You Can Play Black Ops 3's Story in Whatever Order You Want

It’s been a long time since Call of Duty could be called ‘revolutionary’ unironically. The last time was around 2007, where they really pioneered the idea of taking the FPS, which had long since explored World War 2, and shifted perspective into the modern military scene, and since then FPSs have been set in modern times--or the near future--are more common than old white male presidential candidates.

Well, I’m not about to say Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is about to make any revolutionary changes, but at least it’s making the effort. As recently revealed by Eurogamer, Black Ops 3 will be ditching the ‘standard’ model of videogame storytelling and adopting one that’s both more flexible and more… well… orthodox, honestly.

Basically, instead of playing through the story one chapter at a time, as is standard for campaigns, in Black Ops 3, all the campaign missions are available from the word “go” and you can choose which order to do them in--normally, front to pack, scattershot… whichever you prefer.

I’ll let Jason Blundell, the director of Black Ops 3’s campaign, take it from here.
 

“The unlocking level system is an archaic mentality we’ve had since we did bedroom development back in the day—you do this, then go on to the next one. Consumers and game players in general are far more mature these days. There are so many things vying for our interests today. It’s about, how do they want to consume it? Maybe they put it down on level two, and then they’re in work the next day, and some guy says, ‘dude, you’ve got to check out level four!’ And he’s like, ‘okay, I’ll have a quick look.’ That’s totally fine. I think it’s their choice.”

Yeah, dude, level four is amazing, screw level three. But seriously, ultimately, giving players more choice, even in something like chapter order, can only be a good thing, and yeah, it’s got some palatable rewards with no real detriment. If you don’t want to play them out of order, fine, but if you do, well, now the option is available to you. Especially useful, I imagine, if you get stuck at a part or are just bored with the level you’re at.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will come out November 6th. So enjoy that for four days before Fallout 4 comes to conquer your free time.