Call of Duty 2024 Recycling Black Ops 4 Content Might Be a Shot in its Foot

More details are starting to come to light around 2024’s Call of Duty release, with fans being keen to see what kind of fresh experiences Treyarch has in store. Early reports have suggested that the title will be a return to Treyarch’s popular Black Ops franchise, this time set within the Gulf War.

With the Call of Duty franchise having focused so extensively on the Modern Warfare IP in recent years, the prospect of a return to Black Ops is an exciting one, but it is important that Treyarch does not repeat the main mistakes that recent MW titles have made. For example, leaks and rumors allege that 2024’s Call of Duty game may borrow assets and game mechanics from 2018’s Black Ops 4, potentially falling into the same pitfalls of recycling content that 2023’s MW3 suffered from.

2024’s Call of Duty Should Not Lean Too Heavily on Black Ops 4

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Was an Odd Bird

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was a unique entry to the giant FPS franchise, being the only mainline CoD title to not feature a single-player campaign. With an entirely multiplayer focus, Black Ops 4 was the title to introduce battle royale gameplay to CoD through its popular Blackout mode. Even the core multiplayer of Black Ops 4 was unusual compared to the rest of the series, with things like healing mechanics being quite controversial at the time of the game’s release.

Other reports suggest that 2024’s CoD is aiming to be just as distinct, with some claiming that the upcoming game will be the first in the franchise to feature an entirely open world CoD campaign. Of course, 2024’s release will only be able to borrow from the multiplayer concepts and mechanics of Black Ops 4, and recent leaks and rumors suggest that a lot of influence will be taken from the 2018 title.

2024’s Call of Duty Needs to Choose its Black Ops 4 Inspirations Wisely

Modern Warfare 3 faced a lot of criticism over the heavy inspiration it took from past Modern Warfare titles, particularly 2009’s MW2. The launch map pool of Modern Warfare 3 was made entirely out of MW2‘s maps, for example, with some fans accusing the game of lacking originality and its own identity because of this. This controversy was not aided by the infamously short campaign of MW3, and the rumors around 2024’s potentially divisive open world campaign run the same risk of worsening its own criticisms.

Of course, there are many elements of Black Ops 4 that can be positively revamped for 2024’s CoD, and incorporating Blackout elements into Warzone this year could be a great way to shake things up. Treyarch could also take inspiration from the Zombies mode of Black Ops 4, perhaps finally delivering on the long-anticipated Zombies Chronicles 2 expansion for 2024’s release.

It is true that Black Ops 4 had many memorable features that were overshadowed by the unusual content decisions that the game made, and it could be great for 2024’s Call of Duty to give them the time in the spotlight that they deserve. Despite this, the franchise has faced a lot of recent criticism over recycled content and a perceived lack of originality, and the upcoming game needs to choose the content that it might borrow from Black Ops 4 very carefully to avoid this.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was released in 2018 by Treyarch. It was notable as being the first Call of Duty release to not feature a prominent single-player story-driven campaign. Instead, players were given access to missions that would help them discover lore about the title’s Specialists.

Released

October 12, 2018

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language

How Long To Beat

5 Hours