Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is an upcoming first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision.^[1] The game is a sequel to the 2012 game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and will be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 6, 2015. A multiplayer beta was released on August 18, 2015 for the PlayStation 4^[2] and is scheduled to be released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on August 26, 2015 for five days.^[3][4

Plot

Single-player campaign

Call of Duty: Black Ops III takes place in a dystopian future set in 2065, 40 years after the events of Black Ops II. Air defense systems have advanced to a point where they cancel each other out. As such, most of the warfare between countries is done by covert operatives fighting behind enemy lines. Science and technology have radically changed both the landscape as well as the future of the human race, with society violently protesting and attempting to halt further advancements touted by scientists as "progress". Military technology has progressed to the point where robotics play a main role in combat, and supersoldiers have been developed to fight in the battlefield. Humans have reached the point where they are considered to be more machine than flesh and blood. As a result, there is speculation and fear about an eventual robotic takeover. The game will follow a team of black ops soldiers, like previous installments in the Black Ops series, with supersoldier capabilities.^[5]

Zombies

There are two confirmed Zombies storylines in Call of Duty: Black Ops III at the time of its reveal. One story (Shadows of Evil) focuses on a new group of characters: Nero (Jeff Goldblum), Jessica (Heather Graham), Jack Vincent (Neal McDonough) and Floyd Campbell (Ron Perlman), who reside in the fictional Morg City. Treyarch describes the new characters as "troubled individuals" with "a long and sordid history of past misdeeds". The four characters are thrown into a twisted version of the city, overrun by zombies, and are guided by a mysterious, unreliable figure called the Shadow Man (Robert Picardo).^[6] Treyarch says that their story will tie into the main Zombies storyline in the past games, particularly "Mob of the Dead" from Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
The second story (The Giant) focuses on the alternate versions of the original characters: Tank Dempsey (Steven Blum), Nikolai Belinski (Fred Tatasciore), Takeo Masaki (Tom Kane) and Edward Richtofen (Nolan North), who were introduced in the Black Ops II map "Origins". Their story continues from where "Origins" left off, as they attempt to rewrite the original timeline's history.^[7]

Gameplay

The campaign, multiplayer and the Zombies mode of Black Ops III have been overhauled. The campaign supports 4-player cooperative gameplay, a customizable soldier, whose gender can be selected by players, and more open arena gameplay that allows players to use multiple ways to complete levels.^[8] The Multiplayer introduces a new movement system, a new class system called "Specialists", where players can pick from 9 different soldiers with different abilities and a new "Gunsmith" feature that allows for weapon customization combinations and also a Camo Designer. Zombies mode also returns in Black Ops III.^[9] Zombies will contain story and multiplayer modes, both of which featuring a new XP progression system. Shadows of Evil was revealed as a new map for the Zombies mode on July 9, 2015 at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015.^[10] The map features four brand new characters: Nero the Magician, Jessica the Femme Fatale, Vincent the Cop and Campbell the Boxer as the main cast, and takes place in a new setting called Morg City.^[11]