Over the last decade or so, Remedy Entertainment has built a strong identity for itself, one that puts paranormal and psychological horror at the forefront while still injecting plenty of bizarre humor and absurdity. Alan Wake 2 fully embraced this unique identity, delivering an experience built around mind-bending paranatural scenarios. Based on its reveal trailer, it seems like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 could be following a similar path.
Revealed during the Xbox Showcase, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7‘s trailer showed a man following a futuristic robot to a meeting. Inside the meeting room, the man watches a butterfly land on a screen and phase into it. As he touches the screen, it shatters, revealing an otherworldly realm that shifts around him. It’s revealed in dramatic fashion that this man is David Mason, one of the lead protagonists of 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and it seems he’s facing off against some kind of psychological manipulation. If this reveal is any indication of Black Ops 7‘s campaign content, then fans could be in for a truly wild ride, which would make a lot of sense given the series’ history.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Should Lean All The Way Into Psychological Action
Black Ops’ Best Missions Are The Mind-Bending Ones
A major plot point and revelation in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops was that main player-character Alex Mason had been brainwashed during his time in Vorkuta prison. Initially, Mason was being brainwashed by Soviet commander Dragovich to kill President John F. Kennedy, but fellow inmate Viktor Reznov managed to sabotage the brainwashing attempts, instead implanting the desire in Mason to kill Dragovich and his fellow commanding officers.
Throughout Call of Duty: Black Ops‘ campaign, Mason witnesses Reznov in various locations, but it’s revealed that Reznov was only there in Mason’s mind. This concept of psychological manipulation became a core motif for the entire Black Ops series, and it often paves the way for some of the franchise’s best missions.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War put players in the boots of “Bell,” who’s eventually revealed to be one of the main antagonist’s field agents who’s been brainwashed by the CIA to work for them. This revelation leads to a particularly trippy mission titled “Break on Through,” which sees players either following or disobeying Russell Adler’s orders, decisions which manipulate the environment and enemies around them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 features a few mind-bending missions of its own. “Emergence” is one such mission. Players control William “Case” Calderon, who’s revealed to have been the one and only test subject of a powerful CIA-funded performance-enhancing drug called “The Cradle.” After inhaling some of the Cradle’s fumes, Case hallucinates an army of zombies chasing him through the CIA research facility’s halls. The eccentricity of these levels makes them some of the most memorable in Call of Duty history, and it’s exciting to see Black Ops 7 already embrace similar themes.
How Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Can Be “The Most Mind-Bending Black Ops Ever”
According to Call of Duty‘s official website, Black Ops 7 will be “the most mind-bending Black Ops ever.” That’s a weighty statement considering the series’ history, but it sounds like Black Ops 7 could easily live up to the legacy. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7‘s official description states the world has been “ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare,” and that “David Mason and his team must fight back against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.”
Based on that description, it sounds like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is embracing the stranger side of the series’ themes from the get-go, and putting them at the forefront of the campaign. Hopefully this means plenty of mind-bending moments sprinkled throughout Black Ops 7‘s story, like players being tricked into following false objectives or enemy soldiers suddenly taking on the appearance of past series characters.