November 9, 2025 marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Below, we'll look at how it differs from previous Call of Duty campaigns and identify developer Treyarch's contribution to the future of the franchise.
In the early days of Activision's Call of Duty franchise, Treyarch was another Call of Duty studio. Comparisons between Treyarch and series creator Infinity Ward have been commonplace on online forums and have created a general consensus among fans and even some industry figures was that the former was the franchise's “B team”.
2006 Treyarch game Call of Duty 3 was a competent World War II shooter, but was quickly eclipsed the following year by Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare, a completely revolutionary game that set a new standard for first-person shooters and online multiplayer modes. Treyarch's next game, 2008 Peace at wartook the series back in time and largely played like a World War II re-shell of Modern Warfare.
In 2010, Treyarch took a sharp turn with Call of Duty: Black Ops, moving the studio—and the franchise as a whole—in an entirely new direction.
For the first time, Call of Duty was transported to a new period in history, with the Cold War era offering several thematic and story opportunities for Treyarch to explore. Instead of telling another story about soldiers in the trenches, Treyarch decided to create a complex spy thriller, breaking the conventions established by previous games in the series.
Unlike the usual passive and silent Call of Duty protagonists, Black Ops' Alex Mason has been fully voiced and the campaign is entirely focused on his personal journey. Mason faced Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy, which was unusual for the series at the time, which avoided depictions of real-life historical figures.
The bulk of Black Ops' non-linear story (technically a sequel to World at War) centers on Mason's attempt to piece together his scattered memories, the result of being brainwashed by the game's villains. We see his distorted view of events, putting us in the role of an unreliable protagonist, and through his eyes it is unclear what is real and what is not – for the first time in Call of Duty, we, as players, question the reality of what we see through the eyes of the protagonist.
Like GameSpot Black Ops Review described: “The blurred edges of your consciousness obscure information about to come to light, and the jumbled visuals and eerie audio echoes that accompany your interrogations sometimes leak into memories of your mission, creating a strong tone of uncertainty that comes through in surprising and satisfying ways.”
The narrative shifts between different characters, taking us through episodes such as a bloody prison break from the Gulag and brutal missions in the jungles of Vietnam, weaving a complex story of paranoia and political intrigue. Plot twists abound and all the threads eventually come together in an explosive finale.
Black Ops takes elements from Michael Bay's action films and Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare campaigns and fits them into the mold of political thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate. Previous Call of Duty games have clearly taken visual inspiration from World War II films like Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates. Likewise, Black Ops took notes from Vietnam War films including Apocalypse Now and Platoon, with one sequence significantly raises famous Russian roulette scene from The Deer Hunter.
But despite the setting and the inclusion of real-life characters, Black Ops lacks a meaningful message about Cold War politics. There's no criticism or understanding of the powerful men who pull the strings: John F. Kennedy is just the guy who gives you your mission, and Fidel Castro is the “bad guy” you have to kill. And the story doesn't involve the atrocities of the Vietnam War—instead, the Vietnam setting is just another opportunity to shoot nameless expendables.
Featuring story material from The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, the campaign is filled with gratuitous violence, excessive slow-motion, and idiotic cliché character moments. dramatically puts on sunglasses indoors before an electric guitar riff begins. Ultimately, this is a 1960s theme park thrill ride with historical figures as animatronic figures creating the illusion.
Despite this, the Black Ops campaign was a bold shift for Treyarch and the Call of Duty series. While Infinity Ward and fellow Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games have bounced around the franchise's various sub-series and stories, Treyarch has stuck with the Black Ops storyline ever since, releasing its seventh Black Ops title this month.
With each subsequent Black Ops game, Treyarch has emphasized the intricate and complex nature of its storytelling. Black Ops 3 in particular was out of control.with an unclear history associated with cybernetic neural interfaces and nanotechnology. With 2020's Black Ops Cold War, the series returned to its roots with a back-to-basics spy thriller story involving brainwashing and a brief appearance by Ronald Reagan. And now with Black Ops 7, the series returns to the distant future. a campaign full of trippy, mind-blowing visuals.
I didn't even have time to touch on Black Ops' multiplayer modes, which were full of cool new features like a top-down Smash TV-inspired Dead Ops arcade, the franchise's first theater mode, custom emblems and weapons (new features that disappeared in future releases), and exciting betting matches with modes like Alone in a Cell and Gun Game.
While Treyarch previously relied on Infinity Ward's work, other Call of Duty studios have since taken a cue from Treyarch's work on Black Ops. Expanding World at War's Zombies mode into Black Ops, Treyarch established Easter egg-filled co-op as an important third pillar to move Call of Duty forward, even being included in non-Treyarch games like Infinite Warfare, WWII, and Modern Warfare 3. And in Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward actually used Black Ops 3's wall traversal and boost jumping system in rare role case. a reversal between Infinity Ward and Treyarch.
It's worth noting that Black Ops 1 came out during a turbulent time for the franchise – between the release of the 2009 blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. Activision fired Infinity Ward studio executiveswhich led to legal proceedings and the flight of employees from the studio. Infinity Ward will take years to rebuild and will require help from Sledgehammer Games for Modern Warfare 3 and fascinating colleague from Activision Neversoft studio during the creation of Call of Duty: Ghosts. Whether Treyarch intended it or not, the studio proved with Black Ops that it can fill the void left by Infinity Ward, and it's just as capable of delivering a groundbreaking entry in the franchise.
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be remembered for giving us Nuketown, numbers and Frank Woods, forever etched in the tapestry of the greater Call of Duty history. But what should be admired most about Black Ops 1 is that it threw more at the wall than any subsequent Call of Duty game.
