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 an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch. 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. Black Ops III will be 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 fifth game in the Black Ops series, following Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

It is the first Call of Duty game for which downloadable content, including Beta Access, will be available first on PlayStation consoles.

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. 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.

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; 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 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 shadow is now visible during normal gameplay (whereas in previous games it was only the case during some scripted moments).

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.

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 is returning, and the 10 points will be used for picking Guns, Grenades, Attachments, and Perks. 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 and two revealed at E3 2015, 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.

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.

Maps are being built primarily with an emphasis on three lanes and no more than two stories of verticality, similar to maps in Black Ops II. Most maps only have two or three wall running spots and only a couple will actually feature water. Three maps have been revealed so far:


 * Combine: A Saharan research facility with an open area in the middle and tight interiors throughout the rest of the map.
 * Hunted: An Ethiopian hunting lodge with long sightlines and an underwater path that takes full advantage of the new underwater combat.
 * Stronghold: A Swiss chateau up in the Alps with asymmetrical design that mixes open areas with close quarters.

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 appearing in Black Ops III, 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.

Zombies
Treyarch has confirmed that Zombies mode will return in Call of Duty: Black Ops III, but little is known about it at this time. What is known is that Zombies is being touted as its "own experience" and will have its own XP-based progression system. This system's effect on gameplay is currently unknown. Treyarch has also indicated that Zombies will have its own distinct storyline.

Zombies was teased quickly at the end of the 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 are seen with yellow eyes and the Zombies Reveal Trailer will be at San Diego Comicon on July 9th.

Last Generation Version
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of Black Ops III are being developed by Beenox and Mercenary Technology, while the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Microsoft Windows) version of the game are being developed by Treyarch. Due to the fact that the 7th/Last Generation consoles have less powerful hardware, there are a few changes to the Last Generation version. These changes are:
 * The campaign/story mode only allows two player co-op instead of four.
 * The multiplayer beta is not coming to Last Gen consoles.
 * Custom paintjobs aren't available
 * More changes/differences on 7th/Last Gen consoles are yet to be announced by Activision near the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops III.