The latest details surrounding the next entry to the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops, have been revealed in the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, and while there’s still plenty of reasons to get the physical edition of the magazine (which is apparently available right now) to see all of the latest screenshots from the game, we’ve got a few details from the pages to whet your appetite.
Speaking with Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia, OXM managed to reveal the following tasty morsels regarding Call of Duty: Black Ops:
In every Call of Duty game, multiplayer is a big portion of the experience, and with Black Ops it’s no exception. Multiplayer capabilities were operational extremely early in the development of the game, so much so that some maps currently in use in the singleplayer campaign were built from multiplayer maps.
To help improve the multiplayer experience and catch map glitches (such as the ‘under-the-map’ exploits in Call of Duty: World at War), Treyarch will be taking feedback from players. One avenue through which this feedback may be taken is via a Black Ops multiplayer beta, which is apparently being “considered,” according to Lamia.
Matchmaking is also being streamlined and improved to “make it easier for [players] to get into games with their friends.”
The ability to create your own class will return in this edition of Call of Duty, too, which will allow players much greater freedom in customising their kit, appearance and perk setups in a system called ‘Create-a-Class 2.0.’
As for the singleplayer, OXM got to see some missions taking place in Black Ops, and witnessed missions in which a player controls a helicopter (while shooting missiles and firing a mini-gun), directs troops from the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, and sneaks past villages while swimming in the Huong River (armed only with a knife).
Treyarch revealed a few smaller interesting details as well, and confirmed the inclusion of a mission in which you’ll be fighting the North Vietnamese Army, the return of vehicles (but “not in the way you remember them from World at War,” says Treyarch), the presence of a Spas-12 shotgun (with Dragon’s Breath incendiary rounds), and the inclusion of a dedicated cooperative mode with separate levels, similar to World at War’s ‘Nazi Zombie’ mode… but potentially without the Nazi zombies. Treyarch was a little sneaky about this particular detail.
OXM seems quite taken with Call of Duty: Black Ops, comparing the transition and evolution of Treyarch, as a studio, between World at War and this game to the change seen in Infinity Ward when that company went from making Call of Duty 2 to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – a huge leap!
Mark Lamia also revealed that Treyarch’s 200-plus employees are currently working on Call of Duty: Black Ops, when in the past, the studio would have been working on three separate games simultaneously.
“We want the game to speak for itself,” Lamia said repeatedly throughout OXM’s time with Black Ops.
“We’ve taken some creative risks,” Lamia said of the game. “We want to do something different than we’ve done before. It’s time.”
LINKY