A brand new gameplay trailer for Treyarch's upcoming Cold War 'em up Call of Duty: Black Ops has been released, and it's absolutely packed with stuff. Gameplay, weapon and story details abound, but there's just one catch. Being a fast-cut, adrenalin-haemorraging trailer, most ofdetails fly by too quickly to spot.
But not any more.
Improved looks (everywhere)
Just look at the lighting, the solidity, and the maelstrom of particle effects throughout the trailer. It's clear that Treyarch have got their hands on all of the upgrades Infinity Ward added to the Modern Warfare engine during the production of MW2.
Missile base (0:15)
We can see US troops ploughing towards what looks very much like a missile launch silo in the background. We don't know the location of this scene, but given the time period, a secret recon hit in Cuba wouldn't be implausible.
Chemical warfare (0.18)
A still-frame of one of the rapidly-flashed government documents reveals it to be dated July the 21st,1961. Again, we're in prime Cold War territory. The Cuban missile discovery was made in September of 1962, so this doesn't relate to that, but we're definitely looking at a similar national threat.
We can't make out all of the report, but it looks like it mightdetail a potential chemical attack. We're told of 'transmissions containing alarming and cryptic something', and research involving 'an unknown gas of potentially far greater potential for devastation'.
Reznov? (0.19)
That guy looks suspiciously like Reznov, the Russian sniper voiced by Gary Oldman in Call of Duty: World at War. Suspiciously like him. Could Treyarch be setting him up as their own recurring Captain Price figure?
Improved destructiblity (0.22)
Wooden shack + explosives= plank fountain. In the wake of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, we're expecting improved destructibility, at least in certain structures, and this looks to be a hint that we'll get it.
Helicopter piloting (0.29)
CoD and helicopters. Yawn. It's nothing new. Or is it? (clue: it is!). The big difference here from the series' usual treatment of rotar-bladed flight sequences is that we're actually seeing it from the cockpit, right through the windscreen. Does that mean we'll get to pilot the thing directly? We think so.
Switching sides (0.34)
We think we detect a Russian accent on our partner there. We suspect this means, as we've already suggested, that Black Ops' campaign will take in not only a wide variety of time periods, but also several different international perspectives on the overall story. Murky moral ambiguity ahoy!
Epic set-pieces (0.36)
We're rapelling in through a window, and shooting out the glass as we go, meaning that Black Ops has now transcended itsroots as a Cold War FPS and become a full-blown Die Hard simulator. With modern(ish) weapons and tactics at their disposal, Treyarch are taking this one toe-to-toe with Modern Warfare. Mark our words.
It's unclear though, whether this is an interactive sequence or a cut-scene, but we'dguess that it's one of CoD's trademark, manually-controlled 'Get this right or die!' sequences.
Up-close stealth killing (0.40)
Dropping down a cliffside to infiltrate a mountain base, one of our chaps quietly does over a guard from behind. The two Modern Warfares had standout stealth infiltration levels, so we reckon this is a hint of something similar. And hopefully it means we'll get up-close and personal stealth killing this time around though, rather than just the usual silenced gunplay.
