---
title: 'Call of Duty Black Ops in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=nbdKlVKh11A'
video_id: 'nbdKlVKh11A'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# Call of Duty Black Ops in 2026

> Source: [Call of Duty Black Ops in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nbdKlVKh11A)

## Summary

This video provides an in-depth retrospective of Call of Duty: Black Ops, 15 years after its release. It covers the game's development at Treyarch, its shift to the Cold War setting, the creation of its iconic Zombies mode, and its impact on the Call of Duty franchise. The narrative explores the game's critical and commercial success, multiplayer innovations, and enduring legacy.

### Key Points

- **Black Ops sub-franchise debut** [1:26] — Emphasized social features and character customization, providing a treasure trove of multiplayer options.
- **Genre-defining experience** [1:53] — Black Ops remains not only a seminal Call of Duty title but also a genre-defining experience with few competitors.
- **Pre-production begins** [2:27] — Early 2009, pre-production on Black Ops began with 200 people split into three groups: single-player, multiplayer, and cooperative.
- **Focus on Cold War and SOG** [3:55] — Developers zeroed in on the Cold War period, centering on the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (SOG).
- **Authenticity through veteran consultations** [5:54] — Treyarch consulted SOG veteran Major John Plaster and ex-Spetsnaz operative Sonny Puzikas for authentic gameplay elements.
- **Emphasis on variety in missions** [7:47] — Each mission felt distinctive, with examples showcasing first-person flying, stealth, and base jumping.
- **Multiplayer innovations** [9:11] — Focus on customization and social tools, including theater mode for editing and sharing highlights, and COD Points currency system.
- **Record-breaking launch** [10:38] — Generated over $650 million in first 5 days, and topped $1 billion in revenue within approximately 6 weeks.
- **Cast reveals Frank Woods and SOG** [11:11] — Casting call confirmed the character Frank Woods and the SOG unit, confirming earlier speculation about a Vietnam setting.
- **Critical reception** [12:33] — Metacritic score of 87 on Xbox 360; praised for closing the gap with Modern Warfare franchise.
- **First voiced protagonist in COD** [13:04] — Lead character Alex Mason had a voice and personality, facilitated by full performance capture, enhancing narrative connection.
- **Zombies mode hits its stride** [14:25] — Three new zombie levels (Kino der Toten, Five, Dead Ops) were highlights; theater mode and wager matches also praised.
- **Shattered entertainment records** [16:23] — Raised $360 million in first 24 hours, proving video games as mainstream entertainment.
- **Developed amid Activision/Infinity Ward turmoil** [19:05] — Infinity Ward co-founders were fired, leading to lawsuits; Treyarch remained focused on Black Ops.
- **Post-launch DLC support** [20:25] — DLC packs (First Strike, Escalation, Annihilation, Resurrection) added multiplayer maps and Zombies content, with celebrity inclusions in Call of the Dead.
- **Bridged old and new COD** [25:54] — Black Ops heralded a new age by bridging the gap between old Call of Duty and contemporary Modern Warfare.
- **Defined multiplayer and zombies standards** [26:44] — The unproven spin-off defined basic multiplayer and zombies attributes that prevailed across the entire series.

### Conclusion

Call of Duty: Black Ops took a calculated risk that paid off, defining key multiplayer and zombies features that have endured for 15 years despite franchise fatigue, remaining exemplary of the series at its best.

## Transcript

Hands up!
By the time Activision deployed the
original Black Ops in November 2010,
Call of Duty had already revolutionized
online multiplayer. Call of Duty 2 in
2005 proved itself a must-play online
experience for Xbox 360 owners thanks to
well-balanced gameplay and a variety of
modes that weren't even held back by the
limited player counts on console.
Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 multiplayer
raised the stakes 1 year later despite
tepid reception at launch, though
nothing could hold a candle to what came
next in the fourth main line title.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare long held
the honorific of the series' best
installment for both the single-player
campaign and multiplayer suite.
Killstreaks perks weapon
customization, and the level-up system
all first appeared in the landmark 2007
release, which endures to this day, its
influence permeating nearly every major
online shooter. So, when World at War
came along the following year,
expectations soared through the roof.
The Treyarch-created Nazi Zombies mode
set World at War apart from the rest of
the pack, meaning the studio had its
work cut out upon taking the helm yet
again for Call of Duty's 2010 outing.
Enter Black Ops, the new sub-franchise
whose debut emphasized social features
and character customization all while
providing players with a treasure trove
of multiplayer options. 15 years after
hitting store shelves for PC,
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, Black
Ops remains not only a seminal Call of
Duty title, but also a genre-defining
experience with a pedigree that many
would argue has few competitors.
This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 15 years
later.
The numbers, Mason,
what do they mean?
The numbers
Mason, they mean nothing.
What?
>> [music]
>> Incoming!
Prior to joining the Call of Duty
machine with Big Red One in 2005, Los
Angeles-based studio Treyarch exhibited
its impressive versatility across a
series of sports games and Spider-Man
adventures. The developers soon
thereafter produced Call of Duty 3
before later bringing World at War to
the masses. Early in 2009, mere months
after shipping World at War,
pre-production on Black Ops began and
kickstarted a new era for Treyarch since
it constituted the first time that every
member of the team worked on one project
simultaneously.
The 200 people attached to Black Ops
were split into three groups, one batch
creating the single-player campaign and
a second building multiplayer with the
third tackling a new and improved
cooperative experience. With Black Ops
shaping up to be the studio's most
important game, this all-hands approach
seemed necessary. Producer and online
director Dan Bunting explained the
benefits of the much larger team during
a Joystick interview, highlighting how
each dedicated division could focus on
their part and manage the effort however
they saw fit.
Notably, the nascent phases of
development enjoyed an explosion of
creativity as Treyarch broke away from
the World War II setting it had
previously occupied in a trio of Call of
Duty endeavors. The Vietnam War
represented the next destination.
Developers particularly zeroed in on a
stretch of time throughout the 1960s
wherein the Cold War period has sensibly
birthed special operations or Spec Ops
initiatives. The Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam Studies and
Observations Group, shortened to SOG,
sat at the center of Treyarch's Black
Ops-related research.
US military command formally activated
the Joint Forces unit in January 1964 to
covertly retaliate against North
Vietnam's aggressive behavior. Divided
into smaller elite units, SOG carried
out clandestine operations until May
1972, its assignments involving the
sabotage of enemy munitions, conducting
classified and unconventional warfare
operations, and leading covert maritime
and airborne missions in regions such as
Laos and North Vietnam. SOG's unorthodox
duties often required equally unorthodox
weaponry, making Black Ops commandos the
perfect testers of experimental
equipment, modified tools, special
ammunition, and prototype weapons. As
such, they got their hands on unproven
carbine variants of the M16 rifle,
modified explosives, and even
Soviet-made guns like the RPD, the
latter comparable to a lighter, more
efficient M60 machine gun.
These tools proved essential for the
unit's success, and said success relied
on deniability as US officials publicly
insisted they had no boots on the ground
beyond the borders of South Vietnam. In
reality, buried beneath the
then-enduring Cold War was a hot war
between the world's superpowers.
Treyarch's developers viewed this secret
hot war as the ideal backdrop for a
different age of Call of Duty. After
all, countless Cold War stories have
stayed shrouded in mystery with the few
Vietnam games to broach the topic
pre-Call of Duty: Black Ops barely
scratching the surface. Hey, you made
special forces training, dude? Yeah,
you are one lucky guy. A stirring
pursuit of genuine authenticity resulted
in Treyarch consulting invaluable
sources of information, including Major
John Plaster, a three-tour SOG veteran
who, at the time, was preparing to
release his account of the conflict in
SOG: The Secret Wars of America's
Commandos in Vietnam.
Sonny Puzikas, an ex-operative of the
Soviet Union's SOG equivalent, Spetsnaz,
also contributed in an advisory
capacity. Plaster walked Treyarch
through his training, missions, and
tactics. Puzikas' expertise provided
similar glimpses into the Soviet Union's
elite squad. For example, he recalled
the drastic methods of superior officers
who desensitized him and fellow soldiers
by shooting at them. Bunting told USA
Today these meetings opened up new
avenues of gameplay, evident in the
implementation of military-grade
crossbows and the real-world-inspired
Dragon's Breath incendiary shotgun. In
addition, Puzikas demonstrated what
developers deemed crazy killing
techniques, several of which were
mocapped into the actual game.
Mocapping authentic Soviet-era combat
represented only part of Treyarch's
commitment to delivering a very
cinematic and immersive experience. The
richness of the Cold War plot
necessitated the franchise's first
voiced protagonist, alongside full
performance capture, yet another series
first, wherein the actors' voice, body
movements, and facial expressions were
recorded all at once. According to a
sit-down Bunting had with The Guardian,
the goal in this regard centered on
ensuring lead character Alex Mason
played an active role in dialogue
exchanges. The game may have
superficially presented itself as a
story about avoiding the Cuban Missile
Crisis, but Bunting and company insisted
throughout the marketing cycle that the
narrative would dig much deeper, hence
the need for a Black Ops squad.
Treyarch similarly applied that
semblance of depth to the gameplay,
emphasizing variety in so far as each
mission felt distinctive. For instance,
previews showcased the WMD mission's
many moving parts, in which it opened
with a first-person flying segment
before switching back and forth between
action-packed gunplay and stealth
sequences, then finally tasking the
player with base jumping into
enemy-occupied territory.
The game's locales received the same
attention to detail, helped by the
enhanced technologies Treyarch
implemented into the Call of Duty 4
engine, IW 3.0. Updates to the engine
promoted lighting improvements and
higher-quality texture work, and [music]
texture streaming buffs facilitated the
crafting of larger vistas colored by
longer lines of sight, evident in play
spaces like the long and narrow Summit
map and the iconic Nuketown area with
its mountainous Nevada background.
Interestingly, not all locations were
designed with single-player top of mind,
as had previously been the case. On the
contrary, because some content matured
so early in the multiplayer design
cycle, maps such as Slaughterhouse
actually manifested as online levels
from the start. This proved a point of
pride for the development crew, given
community manager Josh Olin once
boasting that nothing in multiplayer was
produced from single-player content.
Treyarch didn't rest on its laurels at
all when building Black Ops online
suite, either. Since pre-production had
gotten underway during World at War's
post-launch support period, fan feedback
from the 2008 entry became an
indispensable resource. The developers
obtained instant intel on what the
community liked, disliked, and desired,
thereby inspiring a focus on
customization and social tools for the
subsequent Treyarch outing. As an
example, World at War and Modern Warfare
2's Create-a-Class feature returned with
new accoutrements, namely face paint
options and perk-specific character
models for the player avatar.
All manner of weapon customization
possibilities entered the fray, too,
allowing users to tinker further with
attachments and cosmetically alter their
guns by etching on unique clan tags.
Deeper weapon personalization spawned
from one designer offhandedly mentioning
an interest in taking more ownership of
their favorite gun. This even extended
to the type of reticle a user could
attach to their sights.
Naturally, such personal ownership
motives bled into the all-new social
features crafted so players could easily
edit and share their finest multiplayer
highlights. Black Ops developers called
the tool in question theater mode
influenced in part by the advent of
machinima content. Production on the
original Black Ops also begat series
mainstays like the COD Points currency
system introduced principally because
Treyarch felt like it'd be a very
interesting way for players to engage
with all of their earned unlocks.
The title's highly rated November 2010
release on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii
demonstrated that critics and players
were mostly pleased with the upgraded
features and novel additions. Time would
tell whether the changes would hold up
as Call of Duty continued churning out
annual installments.
Don't you touch me.
Casting call stirred up rumors about the
seventh major Call of Duty in February
2010. Referenced as a significant
in-game figure, the character Frank
Barnes, later renamed Frank Woods,
appeared in the casting information as
did the SOG unit effectively confirming
earlier speculation that the series was
Vietnam-bound.
Further details accidentally went public
that April courtesy of the game's teaser
website prematurely going live. However,
leaks and rumors had no adverse effect
on how audiences received the final
product. In announcing Black Ops at the
end of April, the Activision press
release touted Call of Duty as the
number one first-person action series of
all time. Black Ops added to the
record-breaking numbers at launch.
The title's first 5 days on the market
generated more than $650 million
worldwide blazing past the $550 million
that Modern Warfare 2 earned in the same
time frame 1 year prior. And the
history-making feats kept piling high
with Black Ops topping $1 billion in
revenue within approximately 6 weeks.
Then CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby
Kotick noted that only Call of Duty and
James Cameron's Avatar had ever reached
such a milestone so quickly. Naturally,
the hype, critical acclaim, and positive
word of mouth all contributed to Black
Ops's meteoric success.
Black Ops racked up rave reviews at
launch. Its Metacritic score on Xbox 360
topping off at 87, lower than Modern
Warfare 2's 94 Metacritic score, but
generally in line with the ratings of
past mainline entries. The GameTrailers
review applauded Treyarch for closing
the gap between its games and the Modern
Warfare franchise with boundless
customization and a keen understanding
of why the series as a whole worked so
well. Other outlets like Game Informer
called it Treyarch's best game up until
that point.
For many, Black Ops's advancements with
the franchise's otherwise stagnant
single-player storytelling made the most
inroads towards carrying Call of Duty
forward. No longer were players
barreling from one action set piece to
another with a faceless cardboard cutout
protagonist. Black Ops lead Alex Mason
had a voice and personality that
facilitated the player's connection to
the overarching plot [music] given that
the special forces operative's
flashbacks steered much of the narrative
along.
You [ __ ] son of a [ __ ] Repeated
perspective shifts and so-called David
Fincher-esque twists further elevated
the brand's story chops in the eyes of
some, though critics who shared mixed
and negative reviews were less
receptive.
Awarding it a 70, Edge magazine argued
Black Ops failed at distinguishing
itself from its predecessors in any
important way. GamingTrend said the
shooter featured a less compelling story
than that of past titles. The Escapist
issued far harsher critiques lambasting
the solo campaigns' distracting editing
techniques such as the blinding white
light transitions and ridiculing the
story for being ridiculous and poorly
implemented. Mason's POV did nothing for
the outlet either evidenced by the
reviewer likening the operative to
Forrest Gump in that he participated in
numerous historical events yet bore
little importance in terms of the
outcome.
The multiplayer experience similarly
garnered a gamut of disparate reactions.
Many a reviewer lauded Treyarch for
improving the online suite. Zombies mode
in particular hit its stride courtesy of
three new levels. The German theater set
Kino der Toten, the Pentagon-themed
Five, and the top-down arcade adventure
known as Dead Ops. Meanwhile, the main
multiplayer component accumulated its
fair share of hardcore fans. Theater
mode proved a rousing success and the
vast upgrade in customization system
regularly received praise. Plus, the
engrossing wager matches kept players
invested for hours on end thanks in no
small part to the frenetic gameplay.
This free-for-all playlist came packed
with four game types that let users
gamble their hard-won points across
three buying levels, each one contingent
on the risk users were willing to take.
Oh, this is fun.
[ __ ] sake.
Fan reception was somewhat of a mixed
bag. A contingent of franchise faithful
began feeling the downside of
annualization with this release
believing Black Ops succeeded at
delivering a more cogent solo campaign,
though the decision to frame the
narrative around flashbacks didn't sit
well with everyone. As such, there were
those who thought the campaign a step
down from Modern Warfare 2, while others
considered the action-packed story an
improvement over Call of Duty's usual
fare.
Opinions concerning the multiplayer
modes proved less divisive. The new
features, wager matches, and the
upgraded Zombies experience stole the
show by most accounts. By and large,
community members felt rewarded for
their efforts online thanks to the
arguably solid gameplay balancing that
Treyarch elevated through major economy
adjustments as well as perk,
attachments, and create-a-class
upgrades. Unbeknownst to Treyarch and
the player base, these modifications to
the Call of Duty formula would
eventually shift the multiplayer
landscape in more ways than one.
>> [cheering]
>> If there was any doubt that video games
weren't mainstream entertainment, the
latest first-person shooter has blown
that uncertainty away. Call of Duty:
Black Ops has shattered entertainment
records by raking in $360 million in its
first [music] 24 hours on sale. Part of
the appeal of the military-inspired
adventure The cultural zeitgeist in
which Activision and Treyarch released
Black Ops was a different beast than the
one Call of Duty had been born into 7
years beforehand. By the time the
Infinity Ward created brand came along,
first-person multiplayer shooters were
still getting their sea legs on console
following the pioneering 2001 debut of
Halo: Combat Evolved on the original
Xbox. 2002's Medal of Honor: Allied
Assault and Battlefield 1942 maintained
PC exclusivity. Call of Duty executives
understandably didn't feel the need to
buck the trend. But times changed rather
swiftly thus permitting an epic wherein
first-person experiences of the
narrative-centric and online variety had
become all the rage on PlayStation and
Xbox hardware.
Amidst Battlefield, Call of Duty, and
Medal of Honor spreading their reach to
console, Halo had grown into an
important fixture within the multiplayer
and cooperative landscape during the
years preceding Black Ops. Halo 2 set
the new standard by popularizing
matchmaking, a move that bid farewell to
the common use of server browsers for
players seeking competitive matches.
While not an FPS title, Gears of War 2
left an indelible mark on multiplayer
gameplay upon introducing the wave-based
Horde mode. Horde and World at War's
Zombies offering serendipitously arrived
days apart, but Gears of War shepherded
the game type from fun ancillary mode to
influential phenomenon that countless
titles across genres later emulated.
Competition between Battlefield and Call
of Duty increased tenfold throughout
this period, too, especially with Bad
Company 2 giving Modern Warfare 2 a run
for its money earlier in 2010.
Meanwhile, genre pioneers Doom and Quake
were undergoing identity crises. 2004
saw the former dabble in action Horde
and Quake dove headfirst into strategic
gameplay with Enemy Territory: Quake
Wars in 2007, then returned in 2010 with
an updated version of Quake 3 Arena.
Needless to say, Call of Duty busied
itself with laying new ground perfecting
a frenetic style of play that would
beget many a COD clone.
>> [music]
>> Ready.
Hey, what's up Infinity Ward? Come on
in.
Call of Duty: Black Ops was partly
developed and deployed at a tumultuous
time within the wider Activision family.
It all started on March 1st, 2010 when
Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and
Vince Zampella were escorted from studio
premises by security. The cause for such
an act on the heels of Modern Warfare
2's billion-dollar success? Activision
had fired the pair on the grounds of
insubordination and a breach of
contract.
West and Zampella filed a $36 million
lawsuit days later accusing the
publisher of manufacturing a basis on
which to effectuate their termination
and thereby avoid paying royalties owed
for the Modern Warfare sequel.
Activision wasted no time countersuing
in a claim that alleged the Call of Duty
co-creators were secretly in talks with
business rival Electronic Arts to steal
Infinity Ward. In the end, Infinity Ward
suffered an exodus of talent as numerous
staffers joined West and Zampella in
establishing Respawn Entertainment and
producing Titanfall in partnership with
EA.
When questioned in a May 2010 interview
about how the fallout may have impacted
Black Ops' development, producer Dan
Bunting said he and his colleagues
weren't distracted by it in the
slightest. On the contrary, their focus
remained solely on the game, a focus
that crew maintained for several months
after the military shooter landed on
store shelves. Treyarch devoted large
swaths of post-launch support to issuing
balance improvements and fixing bugs
through patches. Early fixes addressed
everything from performance hiccups and
game-breaking exploits to bizarre
sniper-related errors that adversely
affected ADS.
But, the meat and potatoes came from the
DLC Treyarch delivered between February
and September 2011. The initial release
being the First Strike Pack, which added
four multiplayer maps in addition to the
Ascension Zombies content that dropped
players into a Soviet space station with
two new perks, Stamina-Up and PhD
Flopper. Ascension further introduced
special weapons like Gersh devices and
Matryoshka dolls, plus the space monkey
enemies that returned in later Black Ops
installments made their grand debut.
These additions, paired with the mode's
first-ever main mission Easter Egg, set
the standard for zombie support going
forward, thus securing Ascension a spot
among the long list of fan-favorite
updates.
The Escalation Pack went live in May
2011, unleashing another batch of
multiplayer maps complete with the
star-studded Call of the Dead Zombies
experience. Call of the Dead marked the
first instance of celebrities featuring
in the co-op mode, honoring director
George Romero in an epic tale of
survival where players assume the role
of four adventurers investigating the
origins of Element 115, the element used
to create the undead. Having been
stranded at a Siberian outpost, the
group unwittingly let a zombie horde and
were forced to defend themselves. The
actors involved represented one key
selling point since Sarah Michelle
Gellar, Robert Englund, Danny Trejo, and
Michael Rooker were cast as playable
heroes opposite George Romero himself.
No, hit me. I do it like this.
Daddy.
I didn't do it like this.
Call of the Dead alone has long
constituted a highlight of the brand's
post-launch efforts, enough so that fans
still hold out hope for a remake of the
map.
Black Ops' Annihilation DLC hit digital
storefronts late in June 2011, boasting
four multiplayer maps and one zombies
locale. The Hangar 18 map invited users
to battle each other in an Area 51
hangar, while another, Drive-In,
unleashed chaos on a 1960s drive-in
theater. As for the zombies content, the
mysteries of Shangri-La in an exotic
jungle occupied center stage.
Annihilation reviews fell in line with
the map packs preceding it, settling on
a high 70s Metacritic score.
The same held true for the fourth and
final DLC release, Resurrection, which
initially launched in August and brought
the zombie saga full circle in a mission
to space. Set on a secret moon base,
this content packed in extra firepower
and whatever else players needed to end
the overwhelming zombie threat. What's
more, Resurrection included the four
original zombies maps from World at War,
giving long-time fans a chance to relive
the nightmarish action of the Nacht der
Untoten, Verruckt, Shi No Numa, and Der
Riese locales.
The community at large came away from
the roughly 1 year of extra Black Ops
content with different opinions, best
reflected in each release's critic and
user reviews. New downloadable maps were
generally considered enjoyable, albeit
exceptionally challenging in some
instances. However, many were also
chomping at the bit for more gameplay
innovation, and without it, found
themselves unable to justify the $15
price per pack for anyone other than the
staunchest of Call of Duty diehards.
This era of downloadable COD content
further precipitated change via a 3-year
deal between Activision and Microsoft
that guaranteed Xbox 360 players
received 1 month of early DLC access
before PC and PS3, as had been the case
with Modern Warfare 2. Despite the
3-year plan, the exclusivity agreement
lasted until Advanced Warfare in 2014.
Then, PlayStation 4 became the place to
play Call of Duty DLC early upon the
rollout of Black Ops 3: Awakening in
December 2013.
The spin-off series ultimately lived far
beyond the third numbered entry. Yet,
not even Treyarch anticipated where
Black Ops would take the studio and the
series after the 2010 chapter.
>> [music]
>> Black Ops, for its part, reinforced the
brand's staying power all while catering
to both newcomers and veterans. Design
director David Vonderhaar noted in the
multiplayer overview that combat
training stemmed from Treyarch's desire
to provide single-player aficionados
with a low-stakes entry point into the
world of online play. These hopeful
converts would get comfortable learning
the mechanics, and multiplayer savants
would find value in familiarizing
themselves with certain weapons and map
layouts. But, for all this forward
thinking, Dan Bunting spoke in a 2010
interview of his uncertainty about
whether Black Ops could evolve into a
subseries ala Modern Warfare. When
questioned by Joystiq, the producer
merely stated, "We'll have to see where
it goes, because no one had even looked
that far into the future yet."
Unsurprisingly, one game generating a
billion dollars in the span of 6 weeks
had a way of shifting perspectives. The
Call of Duty machine consequently kept
churning, folding six more Black Ops
titles into the mix across a decade and
a half.
That original Black Ops, though, Call of
Duty's first foray into the Cold War
era, heralded a brand new age by
bridging the gap between the COD of old
and the contemporary action on display
in Modern Warfare. The zombies offering
especially contributed to the project's
long tail of success, given it elevated
the World at War mode by every measure.
Yes, Kino der Toten tossed players back
into the zombies arc from World at War
with simple pick-up-and-play mechanics,
but its instant popularity served as
proof positive that audiences were
rooting for the mode's longevity. The
second zombies map at launch, Five,
similarly acted as a testing bed by
starring playable historical figures,
thus opening the door for the Call of
the Dead DLC's more ambitious premise.
And therein lies the core essence of
Call of Duty: Black Ops and its
significance. This once unproven
spin-off defined a litany of the basic
multiplayer and zombies attributes that
have prevailed across the entire series.
It wasn't perfect. At the time, a
contingent of critics and players
believed it fell short of expectations,
but Activision and Treyarch took a
calculated risk, one that quickly paid
off in various ways, so much so that 15
years later, despite growing pains,
pitfalls, and franchise fatigue, Black
Ops remains exemplary of the series at
its best.
It's over.
We won.
>> [music]
>> For now.
>> [music]
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Fat Green Dragon.
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Dave Oshry. DCX NG. DJ Redden. Edward
Reigns.
Fallen Asterisk.
Jaguar Nod.
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