Call of Duty is now Deus Ex

[Bob_McMillan]

So they released the Black Ops 3 teaser trailer. Look familiar?

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The trailer was actually pretty cool, as all CoD trailers tend to be, but as one guy commented: "In attempting to make their own original game I guess they forgot that Deus Ex already exists, how embarrassing.

I have to agree with him, I wouldn't be surprised if Eidos sued them or something.

Also, while at first I was confused, I thought they were going to do a WWII game, someone reminded me that Block Ops loves the flashback thing, so maybe we might get WWII or Cold war bits. Probably won't show up in Multiplayer though.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I have to agree with him, I wouldn't be surprised if Eidos sued them or something.

I cannot see this ever happening. That would be like George R.R. Martin suing someone because they used dragons in their story.

After that, usual Call of Duty stuff. Trailer sets up an interesting premise, but we all know that it won't change the gameplay, and I'd need to see gameplay that shows actual change to expect otherwise. At the very least, though, they may be finally adding in a story reason for why we have regenerating health, but I doubt anyone will care. At least personally I've never really looked at regenerating health and though, "This will be so much better once they have a story reason for it to exist!" I just enjoyed not having to search for health every time I got hurt. It made the multiplayer flow better.

Edit: Added a few lines that I accidentally didn't put in before hitting "Post".

 

[The Madman]

Deus Ex hardly invented the idea of transhumanism and the belief that in our near(ish) future it could be a major point of debate. Hell, that's pretty much the basis for the entire Cyberpunk genre from Neuromancer to Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell and so on...

With that said however there's also no denying that the trailer was super reminiscent of Human Revolution's trailer campaign with the fake news casting spliced with real people and so on.

For reference, this is the Deus Ex trailer in question:


Damned good trailer. In any case I'd wait beyond one trailer at least before accusing Call of Duty of ripping anything off. I'm no CoD fan, haven't played one in years, but it's not like Deus Ex has a trademark on Cyberpunk.

 

[Bad Jim]

It's unlikely the game will play like Deus Ex. It's still COD, a military shooter series, not an RPG. And even in 2000, cyberpunk was an old concept, it's not like Deus Ex invented it. It wasn't even the first computer game. Syndicate anyone?

 

[Evonisia]

I couldn't stop myself from mehing all over the place watching the trailer, and given the series' trend of imitating recent popular titles or themes I can't say it's a coincidence that it looks so much like Deus Ex: HR.

I'll wait and see what else comes up.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's unlikely the game will play like Deus Ex. It's still COD, a military shooter series, not an RPG.

Of course it won't play like Deus Ex. They tried to copy some of Crysis with their last one. They don't give a shit. They know that their game appeals to the lowest common denominator so they can steal whatever idea they think is cool for that year and only 2% of people will notice.

 

[Doopliss64]

I find that including the term "playing God" in dialogue is one of the most common identifiers of lame sci-fi writing. It's just so on the nose, it always makes me laugh.

Very well-produced trailer, by any means. I just wish Call of Duty would stop holding on to this idea that it still has something relevant to say about the state of the world, as it's not currently reflected in the gameplay at all. Back when the message was essentially "war is chaotic and ugly" it actually made sense, since the game was so much more visceral and immersive then its contemporaries. Modern Warfare was cool because it managed to convey the moral ambiguity of modern military engagements through its world and aesthetics. I can't possibly imagine how you could integrate something as philosophical as transhumanism into Call of Duty on anything more than a surface level, but I suppose we'll see. Having said that, CoD's track record with handling social commentary has been... shaky, as of late.

 

[pearcinator]

Cool trailer, makes me want to play Deus Ex! Haha

I actually have a neat idea for a story that involves trans-humanism. As far as I know, it's rarely explored in film (what movie has trans-humanism as a main concept?...keep in mind that it is completely different than robots/cyborgs/AI). I don't think I'll ever write it though because people will obviously say I ripped off Deus Ex (just like how this COD trailer is being compared to Deus Ex).

 

[Ugicywapih]

Given that CoD has always had a very focused military theme, I'd rather expect something along the lines of Operation Snowblind, maybe? As for CP in PC gaming (cyberpunk, not that other meaning of this abbreviation), the first famous example I'm familiar with would be System Shock, and there's stuff like CP2020 and Shadowrun in the pen and paper RPGs. It's a genre we've grown to associate with Deus Ex largely because no other IPs on the market have shown any interest in it.
I myself don't care much for cod or other military shooters (or seafood for that matter), but I guess competition is good for the market. Now, inserting ominous conspiracies, that intend to massproduce supersoldiers into cyberpunk does make this all a bit more deus ex-y, but I suppose CP was always very anti-authoritarian, so I'd just write it off as coincidence. Not that, given its track record, I'd accuse Call of Duty series of originality or involving narratives, but I suppose it's best not to judge a game before you know anything about it, stranger things have happened...

...But damn, it looks like I've put my ranting pants on today.

 

[Alfador_VII]

Well this makes Advanced Warfare look grounded and realistic.

It's also so damn close to Deus Ex or Cyberpunk

 

[shrekfan246]

It's unlikely the game will play like Deus Ex. It's still COD, a military shooter series, not an RPG. And even in 2000, cyberpunk was an old concept, it's not like Deus Ex invented it. It wasn't even the first computer game. Syndicate anyone?

Neuromancer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer_%28video_game%29] had an adventure game back in 1988.

OT: If they have an interesting dystopian setting, I might actually consider trying to play it (though my PC probably can't even play Advanced Warfare, so maybe not).

If they manage to turn an interesting cyberpunk setup into a bland military shooter, then I'll be impressed.

 

[Mutant1988]

I honestly don't mind. The more cyberpunk, the better.

If Call of Duty makes it the next big setting then awesome - Maybe someone else will make a good game.

Also, Deus Ex didn't invent Cyberpunk. Philip K Dick, William Gibson and Ridley Scott invented cyberpunk (Probably someone else too, but those are probably the biggest 3 - Ridley Scott nailed the aesthetics of it) and Warren Spector turned it into video games with System Shock well before Deus Ex was made.

Hell, there's a lot more than just Deus Ex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cyberpunk_works#Video_games

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Only reason these things are thought of as " copying" is the same reason the watching public still watches with ravenous delight, the 10 shows that have CSI in it, rinsing and repeating, over and over, still lingering into multiple seasons even though its the same damn subject and the same good cop / bad guy scenarios.

Just about all of the futuristic titles have these types of subjects embedded into it. The COD/Black Ops games were eventually going to collide with the problem of making themselves original --- its more and more, in my opinion, copying Metal Gear Solid and Halo at this point rather than trying to be Dues Ex. In the cast of the last game, Advanced Warfare, I felt that you were basically Solid Snake going up against an evil tech Corporation trying to make Metal Gear essentially, if not in various different approaches to that sort of line.

Making any first person shooter at this point with the Cold War isn't going to fly because they tech leaped forward and now everything has to match and everyhing beyond this point will be pure fiction, something that is also new since a lot of what Medal of Honor and COD did was taken from actual historical events and many could re-late because they knew a relative whom had been a vet.

Now they have to make up the entire world, and because of that, its becoming cookie cutter due to the plot they all decided to derive from.

Literally put, it won't be long before they'll do a Battlefield Los Angels type story line and throw an Alien race into the mix finally, taking that last step into laser guns and space battles.

 

[Pyrian]

"Haha, he's totally exaggerating." *watches video* Nope, not exaggerating, lol. Although I'm pretty sure it's not going to include options for talking people down.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Heh, even the guys at Eidos Montreal noticed it.

[Tweet t=https://twitter.com/DeusEx/status/591328359197462528]

Anyway, I've enjoyed almost all of the various CoD campaigns (from CoD2 through to Advanced Warfare I'd say the only one I didn't have any positivity about was Ghosts), and the thought of them going into cyberpunk and transhumanism certainly sounds interesting.

 

[Bat Vader]

Good trailer. I'm wondering if the game will be a direct sequel to Blops II or if it will an entirely new game but in the Blops universe. Personally I think the World at War continuity is much more impressive and more fleshed out than the Modern Warfare one. It probably helps when you get an actual screenwriter to do the second game and don't just kill off characters willy-nilly.

 

[THE_JOKE_KING33]

I love Deus Ex and after seeing that trailer, I'll admit, I'm actually intrigued.

 

[Tilly]

Call of Duty being funded by the Ray Kurzweil eh?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I honestly don't mind. The more cyberpunk, the better.

It's not really Cyberpunk though. It just wants people to think that it is. Call of Duty is not anything really. There is no real theme because there is no depth to anything it does. It really is like a Michael Bay movie. It's just about shooting people with a bunch of guns on a bunch of maps. Like how Michael Bay's "Island" was a cool sci-fi idea that was not just crippled, but killed by Michael Bay's complete incompetence to be anything other than a director of dumb action. That's what Call of Duty is about. They're simply running out of excuses to pump these things out every year so they're now blatantly stealing cool ideas from other people and trying to pass them on as original and edgy.

 

[endtherapture]

It looks cool but let's be honest it will just be a reskin for the same old CoD gameplay.

What I'm really excited for is Mankind Divided and Cyberpunk (from CDProjekt Red)