Call of Duty has always been a franchise that people have enjoyed for a multitude of reasons. You have your zombies, a co-op mode that allows people to play with their friends and have a good time. You have multiplayer mode which pits friends and strangers alike to compete to be the best. And of course there is a single player campaign. The always bombastic over the top story that developers, Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games have all taken a pass at for nearly a decade and a half. Year after year these developers try to outdo themselves and tell a gripping and engaging story that sets a backdrop for its multiplayer mode. And serves as a tool to draw people with Activision's marketing. According to recent rumors, this beloved mode, a staple of the series since the beginning is being removed from this year's new installment of the franchise.
Polygon has reported that Treyarch will no longer be working on their single player campaign for this year's title Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Sources explained that the developer came to the unfortunate decision to halt production of the story mode after realizing they were too close to deadline, and would not be able to complete development prior to this year's earlier than usual release date of October 12, 2018.
Treyarch have instead decided to divert attention, and focus primarily on their zombies and multiplayer modes instead. There are also rumors of Raven Software will be developing a Battle Royale mode for the game akin to Fortnite: Battle Royale, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Raven is a company known for helping with the development of previous titles in the Call of Duty series contributing multiplayer maps, single player missions, and most recently the multiplayer game type War in Call of Duty: WW2. Raven Software also was responsible for the remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2016.
Now that’s a lot of information to unpack and process if you have been a fan of Call of Duty for any amount of time. This is after all, a series that has never once left out a single player story, and every year is praised for the moment to moment action and crazy set pieces used. Critically speaking the single player campaign is what put call of duty on the map. Although nobody can argue that more recently the always right wound multiplayer is what draws in fans and newcomers these days.
However there is something that for some reason people are forgetting to realize. Without a single player story there won't be much to hold onto when it comes to a believable setting for the other modes of this game. When you look back at COD 4, often looked at as the best game in the series. The story itself is what lends to the different maps, guns, and overall theme that is needed for the multiplayer to exist in the state it was presented. Remove the story and you have an empty shell. You aren't given context for the battles you are fighting. It makes it harder to justify the gameplay you experience in screen. Now you're just pulling a trigger on a controller and watching something fall over. Ultimately and with lack of a better term, it’s boring.
The amount of money that goes into crafting the campaign modes of these games its extravagant and untouchable by resources spent on the other sections. The idea of Activision, a large player in this industry taking a loss on what must have already been used for Black Ops 4 seems crazy. You don't just write millions of dollars off and not expect some return on investment. It is hard to believe that Treyarch didn't realize they were way over their heads this close to launch. What males it more strange is that this is the first title they have been able to focus an entire 3 year development cycle on without sacrificing resources to the last generation of consoles like they did with Black Ops 3. This should have given them more time. And if it was as big as these rumors make it out to be, it stands to reason that this was a story worth telling.
The single player campaign in Call of Duty provides a universe for the game and any following sequels to live and to breath in. It would be lifeless without it. We at Hit & Run have loved nearly every story that Call of Duty has been able to tell, minus a few moments here and there as to be expected with a majority of linear first person shooter stories. Who can forget missions like “All Ghillied Up” from the first Modern Warfare, or perhaps Advanced Warfare’s “Sentinel”? Everyone remembers the death of Ghost, and the realizations Mason has telling his story from an electric chair. These stories mean something to people. These missions are what helped us fall in love with this series to begin with. If the rumors are true, then its a shame we won’t be getting new memorable experiences with Black Ops 4. And that’s a damned shame.
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