Based on the schedule Activision follows every year, we’re still months away from the announcement of this year’s Call of Duty game, but some potential details on it have been trickling through nonetheless, courtesy of leaks. It’s been previously reported that the game will be a new Black Ops instalment set during the Gulf War and will be titled Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War, and another new report published by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson has now revealed more alleged details on its single player campaign.
As per Henderson, Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War is set to feature a fully open world campaign. Though last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did dabble with open world design to some extent with what were known as its Open World Missions and an open world Zombies mode, Henderson claims Black Ops Gulf War’s open world campaign has been built from the ground-up from the game rather than using previous instalments’ assets. The campaign is allegedly being handled by Raven Software (who also led Black Ops Cold War’s campaign), while Treyarch handles multiplayer and Zombies.
The campaign will reportedly see players and their accompanying squad traversing an open world map similar to the Far Cry games. Players will allegedly be able to navigate the map using vehicles (something that would presumably take cues from Warzone), while a fast travel system will also be included. Additionally, it’s been claimed that despite its open world structure, the campaign will include linear missions as well, though how many of them you can expect remains to be seen. CIA agent Russel Addler, who had a key role in Black Ops Cold War’s campaign, will also supposedly return.
Interestingly, Henderson goes on to claim that Black Ops Gulf War’s open world campaign isn’t meant to be an isolated experiment, but rather a sign of things to come for the franchise. He claims that Call of Duty 2025 – which is allegedly set to be a direct sequel to Black Ops 2 set in 2030 – is also currently being planned as an open world campaign, though with the game supposedly still in the early stages of development, things aren’t quite set in stone yet. Either way, as per Henderson, Activision is looking to switch to an open world format primarily to “streamline development”.
Leaks have previously claimed that 2024’s Call of Duty game will be another cross-gen release. Read more on that through here.
