The Call of Duty franchise is no stranger to utilising numerous historical wars as settings for its annual releases. The most recent release of Modern Warfare 3 marks the sixth entry into the Modern Warfare series and while it continues to generate plenty of interest among players, the thought of a seventh Modern Warfare title so soon doesn't sound appealing.
Although the cycle for Sledgehammer Games' latest release is in its infancy, attention is already moving towards Call of Duty 2024 and what Treyarch has cooked up. If recent leaks are anything to go by, 2024's release is a return to the Black Ops story, the sixth entry in the CoD subseries. (Seventh if you count the Vita entry.)
The game rumoured to be Black Ops Gulf War was initially planned to launch in 2023 but it was pushed back to 2024 giving Treyarch four years to create the game instead of the usual three. After so much Modern Warfare, 2024 is the perfect time to return to the Black Ops series.
Although Black Ops Gulf War will be the sixth Black Ops game, there's every chance it will become one of the most successful. An extra year of development gives Treyarch plenty of time to fine-tune its product rather than rush out a game impacted by staff crunch and elements that feel like they're thrown together for the sake of it.
The Modern Warfare 3 campaign was hastily put together and the notable death during its finale felt like an unnecessary twist added to milk the Modern Warfare name even further. For Black Ops Gulf War, there's a chance to create a new main character to take Call of Duty into a new generation that heads back to the future or even delves deeper into conflicts such as Vietnam in order to keep it within the Cold War timeline.
It helps that the Black Ops series has always been seen as the stronger subseries in terms of its narrative presence. While Modern Warfare had a fine story held together by extremely well-paced missions and set pieces, CoD's narrative has yet to climb higher than Mason's numbers and the true existence of Viktor Reznov.
It's not just the single-player story that will benefit from a return to the Black Ops series. Treyarch's multiplayer offering often gains a wealth of plaudits from fans thanks to its fast pace and simple map design that guarantees fun gameplay each time you load into the action. It's not just the casual fans that the Black Ops series benefits. Competitive Call of Duty has thrived on Black Ops games thanks to predictable spawn logic and balancing that doesn't result in an extensive list of unofficial restrictions made by professional players to make the game somewhat playable.
With a return to Black Ops bound to benefit the campaign and multiplayer offerings, there's another area of Call of Duty that many want to see return to its former glory. Zombies first arrived in World at War and fans quickly attempted to see if they could reach the higher rounds. Round-based zombies is tipped to return in Black Ops Gulf War, much to the delight of players who are already starting to grow tired of the DMZ spin-off that is Modern Warfare Zombies.
With Treyarch being the progenitor developer of the Call of Duty: Zombies mode, Black Ops Gulf War would be the perfect time to bring the mode back to basics. Over the past few years, the series Zombies mode has been bogged down by overcomplicated maps, ridiculous mechanics and stories that are just hands-down crap. It's come a long way from the melancholic horror of Nacht der Untoten, but maybe a return to horror is exactly what's needed.
Treyarch is developing a Call of Duty with the longest development cycle in franchise history, and with expectations already high, there's a chance Call of Duty 2024 is a step in the right direction for the storied shooter franchise. It may use the Black Ops name for a sixth time, but the prospect of a polished product releasing out-the-box is incredibly exciting for those hoping for a return to form.