Call of Duty: Black Ops III

"Call of Duty: Black Ops III deploys players into a dark, twisted future where a new breed of Black Ops soldiers emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the technology we created to stay ahead, in a world where cutting-edge military robotics define warfare. With three unique game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies, providing fans with the deepest and most ambitious Call of Duty ever."

- Official Description

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Windows and Beenox and Mercenary Technology for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was announced on February 5th, 2015 and officially named on April 9th of the same year. The official, full gameplay reveal was shown on April 26th, 2015, and the game was officially released on November 6th. Black Ops III is the twelfth game in the Call of Duty franchise and Treyarch's first to be developed in a three-year development cycle.

It is the fourth main game in the Black Ops series, following Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

It is the first Call of Duty game for which downloadable content, including Beta Access, is available first on PlayStation consoles. The Beta was released for PlayStation 4 on August 19th, and ended on August 23rd. The Xbox One and PC BETA version was released on August 25th and ended on August 30th.

Development
On February 4th, during DICE, Treyarch head Mark Lamia gave a presentation about the Zombies Mode found in Treyarch's Call of Duty games. He touched upon its importance to Treyarch as a company establishing its identity, how it built up the company's relationship with its fans, and the opportunities the mode's success brought to Treyarch. At the end of the presentation, Lamia claimed Treyarch was excited to "continue the journey" with its fans, confirming that Zombies mode will return in the next Call of Duty.

On April 6th, a small title update for Black Ops II added in the Snapchat icon to an image in the game. The image itself was present on a poster in the maps Plaza and Express. Upon scanning the image with the application "Snapchat", Call of Duty would be added as a friend. Later, Call of Duty updated their story with a 10 second video showing three clips, along with a narrator saying, "Listen only to the sound of my voice". Throughout the following weeks, Call of Duty updated their story with different videos of varying length, displaying the hidden narrator talking about a "program" and "Test Subjects". Different images shown at the end of select videos revealed a "Trident" logo, and the name "Dr. Salim".

A teaser confirming Black Ops III to be the next Call of Duty was released on 9th April, along with the date of a reveal trailer being released on 26th April. The reveal trailer had the song "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones.

Campaign
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is set 40 years after the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Call of Duty: Black Ops III follows up on the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, specifically in regards to the drone strikes of 2025 that took place at the hands of Raul Menendez at the end of the game. The year is now 2065 and technology is irrevocably embedded on the battlefield. The Campaign mode is only available to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC editions of the game. The player will have access to all missions from the start, and will be able to play them in any order desired. .

Several countries around the world have Directed Energy Air Defense (D.E.A.D.) systems that serve to nullify enemy aerial assaults. As a result, ground combat is once again the focus of military strategy. Elite Black Ops soldiers have embedded direct neural interfaces that let them communicate with combat robots and Net-connected weaponry, in addition to other cybernetic bio-augmentations such as super-powered prosthetic limbs.

The game emphasizes multiple protagonists in each of its levels; up to four distinct characters experience the events of the story all at once, allowing for up to four player cooperative play. Levels feature larger environments and "off the rails" sections in which players engage in large scale open area battles created to increase the possibilities available to the player on the battlefield, with the intent of these new open sections aiming to increase the replayability of the campaign. The campaign also features a new animation system and enemy A.I which has been updated to better react to the diverging approaches players can take.

Cyber Cores and Cyber Rigs are the new technologies that are available to the players. Cyber Cores consist of skills like remote hacking and deploying swarms of nanodrones, while Cyber Rigs provide players new movement and defensive capabilities. Players also have access to T-Mode, which enables co-op players to visualize the battlefield with threat assessment overlays and highlights so that they can help each other out more quickly. Players will be able to choose their character's gender. Furthermore, the playable character's lower body and shadow are now fully visible during gameplay, whereas in previous games it was only the case during some scripted scenes.

Also featured is a "safe house" where co-op players congregate between campaign missions and show off their earned medals and achievements. Players can also access an in-game wiki to learn more about the backstory of Black Ops III and the state of the world that they are playing in.

Campaign introduces a new difficulty level, Realistic, which is harder than Veteran. In realistic, the player will have only one hitpoint, thus will die in one hit from any weapon.

Plot
The game begins with the Player and their partner, Jacob Hendricks, infiltrating Egypt to rescue hostages from the tyrannical NCR. They are assisted by Commander John Taylor and his team of cybernetically enhanced soldiers. While the rescue is successful, the Player is critically wounded by a combat robot, necessitating the installation of advanced cybernetic enhancements to save the Player's life. The Player is also given a Direct Neural Interface (DNI), which allows them to not only control their cybernetics, but allows them to directly communicate with other machines. Hendricks decides to undergo cybernetic enhancements as well.

Five years later, the Player and Hendricks are put under the command of CIA Agent Rachel Kane and tasked with investigating a CIA black site in Singapore that has gone quiet. While investigating, they find that the black site has been attacked by the 54 Immortals, Singapore's largest and most powerful criminal organization. After recovering the black site's stolen servers, the Player, Hendricks, and Kane find out that Taylor and his team were responsible for the attack on the CIA black site. They go to investigate the last location Taylor's team visited: the ruins of Coalescence Corporation's Singapore headquarters, which had been destroyed in a mysterious explosion that killed 300,000 people. The Player and Hendricks discover a secret CIA lab hidden under the building, and Diaz, one of Taylor's men. The Player is forced to kill Diaz to prevent him from leaking secrets to the public. Hendricks connects to Diaz's DNI to try and find information, and discovers Taylor is trying to find the survivors of the Singapore explosion. Taylor then publicly releases the locations of every CIA safehouse in the world, forcing the Player and Diaz to rescue Kane from 54 Immortals' retaliation strike. Hendricks then begins to suspect that Kane is hiding something from them.

The team then heads to Egypt to find Dr. Yousef Salim, one of the two survivors of the explosion. Dr. Salim reveals that he had worked on a secret project involving illegal DNI experiments on humans, and that his job was to comfort the emotionally unstable test subjects. Taylor and his team then capture Dr. Salim, interrogate him, and then execute him. With the help of the Egyptian army, the Player, Hendricks, and Kane chase after Taylor, killing his remaining team members Hall and Maretti. The Player connects with Hall's DNI and discovers that Taylor and his team were infected by an Artificial Intelligence called Corvus, which was inadvertently created during the secret CIA experiments that resulted in the Singapore explosion. Corvus' influence eventually turned Taylor and his team mad, making them obsessed with finding the "Frozen Forest" no matter the cost. The Player realizes that both they and Hendricks are infected with by Corvus as well, and it is only a matter of time before they fall under its control. The Player and Hendricks pursue and confront Taylor in Cairo, where Taylor briefly regains his senses and tears his own DNI out of his head before being killed by Hendricks. However, Hendricks succumbs to the infection and heads for Coalescence Corporation's headquarters in Zurich with the intention of spreading Corvus to every computer in the world.

The Player and Kane head to Zurich to stop Hendricks, but are hampered when Hendricks hijacks the entire city's computer systems and robotic defenders. The Player and Kane manage to breach the Coalescence HQ, but Kane is killed when Corvus traps her in a room full of the deadly nerve gas Nova 6. The Player continues on and kills Hendricks. In order to stop Corvus' infection, the Player tries to kill themselves, but ends up inside a simulated world created within their own DNI. There, the Player is reunited with Taylor, who agrees to help the Player fight Corvus. Taylor explains that the only way for the Player to defeat Corvus for good is to initiate a system purge in their DNI. After fighting their way through Corvus' illusory forces, the Player manages to regain control of their body and purges their DNI. As the Player stumbles out of the building, security forces arrive and ask the the Player to identify themself. The Player responds with "Taylor."

Multiplayer
Multiplayer has evolved substantially since Call of Duty: Black Ops II while still meant to evoke the same spirit. Building slightly off Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, players can now wall-run, power slide, and boost jump their ways across maps that have been built from the ground-up with these new traversal options in mind. Swimming, as well as underwater shooting, has also been added as a new way to approach the battle. The boost jumps function similarly to the exo-jumps in Advanced Warfare. Where the exo-jumps deliver sharper angles and straight lines, the boosted jumps deliver curves and drifts in Black Ops III.

The Pick 10 system from Black Ops II has returned, and the 10 points will be used for picking Guns, Lethals, Tacticals, Attachments, Perks, and Wildcards. Players will have a lot of freedom in customization, even being allowed to put up to six attachments on a gun in the Gunsmith section of the multiplayer. Pick 10 does not cover Scorestreaks, as those are chosen separately.

In addition to the traditional Pick 10 class customization, the player now plays as one of nine specific characters, called Specialists, instead of as a generic soldier. The six confirmed specialists, four revealed in April, two revealed at E3 2015, and two revealed in preparation for the Playstation 4 Beta are:


 * Ruin: an infantry soldier from a tough neighborhood who volunteered for cybernetic limb replacements, despite not having an injury necessitating it.
 * Seraph: an enforcer for the 54I crime syndicate who is known for her discipline in combat.
 * Outrider: a product of the Brazilian favelas, where she earned a place in the ranks of the Brazilian Special Forces.
 * Reaper: a combat robot prototype from a canceled government R&D project built by the Coalescence Corporation..
 * Prophet: a member of the British Engineering Corps.
 * Nomad: the last surviving member of an elite rapid deployment force that specialized in jungle warfare.
 * Battery: an armored explosives specialist, she crushed the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program.
 * Spectre: a presumed wet-works specialist about whom next to nothing is known.
 * Firebreak

Each specialist gives players the option of either taking a power weapon or a special ability into battle. The power weapons and abilities have the potential to be game-changers. Rather than being able to access the player's weapon or ability at will, a continually charging meter dictates when they can use it. The meter charges more quickly based on player performance, but typically takes between two and four minutes to fully charge for weapons, while only taking around two minutes to fill up for abilities. Each Specialist also has their own personality, and will shout quotes and orders in the field freely. The player is also able to pick gestures and taunts for their specialists.

The Gunsmith is another element of Black Ops III multiplayer meant to give players even more choices when customizing their soldier, allowing them to choose how attachments look and apply custom paintjobs and camos to their weapons.

Dedicated servers are in the PC version of the game, along with a FOV slider.

It was confirmed at PlayStation's 2015 E3 Conference that future DLC would be available first on PlayStation consoles as opposed to Xbox consoles. This marks the end of a multi-year deal where Xbox consoles received access to Call of Duty ' s DLC first.

A tweet from David Vonderhaar also confirmed that character customization will be also available in multiplayer.

Multiplayer Maps
Maps are being built primarily with an emphasis on three lanes and two stories of verticality, similar to maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Only a couple will actually feature water.

DLCs will include re-imagined maps from World at War and the Black Ops series

Treyarch also announced that they would release a map editor tool for the PC version of the game after March 2016, allowing players to create their own maps and game modes, as well as servers with modded content.

Zombies
Zombies mode returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It is being touted as its "own experience" and will have its own XP-based progression system. This system's effect on gameplay by letting you custom you weapons. This is done by being able to change the skin on the weapon, add attachments to the weapons, changing the scope and add custom logo and symbols.

Zombies was teased quickly at the end of the Call of Duty: Black Ops III reveal trailer, where a Zombie could be seen ripping a plank out of a window, with a horde of other Zombies following up behind it; the zombies had yellow eyes. The Zombie mode reveal trailer was first shown on July 9th at the zombies panel at San Diego Comic-Con. There, a brief video about the history of zombies was shown before the trailer for the new map, titled "Shadows of Evil". People who attended the panel also got an early look at the trailer for the bonus map that comes with each of the special editions of the game, a remake of Der Riese titled "The Giant", which is the translation of Der Riese from German.

A leaked achievements list confirmed that Dead Ops Arcade from Black Ops is due to return in Black Ops III as "Dead Ops Arcade 2".

Last Generation Version
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops III was developed by Beenox and Mercenary Technology, while the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Microsoft Windows) version of the game was developed by Treyarch. Due to the fact that the seventh/last generation consoles have less powerful hardware, there are a few changes to the last generation version. These changes are:
 * The campaign is not available.
 * Nightmares mode is not available.
 * The multiplayer beta was not available.
 * Custom paintjobs aren't available.
 * Gunsmith isn't available.
 * Ground War isn't available.
 * Maximum framerate is limited to 30 FPS in Zombies and between 30 and 60 FPS in multiplayer, unlike previous Call of Duty games.
 * NUK3TOWN isn't available.
 * The Giant and the Season Pass are not available.
 * Theater Mode is not available
 * Gibbing is not avalible

Controversy
See also - Call of Duty: Black Ops III Controversy

Hardened Edition
The Hardened Edition is available for Xbox One and PS4 for $79.99. It includes:
 * A code for accessing the multiplayer beta for the game (No longer Included)
 * The limited edition specialist concept art cards
 * The Giant Zombies bonus map
 * Two personalization packs: Weaponized 115 and Cyborg

Digital Deluxe Edition
The Digital Deluxe Edition is available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC for $99.99. It includes:
 * A code for accessing the multiplayer beta for the game (No longer Included)
 * The limited edition specialist concept art cards
 * The Giant Zombies bonus map
 * Three personalization packs: fan favorite Cyborg & Weaponized 115 packs along with a new Black Ops III pack
 * The full base game, Season Pass & additional digital content

Juggernog Edition
The Juggernog Edition is available for Xbox One and PS4 for $199.99. It includes:
 * A code for accessing the multiplayer beta for the game (No longer Included)
 * The limited edition specialist concept art cards
 * The Giant Zombies bonus map
 * Three personalization packs: fan favorite Cyborg & Weaponized 115 packs along with a new Black Ops III pack
 * The full base game & Season Pass
 * The Juggernog mini-fridge
 * The Perk-a-Cola coaster set with a custom tin
 * The collectible steelbook
 * The official Call of Duty: Black Ops III soundtrack