There are a lot of rumors swirling around the next Call of Duty title. The question on everyone’s mind is: “What’s the name of the next Call of Duty game?” I’m going to start from the beginning just so you keep track on the state of Call of Duty. In August, there were rumors that the next Call of Duty title would be “Iron Wolf.” Followed by an image that shows an employee at Activision, is indeed playing Iron Wolf. [source] There’s just one problem with that, MW3 was months away from release. It could have been a QA disc of Modern Warfare 3. Let’s not forget Call of Duty XP was just going to take place a month later.
Okay, so how did we get here?
Ever since Black Ops was released, a lot of people already finished the game. The ending for Call of Duty: Black Ops pits Mason at helm of killing Nikita Dragovich. President Kennedy authorized the assassination of Nikita Dragovich. At the time, Soviet Union created an uprising during the presidency of Kennedy in the Black Ops story. By the time Mason gets his hands on Dragovich, and attempts to kill him, Mason’s last words to Dragovich was “And you tried to kill Kennedy.” Shortly thereafter, Dragovich responds “I tried to?” Once Mason ascends to the surface of the ocean, Mason makes his way to his comrades and one of the colonels says “It’s over.” But Mason says “for now…” Question is, what did he mean? Did this mean that Dragovich wasn’t the real enemy in Black Ops? Surely this is a cliffhanger ending.
That was 1961…
Yeap. On May 25th, 1961, President Kennedy proposed sending men to the moon. Going by the period in which Black Ops takes place. In Black Ops, zombies were a heavy, and I mean, a heavy theme. In fact, once you finished Black Ops and plowed through Mason’s appearance on the famous Kennedy video. You skipped the credits, lo’ and behold the game drops you in the White House where the Zombies invades it. As if the zombies inclusion in World at War wasn’t enough influence.
It wasn’t until Treyarch released a bunch of Black Ops DLC’s that they wanted to send you and the zombies to space. One of them sent you to the moon. Why am I bringing this up? Well, it was in 1969, when an Apollo mission was accomplished. By this time, Kennedy was assassinated already. A new president prevailed. Since the zombies [DLC] map takes place in the moon; What’s with Call of Duty: Eclipse? Well, as you know, eclipses happen when a planet is currently covering the sun, or vice versa. In many cases, the Moon is the one that’s covering the sun. In one of the DLC’s released for Black Ops called Shangri La, an eclipse happens.
That’s two strikes. This rumor about Call of Duty: Eclipse has been leaked to the internet. [source] And has cause a great amount of speculation as to which is the next name of the next Call of Duty title. Few days later, yet another leak points to the next Call of Duty title being on a day of a total eclipse on tuesday, November 13th. [source]
Sooo, what’s Call of Duty: Eclipse then?
If you haven’t been paying attention… The clues have been staring at you for quite some time now. Treyarch has been a huge fan of Zombies, it’s evident not just through World at War, and Black Ops. Treyarch has been releasing a lot of Zombies-based downloable content over the years. Call of Duty Elite was deployed last year, and there’s no doubt that Activision will want to capitalize on this.
I have a feeling based on when Black Ops takes place – John F Kennedy’s presidency, the deployment of astronauts to the moon. Black Ops 2 might take place during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. As you recall, before Black Ops was even revealed, there were rumors that Black Ops would take place in Vietnam. Johnson’s presidency features an escalation of the Vietnam War. How is that a coincidence? News Flash: It’s not. You see, the United States was still doing experiments with the Apollo program.
The last Apollo mission was Apollo 17, on 1972. I think that Call of Duty Eclipse’s 15 “Multi” spots are either multiplayer maps with a strong eclipse theme, like Shangri La was, or zombie maps with a heavy moon theme. Two things that weren’t explored fully in zombies so far: The Apollo missions – one thing that’s consistent in these missions were the speculation – rumors and speculation that there’s another life form than humans.
These “Multi” spots may also refer to 15 Elite Drops since, after all, the contract between Activision and Microsoft ends this year. [press release]
I would also like to point out that, one of the things talked about with regards to zombies on Black Ops or Modern Warfare 2/3 was universal among Call of Duty fans – the next type of species: The aliens. The other un-explored theme in zombies is Mars.
Either that, or Call of Duty: Eclipse replaces Call of Duty: Zombies in name.
That said, I’m sorry but the next Call of Duty title is Black Ops 2. [source] We’ll know more starting April 28th [source], May 1st or 2nd, and that’s not all, there’s an Activision investor call on May 9th. Next week is going to be a crazy week.
