Have you ever felt that you just wanted to skip to the end of a Call of Duty campaign and play through the final mission first? Well, I haven’t personally, but Treyarch are taking a leaf out of Netflix’ book and letting you play any level you like from the co-op oriented campaign at any time.
Jason Blundell, director of campaign and Zombies mode for Black Ops 3 explained to press that “The unlocking level system is an archaic mentality we’ve had since we did bedroom development back in the day – you do this, then go on to the next one.”
He added that “If you see the end you’ll say, I need to understand this more. When Netflix release House of Cards and do all the episodes, does everyone just jump to the end and go and play the last episode? Sure you can. But it’s about the journey, though, right?”
It has me scratching my head as to who would really want to jump to the final mission of a story without any other context, but just as bewildering for a Call of Duty game is the addition of a Realistic difficulty level, in which a single bullet will put you down.
Jason said, “You get shot once, you’re dead. It completely changes how you play the game. I was really fascinated when we put it in to play with it, how you end up respecting the level in a completely different way, and approach the battle. The gunfire opens up, and everybody just drops to the ground. It just paralyses you, because you know that any one bullet that hits you, any one grenade that goes off near you, and you’re dead.”
With co-op throughout the story, you can be revived by your teammates, and reaching an objective will require that all of your team is alive in order to progress. Still, in contrast to the often run and gun gameplay from COD games, this will be a shock to the system.
It’s one that PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers won’t get to enjoy, as the story is not to be included on those consoles, with Jason saying he completely agrees with Activision’s decision to do so and avoid delivering a “second-rate experience”.
ron_mcphatty
Well, both seem ridiculous, I’ll be having a bit of Battlefront this winter I think! Not that I was going to buy Call of Duty if I’m honest, I’m just bloody excited for more Star Wars. STAR WAAAAARS!!!
Avenger
That’s great kid, don’t get cocky! :p
ron_mcphatty
That’s no moon…
Starman
Realistic difficulty sounds way too frustrating. The mission select sounds like it’s maybe necessary to let you join a friend that may be further into the story than you are.
Stefan L
There’s plenty of co-op games that let you join your friends, continue to level up your character and earn more equipment while not affecting your own personal progress through the story. Destiny, Borderlands, etc. etc.
hornet1990
Realistic doesn’t even sound that realistic either! The human body is capable of receiving incredible damage without instantly killing you.
I really like the mechanism in Rainbow Six:Seige where sure, stand next to a grenade going off or get shot in the head and yes you’re dead instantly, but you could get injured by being further away from the blast or shot in the arm etc and then you have a choice. Stay still and try to stem the bleeding buying yourself more time and giving your your teammates a chance to get to you, or move to cover but bleed out faster.
That is way more realistic in my book! Now if only they could program AI to be worth a damn and come and patch you up in such circumstances…