Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Has Open-Ended Missions And Multiple Endings

Call of Duty is returning to its government conspiracy-focused subseries with Black Ops Cold War, which is launching this November. But unlike the previous multiplayer-only Black Ops 4, this new entry is going for a mind-bending single-player campaign and story that Black Ops established in its other entries. That much is evident in the trailers and teasers that show off the game's 1980s political thriller setup, but the espionage and mind-bending narrative will also play into some of the open-ended mission structure you'll experience in Cold War.

In the gameplay footage we've seen, one mission will have you playing as an undercover agent in the Lubyanka Building in Moscow. It's a semi-open level with multiple objectives and some freedom on how to approach them that give off Hitman-style vibes. There's a map you can pull up as reference for the unique ways you can complete the mission, points of interest, and which areas of the level are off-limits. It's non-linear in a way that's new for Call of Duty, and examples were given where you can steal, poison, bribe, or blackmail your way through the mission. That's half the mission, however, and the second half turns into a series of over-the-top firefights.

In a late-game flashback mission that takes place in Laos during the Vietnam War in 1968, there are multiple paths you can take which will make for different gameplay scenarios and story beats. The mission will then reset itself to let you explore these alternate paths. The conceit is that the characters relive dark memories from the war which are supposed to tie into the larger plot of tracking down the Soviet spy Perseus, who helped Vietcong soldiers seize a nuclear weapon. This particular mission uses other surrealist elements that play into that conspiratorial plot. For example, we saw visions of red doors dropping into the environment while a voice kept repeating for you to "go into the bunker now," "open the door," and "tell me about Perseus."

There are certain moments during the campaign where you can make dialogue choices. Although they're not voiced by your own character, these decisions can affect the outcome of events. There are objects called "evidence" scattered within the main missions which will unlock a few optional missions that are said to have their own player choices and provide different narrative perspectives.

Ultimately, your choices throughout the campaign will shape the ending of the game to give the decisions you made some impact. It's not entirely new for the Black Ops series if you played Black Ops 2, but it seems to be that Cold War is expanding on the concept in a major way.

We have Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War covered from multiple angles, so be sure to read up on all our stories below.