hopefully reignite the series, again.

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We'll have more this week on what we saw in specific detail as well as enlightening words from the Treyarch brass on just what it means to shape and alter a staple series like Call of Duty, so stay tuned.