Fans of Call of Duty have always been curious about what will change in the games from year to year. In previous outings, the more traditional shooting gameplay was altered a fair bit. One particular Treyarch title, Black Ops III, introduced a new element that caused quite the stir. And now fans are curious if the upcoming Call of Duty 2020 will include this controversial element once again. The last Call of Duty game released by Treyarch was Black Ops IIII in 2018. Since then, the series has gone through a bunch of changes. The gameplay got serious altered when jet packs of all things were added in a previous game.
David “Vahn” Vonderhaar, a Design Director from Treyarch Studios, responded to fan questions over what returning and new features would be in the new game. He responded very clearly that “NO” jetpacks would not be returning. Fans wanted to know specifically if the jetpacks from earlier games would be coming back this year. Vonderhaar was pretty vague, but at least a little confrontational in his response saying, “Such short-term memories. You hung me from the highest branch. No. NO. I have PTSD.”
NO.
— David Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) January 5, 2020
Vonderhaar then called out some media reports by replying to a tweet from another outlet. He seemed to wave away the initial response, downplaying the importance of his initial response. So will it have jet packs? Who knows.
Players really hated jetpacks when they were introduced, mostly. Some praised the bold new direction that altered movement prospects in the game. Others criticized the complete reversal of established mechanics and gameplay style that the jetpacks brought. The system will definitely not be coming back this year, at least in this one game.
Kotaku published a report in May of this year that Treyarch took over development for the 2020 Call of Duty game. The studio has now split support duties among multiple entities. At least three studios are reported as having worked on the game at this point. It’s been a yearly thing that these games came out, and they’ve been growing in scale and nonsense.
What that means isn’t exactly clear yet. Call of Duty 2020 will very much amp up the pressure in new ways. There could be some new locales and stories being told. Fans are also curious if the game will feature new side modes, like the inclusion of the iconic Zombies mode. There has been no news about such a more though. There is no release date yet for the new game, and we don’t really have any details about gameplay or the story at this time.
