Footage for Call of Duty Black Ops 4‘s cancelled campaign mode were allegedly leaked, according to found footage from Reddit and corroboration from Kotaku.
Its short demo revealed an unfinished mission from the game, which gained criticism from players for lacking a traditional single player campaign – a first for the annual first person shooter series. Much to the surprise of fans, the game was released in 2018 with a focus for multiplayer and became a setback for Treyarch in its reviews.
Of course, the mechanics from Call of Duty Black Ops 4 multiplayer were shown in full force as players carried out missions in a fixed storyline. Its multiplayer premise trains soldiers in a Combat Immersion program overseen by past Black Ops characters as AI. The campaign would follow the futuristic setting established in Black Ops 2 while its raw demo footage showed players rescuing the CEO of a company featured in multiplayer.
The footage also featured a defense mechanic, in which players roamed a free area to complete objectives. These were implied to be completed in any order while players had to secure objectives from enemies. Hostages and other NPCs are also shown running around, with the mission failing if any were to be harmed. Like Black Ops 3, character abilities make a return and players could customize theirs with special ones to enhance gameplay. A health bar is also shown, breaking the tradition of seeing red when players were damaged by enemies. An active map was also shown, lifting the need to activate a UAV or pausing the game.
An investigation into Call of Duty Black Ops 4 by Kotaku revealed the game had planned out a traditional campaign mode. At one point, the story would feature a cross-online 2 v. 2 campaign with players being able to invade others’ missions. Another idea looked to build an old-fashioned linear story until it was deemed “a brand-new campaign wasn’t practical.” Ultimately, the studio decided it would be a multiplayer-only experience. Its single player mechanics would be reduced for its Zombies, Tutorial and 1 v Bots multiplayer modes.