052The choices you make
will affect how things
play out – though guns
will always be a choice.Whatever sort of multplayer you prefer, you’ll find something to tempt you to team up with friends.The setting makes rivalries clear: East versus West, democracy versus communism.their mission to find all this stuff,”
shares Vondrak. The game is being
paced to ease us into this new
direction. The familiar rollercoaster
thrill ride is present in the early
missions, then we begin to find new
secrets, alternate paths, new ways to
approach a task. In part, the later
missions have been inspired by the
large maps of Warzone.
“We start sprinkling in that
choice,” says Vondrak. “It’s not
something we could just throw into
play right away. So we slowly dole it
out and try to piece it out. And
then towards the end, you really
have some very nonlinear missions.
[We] can continue to push this
moving forward.”
Some levels are pure Call Of
Duty – exploding carseverything is purpose-built. The
weapons are the same, your AK
does this [one thing] but then the
exciting thing [is] how you can
customise that on top of the
loadouts, even in the campaign,
and how you’re building these guns
for the mission. We want them
to feel weighty and real and have
that immersion, that cinematic
feeling [we talked about earlier] as
it feels like you’re actually firing
these weapons.”LOOK WHO’S STALKING
Technology aside, Raven’s Vondrak
tells us the studio’s take on Black
Ops is “pushing boundaries”.
Tapping into its history of action
RPGs (Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance)
and shooters (the underrated
Singularity) Raven has built player
choice into the game. From simple
dialogue options and decision-
making to entire levels that have an
almost Hitman feel to the open-
ended way you can complete them,
Raven’s Cold War campaign is
literally taking us to places Call Of
Duty has never fully been before.
One mission, set in the KGB’s
Lubyanka building, sees you
undercover, attempting to take out a
target without firing a bullet. You
can poison him, blackmail him, bribe
a prisoner to kill him during
interrogation – it’s up to you.
“In some cases, we know the
player would have to actually replaypinwheeling down roads during
daring escapes, for example – but
there are key decisions to be made.
Everything from simple dialogue
options where you can choose to
threaten or soothe prisoners to
game-altering changes that will
ultimately decide the game’s ending.
Vondrak confirms to us there will
be multiple endings, and also that
actions can affect what happens in
later missions, so there are layers of
cause and effect. At the end of theJUST DO IT, WITH FRIENDS
Connected and larger than ever: Cold War’s three-pillared
multiplayer mode could be the series’ best yet
While Raven makes the
single-player campaign,
Treyarch is looking after
the multiplayer. Leslie tells
us Cold War’s multiplayer
mode has three main pillars:
Deniable Operations; a variety
of locations and maps; and
cross-gen cross-play.
Deniable Operations are
the missions you didn’t know
about, designed to test your
skill beyond anything you
may find in the single-player
campaign. Creative specialist
Miles Leslie says: “We’re
sending elite operators into
places no-one knew. And
again, that historical reality
is touching on history. So ifplayers look this up, they
might get that conspiracy
feeling; like whoa, did that
actually happen?”
Scale and variety is
something else Cold War’s
multiplayer will embrace.
Offline the campaign is
heading around the world, so
it’s no surprise to hear we’ll be
globetrotting in multiplayer.
“The variety of maps is huge
for us in terms of experiences
and set-pieces. Going back
to the campaign, these guys
are going everywhere, right?
So it was really easy for us
to go, ‘Oh, you guys are going
there? We want to go there
on the multiplayer side too’.And there’s a lot of sharing of
things like assets and locales,
which is exciting.”
The third pillar is
“connectedness” says Leslie.
This means you’ll be playing
across PS4 and PS5, and all
other platforms. The aim is
to make Cold War the most
accessible multiplayer
game possible. It sounds
like this idea will run
across single-player and
Warzone, which will have
Cold War-themed content,
as well as multiplayer. “If you
want more and get that depth
and connectedness across
the game, we’re going to give
you that,” says Leslie.052
The choices you make
will affect how things
play out – though guns
will always be a choice.Whatever sort of multplayer you prefer, you’ll find something to tempt you to team up with friends.The setting makes rivalries clear: East versus West, democracy versus communism.their mission to find all this stuff,”
shares Vondrak. The game is being
paced to ease us into this new
direction. The familiar rollercoaster
thrill ride is present in the early
missions, then we begin to find new
secrets, alternate paths, new ways to
approach a task. In part, the later
missions have been inspired by the
large maps of Warzone.
“We start sprinkling in that
choice,” says Vondrak. “It’s not
something we could just throw into
play right away. So we slowly dole it
out and try to piece it out. And
then towards the end, you really
have some very nonlinear missions.
[We] can continue to push this
moving forward.”
Some levels are pure Call Of
Duty – exploding carseverything is purpose-built. The
weapons are the same, your AK
does this [one thing] but then the
exciting thing [is] how you can
customise that on top of the
loadouts, even in the campaign,
and how you’re building these guns
for the mission. We want them
to feel weighty and real and have
that immersion, that cinematic
feeling [we talked about earlier] as
it feels like you’re actually firing
these weapons.”LOOK WHO’S STALKING
Technology aside, Raven’s Vondrak
tells us the studio’s take on Black
Ops is “pushing boundaries”.
Tapping into its history of action
RPGs (Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance)
and shooters (the underrated
Singularity) Raven has built player
choice into the game. From simple
dialogue options and decision-
making to entire levels that have an
almost Hitman feel to the open-
ended way you can complete them,
Raven’s Cold War campaign is
literally taking us to places Call Of
Duty has never fully been before.
One mission, set in the KGB’s
Lubyanka building, sees you
undercover, attempting to take out a
target without firing a bullet. You
can poison him, blackmail him, bribe
a prisoner to kill him during
interrogation – it’s up to you.
“In some cases, we know the
player would have to actually replaypinwheeling down roads during
daring escapes, for example – but
there are key decisions to be made.
Everything from simple dialogue
options where you can choose to
threaten or soothe prisoners to
game-altering changes that will
ultimately decide the game’s ending.
Vondrak confirms to us there will
be multiple endings, and also that
actions can affect what happens in
later missions, so there are layers of
cause and effect. At the end of theJUST DO IT, WITH FRIENDS
Connected and larger than ever: Cold War’s three-pillared
multiplayermodecouldbetheseries’bestyet
While Raven makes the
single-player campaign,
Treyarch is looking after
the multiplayer. Leslie tells
us Cold War’s multiplayer
mode has three main pillars:
Deniable Operations; a variety
of locations and maps; and
cross-gen cross-play.
Deniable Operations are
the missions you didn’t know
about, designed to test your
skill beyond anything you
may find in the single-player
campaign. Creative specialist
Miles Leslie says: “We’re
sending elite operators into
places no-one knew. And
again, that historical reality
is touching on history. So ifplayers look this up, they
might get that conspiracy
feeling; like whoa, did that
actually happen?”
Scale and variety is
something else Cold War’s
multiplayer will embrace.
Offline the campaign is
heading around the world, so
it’s no surprise to hear we’ll be
globetrotting in multiplayer.
“The variety of maps is huge
for us in terms of experiences
and set-pieces. Going back
to the campaign, these guys
are going everywhere, right?
So it was really easy for us
to go, ‘Oh, you guys are going
there? We want to go there
on the multiplayer side too’.And there’s a lot of sharing of
things like assets and locales,
which is exciting.”
The third pillar is
“connectedness” says Leslie.
This means you’ll be playing
across PS4 and PS5, and all
other platforms. The aim is
to make Cold War the most
accessible multiplayer
game possible. It sounds
like this idea will run
across single-player and
Warzone, which will have
Cold War-themed content,
as well as multiplayer. “If you
want more and get that depth
and connectedness across
the game, we’re going to give
you that,” says Leslie.