Players who have been paying attention to the weeks-long series of teases for Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War were finally rewarded today. The new Call of Duty title was revealed in a special in-game event in Call of Duty: Warzone that not only provided a release date for Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, it came with some in-game rewards as well – specifically a marksman rifle blueprint called Bay of Pigs. The release date is set for November 14, and we’ll be seeing a multiplayer reveal next month.
Hopping into Warzone today, players found the usual battle royale lobbies replaced with a big button labeled ‘Know Your History,’ which has been the running theme for the trickle of information that’s been fed into Warzone through bunker unlock codes, secret rooms, and even a website where players had to work out a hidden message.
That playlist popped players into Verdansk – although things were a bit different. Right away, the labels over the map locations as you flew over the drop zone began to be covered in black censor’s ink. On the ground, the image and sound would periodically be distorted by some interfering broadcast.
The game mode had players hunt across the map using a series of contracts, gradually unlocking clues that pointed to the location of a special weapon. Our group wound up in the Boneyard, where we found Black Ops mainstay Frank Woods holding a vintage marksman rifle. Picking this up ended the event, and players were rewarded with the blueprint to the weapon, called Bay of Pigs (as well as some additional cosmetic goodies). Here it is in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare gunsmith:
That done, the match cut to a second drop, with instructions to run to the stadium. English words in the HUD were replaced with red Russian-language text, with the words ‘Active Measures’ displayed on-screen along with ‘You Will Not Survive,’ as the archival footage of KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov faded in over the screen. Aircraft screamed overhead, and the sense was that a nuclear missile was inbound.
As players entered the stadium (we went in through the underground carpark entrance), the trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War played. Here it is.
The trailer takes us on a whirlwind trip that begins in Vietnam in 1968 and winds up with a bunch of Black Ops operatives sitting at a long meeting table with an extremely lifelike digital Ronald Reagan (and a character that looks an awful lot like Robert Redford in the ’80s).
The trailer reveals that the Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War release date is November 13, and there’s a planned multiplayer reveal date set for September 9. Players who pre-order can get access to the ‘open beta,’ and pre-orders on all platforms receive the new Woods operator and weapon blueprint to use in Modern Warfare and Warzone.