EXCLUSIVE – Call of Duty to Embrace Open World Campaigns in Black Ops Gulf War and Beyond

This year, Call of Duty is set to embrace an open-world campaign in Black Ops Gulf War, Insider Gaming has learned.

It won’t be the first time that the series has seen an open-world eqsue campaign though, as the first glimpse of what such a campaign could look like was first explored with Modern Warfare 3 and its ‘Open World Missions’. However, sources explained that unlike Modern Warfare 3, Gulf War’s campaign has been built from the ground up, rather than using assets from previous entries.

Currently, the game’s open world will see the player and their squad navigate the map more akin to that of Far Cry than anything we’ve seen before in the Call of Duty universe. Players will be able to utilize vehicles to get around, as well as using a fast travel system to get from one point to the next. Although the scope of how many linear missions there will be remains to be seen, sources confirmed that some linear missions will be integrated into the game.

The campaign, developed by Raven Software (multiplayer and zombies to be handled by Treyarch Games), will see the return of some Black Ops characters including Adler, who will be a part of your team.

Outside of Black Ops Gulf War, sources also revealed that it’s likely the series could lean into more open-world campaigns over linear moving forward. Call of Duty 2025, codenamed Saturn, which currently doesn’t have an assigned leading developer, is also pitched to have an open-world campaign, with its map being separated into several different biomes/locations. While the pitch for the game is very much in flux due to its early development (20 months until launch at the time of writing), it was said that the campaign’s shift from linear to open world is primarily based on streamlining development over anything else – But whether this changes or not by release is unclear.

Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War, currently forecasted to release in October 2024 will be the sixth entry into the Black Ops series.

What do you think about Call of Duty changing its campaigns to a more open-world experience? Let us know in the comments below.

For more from Insider Gaming, check out our exclusive on an inside look at Ubisoft, focusing on employee low morale, high tensions, and its future pipeline of games.

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