Earlier this year, 2020’s Call of Duty title was heavily shrouded in mystery. Compared to 2019’s Modern Warfare, which was introduced far earlier in May, there was an unusual silence from Activision on the next annual Call of Duty release. Numerous rumors of a troubled development between Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games were worrisome, but this year’s Call of Duty is actually being helmed by Treyarch. Despite being fashionably late to the party, eventually, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War found the spotlight at the end of the summer.
While many fans were worried due to the lack of trailers, once August came around, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was finally unveiled to the world. The marketing cycle for this Call of Duty has been much quicker for this year’s entry compared to last year, with trailers coming out seemingly every other week. There’s been reveals for the game’s singleplayer campaign, multiplayer, the evergreen Zombies coop mode, and everything else in between. Following the original Black Ops storyline, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, here’s every major trailer for 2020’s annual Call of Duty release.
Black Ops Cold War’s First Teaser
This was the teaser that kicked everything off for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. After the hardcore sleuths from the Call of Duty community deciphered the ARG for Black Ops Cold War, this teaser appeared online. This trailer also had a version integrated into Call of Duty: Warzone as a live event, a first for the massively popular Call of Duty battle royale. Narrated by Yuri Bezmenov, a known Soviet journalist who defected to Canada during the Cold War, this trailer established the game’s 80s Cold War setting and set the stage for what was to come.
Black Ops Cold War’s Full Reveal Trailer
Confirming the game’s time jump into the 1980s, this Black Ops Cold War trailer gave players the first snapshot into the singleplayer campaign. Jumping between 1968 and 1981, the campaign seems to be a globe-trotting adventure, as scenes from Berlin, Russia, Vietnam, Angola, and the United States are shown. This trailer also had the first tease for Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer, which players would get an in-depth glimpse of later on.
The Perseus Briefing
After the campaign’s official reveal, Activision also released a cinematic teaser from a cutscene in-game, detailing the game’s villain “Perseus.” Here players get a better glimpse of Hudson, Woods, and Mason in Black Ops Cold War, alongside newcomer Adler, in a Pentagon briefing room. In another effort by Call of Duty to enter uncanny valley, this trailer also showcases a realistically simulated Ronald Reagan meeting with the game’s main characters, setting the stage for the main conflict.
Multiplayer’s Official Reveal
Perhaps what most players were excited to see, Black Ops Cold War finally unveiled the game’s multiplayer offering. This trailer provided a glimpse into the game’s new operators, new maps, new weapons, and a whole lot more. There were a whole lot of firsts in this trailer, like the Armada map taking place entirely at sea, alongside some of the new large-scale game modes like in Uzbekistan’s Combined Arms modes.
“Nowhere Left to Run” Campaign Walkthrough
Originally shown during the PS5’s showcase in September, fans got an extended walkthrough with one of Black Ops Cold War’s campaign missions. Some interesting, possibly singleplayer-specific actions like body shields and melee takedowns were shown off, all of which was packed into an action-packed set piece where players take down a fleeing cargo plane with an exploding RC-XD.
A First Look at Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies
While there’s still not a whole lot known about it, Zombies is on the way for Black Ops Cold War as well. Boasting a reinvented version of Nacht der Untoten, the fan-favorite co-op mode continues to reinvent itself. However this time, Black Ops Cold War is reintroducing classic mechanics like the Perk-a-Cola machines and Pack-A-Punch weapon upgrading.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Launch Trailer
Much like every launch trailer for a game, Black Ops Cold War’s launch trailer mashes up some new scenes in-between content already witnessed in previous trailers. There’s not much new in this trailer other than some additional glimpses of the campaign, but it’s certainly serviceable for drumming up hype for the game.
The PC’s Specific Optimizations
Similar to the launch trailer, Black Ops Cold War’s PC trailer also has several additional scenes of existing content from campaign and multiplayer. Going over the many new graphical features and optimizations for PC, things like uncapped frame rate and Nvidia’s Ray Tracing technology are the key highlights from the trailer. Obviously for console players there’s not much to see, but PC gaming fans have plenty of graphical customization options to ogle over.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War releases on November 13, 2020, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.