Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 - A Chat with Miles Leslie
The sky is blue, the grass is green, the water is wet, and Call of Duty is massive. Every year, a new entry hits our systems. Some are great, some are good, and some are not so good. For me, the most consistent branch of the Call of Duty franchise is the Black Ops side of the family. The story has always been my exact type of fantastical, conspiracy-fuelled fun, and the gameplay, in the single player especially, has always leaned towards my personal preferences. So when Activision reached out and asked if I wanted to have a chat with long-serving Associate Creative Director Miles Leslie from Treyarch, how could I say no? So after checking out what is coming to Black Ops 7 in a handy presentation, I sat down virtually with Miles to chat about his history with the franchise, what he is excited about and just how Black Ops 7 is shaping up.
The first thing I had to know was why Black Ops 7? After all, it is an odd move for Call of Duty to go back-to-back with their releases, usually splitting them up with another part of the franchise. “Early on, the call was made that we were going to develop Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and 7 together,” said Miles. “It was a challenge, but it presented some really unique opportunities we had never had before. One was the story connections between 6 and 7, allowing story to pay off but also when Black Ops 6 came out and was well received, that gave us a huge confidence boost into black ops 7, and I think the payoff of that is that final product is super polished, so we are super proud of building momentum from one game into the next.
I really enjoyed Black Ops 6’s story, but it did leave me hanging at the end. I asked Miles if that was the intention, knowing that 7 was around the corner or if that was a story thread that was going to be picked up in a game down the track. Considering he was very cautious of moving into spoiler territory, Miles was a little cagey in his response, but he did offer a great insight into how they work the story and ongoing themes and threads into the game. “We leave some of these characters and threads out so we can find the right moment to come back to them”, he explained. “But we do like to reference old games and older characters. People may hear the name Troy Marshall and then go back to Black Ops 6 to learn about his journey. ”
I also had to ask how working with Raven was, one of my favourite studios, especially in regards to their classic FPS titles. I have always been curious as to how they fit into the Call of Duty puzzle. Miles was more than happy to explain. “Treyarch is mixed across everything on the game, so it is not like Raven just does the single-player on their own. Treyarch does have a big focus on multiplayer, but even then, we have a lot of outside help there, too. It’s a big game and it takes all hands. Honestly, it feels like one team; it’s not like we feel like separate teams. It just feels like one big group all working together.”
When I get a chance to chat with anyone from a developer who was snapped up by Microsoft, I am obviously keen to hear how that transition has gone, but even more so in the case of Treyarch. There has been undeniable turmoil, to say the least, so I wanted to know if that turmoil has affected the biggest franchise in the world. Miles was quick to point out that it has been business as usual for them. “We haven’t felt anything on the development side”, said Miles. “I think we are insulated in terms of interference. One thing we have noticed, and this was the case with Black Ops 6, is that with Gamepass, we have the opportunity to get our game into more people’s hands. We are really excited about this because we put blood, sweat and tears into these games, so we want as many people as possible to play it.”
Speaking of new players, I was curious to find out what strategies are in place to bring new players into the fold. After all, there are a lot of skilful COD players out there and jumping into multiplayer for a newbie is an extremely daunting prospect. “We absolutely think about this,” explained Miles. “The challenge is making sure you are satisfying the fans that have been with you and then working out how to bring new players into the fold. Our new global progression system is a big part of that, but also coming up with modes that people can dip their toe into and test the waters. For example, 6v6 multiplayer is competitive, but if you don’t want to jump into that because you are going to get creamed, we now have skirmish. 20 v 20, vehicles, armour, grappling. It’s a little looser and you can get your bearings a little easier. Maybe then you graduate into 6v6. In this game, every mode has a way to test the waters, which is something we haven’t had in the past.”
Another thing that has always made me wonder is the story. I feel like I am in the minority when it comes to COD players because, for me, the single-player is where my fun comes from, but I am well aware that for most players, that isn’t the case. I asked Miles how important the story is to the team because it seems that the community often sees the single-player component as a secondary mode. “I love that question,” Said Miles. “When you talk about the game, what is key to it is the identity and it’s funny because with the pure multiplayer players that don’t want to engage with the story, they don’t realise that they already are. The world we craft, the weapons, the era, and the locations are all based on the story and have actual purpose and meaning to the score streaks and technology. So it is really key to us to develop this story and then build out from there. What is the single-player, what is the multiplayer and do they work in a single world? But I hope on this game because of our global progression system that some of these multiplayer fans try it out. I am hoping we are taking the barriers down between the two modes so everyone tries everything.”
For clarification, I asked Miles if it was frustrating to see large parts of the community ignore the single-player, especially considering how much effort and polish go into them. “I mean that goes for all parts of the game,” said Miles “we try to be smart about where we spend our resources and match what players want, but to your point, breaking down those walls and the friction, all of that is to solve this issue to say to players that no matter what you are not going to lose time. That was us listening to the community with complaints about players saying things like if we don’t play multiplayer day one we will be too far behind. Well, not anymore, this is about us trying to get people in and try everything the game has to offer.”
For the last question, I had to know, considering Miles’ very long history with the COD franchise, which of the games was his favourite or most satisfying to release. I also clarified he couldn’t say Black Ops 7 because that would be cheating. “That is a hard question,” Miles laughed. “It has been 17 years after all, but I think there have been moments in my life during development that mean different things to me. Like World at War, that was a hectic game because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we got it done. Black Ops, we started to get our confidence and discover the Black Ops DNA in terms of a conspiracy, and you don’t know what is going to happen, and I think the pinnacle and the real answer to your question is Black Ops 2. It was where we really hit our moment, where we were like, we know what we are doing. We got a little swagger and confidence, and I think from Black Ops 2 on, you can see that.
Sadly, that was the end of my time with Miles, but it was clear to me that they are trying to address long-standing problems with such a venerable franchise at the same time as improving the game for everyone who has enjoyed COD over the years. Black Ops 7 is available today (depending on your timezone) on PC, Xbox Series and Playstation.
