By November 9, 2025 commemorates the 15-year milestone of the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Below, we examine how it diverged from earlier Call of Duty narratives and established developer Treyarch’s influence on the franchise moving forward.
In the early days of Activision’s Call of Duty series, Treyarch was the alternative Call of Duty studio. Comparisons between Treyarch and series originator Infinity Ward were prevalent on online forums, with a prevailing attitude among fans and even some industry figures suggesting that the former was viewed as the franchise’s “B-team.”
Treyarch’s 2006 title Call of Duty 3 was a proficient World War II shooter, yet it was swiftly eclipsed the subsequent year by Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare—a truly transformative game that set a new benchmark for first-person shooter campaigns and online multiplayer experiences. Treyarch’s next installment, 2008’s World at War, transported the series back in time and predominantly resembled a World War II re-skin of Modern Warfare.
In 2010, Treyarch took a bold leap with Call of Duty: Black Ops, redirecting the studio—and the franchise as a whole—toward an entirely fresh trajectory.
For the first time, Call of Duty explored a different historical period, utilizing the Cold War era to offer Treyarch numerous thematic and narrative avenues to delve into. Instead of presenting another boots-on-the-ground tale of soldiers in warfare, Treyarch chose to create a multifaceted espionage thriller, defying the norms established by prior entries in the series.
In contrast to the traditional passive and voiceless protagonists in Call of Duty, Black Ops’ Alex Mason was fully voiced, with the narrative focused entirely on his personal expedition. Mason confronted Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy—an unusual choice for the series at that time, which typically avoided depicting real-life historical figures.
The majority of the nonlinear narrative in Black Ops (which is technically a sequel to World at War) centers on Mason striving to reconstruct his fragmented recollections, a consequence of brainwashing by the game’s antagonists. We experience his distorted outlook on occurrences, positioning us as witnesses to an unreliable protagonist, and it remains uncertain through his perspective what is genuine and what is fabricated—unlike previous Call of Duty entries, we as players question the authenticity of what we observe through the protagonist’s viewpoint.
As GameSpot’s Black Ops review noted, “The hazy borders of your awareness hide truths that must be uncovered, while the chaotic visual distortions and haunting audio reverberations accompanying your interrogations sometimes blend into your mission recollections, cultivating a remarkable atmosphere of uncertainty that unfolds in surprising and gratifying manners.”
The story transitions between various characters, guiding us through sequences such as a violent prison escape from a gulag and harsh operations in the jungles of Vietnam, intertwining a complex narrative of anxiety and political suspense. Plot twists are plentiful, and all narratives ultimately converge for a dramatic climax.
Black Ops adopts the Michael Bay action movie aesthetics of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare narratives while integrating them into the frameworks of political thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate. Earlier Call of Duty titles drew clear visual inspiration from World War II films like Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates. In the same vein, Black Ops referenced Vietnam War movies, including Apocalypse Now and Platoon, with one scene essentially reproducing the iconic Russian roulette segment from The Deer Hunter.
However, despite its backdrop and the inclusion of real-life figures, Black Ops fails to convey a substantive message regarding Cold War politics. It provides no critiques or insights into the influential individuals orchestrating events—John F. Kennedy is merely the figure who assigns your task, and Fidel Castro serves as a “villain” for you to eliminate. Furthermore, the narrative does not engage with the horrors of the Vietnam War; instead, the Vietnam backdrop serves simply as another chance for you to eliminate anonymous expendables.
The campaign, which features narrative contributions from The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, is brimming with gratuitous violence, exaggerated slow-motion sequences, and ridiculous clichéd moments.
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similar to a figure theatrically putting on his sunglasses indoors just before an electrifying guitar riff begins. Ultimately, it is an exhilarating theme park attraction inspired by the 1960s, featuring notable personalities as its animatronic characters to enhance the illusion.
Nevertheless, the Black Ops campaign represented a daring transition for Treyarch and the Call of Duty franchise. While Infinity Ward and their colleague studio Sledgehammer Games have ventured across various subseries and narratives within the series, Treyarch has remained dedicated to the Black Ops narrative since then, unveiling its seventh Black Ops installment this month.
With every new Black Ops title, Treyarch has intensified the intricate and unexpected quality of its plots. Particularly, Black Ops 3 took a wild turn, presenting a convoluted narrative featuring cybernetic neural interfaces and nanotechnology. With the release of 2020’s Black Ops Cold War, the subseries revisited its origins, showcasing a straightforward espionage thriller plot that included themes of brainwashing and a brief cameo by Ronald Reagan. Now, with Black Ops 7, the series is venturing back to the distant future for a campaign abundant with surreal, mind-bending imagery.
I haven’t even had a chance to address Black Ops’ multiplayer modes, which were filled with enjoyable new elements such as the top-down Smash TV-inspired Dead Ops Arcade, the franchise’s inaugural theater mode, customizable emblems and weapons (features that vanished in later versions), and engaging Wager Matches with modes like One in the Chamber and Gun Game.
While Treyarch initially built upon Infinity Ward’s achievements, the other Call of Duty studios have since drawn inspiration from Treyarch’s innovations in Black Ops. By enhancing the Zombies mode from World at War for Black Ops, Treyarch solidified the Easter egg-laden cooperative mode as a crucial third component for Call of Duty moving forward, even being featured in non-Treyarch titles such as Infinite Warfare, WWII, and Modern Warfare 3. In Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward actually employed the wall-running and boost-jumping movement mechanics from Black Ops 3, a rare instance of role reversal between Infinity Ward and Treyarch.
It merits mentioning that Black Ops 1 debuted during a turbulent era for the franchise–between the launch of the 2009 blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, Activision terminated the studio leaders of Infinity Ward, resulting in legal disputes and a departure of employees from the studio. It took years for Infinity Ward to rebuild, requiring help from Sledgehammer Games for Modern Warfare 3 and integrating fellow Activision studio Neversoft while developing Call of Duty: Ghosts. Whether intentional or not, Treyarch demonstrated with Black Ops that it could satisfactorily fill the gap left by Infinity Ward, and it’s equally capable of delivering a transformative entry in the franchise.
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be commemorated for introducing us to Nuketown, the numbers, and Frank Woods, all permanently woven into the fabric of Call of Duty’s broader legacy. Yet above all, Black Ops 1 ought to be praised for attempting more than any Call of Duty installment that followed.
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