Treyarch has big plans for the next item in the Black Ops series. Along with revamped multiplayer, an expanded Zombies mode, and a series of solo missions centered around the Specialist characters, the developer plans to bring the battle royale craze to Call of Duty. During yesterday`s Black Ops 4 reveal event, we got to play over an hour of multiplayer. We also spoke with studio design director David Vonderhaar about Treyarch`s influence on the Call of Duty series and how the team is looking to make big changes with the next game.Set between Black Ops 2 and 3, this fourth item in the series re-examines the pace of combat, rebalancing many of the more established perks and weapons, while also slowing things down to offer a team-oriented and consistent combat loop. One of the biggest changes in Black Ops 4 is the move back to more traditional infantry-based multiplayer gameplay. Gone are the thruster-packs and wall-running antics of the future soldiers, and in their place is a more tactical take on engagement.However, many of the more established features from the previous Black Ops games are still present. Along with the Pick 10 system, which allows you to customize your build with weapons, perks, and attachments, the Specialists from Black Ops 3 also make a return. In Black Ops 4, the Specialists--who include Ruin, Seraph, and Battery--and their dynamic with the other members of the team are far more important to winning matches, and there are many cases where the team will use their unique skills in tandem. My team used Recon`s Vision Pulse ability to highlight all the enemies in a room, for example, and then relied on Ajax`s riot shield to clear it out. This emphasis on teamwork and how to balance it with Call of Duty`s gameplay took time to figure out, Vonderhaar said.`It`s really hard to make a tactical game if your character`s not [on the ground], so that was the main motivation for us when looking at Black Ops 4. We looked at the thrust-packing and wall-r ...
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