Call of Duty: Black Ops III's 'Free Run' Mode Detailed

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Call of Duty: Black Ops III's 'Free Run' Mode Detailed


Treyarch details Call of Duty: Black Ops III's free run mode.

Treyarch revealed a new gameplay mode in today's Black Ops Fridays livestream. The new multiplayer mode, called Free Run, pits the player against a series of puzzle-filled obstacle courses, utilizing movements like jumping, sliding, crawling, and more, that increase in difficulty as the player progresses. In addition, the mode will feature pop-up targets for a player to shoot, with a penalty of one second for every missed bullet.

It was stressed that Free Run will be quite challenging on higher difficulties, with each successful completion posted on leaderboards with the time completed - and the competition for high scores will be punishing. Free Run mode will be available when the game launches.

Free Run discussion starts on the above video at 11:08, with a look at it starting at about 16:15.

"It's a solo experience, it's in multiplayer, but it's a solo experience. But it's really all about the asymmetrical competition," said Game Director Dan Bunting. "And you're competing for time on leaderboards."

In other Call of Duty: Black Ops III news, the game's will have all campaign missions unlocked from the start [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142832-Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-III-Realistic-Mode-Kills-You-After-One-Shot], allowing players the ability to skip anywhere in the game - even to the end - in the interest of player choice.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III will release on November 6 on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC.

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[Ukomba]

Had to double check the month, nope, not April. Is this really a mode people have been clamoring for?

 

[Lufia Erim]

So, we have TryHard mode and Temple Run with bullets. Yay.

Had to double check the month, nope, not April. Is this really a mode people have been clamoring for?

Am i the only one who finds Parkour/free running utterly overrated and played out?

#NOFUNALLOWED

Amirite guys? Seriously you people are just so sour. It's cool we get a new mode.

 

[The Enquirer]

I'm not sure I understand the issue people seem to have with a new game mode being added to the game. It's more content, specifically more than simply "here's some half assed single player campaign and the same multiplayer" that we've gotten with previous titles. They seem to actually really be trying to make improvements with this one.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Am i the only one who finds Parkour/free running utterly overrated and played out?

If I'm understanding correctly, this seems to be like the obstacle courses of the Modern Warfare games, but with actual obstacles.

I'll never forget running one of the obstacle courses in MW3, running into the final room, and shooting my sergeant in the face by accident. Those were fun, and I'm interested to see how Treyarch mixes it up.

 

[Worgen]

I'm not sure I understand the issue people seem to have with a new game mode being added to the game. It's more content, specifically more than simply "here's some half assed single player campaign and the same multiplayer" that we've gotten with previous titles. They seem to actually really be trying to make improvements with this one.

They tried to do different things with Advanced Warfare, but people just bitched and went back to blops2.

 

[Shadefyre]

Once again Treyarch goes to the Counterstrike modding community for new modes, since this is basically Death Run, which has proliferated to all sorts of first person games.

 

[Creator002]

I'm not one to quickly praise the CoD series, but the beta was enjoyable beyond a few matches and they're actually trying to do something different (regardless if it was taken from something else).
I thought this is what people wanted. CoD doing something different. Not the same old, same old.
Nah, instead we'll ***** about it, like we always do. Same old, same old.

 

[Ukomba]

So, we have TryHard mode and Temple Run with bullets. Yay.

Had to double check the month, nope, not April. Is this really a mode people have been clamoring for?

Am i the only one who finds Parkour/free running utterly overrated and played out?

#NOFUNALLOWED

Amirite guys? Seriously you people are just so sour. It's cool we get a new mode.

You know there's opportunity costs to doing this, right? The effort they threw into this could have been used to other places. Not sure what the point is in waiting time and money half assed Free-runner when there are far superior versions of that game available for free. The game is loosing at least 1 map for this. Personally, I'd enjoy the extra map more than this game mode.

 

[RedDeadFred]

So, we have TryHard mode and Temple Run with bullets. Yay.

Had to double check the month, nope, not April. Is this really a mode people have been clamoring for?

Am i the only one who finds Parkour/free running utterly overrated and played out?

#NOFUNALLOWED

Amirite guys? Seriously you people are just so sour. It's cool we get a new mode.

You know there's opportunity costs to doing this, right? The effort they threw into this could have been used to other places. Not sure what the point is in waiting time and money half assed Free-runner when there are far superior versions of that game available for free. The game is loosing at least 1 map for this. Personally, I'd enjoy the extra map more than this game mode.

So you're one of the people who actually likes having the same game over and over again? Personally, I lost interest in CoD a long time ago because they weren't doing anything new. If this is actually well implemented, it could be a lot of fun.

 

[josemlopes]

I kind of like the fact that COD is now a theme park with a lot of atractions to play with, if it was still just traditional SP and MP (and since they dont change the core of the gameplay that much) it would have gotten really stale. For a time where games seem to be missing so much content this one seems to do the exact opposite.

So, we have TryHard mode and Temple Run with bullets. Yay.

Had to double check the month, nope, not April. Is this really a mode people have been clamoring for?

Am i the only one who finds Parkour/free running utterly overrated and played out?

#NOFUNALLOWED

Amirite guys? Seriously you people are just so sour. It's cool we get a new mode.

The game is loosing at least 1 map for this..

Citation needed.

This has the SP, MP, zombie mode and now this, none of them seem to have drop any quality or content, this series is very lucrative and each game has a large amount of teams working on it at the same time (each doing its own thing), the team that is doing the MP probably isnt doing this.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Once again Treyarch goes to the Counterstrike modding community for new modes, since this is basically Death Run, which has proliferated to all sorts of first person games.

CoD has been a collection of stolen ideas for years now. So it's not surprising. Activision is like Apple of gaming industry and CoD is their iPhone.

On the other hand, I haven't played a CoD game in years. Not since MW2 which came out in 2009, was it? And I got that one as a gift. So I might get this. A CoD every 5-6 years is fine.

 

[Bobular]

I actualy like the sound of this. Its not going to convince me to buy the game on its own, but its definitly in the plus catogory.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Leaderboards? Yeah, it's gonna get cheated all to hell and back, and the guy on the top of the leaderboard will be named "lolhacks" and have a time of -3 seconds.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Never hurts to have more shit to do, and it might not be much but they are at least doing one extra thing besides Copy-Paste.
At this pace we will get FPS right back up to UT levels of functionality... in a decade or so.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Once again Treyarch goes to the Counterstrike modding community for new modes, since this is basically Death Run, which has proliferated to all sorts of first person games.

I have no problem with this.

In fact, I would want to see a _surf gametype appear in other games too, although that's a strictly Source Engine physics based game mode. Imagine surf mode in something like Titanfall, rocket Ogre coming through.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

I'm not one to quickly praise the CoD series, but the beta was enjoyable beyond a few matches and they're actually trying to do something different (regardless if it was taken from something else).
I thought this is what people wanted. CoD doing something different. Not the same old, same old.
Nah, instead we'll ***** about it, like we always do. Same old, same old.

Basically from what I see...

ITT: People who don't play CoD ***** about CoD.

I'm not a frequent CoD player. Last one I got was Black Ops 2, which I didn't enjoy all that much but did play with friends at the very least. The beta for Blops 3 actually made a positive impression. Even though it "borrowed" most of it's new mechanics from Titanfall and Destiny, it combines them with a core gameplay that fits very well with it. It actually feels pretty fresh.

To me. This mode seems like a fine addition. Something new, fits with the new free-running mechanics, and altogether some inoffensive content that could also serve as good practice for getting better use out of free-running in competitive gameplay. I honestly can't remember the last time I've looked forward to a CoD release this much. Probably since Call of Duty 3.

But no, leave it to Escapists to find something to whinge about.