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As the very public spat between mega publisher Activision and ex-Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West rolls on, that other Call of Duty developer Treyarch has begun to talk about its game, Black Ops, due out on November 9.
Black Ops, the first Treyarch-developed Call of Duty game to go beyond World War II, is set in the Cold War era, although the exact time period has yet to be clarified.
In an interview with USA Today, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia described the Cold War setting as “perfect”.
“The team is really excited about creating a game in this period,” he said. “We really felt like it was fertile ground for us and we could provide something fresh for gamers.”
According to USA Today, Black Ops will focus on two main characters over multiple covert international conflicts.
“Our writers are focused on telling an epic story. You will see the evolution of some of these characters through time and the conflict,” Lamia said.
“This setting, this period, was perfect for us because it allowed us this creativity. This period hasn’t really been done in games and it spans a period of time. We are not getting into the exact period of time, because it is part of our story that we are going to reveal later, but it does cover a longer period during this era.”
During the Cold War, Lamia said, “there were these black operations, these deniable conflicts, there was unconventional warfare that occurred. Underneath the surface of this cold war, there was this hot war and it was taking place between the superpowers.
“This is not Russia of today, this is the Soviet Union of that period, whose leaders would say, we will bury you. But under the threat of mutually assured destruction, these conflicts never could go hot. So they put together these black operations to carry out conflicts.”
Lamia added: “We do our research, which are our inspirations, and we strive for authenticity. But we create our fictions from looking at all of this. It was exciting for the team to do something it had not done before with Call of Duty.”
In a USA Today preview, the first proper gameplay details were revealed. Black Ops will feature two to four-player co-op, a crossbow, switchable ammo, and a level set within an aeroplane.
Are you looking forward to Call of Duty: Black Ops? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments section below.
