We finally reach the furthest point on our Black Ops timeline–Black Ops 3. The game takes place in 2065, and is, well, something of a total mindf**k.
The world in Black Ops 3 has been heavily influenced by the fallout from the death of Raul Menendez at the end of Black Ops 2, and in the time since that pivotal day, the planet has found itself on the brink of ruin. With widespread anarchy, constant global upheaval and the ever looming threat of climate change, the superpowers of the world have united to form two key global alliances: the Winslow Accord and the Common Defence Pact.
On top of this, there have been huge technological advancements in the field of directed energy weapons, with the development of a system known as Directed Energy Air Defense–or DEAD for short– which has rendered the world’s air forces completely useless. As a result of all of this, another Cold War has kicked off, the third in a century by our count, and covert operations are back on the menu, hence more Black Ops well into the 21st century.
Anyway, from here on out, things get confusing and convoluted. After the first two campaign missions, which are set in 2065–the rest of Black Ops 3 can be played in any order you choose–including the final mission of the game. And that’s because it’s all a dream.
In short: AI simulations. The longer answer, naturally, will take a little more time to break down. For starters, in Black Ops 3 you can create your own character, and you jump into the shoes of this new recruit during a Winslow Accord Black Ops mission to rescue the Egyptian Prime Minister from a faction known as the Nile River Coalition
The player-character, who can be male or female depending on the player’s choice, and their CO, Jakob Hendricks, are successful in rescuing the Egyptian leader, but things go a little sideways for the player during the exfiltration. And by sideways, we mean the player gets both of their arms ripped off by a robot. Oh yeah, there are full on robots knocking about now in the Black Ops timeline as well.
The player-character is rescued right at the last minute by a lad called Commander John Taylor, who is, well, the key to all of this. You see, despite their extensive injuries, the player-character is nursed back to health with a liberal dose of technology now augmenting their body.
And while the rest of the game seems to play out with your cyborg recruit running ops across 2070, the reality is quite different. That’s because the player-created character actually dies as a result of their robot attack, and the rest of the game is basically an AI simulation playing out in their savior, John Taylor’s consciousness.
So in short, the events you play out in Black Ops 3 are a simulation of Taylor’s past adventures that take place before the game itself kicks off.
The key to how all of this works is a new piece of tech known as the Direct Neural Interface–or DNI–which sort of allows all the various CIA members to stay networked within their own minds. The DNI comes under attack by an AI system called Corvus, which basically came into being due to some shady human experimentation with the DNI by a tech company called the Coalescence Corporation.
In events that happen before the game in 2060, a massive explosion takes place at the Singapore HQ of Coalescence as a result of Corvus coming online, and this explosion leads to a chain reaction that pumps an unhealthy amount of Nova-6 into the surrounding areas. The net result of this? 300,000 deaths. Yikes. Fast forward to 2064, and Taylor and his team, made up of Jakob Hendricks, and Rachel Kane, are sent in to investigate a CIA Black Site in Singapore when another CIA team goes dark, and this leads them down the rabbit hole to discovering the truth behind Corvus.
In short, it hinges around the hunt for a lad called Dylan Stone and his missing CIA team who are all implicated in the deactivation of the CIA site in Singapore. In their hunt for Stone, Taylor and co. venture deep into the Coalescence Corporation HQ in Singapore where they discover that Stone is trying to leak intel about the CIA’s involvement with the shady tech company and its links to the Singapore disaster. With the CIA compromised, Taylor and his team have to go it alone, and this sends them on a merry old adventure to track down Stone.
In the process of doing so, they methodically eliminate Stone’s team members as they encounter them, which drives a wedge between Taylor and Hendricks, who starts to question the morality of their mission.
