This confusing reception might have been what convinced Treyarch to go back to the early 1980s after bringing back the single-player campaign for 2020’s Black Ops - Cold War.
But, as it turns out, Black Ops 4 did not need to “suffer” as much as it did. New details claim that Treyarch had a complete single-player campaign ready for Black Ops 4. The latest info contains everything from the plot and mission designs, which are far too elaborate to be a hoax. According to the lengthy Reddit thread by u/Purpletoaster20, the intel comes from months of research and talks with “people who have inside knowledge of this month.” They added that the post contains images from early 2017 builds and served as an “early prototype for Specialist HQ that was created long after the original game’s cancellation.” Going back to the single-player campaign, Black Ops 4’s would’ve been called “Career” set in 2070 after the events of Black Ops 3. They refer to the current climate as “The Year of Chaos” following years of climate disasters and a global pandemic that ravaged the entire world. The basic premise would have included two warring factions: the Free People’s Army (FPA) and the World United Nations (WUN). The goal was to make the single-player campaign tie into the co-op live service elements of Black Ops 4 with plans for individual side missions for players who’d built “relationships” with their Special companions. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan as Treyarch felt that the gameplay loop was “too repetitive.” The post goes into detail about other pieces of content that Treyarch dropped. This includes several DLC seasons for Career and a zombies sequel, “Zombies Next”, that picked up after the “Nightmares” mode for Black Ops 3.
♬ original sound - Xfire - Xfire Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games, and Infinity Ward, reportedly take anywhere between 3-4 years working on their Call of Duty games. In fact, reports suggest that Call of Duty 2024 is already in the works with details about its maps making their way online a few months back. It wouldn’t surprise us if several things about the games changed between when it started development and once it comes out. However, we’re shocked that Treyarch didn’t go with its initial plans for Black Ops 4. Black Ops - Cold War might have sold better compared to Vanguard, but there’s a chance a Black Ops 5 follow-up to Black Ops 4 with a single-player campaign would have done better. Then again, if Call of Duty didn’t experience its current decline, we don’t think Activision will consider changing the annual cycle. Call of Duty is set to get its newest installment later this year with Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 followed by Warzone 2. Rumor has it that we won’t see a Call of Duty game come out next year with Activision dropping a premium single-player DLC for Modern Warfare 2 instead. With Modern Warfare 2 set to go into beta in September, we’ll find out more about Activision’s plans for this year’s Call of Duty soon.