Call of Duty Black Ops 3 cover

Description

Like in previous games, the Zombies storyline in Call of Duty: Black Ops III is told in an episodic format, with one map, "Shadows of Evil", available at launch, and the rest to follow in the downloadable content season. "Shadows of Evil" focuses on a new group of characters: Nero Blackstone , Jessica Rose , Jack Vincent and Floyd Campbell , who reside in the fictional Morg City. Treyarch describes the new characters as "troubled individuals" with "a long and sordid history of past misdeeds". The four characters are thrown into a twisted version of the city, overrun by zombies, and are guided by a mysterious, unreliable figure called the Shadowman ."Shadows of Evil" acts as a prologue that leads into the core storyline, focusing on the Dimension 63 version of the original characters: "Tank" Dempsey , Nikolai Belinski , Takeo Masaki and Edward Richtofen , who were introduced in the Black Ops II map "Origins", referred to collectively as Primis. Their story continues from where "Origins" left off, as they attempt to prevent the events of the original timeline from ever occurring across the multiverse. Other characters include the leader of Group 935, Doctor Ludvig Maxis , and his daughter Samantha. The downloadable content maps feature the original versions of Primis, referred to as Ultimis, and reintroduce various minor characters mentioned/featured in previous games, including Group 935 scientist Doctor Groph , the OSS spy Peter McCain, Dr. Maxis' assistant Sophia , the Ascension Group scientist Gersh, as well as introduces the mysterious omnipotent being Doctor Monty . Robert Picardo also briefly reprises his role from Call of Duty: Black Ops as United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.


Story
Following the battle against the undead outbreak in Northern France of Dimension 63, Doctor Ludvig Maxis, whose brain resided in a mechanical drone at the time, arrives at Agartha and is given a new body by Doctor Monty, a self-proclaimed omnipotent being and member of the Order of the Keepers. After helping to cleanse the soul of his daughter Samantha from the original timeline, Monty instructs Maxis to retrieve an artifact called the Summoning Key, a powerful artifact that can fix their world back to its original state. To do so, Maxis instructs his friend Doctor Edward Richtofen to retrieve the Kronorium, an ancient book detailing the events of every universe and dimension, which contains the location of the Key.
After learning of the Key's location, Richtofen travels to Dimension 63 and arrives in Morg City in 1944, where the Apothicons, former Keepers who were corrupted and mutated by the dark energy of the Aether, manipulated four individuals: Jessica Rose, a burlesque dancer; Jack Vincent, a corrupt cop; Floyd Campbell, an up-and-coming boxer; and Nero Blackstone, a washed-up magician. Misled into doing the bidding of an Apothicon named the Shadowman, the four opened a rift beneath the city using the Summoning Key, thereby freeing an ancient Apothicon beast. With the Keepers' aid, the four manage to trap the Shadowman inside the Key, and banish the beast from their dimension. Before they could retrieve the Summoning Key from the Keepers, however, Richtofen snags the Key from them, thanks them for their effort and exits through a portal, leaving the four and the rest of Dimension 63 to be doomed by the Apothicons. Richtofen travels to Dimension 2210 and collects the soul of his alternate self, then releases the soul to Agartha, where Monty gives the soul a child's body, and calls him Eddie.
The Dimension 63 versions of "Tank" Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki pursue Richtofen in his interdimensional journey, and arrive in the Der Riese facility in the original timeline, only moments after Maxis and Samantha were teleported away by the original Richtofen. The three attempt to convince him to awaken their original selves, but are interrupted by the Dimension 63 Richtofen, who appears out of the teleporter and kills his counterpart, triggering various timeline fractures. The four then band together to fend off the zombie horde once more; eventually, they activates a beacon within the facility, allowing Maxis to locate them from Agartha.
In pursuit of the original Dempsey, the four then travel to Der Eisendrache, Group 935's fortress in Austria. Despite Group 935 member Doctor Groph's attempt at preventing the group from retrieving the test subject, he ultimately fails and perishes when Richtofen overrides the castle's defense system and sends a barrage of missiles towards the moon. As the four retrieve the original Dempsey, Richtofen reveals his plan to prevent their original incarnations from wreaking havoc upon the universe. Dimension 63 Dempsey then volunteers to kill his own counterpart before allowing Richtofen to absorb his soul with the Key.
Afterwards, the group attempts to teleport to a new fractured timeline to locate the original Takeo, who is held prisoner at a Pacific island by the Japanese research group Division 9. They discover that Division 9 had been experimenting with plant life mutation using Element 115, with the original Takeo also a victim of the experimentation. After they manage to release him from the mutation, Dimension 63 Takeo is shocked to learn that the Emperor of Japan betrayed his original self and sent him to this island out of petty jealousy. The original Takeo proceeds to commit seppuku, with his Dimension 63 self decapitating him. After absorbing the original Takeo's soul with the Key, Richtofen takes the crew to Alcatraz in Dimension 63, where they retrieve several blood vials, the purpose of which he refuses to explain at the time.
The crew then teleports to another fractured timeline and lands in a war-torn Stalingrad in 1945, where the Soviet Union has stolen Group 935's technology to create their own giant robots and mechanical soldiers, while Germany is aided by ancient dragons resurrected and bred by Division 9. As the crew traverses across the city, they are forced to help Sophia, Maxis' former assistant who has been transformed into a machine, to initiate the Ascension Protocol, allowing her to gain knowledge of interdimensional travel. Monty also introduces himself to the crew, as he informs them of the state of the multiverse. Amidst the chaos, the original Nikolai, who has taken control of a modified drone unit, teams up with the group to destroy the alpha dragon. However, upon the dragon's death, Nikolai refuses to surrender, forcing the four to take out his drone. The original Nikolai is angered by his Dimension 63 self as he mentions their deceased wife, and attempts to shoot him, only to be killed in retaliation. With all souls collected, Richtofen calls out to Maxis to summon a portal, and release the souls into it.
The group returns to Agartha and arrives in "The House", a place built by Monty to prevent all forces of evil from infecting it, ensuring the safety of the children . After sealing off the House from the rest of the multiverse, Maxis is manipulated by the voice of the Shadowman into releasing him upon contact with the Summoning Key. The Shadowman then uses his power to merge various other dimensions, including the Dark Aether, allowing the Apothicons to enter and wreak havoc. Richtofen and the crew manage to help Sophia enter the dimension, and with her assistance, retrieve the Summoning Key and the Kronorium. They then confront the Shadowman together, and defeat him once and for all using the combined power of the two artifacts. Maxis, who still resides within the Key, then absorbs the souls of the children into the Key, and joins Sophia as they fly toward the Apothicon sun, banishing all Apothicon presences from Agartha. Richtofen and the crew are able to remain in the dimension without fading from existence, thanks to the blood vials they retrieved earlier. Monty, worried about the four becoming a paradox in his perfect world, contemplates between erasing their existence and sending them to a distant corner of the universe. In a moment, the four begin to fade away, then reappear in ancient medieval times, where they would be remembered as "Primis", heroes who aided the Keepers in sealing away the Apothicons in the Great War, effectively "completing the cycle" of the universe.


Development
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the twelfth game in the Call of Duty franchise, and the fourth entry in the Black Ops series. The game was the second to benefit under publisher Activision's three-year development cycle, the first being Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The cycle allows each of the development teams of the Call of Duty series to develop games in a three-year timespan, as opposed to the two allowed previously. Black Ops III uses a heavily modified version of the IW engine used previously in Black Ops II.On June 9, 2015, versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were confirmed to be under development by Beenox and Mercenary Technology. These versions lack some features available on other platforms, such as the game's campaign mode. On June 15, 2015, it was announced that as part of a new exclusivity deal with Sony Computer Entertainment, all downloadable content for future Call of Duty games, beginning with Black Ops III, would be released first on PlayStation platforms as timed exclusives. This ends a similar exclusivity deal with Microsoft dating back to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.A multiplayer beta was released for the PlayStation 4 on August 18, 2015, and was released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on August 26, 2015. All versions of the multiplayer beta ran for six days.


Music
Jack Wall, who previously composed the score for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, returned along with Treyarch's Audio Director Brian Tuey to compose the score for the game. The game also featured an instrumental score entitled "Jade Helm", provided by Avenged Sevenfold, for use in the multiplayer mode. Additionally, both Wall, Tuey and Treyarch's Sound Designer Kevin Sherwood contributed to the composition of the Zombies mode's soundtrack, including several new songs performed by Elena Siegman and Malukah for each of the maps.


Marketing


Reveal
Teasers were released beginning with Snapchat links appearing in the gameplay of Black Ops II as well as a teaser video released by Treyarch. On April 26, 2015, the first reveal trailer for the game was released and revealed the return of the Zombies mode and beta access for people that pre-order the game for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The full game was released on November 6, 2015.


Controversy
On September 29, 2015, the official Twitter account of Call of Duty was temporarily renamed to "Current Events Aggregate". It then began tweeting messages about real-life fashion, movies and a terrorist attack that takes place in Singapore. Activision later revealed that these tweets are fake, and served to promote the game's story campaign. This marketing campaign was strongly criticized for faking news, and publisher Activision was blamed for being "irresponsible". The game's director Jason Blundell said that the team was "shocked" by the negative reaction of the marketing campaign, and offered an apology.


Pre-order
Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the Digital Deluxe Edition counterpart were available to pre-order on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The Digital Deluxe Edition comes with the season pass, which can also be ordered separately. Pre-ordering provided access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer beta and in-game items for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, such as custom reticles, an emblem, a calling card, and Advanced Supply Drops. Sony also announced that the Black Ops III beta would come to the PS4 first on August 19 through August 23, 2015. The beta for the PS4 went live on August 18, 2015, several hours earlier than originally announced. After the beta period ended, it was announced that all pre-orders would include the bonus multiplayer map "NUK3TOWN", a remake of the original "Nuketown" map, featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and in Call of Duty: Black Ops II as "Nuketown 2025". Owing to the lack of the campaign mode, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions included a digital copy of Black Ops as an added bonus, as well as having their price reduced by 10 dollars compared to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.


Comics tie-in
A comic book titled Call of Duty: Black Ops III was announced on July 1, 2015. Serving as a prequel to the game, the first issue was released worldwide on November 4, 2015 and was published by Dark Horse Comics. The story is written by Larry Hama, while Marcelo Ferreira served as the artist for the comic book. The story takes place several years prior to the main events of the game, and stars Jacob Hendricks and John Taylor along with their black ops squadmates in an attempt to stop a Russian terrorist plot. Subsequent issues were released throughout 2016.
On July 11, 2016, Treyarch announced a new comic book series titled Call of Duty: Zombies, to expand upon the story of the Zombies mode. The story features the return of the TranZit team: Abigail "Misty" Briarton, Marlton Johnson, Russman and Samuel Stuhlinger, previously the main protagonists of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as they embark on a search for an artifact known as the Kronorium, while discovering the truth behind Edward Richtofen's reappearance. The miniseries, also published by Dark Horse, features Justin Jordan as the writer and Jonathan Wayshak as the main artist, while Simon Bisley draws the cover art of each issue. The first issue was released on October 28, 2016, and subsequent issues were released throughout 2017.


Special editions and downloadable content
In addition to the Digital Deluxe Edition, other special editions include the Hardened Edition and the Juggernog Edition. The Juggernog Edition includes a mini-refrigerator, a season pass and multiple in-game content. A Collector's Edition bonus map for the Zombie mode, The Giant was announced. It is a remake of the Call of Duty: World at War map Der Riese, and features the original characters, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen. A multiplayer-only starter pack for Microsoft Windows was announced and released on February 16, 2016. It features the multiplayer mode's core mechanics, though certain features, such as the Zombie mode and the Nightmare mode, were excluded. Hungry Shark Evolution
. This version of the game is available for players to purchase until the end of February 2016, though it has been made available permanently since. Color By Number: Coloring Game
.In December 2015, during Sony's PlayStation Experience event, Activision announced the first downloadable content map pack for Black Ops III, titled Awakening, and was released first on PlayStation 4 on February 2, 2016. Hill Climb Racing 2
. Releases for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows happened in March 2016. Pictoword: Fun New Word Puzzle
. The map pack contains four new multiplayer maps: Skyjacked, Rise, Splashed, and Gauntlet, a new Zombies map, Der Eisendrache, and several new gumballs for the Zombie mode. Where's My Water? Lite
. In March 2016, Treyarch revealed the second Map Pack, titled "Eclipse". The map pack has four new multiplayer maps, including a remake of the World at War map "Bonzai" and a new Zombies map, "Zetsubou no Shima". The map pack was released on April 19 for PlayStation 4 and May 19 for Xbox One and PC.
The third map pack, Descent, was revealed on June 28, 2016, featuring four new MP maps, including a remake of the Black Ops II map "Raid" and a new Zombies map, "Gorod Krovi". The map pack was released on July 12 for PlayStation 4 and August 11 for Xbox One and PC. The PC release of Descent received controversy, for Activision and Treyarch announced that the map packs would no longer be sold separately, and PC pl