Home Gaming Black Ops 3 features a multi-layered story for the more discerning Call of Duty player

Black Ops 3 features a multi-layered story for the more discerning Call of Duty player

3 min read
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Blops 3 narrative

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has already been released in the wild and if my friends lists are anything to go by, a whole bunch of you are already playing it all the time. With a co-op campaign, the non-linear nature of the storytelling might be a bit odd to some. Of course, we had to ask Jason Blundell, the director for the campaign and zombies, for a bit more clarity.

You can watch him say the words, but what I found most intriguing was his view on balancing out the story telling for those who just want to play through the story, as compared to those who want to dig a bit deeper.

It’s a multilayered narrative, so there’s actually multiple narratives taking place at the same time. In Black Ops 2 we wrote a branching storyline. We thought that would be quite tricky to write that. Writing a multilayered narrative actually is even more complicated. So what that means is that different people will play it and possibly have different perceptions of what took place and they could all possibly be true. There’s actually evidence and stuff in there that you can look at and show that evidence for your theory and your story. There are actually 3 or 4 different stories running at the same time.

It’s a story that really… for the guys who want to play it and just going to go through it’s got these core mechanics, these level agnostic mechanics that allow you to play and sup up your character, customize your character, and maybe you just want to take this surface narrative from that story. And that’s totally fine. But we have certain sections of our community who really kind of enjoy looking deeper, going after those kind of clues. It’s a campaign and a story that will reward them continuously, so the closer they look there’re more and more things for the more discerning narrative guy who will be able to pick them up and possibly find new and interesting stories that are being told.

Considering how many people I’ve talked to who never even play the campaign in Call of Duty, it’s nice to see that so much attention is given to the story elements for those who enjoy them. Some of those clues or memories will take the form of collectibles. Often collectibles seem like filler material to force players to search around the world just for 100% completion. In Black Ops 3, the goal was to use it as a touch point for remembering certain experiences, as well as showing those experiences off to others:

Those collectibles you can place onto the walls and onto shelves. Not only do they serve a narrative function where each of those items there’s actually a backstory associated with each of those collectibles that might give you more evidence and theories on the world. But you can also use them to customize your bunk and your bunk is inside the safe house which is a new concept for the campaign. So you move through the levels, you go into the safe house and you have a bunk with your computer and so forth. But those collectibles you can place onto shelves and onto the walls and personalize the space to show what you found in the world.

I know it’s not quite as deep as something like Bloodborne where the items are the only way to find out about the lore or the story, but it is cool that things like collectibles that are usually just fluff added to games can actually reveal some narrative elements. Considering the multilayered approach of the narrative, these collectibles could reveal each player’s view on the events of the campaign. Much like in real life where soldiers return from war with varying views of what happened out in the field, each bunk could reflect the different layers perceived by the various players. Pretty deep stuff for those who are so inclined to explore it.

Last Updated: November 12, 2015

36 Comments

  1. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 12, 2015 at 11:38

    “Black Ops 3 features a multi-layered story”
    Lolwat?
    ProfHammer, what say thee?

    Reply

    • James Anderton

      November 12, 2015 at 11:48

      I literally don’t know a single person who owns this IRL.

      Reply

      • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

        November 12, 2015 at 11:51

        Hammer does, he hates it

        Reply

        • Guild

          November 12, 2015 at 11:55

          If hates it so much he should sell it. I think it’s awesome but then again I pretty much jump on and just play multiplayer

          Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 12, 2015 at 11:52

      confusing story, gibberish about AI, something about frozen forests (Might be a new flavour for mountain dew)
      http://i.imgur.com/v1F1hk3.png

      Reply

      • James Anderton

        November 12, 2015 at 11:54

        No desert Doritos or?

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          November 12, 2015 at 11:55

          Might have missed that. There’s a part in the game where you pilot a VTOL over a desert. But as soon as it’s fun COD takes the ball and goes home

          Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        November 12, 2015 at 11:54

        Clearly…

        Reply

      • Guild

        November 12, 2015 at 11:55

        And how is the multiplayer budd? Cause that is the main focus

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          November 12, 2015 at 11:56

          It’s chipping away at my resolve 😛

          Reply

          • Guild

            November 12, 2015 at 11:57

            So you and Iron going to join me again? 😛

          • Hammersteyn

            November 12, 2015 at 12:00

            Hahaha, we’ll have to ask him. But yeah. Why not.

          • Darren Peach

            November 12, 2015 at 14:37

            For the first time in my life, I bought a game with a single player story and focused on the multiplayer first.

          • Hammersteyn

            November 12, 2015 at 15:03

            That’s the norm for these type of games

          • Darren Peach

            November 12, 2015 at 15:15

            First time I have ever focused on multiplayer as opposed to the story. I always considered multiplayer dessert… I typed desert at first, But because people are anal retentive about engrish ( Yes, I misspelled that deliberately ) I try and google words that are similar….

  2. James Anderton

    November 12, 2015 at 11:38

    Like an onion?

    Reply

  3. Guild

    November 12, 2015 at 11:48

    There is a campaign?

    Reply

    • James Anderton

      November 12, 2015 at 11:49

      You must be a PS3 or Xbox 360 gamer.

      Welcome 😀

      Reply

      • Guild

        November 12, 2015 at 11:51

        XD I only recently did the AW campaign. Most people I know jump on and straight to multiplayer which is what I have been doing.

        Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 12, 2015 at 11:50

      • Darren Peach

        November 12, 2015 at 15:24

        This has to be the most weirdest thing I have seen in some time.

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 12, 2015 at 11:57

      Yes and they really want you to believe that they put effort into it.

      Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 12, 2015 at 11:49

    It’s not that difficult, just write some vague nonsense & everyone’ll rush in to fill it up with their own complex theories & you can sit back & relax. It works for Japanese games & Star Wars.

    Reply

  5. MakeItLegal

    November 12, 2015 at 12:13

    47GB download…all iwant to do is wall run 🙁

    Reply

    • VampyreSquirrel

      November 12, 2015 at 12:37

      Play Warframe then 😛

      Reply

  6. Darren Peach

    November 12, 2015 at 14:35

    A discerning COD player ? There is absolutely no such thing, And I include myself into that equation. Late last night I logged on for some late night fun. Ran into a camper. I message him and asked him to stop camping. He reply was ” Fuck you “… That is about as discerning as you get in COD land….

    Reply

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