In a recent interview, Treyarch's head honchos David Vonderhaar and Dan Bunting discussed the creative direction they've taken with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and the decision to do away with the singleplayer component for the first time.
Bunting explained that Treyarch's development process involves a lot of brainstorming and different ideas, some inadvertently better than others. "Some of them work out great, some of them don't work out great and you pivot. You find a new idea; focus on that. We follow the fun.", he added.
The backlash that ensued after the news broke that Call of Duty is doing away with the campaign for the first time in the franchise's history was mostly due to everyone considering it a mainstay. However, Vonderhaar enquired as to how can one remove something that was never there to begin with. "It wasn't a campaign as people usually refer to it anyways", he added.
There's no doubt that battle royale games have been all the rage lately and indeed, many perceived it as an standoff between a trend and traditional Call of Duty experience. Unfortunately, Bunting deflected the question and went on on a tirade on how game developers must learn to adapt and evolve.
Now I cannot, nor would I, dispute the evolution part, but it is a bit scary when you consider that all it takes to change your favourite game is a fad. While I'm fairly certain that battle royale is here to stay, I'm still a bit conflicted about Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's new direction.
Apparently, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's mode Blackout went through plenty of changes itself and while I was more than a little sceptical myself, it increasingly looks as if Treyarch are onto something here. Needless to say, I've already preloaded Blackout's open beta and it won't be long until I can actually prove these suspicions.
Activision
Treyarch have already begun balancing the game in the latest , most notably on 3 armour, which turned out to be invincible to explosive damage.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 various modes, maps and characters
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