Co-Written by Riley Little & Rob Keyes
Last week it was officially announced by Activision that Call of Duty: Black Ops would be shipping with full 3D capabilities and on that same day, Game Rant was present at the Toronto PlayStation Holiday Preview Event to see the 3D first-hand at its unveiling. That behind-closed-curtains first look at two of the game’s levels in 3D wasn’t quite enough though, so Editor-in-Chief Rob Keyes and myself went downtown for a private demo of Black Ops in 3D with Jay Puryear, Senior Manager at Treyarch.
To start, the main menu is totally different from any of the past Call of Duty games. It’s a television sitting in the middle of an interrogation room and it has several options. One that I picked up on immediately was “Zombies,” and we casually suggested that we check that out (on a few occasions). That suggestion was shot down pretty quickly, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see that coming. We’ll come back to this later, but there’s something special about this mode and its unveiling is being saved until closed to launch.
Puryear fired up one of the missions from the game’s campaign and the 3D hit us instantly. The level starts the player off looking through the eyes of a soldier wearing a high altitude suit as he walks up to a plane and hops in. The level, having been displayed in 2D at E3 has undergone some changes and after launching the plane into semi-space, the player takes control of a thermal camera and commands a unit of four on the ground. You have to issue orders to direct these guys where to go so they can avoid being detected and tactically infiltrate areas. You can even tell the ground troops to hide themselves in the snow to avoid detection. The most exciting and interesting aspect of this mission is that once the squad engages or reaches certain areas, the camera zips down from the plane, goes through the clouds, and throws you into the shoes of one of the Black Ops soldiers you’re commanding from above. This gameplay addition is very effective and provides not only another another perspective, but another level of immersing players into the overall experience.
After switching back and forth between the plane and the soldiers a couple of times, the story started to follow the team on the ground as they infiltrated a facility. The level was stopped here before we jumped to another section of the game, returning once again to the snowy landscape. This time, we begin laying in the snow and we watched as men unknowingly walked right by us. More importantly (and excitingly), the player is wielding a large crossbow as the primary weapon. I couldn’t wait to see this thing in action and egged on the developer to shoot one of the men who was walking with his dog, and he obliged by shooting him in the side with an arrow. The dev said I was a bad influence, and then continued through the level.
We approached a fuel truck and our Treyarch guide tapped a button and swapped his pre-existing arrows to flashing ones. He promptly told us to “watch this” and he stuck the flashing arrow right into the tanker. There was a slight delay and then a massive explosion. The guards standing nearby perished and lost limbs, but there was still one guard left who began opening fire on us, hiding behind the debris. A simply explosive arrow behind the bogie’s cover and after that went off he was no longer among the living.
The 3D looked very good, especially looking down the large crossbow sites and scope but an even better example of the 3D helping the player enjoy an enhanced experience was demonstrated next as we repel down the side of the building. Jay Puryear was kind enough to show us that if you get too cocky and try to zip down the side of the building too fast then you will plummet to your death. As you perform the action, your viewpoint is looking down over the side as you hold and release the rope, viewing the vast expanse below - this example presented in 3D was an easy selling point.
The following scene is straight from the trailer as the soldiers reach a platform and prepare to rope down again, except this time they stop, look over at each other, and then wish each other luck before jumping out and smashing through a window to kill the men inside, all in slow-motion so you can enjoy every broken glass fragment. This scene doesn’t get old and it looks that much better with 3D.
Fast forwarding a bit, your teams deactivates the target and on their way out meet a bridge high up in the moutains and a guy with a rocket launcher. Bridge blows up, stuff happens with a teammate, then you attempt to jump the gap, only to witness that the explosion has caused an avalanche. You hurry to catch up with the remaining men in your squad while snow starts to fall and shift under your feet. The snow shifting underneath your feet looks absolutely amazing in 3D and does nothing but make you feel like you are actually trying to escape the tons of snow flowing down the mountainside. The game was put to an end by our gracious host once the player jumped off the cliff and activated their parachute. After deploying the parachute, Puryear ended the level.
We tried to push for some more Zombie info at this point but instead we were shown another level. We start in Hong Kong, interrogating a man by using broken glass in an interesting way. Eventually, enemies locate you, your partner and the man you’re seeking info from so you’re all forced to flee, jumping from rooftop to rooftop and fighting in close quarters, all which show the 3D in an entirely different aesthetic, especially one where paper, garbage, wood and other fragments fly everywhere as you fight through streets and old buildings.
The final venture of the evening would come from the new mode titled “Combat Training.” This mode allows you and up to six friends to take on bots (computer AI-controlled enemies) and the difficulty can be altered to fit your skill level. We were warned that Veteran is just absolutely brutal and should be reserved for the best of the best. While the mode was being set up for us the dev revealed that the game would ship with a grand total of 14 multiplayer maps and that there will be a total of 11 killstreaks for players to choose from. The good news for the readers who disliked the nuke is that it’s gone! Killstreaks also can’t be extended by kills obtained with a killstreak weapon so you legitimately have to earn your killstreaks instead of chaining them by using the rewards to help push you to the next killstreak.
Jay Puryear demonstrated the options and setup of one of these matches, explaining that the bots will even take the names of people on your friends list. As he played a round, he died frequently and after teasing him about letting us takeover, he eventually let me play. First I blew myself up with a grenade, familiarizing myself with the controls and upon respawning I nonchalantly turned around and watched (in glorious 3D) a tomahawk fly right into my groin. My character died again as well as a little part of me as Jay Puryear mocked me. “We better fix that glitch!” he chortled.
If you remember back to Treyarch’s last Call of Duty game (World at War) then you’ll remember that the game features tanks that were often used to help players rack up easy killing sprees, but that won’t be happening again this time. There will be no vehicles in multiplayer just laying around for you to take. The only vehicle that a player will be able to ride in will be via killstreaks (i.e. the helicopter), which is similar to Modern Warfare 2.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 3D experience was absolutely amazing and the fact that every mode in the game will make use of the 3D tech will only help those with 3D televisions to enjoy the game even more. I’ve played a few console games that make use of 3D tech and this was easily the best, and it’s amazing to think that Treyarch only decided to add it a few months ago after R&D proved they could do it and do it well for this game.
Everyone’s asking about the “Zombies” mode and as much as we discussed it and dug for answers, Activision is saving that for a separate unveiling. This week it was all about the 3D and it was a very pleasant surprise. From our chats, it seems the zombie mode in Black Ops will be something much bigger than the simple 4-player co-op featured in World at War, although that is part of the game as well as if you purchase the Hardened Edition, you get those four maps from World at War. There were a few mentions of trying to “fit it all on the disk” and from the teaser images and response (or lack thereof) to our questions about the amount of players in Zombie mode, our hunch is that Zombies will have a significantly larger role to play.
