Treyarch and Activision have revealed Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War in its first official trailer, taking players back into a familiar setting during the late 1970s to 1980 with staples such as Frank Woods, Jason Hudson and Alex Mason returning as major characters.
In an event in Modern Warfare Warzone, a special “Know Your History” map was unlocked for players who loaded into the first in-game glimpse of Black Ops for 2020. Ten years after the Cold War setting was introduced, Treyarch’s latest game is a direct sequel to the original Black Ops. This also fills in the time gap before the events of sequel Black Ops II, surrounding a more espionage tone and the political clash of two superpowers.
Streamers poured across Twitch and YouTube, including Dr. Disrespect who restarted his matchmaking in an effort to join other players for the live event in Verdansk. Of course, a few patches to the game had embedded a few assets in Warzone to reveal Black Ops Cold War and a few other previously-spotted easter eggs.
The reveal kept players in matchmaking for a bit with some connectivity hitches before jumping into a redacted version of the map. A snowy tundra surrounded the map as its location names were also crossed out in black bars. Players including Dr. Disrespect warmed up in a free-for-all deathmatch as over 120,000 viewers hitched a ride on his stream for the reveal.
According to Activision earlier in August, the map would turn Black Ops Cold War‘s reveal into an event. Players collectively completed objectives to unlock the reveal, through “Steps to Freedom” which calls back to Reznov’s epic escape in the 2010 game. The special version of Verdansk also lets players respawn and drop back into the map after they are killed, continuing the momentum of finding objectives.
A few screen glitches also hit players in the form of garbled cold-war era radio transmissions and the “Know Your History” tagline reminding players of “Perseus,” the game’s main antagonist looking to destabilize the world’s governments through infiltration and sabotage. According to the game’s premise, palyers would be joining Woods, Hudson and Mason in a new globetrotting mission to collect intel and find Perseus before they cause a national crisis. This also borders between rising tensions between U.S. and Russia as they work behind enemy lines to find the true culprit.
As previously reported, the trailer connects to some familiar territory for a next-gen Black Ops game. This includes a brief description from the teaser trailer which added text in English and Russian over Warzone screens. Jets flew over the map as players sprinted to the stadium.
In 1968, players saw footage of U.S. troops in Vietnam as they assault the area. It jumps to 1981 with footage of civil unrest, while allied spies work to locate Perseus. Trainyards, Soviet bases, airstrips and Frank Woods are shown in levels across the campaign. Jason Hudson is also shown in next-gen glory as players fight in enemy territory. The briefing room sees all of the Black Ops staple characters with U.S. President Ronald Regan.
Black Ops Cold War also teased a new desert-like map for its multiplayer component while players will get to use RC-XD explosives as introduced in the original 2010 game. Pre-ordered players also get a Frank Woods operator pack for Warzone and Modern Warfare multiplayer.
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War releases for PC, PS4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on November 13, 2020.