Activision recently showed off Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 at a reveal event in Los Angeles, leaving many hopeful this will be another great entry in the long-running franchise.
However, developer Treyarch’s announcement that the game will be shipping without a single player campaign – a first for the series – raised concern amongst some Call of Duty fans, as this might not offer the same great gameplay experience as earlier Call of Duty games have.
Treyarch co-studio head Dan Bunting recently explained why the US developer chose to ditch the campaign in an interview with Eurogamer, saying that his team “never had set out to make a traditional campaign”.
The reason for this according to the Treyarch man is that more and more Call of Duty players are investing time in other modes besides the campaign, with Treyarch deciding to change the formula for Black Ops 4.
“We see more and more players spending more time with multiplayer and zombies, not just in the game, but out of the game, streaming and talking about it in forums. It’s generated a really huge crowd response. The decision was, we wanted to make a different style of game this time”, said Bunting.
Of course, since one of the game’s traditional pillars is gone, Treyarch had to make up for this somehow, so the developer has latched onto the popular battle royale trend meaning Call of Duty will be getting a battle royale-inspired mode named Blackout this year. This will be “done in our own unique way”, said Bunting.
It’s not all gloom and doom for those who want to play solo though, as the game will feature single player missions for each of its specialist characters, letting you learn their abilities and give the multiplayer action some context. “In multiplayer we’re delivering a series of solo missions that can take you deeper into understanding each of the specialists you’re going to play in multiplayer. It’s going to give you backstory”, added Bunting.
It remains to be seen though, whether these specialist missions can make up for the lack of a campaign. I personally believe they won’t, and that these will end up being little more than filler like the single player missions in EA’s first Star Wars: Battlefront game were.
So Treyarch will really need to deliver their finest multiplayer yet (and a really great battle royale mode too) if Call of Duty is not to lose ground to Battlefield V this year, as EA’s game will deliver a traditional campaign plus the usual multiplayer modes too. If anything, it will be interesting to see how the battle between Call of Duty and Battlefield plays out this year, and whether Call of Duty’s lack of a campaign will make players flock to Battlefield, something we’ll find out when both games hit shelves later this year.