With Infinity Ward taking center stage in the Call of Duty franchise for the past few years, it is no wonder that other development studios are coming back into the fold. Sledgehammer Games are reportedly taking the helm of the IP's 2023 release, with Treyarch also being reported to take control of 2024's franchise installment.
While it is of course exciting to see Call of Duty returning to more diverse development, there are many mistakes and pitfalls from past releases that Treyarch should learn from. In particular, Black Ops 3 had a campaign that was notorious for its confusing themes that went against the grain of what the franchise usually explores. While this is not inherently a bad thing, there are clear lessons that Black Ops 3 in particular can teach Treyarch and its mystery 2024 CoD title.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3's Complex Story
2015's Black Ops 3 was a bold step forward for the iconic sub-franchise of Call of Duty. The release largely did away with the preceding storylines of the first two Black Ops games, instead opting for a deeply futuristic setting with an entirely new set of characters.
Like 2014's Advanced Warfare, a lot of Black Ops 3's main themes revolved around cybernetic enhancement in futuristic combat. Black Ops 3 arguably took these themes a step further, going as far to have these enhancements extend to entering the mind of the player character and interacting with other characters through this.
A huge portion of Black Ops 3's story revolves around an AI virus named Corvus that has the ability to hack into the digital neural interface, or DNI, of enhanced soldiers. This literally takes the battle into the mind of the player character, leading to confusing and eccentric sequences where reality shifts and bends at every turn. While the campaign of Black Ops 3 is undoubtedly ambitious and interesting, the mind-bending sequences that make up a large portion of the narrative led to it being labeled as confusing and therefore forgettable in some spaces.
Treyarch's 2024 Call of Duty and Black Ops 3
Of course, not a lot is currently known about Treyarch's 2024 title, with a lot of discussion currently circulating around Sledgehammer Games' rumored Modern Warfare 3. This has not stopped leaks and rumors from circulating about 2024's title, which may indicate that Treyarch is going back to a classic Black Ops feel for its next release.
Thanks to files mined from Warzone Mobile, it is rumored that CoD 2024 will be set during the 1990s, specifically involving the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia. This would do away with the futuristic elements of other Black Ops titles by necessity, likely leading to something more in-line with the Cold War setting of the original BO and the more recent Black Ops: Cold War.
It is true that Black Ops has always centered around themes of confusion and warped reality, yet the technical and futuristic way in which Black Ops 3 approached this may have been too far. If the rumored setting of CoD 2024 holds any weight, then Treyarch would be wise to keep its themes much more grounded in reality. A move away from futuristic settings would keep to the classic feel of the Black Ops franchise, while allowing Treyarch to tell a story with all-new characters without feeling too much of a departure from what made the Black Ops titles successful to begin with.
A new Call of Duty is in development.