Treyarch's upcoming Black Ops 3 will be the first Call of Duty title to allow players to play single player campaign missions in any order they want.
The game's story will be as linear and highly scripted as any of its predecessors, but this time around all missions will be unlocked from the start. "It gives them the flexibility to consume the content how they want," said campaign mode director Jason Blundell. "The unlocking level system is an archaic mentality we've had since we did bedroom development back in the day - you do this, then go on to the next one."
"Consumers and game players in general are far more mature these days. There are so many things vying for our interests today. It's about, how do they want to consume it? Maybe they put it down on level two, and then they're in work the next day, and some guy says, 'dude, you've got to check out level four!' And he's like, 'okay, I'll have a quick look.' That's totally fine. I think it's their choice."
Of course this freedom will lead some player to spoil the game for themselves by jumping to the story conclusion from the get go, but that doesn't bother Blundell. "If you see the end you'll say, I need to understand this more," he reasoned. "When Netflix release House of Cards and do all the episodes, does everyone just jump to the end and go and play the last episode? Sure you can. But it's about the journey, though, right?
"Sure, people will jump on and play the last level. Okay. Cool. That's up to them."
"The way the story is constructed, it's more than just the end moment. I'm sure there are many films and other media types where you could read the last page, or see the last minutes, but really you've got to experience all of the other stuff to truly enjoy it."
Blundell isn't afraid of spoilers making their way to the internet quickly as a result of the new system. After all, speed runners have always managed to do so within a few hours for all previous titles in the series.
Black Ops 3 is set for release on November 6th, 2015 on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The single player campaign is exclusive to PC and current gen consoles only.