History VideoGame / CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{enforced|Trope}} on the Platform/Xbox360 and Platform/PlayStation3 versions of the game. [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames Seventh gen consoles]] [[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/09/25/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-dumps-campaign-on-xbox-360-and-ps3.aspx do not have the campaign of the game on disc at all]], among other things, likely due to necessary disc space. The Platform/{{Steam}} version on PC likewise has the option of a "Multiplayer Starter Pack", which is priced at a quarter the value of the full game for just the multiplayer (minus the ability to Prestige, among some other things).

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{enforced|Trope}} on the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} and UsefulNotes/{{Playstation 3}} versions of the game. [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames Seventh gen consoles]] [[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/09/25/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-dumps-campaign-on-xbox-360-and-ps3.aspx do not have the campaign of the game on disc at all]], among other things, likely due to necessary disc space. The UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} version on PC likewise has the option of a "Multiplayer Starter Pack", which is priced at a quarter the value of the full game for just the multiplayer (minus the ability to Prestige, among some other things).

* CosmicHorrorStory: The game manages to provide ''two'' distinct CosmicHorrorStory narratives not counting ''Zombies'':

* CoOpMultiplayer: The first ''Call of Duty'' to feature this with the main campaign since ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar World at War]]'', and thus, while still linear, the levels are wider to accomodate the co-op mode (along with the different unlockable ability)

* GainaxEnding: Though a large part of the game delves into MindScrew, the ending takes the cake. [[spoiler:After killing Hendricks, the player character seems to have AteHisGun [[HeroicSuicide to stop Corvus]]. However, instead, the player is brought to a kind of afterlife where they fight alongside a residual imprint of [[DefectorFromDecadence Taylor]] to put an end to Corvus once and for all in [[EldritchLocation the Frozen Forest]]. This would not have been ''quite'' as weird if not for the fact that the game shows that the player character is NotQuiteDead, and using Taylor's body, using his final act to purge Taylor's DNI of Corvus and themself.]] Reading the scrolling text that appears before each mission, particularly the very first mission, seems to provide a definitive explanation for the GainaxEnding (see FreezeFrameBonus above).

The one where ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' goes full {{Cyberpunk}}.

The one where ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' went full {{Cyberpunk}}.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Paint it black]]]]

** Mission 10 and 11, since this is when [[spoiler:Corvus' infection really starts to effect the PlayerCharacter. The better part of the final mission is spent fighting Corvus in the Frozen Forest, which manifests as disjointed, glitchy setpieces from the various levels throughout the game interlaced with roots from the Corvus "tree". Oh and to defeat Corvus you have to set fire to giant hearts that slowly kill the giant Corvus tree]]. Really Treyarch, [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs what were you smoking?]].

* GenderNeutralWriting: The writing surrounding the PlayerCharacter is this way in order to account for both the male and female versions of the protagonist, such as Taylor and Hall referring to him/her as the nondescript "new blood" in the first two levels, and they are never referred to by gendered pronouns at any point in the campaign. Since the player plays a largely [[SupportingProtagonist supportive role]] to the drama between Hendricks, Taylor and Kane this is made pretty easy. A common criticism by some reviewers is that the female protagonist can feel like a thinly reskinned version of an obviously male character, such as Kane's [[ImpliedLoveInterest implied romantic interest]] in the player regardless of gender. [[spoiler:As per TheReveal, this isn't an accident]].
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the Nightmares campaign however, where the female protagonist is the only option to play as, leading to her gender being occasionally noted in the dialogue.

* {{Expy}}: Ruin's Gravity Spikes and Seraph's Annihilator are 100% copies of the Fist of Havoc and Golden Gun super moves from {{VideoGame/Destiny}}.
** Treyarch admitted at the reveal of the multiplayer that Specialist abilities were inspired by Destiny's Supers, so this isn't terribly surprising. Not to mention Bungie is affiliated with Activision, publisher of the ''Call of Duty'' franchise.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: InvokedTrope and EnforcedTrope on the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} and UsefulNotes/{{Playstation 3}} versions of the game. [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames Seventh gen consoles]] [[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/09/25/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-dumps-campaign-on-xbox-360-and-ps3.aspx do not have the campaign of the game on disc at all]], among other things, likely due to necessary disc space. The UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} version on PC likewise has the option of a "Multiplayer Starter Pack", which is priced at a quarter the value of the full game for just the multiplayer (minus the ability to Prestige, among some other things).

->"Memory isn’t a fle on a hard drive you can delete or rewrite. Memory is just a ''version'' of the last time you thought about something."

* VillainousLegacy: While both are long dead, Nikita Dragovich and Raul Menendez's actions still continue to haunt the world. Dragovich's resurrection of Nova 6 means that the bioweapon factors into the game's backstory in a significant manner, and Raul Menendez is the reason the world looks the way that it does when the game starts.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:By the end of the game, every single named character is dead, although due to the GainaxEnding the fate of the player character is highly open to interpretation. Lt. Khalil's fate is also unresolved, although the last you hear about him his position was being overrun by enemy forces.]]
** EverybodyLives: [[spoiler:If you believe the alternate interpretation of the story provided by the FreezeFrameBonus, then none of the events of the game other than the first level actually happened, and the only person to actually die in "reality" was the player character.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Realistic difficulty is [[WarIsHell built on this trope]], to the point that its inclusion borders on a malicious joke on the developers' part. How hard is Realistic? Well, what happens most of the time in RealLife when [[OneHitKill someone gets shot?]]

** The [=M8A7=] is a descendant of ''Black Ops II'''s [=M8A1=], and they even share similar real-world bases (the A1 is a barely-modified XM8, the A7 is somewhat reminiscent of the [=SL8=] - both weapons based on the [[CoolGuns/AssaultRifles G36]]).

** The Drakon is a Singaporean hybrid of the Dragunov and the [=WA=]2000, with a side-mounted magazine vaguely reminiscent of the [[RareGuns FG 42]].

** The [=M8A7=] is a descendant of ''Black Ops II'''s [=M8A1=], and they even share similar real-world bases (the A1 is a barely-modified [[RareGuns XM8]], the A7 is somewhat reminiscent of the [=SL8=] - both weapons based on the [[CoolGuns/AssaultRifles G36]]).

** [[spoiler:Triple subverted if one goes by the possible and logical explanation that the ''entire game'' (after the first mission) is one long dying dream gone haywire, as the pre-mission after action reports seem to indicate. The main character calling themselves Taylor is simply another stealth reference to the fact that they're living out Taylor's memories of a prior situation due to interfacing with Taylor's DNI prior to death, with the player character standing in for Taylor. The main character had, through a weird fluke, actually continued to live on in Taylor's DNI. The main character had in sense merged with Taylor during the game, with Taylor's consciousness "dying" during the Egypt mission, only to survive in Corvus' Frozen Forest, with the final mission being played by the main character in "real life" with Taylor's body, using Taylor's hijacked body to find and kill Hendricks, who had actually gone rogue in the real world and attacked Zurich, and end the threat of the formerly dormant Corvus virus, with the final line indicating that Taylor had finally regained control of himself, purging himself of both Corvus and the main character's influence, allowing the player character to die for good. The Call of Duty wiki notably takes the latter interpretation. This technically makes much of the game one long battle at the center of the mind.]]

** Another blink and you'll miss it bonus that also doubles as Foreshadowing and RewatchBonus: During the second mission, "New World", during the "memory recollection" sequence, while Diaz is explaining whats happening to you, two brief scenes of [[spoiler:John Taylor being pulled out of the room by surgeons, most likely because he had just been made aware that the main character died on the table and there was nothing more he could do for him/her]] will flash before you (and the player character) for less than a second. Makes you wonder if your own character had paid as little attention to them as you did the first time around.

* GainaxEnding: Though a large part of the game delves into MindScrew, the ending takes the cake. [[spoiler:After killing Hendricks, the player character seems to have AteHisGun [[HeroicSuicide to stop Corvus]]. However, instead, the player is brought to a kind of afterlife where they fight alongside a residual imprint of [[DefectorFromDecadence Taylor]] to put an end to Corvus once and for all in [[EldritchLocation the Frozen Forest]]. This would not have been ''quite'' as weird if not for the fact that the game shows that the player character is NotQuiteDead, still alive enough to purge their DNI of Corvus and walk away, having taken the name Taylor for undisclosed reasons.]] Reading the scrolling text that appears before each mission, particularly the very first mission, seems to provide a definitive explanation for the GainaxEnding (see FreezeFrameBonus above).

* GrandTheftMe: The plot is motivated by several characters (including the player character themselves) [[spoiler:being controlled by a malevolent AI called Corvus. In the ending, Corvus is seemingly purged for good, only for it to be revealed that Taylor has taken over the player character's body...only it then turns out that the player was reliving Taylor's memories as part of his [[DyingDream Dying Dream.]]]]

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:It's quite possible, thanks to a FreezeFrameBonus before the first mission, that the ''entire campaign'' after the second level is just a DyingDream]].

** Mission 8, "Demon Within". '''Holy'''. '''Crap'''. Things reach ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' levels of mind-screwiness in this level. So things start out normal enough. You're fighting [[spoiler:Sarah Hall]] in her HumongousMecha. You finally bring her down, and - since she's dying and can't be interrogated - you interface with her DNI to find Taylor's location. Following so far? Okay. [[spoiler:Now have fun running around a glitched simulation of the Siege of Bastogne from UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo fighting Nazis, wolves, a Tiger Tank that transforms into a spider robot, and finally '''zombies''' while Creator/KateeSackhoff spouts exposition while floating around in mid-air. And there's an evil computer named Corvus who manifests as a cyborg baby]]. Talk about taking a trope UpToEleven. Even better, the mission description makes absolutely no mention of this setting, making the true nature of the mission even more surprising.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/TheRollingStones Paint it black]]]]

** The game expected Greece, Italy and Spain to exit the EU by the end of 2020. As of 2022, all three of them are still in the EU. Conversely, the game seemingly doesn't mention anything among the lines of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit Brexit]], which happened at the start of 2020.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: Background material indicates the true outcome of ''Black Ops II'' was that Mason chose to kill Menendez at the end of the "Judgment Day" mission (thus also making it irrelevant what other choices were made), though it is revealed that Cordis Die did not rise up like how they are stated to in that ending (it is implied that the Washington DC riot depicted in the ending is a made-up propaganda video in-universe); rather, they fall apart due to the nature of Menendez's death (executed mid-escape while disguised as a US soldier) not being the glorious last stand his supporters envisioned him going down in. However the massive cyberattack and drone invasion of Los Angeles led to the development of Direct Energy Air Defense.

** The game predicted Greece to abandon the euro and return to the drachma in 2020, probably inspired by the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_withdrawal_from_the_eurozone Grexit movement]]. In real-life, Greece started 2021 still using the euro.
** The game expected Greece, Italy and Spain to exit the EU by the end of 2020. By real-life 2021, all three of these still remained in the EU and only the United Kingdom was exiting.
** The game predicted the 2028 Summer Olympics happening in Nairobi, but as of right now, it is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles.