The latest Black Ops III trailer is a doozy: a filmic timeline stretching from our current, tentative steps into bionic medicine, to a far future where the civvie implants advertised by basketballers are far outstripped by military augments – which offer full limb replacements and ominous “neural control”.
“This is happening,” says an Edward Snowduplicate in the clip. “The only question that remains is how far will we allow it to go?”
Of course, that could just as easily have been the tagline for 2011’s Deus Ex reboot, Human Revolution. And it hasn’t escaped the notice of Eidos Montreal, now knuckling down on sequel Mankind Divided.
In Black Ops III, it seems, a huge explosion at a bionics corporation kickstarts civil unrest – much like the attack on Sarif Industries did in Human Revolution.
Upon the Black Ops trailer’s reveal yesterday, the official Deus Ex account tweeted the following pair of images to its Call of Duty equivalent:
.@CallofDuty pic.twitter.com/B6tSF92xCv
— Deus Ex (@DeusEx) April 23, 2015
Mankind Divided art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête opted for a less subtle nudge, spotted by Digital Spy.
“Hey Treyarch,” he tweeted directly to the Black Ops developers. “Adam Jensen says welcome on the bandwagon! The liquor bar is at the back ;)”
And then, later: “We lied guyz. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided actually takes place on the Eastern Front during World War 2. We felt inspired.”
To be absolutely fair to Treyarch, there are only so many military near-futures left to imagine – after Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and an assortment of tongue-in-cheek visions mostly involving zombies, mechs or aliens in Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC.
What amuses me is that the technological enhancements with us by 2027 in Deus Ex take until 2065 to show up in Black Ops. Come on, humanity: get your bionic bums into gear. Do you see the resemblance?