i feel like this story would of landed so much better if it was a seperate title rather than a highly anticipated sequel to the black ops franchise, its a shame bo4 ditched the campaign entirely
Black ops 4 didn't just ditch the campaign it was more all their work went into Rebirth and Zombies leaving the campaign less than finished so they just didn't release one. i actually prefer this from them.
It’s not a “mind melter” it’s an AI that hacked into your brain, and cause the events because of its beliefs it got passed down by its creator and misinterpreted it all. In the game, you have brain augmentations. Which is connected to a network along with your other augmentations. It’s not super natural or some shit lol
Apparently, bo3 campaign was supposed to be an open world experience but due to time constraints and activision bullshit, Treyarch had to scrap the open world game for a linear story hence why everything in this game is so out of whack in terms of story telling. You were supposed to find the lore pieces yourself as you explored the open world but that never happened. There's a ton more info about the development of the game from other youtube sources as lots of people have already covered it.
Lucky this year's entry will be open world ish during the Gulf War n won't be like MW3 2023 rushed open world experience since they have 4 years to work with
@@Derivedwhale45 fuck this open world shit i hate it!!! i buy cod for story based campaign and Zombies. This DMZ Outbreak idea is just nonsense. i don't know about anyone else but without a structure of a mission i get side tracked and then just bored of the game. i hated outbreak and DMZ MW3 zombies is trash i want black op 1 n 2 style of horror within zombies and a dark gritty tale of the gulf war.... take me back to WaW sorry not BO1 n 2
Best Black Ops 3 explanation video I’ve ever seen on TH-cam. This is the most in-depth one. No one else has covered what happened after Black Ops 2 before Black Ops 3 which is very important to the storyline. Thanks for taking the time to make this. This is definitely one of my favorite campaigns because of how great the mystery of what is actually going on is.
Hey, I know you said that the treyarch zombies storyline you'll probably won't do because it's too complex, but we're about the storyline from different developers like sledgehammer or infinity ward. I personally would like to see you do world war II zombies is lore
By the time I actually sat down and played Black ops 3 the modern warfare reboot was out for a year. So I personally didn't know anything about it outside of everyone saying they hated it. I had got my hands on the first two Black ops games and enjoyed playing through the campaign so when I saw ops 3 on sale I snatched it up. I remember feeling like something was off as I played through the game. Especially once you started doing the Cairo missions. I remember thinking to myself "Wait a minute isn't the uprising supposed to be behind us already?" Then you throw in the small details like why would Hendrix go through the same procedure as you did? How come you never hear your character's name spoken? Even to the point where if you have captions on the identifier says player and nothing more well everyone else is dialogue has their name next to it. The things going on between you and Rachel. Then to top it all off you've got Corvus and the symbolism that entails. When I made it to the end of the campaign and you hear Taylor's name spoken I went from thinking "where is this going?" To an immediate "wtf?!"... I took a break from the campaign to enjoy the amazing zombie mode but I jumped right back into the campaign to start piecing it all together. Even before I started looking up videos about this campaign plot I had a feeling we were dealing with a Jacob's ladder situation here. Personally I love the creativity behind it. There was no hand holding with this story and I personally think it's a masterpiece even with all of its flaws. It's way more interesting and creative than any of the bombastic Michael Bay level wankfest that we've seen in the franchise past and present. Treyarch should be commended for the balls that it took to step forward and put something out like this. Honestly I would love to see what they could do outside of COD using this kind of writing in a different type of project.
The storywritters of this game probably saw the plot twist in Black Ops 1 and thought it would be amazing to have a whole campaign like that.. only problem is they forgot to reveal and explain about the twist in the story. I honestly like the idea about an AI virus manipulating the player's vision, confusing reality with simulation created by the virus.. plot like that has the potential to have multiple choices and endings but shame it was poorly executed and could've also just been a standalone game, rather than connected to Black Ops series.
The concept is really cool I agree. But they should've carried on the story of BO2. We all wanted to see what David Mason did after killing Menendez. I remember people theorising that Taylor was David Mason's son. We were desperate for some connection to the story and our favourite characters. But there was no connection there unfortunately
As I was already a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell before this, this game’s plot was fantastic. Just barely enough information hidden within tons and tons of world info, and a rogue AI that becomes a philosophy major. Chef’s kiss
@@cynicalmemester1694the basic plots of BO3 and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty are similar to the point of being ridiculous. With both of them having some shady projects resulting in malicious and homicidal AIs trying to genocide humanity
@BNP_-rb8ic There are similarities for sure but Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a TTRPG that came out in the late 80s, it was already exploring these themes before COD was even made.
Dude you've been killing it lately with these vids; appreciate you laying BO3's story out like this, no way in hell I would've been able to guess what specifically had happened. Got close though!
agree with this heavily. started speedrunning it and never turned back. story is very ridiculous tho imo but if you look past it I think the game is fun
The black ops 3 stroy is one of my favorite stories in the whole franchise. It's incredibly deep and complex with just a hint of tragic. The ideas it's built on and the themes throughout are fascinating and cathartic. Train go boom
there are like 5 different psychological horror sections and 2 different zombie sections. i think it makes the game very unique for a fps. also i loved how corvus interpretated the frozen forest as a literal place, or rather the ptsd of the soldiers turned it into a literal place within corvus
Finally someone who can put all the BO3 plot together and present it to the world. Ive loooooved the bo3 campaign ever since i first played it, and it is so frustrating for people to say its garbage just because they dont bother to stop and think about it.
I was really enjoying mw3 zombies for a few days until the server crashed way too frequently. I can forgive an occasional crash but this was multiple times per day for 5 days straight. Probably more but I quit after I found the scorcher schematic just to get dc'ed.
bo3 zombies is overrated pay to win garbage with far too much saturation and godrays, making it look like shit. There must have been a different visual guy for the campaign and the zombies because the campaigns color grading is so much better. And the sliding instead of dolphin diving sucked, the weapon selection sucked, they had all these classic weapons that never got put in as wall buys for some reason, and the way you hold guns looks like you have your arms coming out of the sides of your head or you're wearing a bodycam or something. And for some reason black ops 2 had more advanced tech in multiplayer with the mms and target finder than bo3? And the ""advanced movement"" is just shitty tacked on wallrunning and the thrusters which are basically useless with the amount of invisible walls on mp maps. And the over exaggerated sprinting head bob, and the audacity to lock fan-favorite multiplayer maps behind a bo4 pre order is insane. The overall game feel and the hot bowl of dogshit that is gobblegum, made me hate bo3 zombies.
@kokdolfn BO3 zombies had a great map selection and the weapons were great. I also have no idea what you're talking about, the way you hold guns in the game seems normal. You could also get gobble gums for free, you didn't need to pay for them. You could've just used liquid divinium, most of the useful gobblegums are unlocked pretty easily. Besides it's a PVE mode
Years after no one explains BO3 well organized like Gaming Harry yes the game is a Mind Bender but Harry did very well and very professional how to deal with BO3 props to you ❤
The BO3 Campaign is underrated(not top tier, but not as bad as it's made out to be). The story is actually really good, and the gameplay is fun. The main problem is that if you want the real story you have to dig deep into the Terminal, and read the comics. It being tied to the Black Ops name is also a major reason it's looked down on, because BO1 and BO2 are just that good. I imagine the original vision of the game had more real tie ins to the previous titles, but all that they could salvageable was the Menendez reference, and stuff in the Terminal.
This story should be turned into some kind of series for Netflix or Prime or any other media. The plot is too convoluted for a game but for a series it would be mind blowing. Jason Blundell should really look into that (He directed the campaign for BO3).
Yes!!!!!!!!!! I loved this campaign even when I couldn’t understand the story. It genuinely surprised me to find out people hated it. It should have been a standalone game. It would have worked way better and I think way more people would have enjoyed it.
I've always been a lore gremlin, i enjoyed the campaign immensely when i played it, and was confused why other people didn't. Rewatching this i get it now. It was a tad convoluted, certainly could've presented better.
First game i ever played on the ps4, played the campaign and didn't know wtf happened. I'm listening to this while doing deliveries and I still don't know wtf is happening. Good video tho, u did your best I'm subscribing.
I've finished your video. And, I do think about two theories of mine. 1) Player never died and John Taylor took over Player's DNI and controlling him. That's it. 2) Player died and Corvus created a simulated world within Taylor's memories by DNI. Taylor then erases Player and Corvus from his own body. P.S.: I do NOT think that Life mission based on your telling is NOT exactly what happened! "Hendricks is not there, Taylor just went there and promised to keep quiet after what he learnt about Krueger's tests etc." I say the first theory is TOTALLY right by me. Now you'd say all characters (Diaz, Maretti) are different than reality, and it's a lie. So... basically... Why shouldn't scrolling texts be just a lie for creating such plot twists?! Come on! If it was all lie, Kane'd say wtf Player: Controlling these robots are going to drive Hendricks insane just as Taylor. We have to stop him before he tears Zurich apart. Kane: You're TAYLOR already! Sorry but this video got me really confused. Or may be I'm just an idiot.
Thank you Harry for the video! I have never personally played CoD: Black Ops III, but I have watched several game movies and never understood what happened. This video actually clears it up!
after replaying the campaign couple of times and watching this video the story of bo3 is not that bad and to a degree in my perspective it makes sense, the game was giving us a warning how technology in future will become so advanced and AI which makes the future scary to think about, technology what we use and rely the most, in other words it gave us an opportunity to explore how further technology would take us before we become disconnected from reality. in huge relation to the movie ready player 1. bo3 story was confusing at first but is actually very interesting and it arguably the most interesting best premise. my only complaints are the confusing parts were not explained so i had to do research and ofc the characters are not that memorable compared to previous black ops games. i think bo3 campiagn is overlooked. definitely overhated
This game was a freaking fever dream and for some reason, at the age of 14, I understood more than Bioshock Infinite 😂! The campaign was messy and disjointed but I still enjoyed playing it. It put the fear in me that AI can become even more dangerous when mix with human emotions!
This is a much-needed video for everyone, great stuff. I've always found the worldbuilding of Black Ops 3 to be really well-done, but it just sucks that most of the intense lore can only be really found in the console at safehouses.
You did a great job and the video made sense. I am now more enticed to play the campaing more than ever before because its now so interesting to me. I think the player is Corvus and John Taylor is battleing for cotrol and suceedes. I think it would have been interesting to see two versions one good ending (the main ending we have now) and like a bad ending where Corvus takes over as Taylor loses control and leads to some kind of disaster.
There's a cool detail that, in the mind of the player, corvus represents life in a twisted way forever in the Frozen Forest simulation while Taylor represents acceptance of death. They're 2 sides of the same coin. That's why corvus' voice is an altered version of Taylors voice.
Train go boom...hang on a minute...Im, starting to wonder if underneath the meme of it, was meant to be a reinforced idea. The repetition of it, about how no matter your actions you undertake, it still leads to the same end result, the train blowing up, could be a metaphor for trying to find ways to defeat death itself. About trying to change the inevitable. Which, truthfully speaking, could end up being a pretty compelling case here. The "train" here is death, while the "boom" is inevitable. Train go boom, Death is Inevitable. This whole story, then, is a dying dream, about accepting the end. And being able to finally welcome it. The frozen forest, then, is what happens when someone cannot accept death. Its akin to purgatory. Frozen Forest, being lost in the time between life and death. Frozen, in time. Frozen, in time, lost, in a forest.
And it connects very well to when, at the end, the player decides to kill corvus and the DNI interface, basically accepting his death, and saving Taylor. AND MORE, all of the game puts Taylor as the evil that should be killed... Because we are inside his head trying to control him. WE ARE THE EVIL FORCE. Holy shit what a fucking game, give them a fucking OSCAR.
That one time CoD forgot its core buying demographic are manchildren, dude-bros, horny teenagers and tried to do an SP campaign plotline in the vein of "I AM ROBOT", "Meeting with Rama" and other phylosophical sci-fi books when one of the main themes is "What it means to be Human".
@@sillygoose4263 Well, I mean, for somebody who is a part of low intelligence and brainless rabble on top of suffering from Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, it would on surface level appear so.
this was my first ever cod game and being young not understand/caring about the story and just wanting the action i replayed this game about twenty times cuz of how amazing it was gameplaywise being able to control the drones and the mini tank things was so sick to young me and flying the jets in that one mission everything came together to make the perfect game for me and now understanding the story myself i can say that this game is far from bad infact its one of the best call of duties.
Thank you for taking your time to help me understand this story after replaying this twice. I seriously appreciate your effort and this game that was made!!
I know Henry isn't the only one that gotten a headache while trying to explain the "plot" of this story here like everyone else did after playing this game
I will continue to say that Black Ops 3 is what Advanced Warefare should've been The gameplay and story telling is FNAF levels of lore and backstory that was too much for the Black Ops franchise. BUT if they kept Black Ops grounded with no tech, gave Advanced Warefare this amount of story with the cyborgs and took out the exo suits, Advanced Warefare would've been had a sequel. Advanced Warefare would've had a large ass fan based for the amount of theories and predictions to come out of every installment just like Modern Warfare and Black Ops
This video is so good, but the game’s campaign was so ass 😭 during the other BO video, every single part of the plot, I was like, “Oh, I remember that!” But every part of the plot in this video, I’m like, “When tf did that happen?” The only thing I remember is, “Imagine yourself in a frozen forest.”
not ass, just confusing. Which is unusual for cod. That combined with the fact that it was barely connected to bo2 after bo2 being praised for being a direct sequel, and the poor pacing near the end of the game with trying to cram a whole lot of plot into 2 missions, made the campaign bad. The story itself is actually really interesting.
The story is still about a "Black Ops" team. Black Ops operation teams don't just consist out of a few characters. Clearly they wanted to move on from Mason and Woods. At the same time they were ambitious and wanted to present a Christopher Nolan type of story and move CoD into a different direction (doing the same thing over and over again is not a good thing) but it ended up biting them in the ass So now it's just back to "Good americans VS evil foreigners that have nukes" type of stuff, because the masses resonate alot better with simple stories like that.
I feel like the background conflict was a little better like this idea of the NRC and Egypt fighting over the Nile river and the background politics rather than the whole DNI and Corvus stuff over it. I don’t think the problem was the story itself I think it’s that it’s deliberately left out a lot of things and the real story is in the background or context found in a comic or fast moving text. Like when it’s all laid out it sounds like a great story it’s just the structure.
The data vault is in the game and you can read about all the topics he explains in this video. The comics I don't see them that much relevant. Their only use is to have a context of who are the people on the scrolling text. Also the scrolling text, except for some details, it explains exactly the things you are playing but without the corvus infection. so this campaign was meant to be played as a whole community and not a singleplayer experience as usual. That's why of the coop. I think treyarch wanted to make a story like zombies with this campaign with people discovering things
Brother thank you i’ve been trying to explain the story to so many others who rate this on a lower tier. Like I’ve said, in the beginning, this is and for a while, will be probably my favorite cod campaign. Blundell is truly a master storytelling architecture.
I had a feeling it was heavily complex but loved it because of that fact. I’m happy that you’ve managed to clear up the insanity. Plus, I’m genuinely curious to where did you get the soundtracks for this video, they sound incredibly fitting, but I don’t recall them from Black Ops III. One theme I picked up and wished it was talked about more is the concept of death and how it’s perceived. A shame that a majority of people missed it or don’t wish to talk about that sensitive subject.
Just goes to show that overcomplicating a story doesn't make it better, seriously what a mess. I respect you for going through this borefest and actually making an entertainment watch.
Much respect to you, Harry. You've definitely made this alot easier to understand. However, I will forever consider this story a dumpster of hot trash. Steaming, burning hot trash.
Call of duty campaigns have always been steaming burning piles of garbage but the one time the campaign doesn't decide to be generic American state department propaganda to try and recruit teenagers into the military and CIA, and actually tries to tell a compelling story that is more than just "good guy (who is white) vs bad guy (who is a Russian or a colored person), your ape brain lashes out.
I subscribe to the theory that the last mission is real, and The Player is unintentionally using Taylor's body as a flesh suit. Since Hedricks went through the cyber soldier surgery after the first mission, Corvis infected him and sent him to Zurich to find Krueger. When The Player enters the Frozen Forest after killing Hendricks, what remains of Taylor's consciousness essentially tricks The Player into purging himself and Corvis from Taylor's DNI, thus giving back Taylor control of his own body. Don't remember where I originally heard this theory, but I like it. It's like Cyberpunk 2077 with Johnny and V.
I just finished the campaign for the first time and I gotta say...HOLY SHIT!!! What a game! This video helped me the most in trying to understand this mindfuck of a game haha
In all honesty, i actually enjoy this campaign. I think (and this is my opinion so take it as you will) you might be able to enjoy it more if you consume other media like it. For example: Serial Experiments Lain, Ergo Proxy, Jacob’s Ladder and maybe Ghost in the Shell and Psycho Pass if you wanna feel frisky
Watching this video, I think BO3 has a better story than we remember, especially when the game did have more connection to the previous games than we thought. I think because of the absolute hellish development Treyarch was going through, and Activision's constant interference, the game's story was a mind-numbingly confusing mess. I believe it was a unique way to tell the story, and would have been better if Activision hadn't interfered and made a bunch changes. Thank you for telling BO3's story in a more straightforward way. I think it was just the right campaign and story at the wrong time.
I have the BO:3 "Ember" trailer saved in a playlist I use for videos with cyberpunk themes, it's 99% Akira and Serial Experiments Lain AMV's, but I keep it there as, effectively, a short film about where we could head.
Bo3 was a mind bending experience just like bo1, bo2, and cold war, If the og characters were in bo3 and the story was kept the same, the community would’ve had more interest in it
EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) and the IFS (Internal Family Systems) “Parts” therapy techniques are well-versed means of dissociating PTSD survivors from their trauma. EMDR was a late-80s invention, using hypnosis to “surrender the moment” (paraphrased) to a present-tense form-of absolution. The IFS tackles the PTSD through the identification of parts of self, stuck in a loop of triggered traumatic events that the therapy re-traces into a person’s life, to save the selves left-behind. I find it interesting to see a similarity (V.E.R.S.I.O.N.) in handling PTSD by way-of sci-fi programming.
Great video! I would have liked to see more explanation about the formation of the Nile River Coalition and why the NRC is at war with Egypt, which from my memory of the console is because Egypt dammed the Nile River, cutting off most of the water supply for NRC nations (like Ethiopia and Sudan). However I can see you did a ton of work to make this video, so well done.
The NRC was in contact with the CDP in order to become part of the CDP. Then, Hakim (the man you smash his head in lotus tower) gives his rare minerals in e chance of advanced weaponry. The NRC dammed the Nile River and put taxes to the water. Egyptians said that was not allowed by the international rules and declare the war against the NRC. But, Egyptians didn't know NRC were more prepared due to its pact with CDP and they Lost so much territory that the last stronghold it's the Cairo. All of this it's explained in the Data vault with more other things like Druon hackers which leaked NRC conversations with the CDP (which can be readen in the Data vault) are the successors of Cordis Die (if you decrypt the Morse code in the Data vault page)
You know what's funny.. As a fellow romanian who lives here, There's actually an economic crisis going on And the fact that in game by the year 2025 some countries in the EU had economic crises,INCLUDING ROMANIA Is an absolute mindfuck to me And this game came out almost 9 years ago.. Just wow
@@nerovergilous8276 main reason I didn't like it was that you died way too easily and the overuse of the spider mech bosses and the overuse of the robots and the overuse of turret sections and the extremely long tutorial that takes up 1/5 of the game. And the last mission wasn't very good honestly. Way too much happens way too quickly. The game could benefit from an extra mission or two.
To summarize the game you are basically dying and in your last moments as your brain is shutting down you basically imagine all of this. The only real thing to happen was the first mission, after you nearly get killed they try to save your life by turning you into a cyborg and as the operation is proceeding Taylor links you to his memories but you are dying and your brain us shutting down so it gradually becomes nonsensical. Throughout the game other characters will say stay with me and stuff along that line as if you are zoning out and you basically are because you are dying. So to sum up the story doesn't matter because it isn't real at least to you. What you see are basically snippets of missions that Taylor went on and you aren't given full context so your brain makes up stuff. Not going to lie i was kinda piss at black ops 3 because it was nonsensical but after a 3rd playthrough it clicked at the very end. Yes its convoluted when you untangle Taylor's story from what you play in game because that's the actual black ops stuff, that stuff ties to the other black ops games otherwise you can basically conclude that the campaign is pointless
I used to play BO3 all the time with my brother and finally beat it like two years ago with a friend. I loved playing the campaign. The story though was definitely handle wrong. Making a separate game entirely and doing more to add less confusion to the story would have been better though. It definitely would have gotten less hate that way.
That ending reminds me of the Callisto protocols dlc ending, where things happened in the story but to us the player looking at it from afar nothing we did really mattered as our fate was already sealed. The twist works better when there is a bit more of a fleshed out epilogue, I think.
![The Story of Call of Duty: Black Ops [1945 - 2025]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5YweaEfNwMI/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Story of Call of Duty: Black Ops [1945 - 2025]](/img/tr.png)
If only took 9 years for someone to truly explain the bo3 campaign the right way
why
M3rkmus1c should watch this video
yoooooo@@Aristocrat1cs forgot about him
train go boom@@Aristocrat1cs
@@Aristocrat1cs he won't understand shit from this video
To think this story was made by a CoD zombies dev. No wonder why it was so crazy.
Explains a lot 😂
Jason Blundell was on something when he made this story
@@Anxmaly666 He was on something when he made the Zombies story too
@@Krexelbros on that Aether joint when making the Zombies storyline
Blundell was a campaign dev well before he got into the zombies stuff.
i feel like this story would of landed so much better if it was a seperate title rather than a highly anticipated sequel to the black ops franchise, its a shame bo4 ditched the campaign entirely
Definitely. Its wild to think Treyarch could actually tell a complex, mature story like this. But it was definitely put in the wrong title
@AlexMason.1933 fake link. Nobody touch it
Black ops 4 didn't just ditch the campaign it was more all their work went into Rebirth and Zombies leaving the campaign less than finished so they just didn't release one. i actually prefer this from them.
@@acidrage5206 they ditched it for blackout actually, which ironically, was really fucking poorly made
Reply 5
I forgot just how much of a mind-melter this game was, trying to figure out what actually happened. Thank you Harry for your hard work and effort!
It’s not a “mind melter” it’s an AI that hacked into your brain, and cause the events because of its beliefs it got passed down by its creator and misinterpreted it all. In the game, you have brain augmentations. Which is connected to a network along with your other augmentations. It’s not super natural or some shit lol
Apparently, bo3 campaign was supposed to be an open world experience but due to time constraints and activision bullshit, Treyarch had to scrap the open world game for a linear story hence why everything in this game is so out of whack in terms of story telling. You were supposed to find the lore pieces yourself as you explored the open world but that never happened. There's a ton more info about the development of the game from other youtube sources as lots of people have already covered it.
Lucky this year's entry will be open world ish during the Gulf War n won't be like MW3 2023 rushed open world experience since they have 4 years to work with
@@Derivedwhale45 I wouldn't get my hopes up m8
@@Derivedwhale45 fuck this open world shit i hate it!!! i buy cod for story based campaign and Zombies. This DMZ Outbreak idea is just nonsense.
i don't know about anyone else but without a structure of a mission i get side tracked and then just bored of the game.
i hated outbreak and DMZ MW3 zombies is trash
i want black op 1 n 2 style of horror within zombies and a dark gritty tale of the gulf war.... take me back to WaW sorry not BO1 n 2
That sounds AWESOME.
@@acidrage5206the thing is, open world doesn't equal to bad bro.
You only think it is equal because it has been poorly made over and over again.
None of this speaks on the most important piece of BO3 Lore:
How FUCKING USELESS Hendricks is as an AI companion.
I disagree; im playing realistic mode rn and he is carrying a lot of the weight for me
it depends what difficulty you’re on. if you’re playing on the higher difficulties he carries a lot of the baggage.
@@thedilfofwallstreet5385 i dont see how that invalidates what I just said. He is great for taking on his share of the baggage
@@MorningstarESQ he wasn't responding to you
fr, he carried out my first realistic run
Thank you Harry, the story of this game lived rent-free in my head since i played BO3.
Best Black Ops 3 explanation video I’ve ever seen on TH-cam. This is the most in-depth one. No one else has covered what happened after Black Ops 2 before Black Ops 3 which is very important to the storyline. Thanks for taking the time to make this. This is definitely one of my favorite campaigns because of how great the mystery of what is actually going on is.
people deffo have cause i've seen them all
DXFromYTs Chasing Rabbits video has the best explanation
Hey, I know you said that the treyarch zombies storyline you'll probably won't do because it's too complex, but we're about the storyline from different developers like sledgehammer or infinity ward. I personally would like to see you do world war II zombies is lore
Yeah some infinite warfare content would be awesome too
IW and WW2 Zombies are so underrated
Especially world war II. I thought its story and atmosphere was so good
Taylor: "Conclusion?
Train goes boom".
My conclusion?:
"I go boom".
Brain go boom
Outcome? Train go boom 🙂
*Brain Go Boom*
By the time I actually sat down and played Black ops 3 the modern warfare reboot was out for a year. So I personally didn't know anything about it outside of everyone saying they hated it. I had got my hands on the first two Black ops games and enjoyed playing through the campaign so when I saw ops 3 on sale I snatched it up. I remember feeling like something was off as I played through the game. Especially once you started doing the Cairo missions. I remember thinking to myself "Wait a minute isn't the uprising supposed to be behind us already?" Then you throw in the small details like why would Hendrix go through the same procedure as you did? How come you never hear your character's name spoken? Even to the point where if you have captions on the identifier says player and nothing more well everyone else is dialogue has their name next to it. The things going on between you and Rachel. Then to top it all off you've got Corvus and the symbolism that entails. When I made it to the end of the campaign and you hear Taylor's name spoken I went from thinking "where is this going?" To an immediate "wtf?!"... I took a break from the campaign to enjoy the amazing zombie mode but I jumped right back into the campaign to start piecing it all together. Even before I started looking up videos about this campaign plot I had a feeling we were dealing with a Jacob's ladder situation here. Personally I love the creativity behind it. There was no hand holding with this story and I personally think it's a masterpiece even with all of its flaws. It's way more interesting and creative than any of the bombastic Michael Bay level wankfest that we've seen in the franchise past and present. Treyarch should be commended for the balls that it took to step forward and put something out like this. Honestly I would love to see what they could do outside of COD using this kind of writing in a different type of project.
This is the kind of story you split up across 3 games…💀
The storywritters of this game probably saw the plot twist in Black Ops 1 and thought it would be amazing to have a whole campaign like that.. only problem is they forgot to reveal and explain about the twist in the story.
I honestly like the idea about an AI virus manipulating the player's vision, confusing reality with simulation created by the virus.. plot like that has the potential to have multiple choices and endings but shame it was poorly executed and could've also just been a standalone game, rather than connected to Black Ops series.
The concept is really cool I agree.
But they should've carried on the story of BO2.
We all wanted to see what David Mason did after killing Menendez.
I remember people theorising that Taylor was David Mason's son. We were desperate for some connection to the story and our favourite characters. But there was no connection there unfortunately
As a massive convoluted lore junkie like myself, this has given me a newfound appreciation for the story of BO3's campaign. Great video!
As I was already a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell before this, this game’s plot was fantastic. Just barely enough information hidden within tons and tons of world info, and a rogue AI that becomes a philosophy major. Chef’s kiss
Black Ops 3's campaign has elements of the quintessential Cyberpunk storyline.
@@cynicalmemester1694the basic plots of BO3 and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty are similar to the point of being ridiculous.
With both of them having some shady projects resulting in malicious and homicidal AIs trying to genocide humanity
@BNP_-rb8ic There are similarities for sure but Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a TTRPG that came out in the late 80s, it was already exploring these themes before COD was even made.
Dude you've been killing it lately with these vids; appreciate you laying BO3's story out like this, no way in hell I would've been able to guess what specifically had happened. Got close though!
The gameplay of bo3’s campaign had me replaying it constantly. It’s very good. Story is so weird but man it’s a blast to play through.
every mission is a different trip, my fav is the VTOL one
Yes I loved it but had no idea what was going on. Like couldn’t they have done more to make it a little less confusing.
agree with this heavily. started speedrunning it and never turned back. story is very ridiculous tho imo but if you look past it I think the game is fun
The black ops 3 stroy is one of my favorite stories in the whole franchise. It's incredibly deep and complex with just a hint of tragic. The ideas it's built on and the themes throughout are fascinating and cathartic.
Train go boom
there are like 5 different psychological horror sections and 2 different zombie sections. i think it makes the game very unique for a fps. also i loved how corvus interpretated the frozen forest as a literal place, or rather the ptsd of the soldiers turned it into a literal place within corvus
@@abbcc5996 I thought it was interesting until the end, where it kinda fell flat and spent WAY too little time developing brand new concepts
Finally someone who can put all the BO3 plot together and present it to the world. Ive loooooved the bo3 campaign ever since i first played it, and it is so frustrating for people to say its garbage just because they dont bother to stop and think about it.
23:57 hilarious that they have a tool specifically designed to cut off hands
Nnn, it's a tool designed to cut door locks (we use it in first mission to rescue Egypt president) player multipurpose d it to cut a hand.
They for my opps
@@ThePurgeMan the only opps you got are vegetables and school🤦🏽♂️
Some shit inspector gadget would pull out of thin air for a plot point
ah sweet, black ops three video
Black Ops 3 will always have a special place for me because it had one of, if not the best zombies seasons COD has ever delivered.
I was really enjoying mw3 zombies for a few days until the server crashed way too frequently. I can forgive an occasional crash but this was multiple times per day for 5 days straight. Probably more but I quit after I found the scorcher schematic just to get dc'ed.
bo3 zombies is overrated pay to win garbage with far too much saturation and godrays, making it look like shit. There must have been a different visual guy for the campaign and the zombies because the campaigns color grading is so much better. And the sliding instead of dolphin diving sucked, the weapon selection sucked, they had all these classic weapons that never got put in as wall buys for some reason, and the way you hold guns looks like you have your arms coming out of the sides of your head or you're wearing a bodycam or something. And for some reason black ops 2 had more advanced tech in multiplayer with the mms and target finder than bo3? And the ""advanced movement"" is just shitty tacked on wallrunning and the thrusters which are basically useless with the amount of invisible walls on mp maps. And the over exaggerated sprinting head bob, and the audacity to lock fan-favorite multiplayer maps behind a bo4 pre order is insane. The overall game feel and the hot bowl of dogshit that is gobblegum, made me hate bo3 zombies.
@kokdolfn BO3 zombies had a great map selection and the weapons were great. I also have no idea what you're talking about, the way you hold guns in the game seems normal.
You could also get gobble gums for free, you didn't need to pay for them. You could've just used liquid divinium, most of the useful gobblegums are unlocked pretty easily. Besides it's a PVE mode
@@kokdolfn I ain’t reading allat. Black ops III zombies was goated🗿.
Perfect, I just started with my popcorn, right on
I see I’m not the only one who dove into the computer memos and see things that now scarily look like reality
Years after no one explains BO3 well organized like Gaming Harry yes the game is a Mind Bender but Harry did very well and very professional how to deal with BO3 props to you ❤
The BO3 Campaign is underrated(not top tier, but not as bad as it's made out to be).
The story is actually really good, and the gameplay is fun.
The main problem is that if you want the real story you have to dig deep into the Terminal, and read the comics.
It being tied to the Black Ops name is also a major reason it's looked down on, because BO1 and BO2 are just that good.
I imagine the original vision of the game had more real tie ins to the previous titles, but all that they could salvageable was the Menendez reference, and stuff in the Terminal.
This story should be turned into some kind of series for Netflix or Prime or any other media. The plot is too convoluted for a game but for a series it would be mind blowing. Jason Blundell should really look into that (He directed the campaign for BO3).
Yes!!!!!!!!!! I loved this campaign even when I couldn’t understand the story. It genuinely surprised me to find out people hated it. It should have been a standalone game. It would have worked way better and I think way more people would have enjoyed it.
I have to say, this channel is probably one of the best in terms of explaining the stories of Video Games!
Thanks Harry!
I've always been a lore gremlin, i enjoyed the campaign immensely when i played it, and was confused why other people didn't. Rewatching this i get it now. It was a tad convoluted, certainly could've presented better.
First game i ever played on the ps4, played the campaign and didn't know wtf happened. I'm listening to this while doing deliveries and I still don't know wtf is happening. Good video tho, u did your best I'm subscribing.
LETS GOOOOO
Been waiting this one since the Black Ops video dropped
Such fantastic videos and content. Awesome work Gaming Harry 👍🎉
Excellent narrative so far! Cannot wait for explaining of Black Ops 4 story!
I've finished your video. And, I do think about two theories of mine.
1) Player never died and John Taylor took over Player's DNI and controlling him. That's it.
2) Player died and Corvus created a simulated world within Taylor's memories by DNI. Taylor then erases Player and Corvus from his own body.
P.S.: I do NOT think that Life mission based on your telling is NOT exactly what happened! "Hendricks is not there, Taylor just went there and promised to keep quiet after what he learnt about Krueger's tests etc."
I say the first theory is TOTALLY right by me. Now you'd say all characters (Diaz, Maretti) are different than reality, and it's a lie. So... basically... Why shouldn't scrolling texts be just a lie for creating such plot twists?!
Come on! If it was all lie, Kane'd say wtf
Player: Controlling these robots are going to drive Hendricks insane just as Taylor. We have to stop him before he tears Zurich apart.
Kane: You're TAYLOR already!
Sorry but this video got me really confused. Or may be I'm just an idiot.
Thank you Harry for the video! I have never personally played CoD: Black Ops III, but I have watched several game movies and never understood what happened. This video actually clears it up!
after replaying the campaign couple of times and watching this video the story of bo3 is not that bad and to a degree in my perspective it makes sense, the game was giving us a warning how technology in future will become so advanced and AI which makes the future scary to think about, technology what we use and rely the most, in other words it gave us an opportunity to explore how further technology would take us before we become disconnected from reality. in huge relation to the movie ready player 1. bo3 story was confusing at first but is actually very interesting and it arguably the most interesting best premise. my only complaints are the confusing parts were not explained so i had to do research and ofc the characters are not that memorable compared to previous black ops games. i think bo3 campiagn is overlooked. definitely overhated
One thing this game didn’t get enough credit for is the amount of content they gave us and it all worked offline
Yooooo, thanks for the hard work man!!
I have been hoping someone would cover this story with the respect it deserves since it dropped, and FINALLY someone has. Thank you, holy shit.
I would like to see a similar video like this on the Nightmares Mode of the game. Like the videos keep up the awesome work!
Been watching bunch of your videos recently, these r top tier, thanks man.
I love black ops and have the numbers tatted on my chest, funny ice breaker when someone asks what do the numbers mean
This game was a freaking fever dream and for some reason, at the age of 14, I understood more than Bioshock Infinite 😂! The campaign was messy and disjointed but I still enjoyed playing it. It put the fear in me that AI can become even more dangerous when mix with human emotions!
Damn bo3 is probably the darkest cod campaign out there
EDIT: over waw, which is my fav campaign 15 years later
This is a much-needed video for everyone, great stuff. I've always found the worldbuilding of Black Ops 3 to be really well-done, but it just sucks that most of the intense lore can only be really found in the console at safehouses.
Great work Gaming Harry ❤😊
Thank you I really enjoyed this story explained! It was confusing but it was so good now I like this story!
Insert “old guy raising his hands saying cinema”meme is this shit is wild that’s why I love call of duty Black Ops three
When you use the Girls Frontline mod, everything suddenly makes more sense. It's not a black ops story, it's an anime story.
Cringe-mod
Shit like this is why I love the smallest detail in the Black Ops series, everybody's name is red, you don't know who you can trust, even yourself.
You did a great job and the video made sense. I am now more enticed to play the campaing more than ever before because its now so interesting to me. I think the player is Corvus and John Taylor is battleing for cotrol and suceedes. I think it would have been interesting to see two versions one good ending (the main ending we have now) and like a bad ending where Corvus takes over as Taylor loses control and leads to some kind of disaster.
There's a cool detail that, in the mind of the player, corvus represents life in a twisted way forever in the Frozen Forest simulation while Taylor represents acceptance of death. They're 2 sides of the same coin. That's why corvus' voice is an altered version of Taylors voice.
Train go boom...hang on a minute...Im, starting to wonder if underneath the meme of it, was meant to be a reinforced idea.
The repetition of it, about how no matter your actions you undertake, it still leads to the same end result, the train blowing up, could be a metaphor for trying to find ways to defeat death itself. About trying to change the inevitable. Which, truthfully speaking, could end up being a pretty compelling case here.
The "train" here is death, while the "boom" is inevitable. Train go boom, Death is Inevitable.
This whole story, then, is a dying dream, about accepting the end. And being able to finally welcome it. The frozen forest, then, is what happens when someone cannot accept death. Its akin to purgatory. Frozen Forest, being lost in the time between life and death. Frozen, in time. Frozen, in time, lost, in a forest.
No.
I like the way you think...
And it connects very well to when, at the end, the player decides to kill corvus and the DNI interface, basically accepting his death, and saving Taylor.
AND MORE, all of the game puts Taylor as the evil that should be killed... Because we are inside his head trying to control him.
WE ARE THE EVIL FORCE. Holy shit what a fucking game, give them a fucking OSCAR.
@@Malam_NightYoruThere was infinitely more care and thought put into BO3's storyline than in any of the COD games that came before and after it.
My brain
Is melting
As someone who skiped over BO3 due various reasons (not really because I wanted) this is hell'a lot to take and digest
Dude I like BO3 and it even confuses me
Wow nice explained videos on black ops storyline ! :)
That one time CoD forgot its core buying demographic are manchildren, dude-bros, horny teenagers and tried to do an SP campaign plotline in the vein of "I AM ROBOT", "Meeting with Rama" and other phylosophical sci-fi books when one of the main themes is "What it means to be Human".
That one time cod tried making the goofiest most borning ass campaign that was just pure garbage
@@sillygoose4263 Well, I mean, for somebody who is a part of low intelligence and brainless rabble on top of suffering from Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, it would on surface level appear so.
"I am robot" 😂👏fucking brilliant 🤣
@@rhysoneill7399 Well, I would not count on FPS playing low IQ dude-bro to understand that.
@@sillygoose4263You mean Vanguard and MWII/III?
story was way too confusing for me. Needed this 🙏
I’ve say it once and it never gets old for me
Outcome? Train Go Boom.
this was my first ever cod game and being young not understand/caring about the story and just wanting the action i replayed this game about twenty times cuz of how amazing it was gameplaywise being able to control the drones and the mini tank things was so sick to young me and flying the jets in that one mission everything came together to make the perfect game for me and now understanding the story myself i can say that this game is far from bad infact its one of the best call of duties.
Thank you for taking your time to help me understand this story after replaying this twice. I seriously appreciate your effort and this game that was made!!
I still remember when the player scream the line of frozen forest, the fear and desperate in their voice are something I never seen in COD series
God my head is spinning just from finishing this video
I know Henry isn't the only one that gotten a headache while trying to explain the "plot" of this story here like everyone else did after playing this game
I love this campaign thanks for the detailed video ❤
I will continue to say that Black Ops 3 is what Advanced Warefare should've been
The gameplay and story telling is FNAF levels of lore and backstory that was too much for the Black Ops franchise.
BUT if they kept Black Ops grounded with no tech, gave Advanced Warefare this amount of story with the cyborgs and took out the exo suits, Advanced Warefare would've been had a sequel.
Advanced Warefare would've had a large ass fan based for the amount of theories and predictions to come out of every installment just like Modern Warfare and Black Ops
This video is so good, but the game’s campaign was so ass 😭 during the other BO video, every single part of the plot, I was like, “Oh, I remember that!” But every part of the plot in this video, I’m like, “When tf did that happen?” The only thing I remember is, “Imagine yourself in a frozen forest.”
you don't remember Train Go Boom! ?😅
not ass, just confusing. Which is unusual for cod. That combined with the fact that it was barely connected to bo2 after bo2 being praised for being a direct sequel, and the poor pacing near the end of the game with trying to cram a whole lot of plot into 2 missions, made the campaign bad. The story itself is actually really interesting.
The story is still about a "Black Ops" team. Black Ops operation teams don't just consist out of a few characters.
Clearly they wanted to move on from Mason and Woods.
At the same time they were ambitious and wanted to present a Christopher Nolan type of story and move CoD into a different direction (doing the same thing over and over again is not a good thing) but it ended up biting them in the ass
So now it's just back to "Good americans VS evil foreigners that have nukes" type of stuff, because the masses resonate alot better with simple stories like that.
6:24 this is the reason the campaign is crazy,your seeing the middle points of stuff connecting=/rewriting itself.
Thank you, Harry. The BO3 story was always so confusing to me.
mind bending? my minds more bent than my touchy feely uncle
I feel like the background conflict was a little better like this idea of the NRC and Egypt fighting over the Nile river and the background politics rather than the whole DNI and Corvus stuff over it. I don’t think the problem was the story itself I think it’s that it’s deliberately left out a lot of things and the real story is in the background or context found in a comic or fast moving text.
Like when it’s all laid out it sounds like a great story it’s just the structure.
The data vault is in the game and you can read about all the topics he explains in this video. The comics I don't see them that much relevant. Their only use is to have a context of who are the people on the scrolling text. Also the scrolling text, except for some details, it explains exactly the things you are playing but without the corvus infection. so this campaign was meant to be played as a whole community and not a singleplayer experience as usual. That's why of the coop. I think treyarch wanted to make a story like zombies with this campaign with people discovering things
Brother thank you i’ve been trying to explain the story to so many others who rate this on a lower tier. Like I’ve said, in the beginning, this is and for a while, will be probably my favorite cod campaign. Blundell is truly a master storytelling architecture.
I had a feeling it was heavily complex but loved it because of that fact. I’m happy that you’ve managed to clear up the insanity.
Plus, I’m genuinely curious to where did you get the soundtracks for this video, they sound incredibly fitting, but I don’t recall them from Black Ops III. One theme I picked up and wished it was talked about more is the concept of death and how it’s perceived. A shame that a majority of people missed it or don’t wish to talk about that sensitive subject.
Just goes to show that overcomplicating a story doesn't make it better, seriously what a mess. I respect you for going through this borefest and actually making an entertainment watch.
Terrible opinion
😂 funniest shit I've seen today
I'd say complicating the story in this regard delivered.
Yeah, I never understood the story. For over a decade I never understood it. This uh, still leaves my brain scrambled. But there's structure to it!
He promised the content and he delivered, couldn't have done it any better. Love your lore videos so much Harry.
Much respect to you, Harry. You've definitely made this alot easier to understand. However, I will forever consider this story a dumpster of hot trash. Steaming, burning hot trash.
You wrong
Call of duty campaigns have always been steaming burning piles of garbage but the one time the campaign doesn't decide to be generic American state department propaganda to try and recruit teenagers into the military and CIA, and actually tries to tell a compelling story that is more than just "good guy (who is white) vs bad guy (who is a Russian or a colored person), your ape brain lashes out.
I subscribe to the theory that the last mission is real, and The Player is unintentionally using Taylor's body as a flesh suit. Since Hedricks went through the cyber soldier surgery after the first mission, Corvis infected him and sent him to Zurich to find Krueger. When The Player enters the Frozen Forest after killing Hendricks, what remains of Taylor's consciousness essentially tricks The Player into purging himself and Corvis from Taylor's DNI, thus giving back Taylor control of his own body. Don't remember where I originally heard this theory, but I like it. It's like Cyberpunk 2077 with Johnny and V.
Maybe you seeing that in reddit?
This campaign snapped my brain honestly.
It was the first CoD campaign I quit and refused to play.
“Train go boom.”
I just finished the campaign for the first time and I gotta say...HOLY SHIT!!! What a game! This video helped me the most in trying to understand this mindfuck of a game haha
amazing I finally understand what the hell happened in the campaign thank you 👍very well done video
God I love your vids.
In all honesty, i actually enjoy this campaign. I think (and this is my opinion so take it as you will) you might be able to enjoy it more if you consume other media like it. For example: Serial Experiments Lain, Ergo Proxy, Jacob’s Ladder and maybe Ghost in the Shell and Psycho Pass if you wanna feel frisky
Imagine making a movie on this story.
Watching this video, I think BO3 has a better story than we remember, especially when the game did have more connection to the previous games than we thought. I think because of the absolute hellish development Treyarch was going through, and Activision's constant interference, the game's story was a mind-numbingly confusing mess. I believe it was a unique way to tell the story, and would have been better if Activision hadn't interfered and made a bunch changes. Thank you for telling BO3's story in a more straightforward way. I think it was just the right campaign and story at the wrong time.
I honestly hope they make a direct sequel someday
I have the BO:3 "Ember" trailer saved in a playlist I use for videos with cyberpunk themes, it's 99% Akira and Serial Experiments Lain AMV's, but I keep it there as, effectively, a short film about where we could head.
Holy crap all of this was lost on me when I played it. What a convoluted beautiful mess of a story, I love it!
Bo3 was a mind bending experience just like bo1, bo2, and cold war, If the og characters were in bo3 and the story was kept the same, the community would’ve had more interest in it
until now i found it funny that the nightmares campaign made more sense
that still holds true
EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) and the IFS (Internal Family Systems) “Parts” therapy techniques are well-versed means of dissociating PTSD survivors from their trauma. EMDR was a late-80s invention, using hypnosis to “surrender the moment” (paraphrased) to a present-tense form-of absolution. The IFS tackles the PTSD through the identification of parts of self, stuck in a loop of triggered traumatic events that the therapy re-traces into a person’s life, to save the selves left-behind. I find it interesting to see a similarity (V.E.R.S.I.O.N.) in handling PTSD by way-of sci-fi programming.
It's crazy hearing you say Khalil with your accent, Great job! 💯
Great video! I would have liked to see more explanation about the formation of the Nile River Coalition and why the NRC is at war with Egypt, which from my memory of the console is because Egypt dammed the Nile River, cutting off most of the water supply for NRC nations (like Ethiopia and Sudan). However I can see you did a ton of work to make this video, so well done.
The NRC was in contact with the CDP in order to become part of the CDP. Then, Hakim (the man you smash his head in lotus tower) gives his rare minerals in e chance of advanced weaponry. The NRC dammed the Nile River and put taxes to the water. Egyptians said that was not allowed by the international rules and declare the war against the NRC. But, Egyptians didn't know NRC were more prepared due to its pact with CDP and they Lost so much territory that the last stronghold it's the Cairo. All of this it's explained in the Data vault with more other things like Druon hackers which leaked NRC conversations with the CDP (which can be readen in the Data vault) are the successors of Cordis Die (if you decrypt the Morse code in the Data vault page)
I still don’t get it, so these missions are just Taylor’s memories reimagined with the different characters so we’re playing as Taylor the whole time?
Great video!!!
You know what's funny..
As a fellow romanian who lives here,
There's actually an economic crisis going on
And the fact that in game by the year 2025 some countries in the EU had economic crises,INCLUDING ROMANIA
Is an absolute mindfuck to me
And this game came out almost 9 years ago..
Just wow
Exactly also check out 2:20 text (starts from 1:30), holy shit. Its almost like they knew what was gonna happen in 2021👀👀
Wonder if you'll ever attempt the zombies story
Unpopular opinion, i liked the BO3 campaign
Same it's really good
It's problem is how difficult it is to understand. Like the campaign becomes really good when you watch a video explaining the story
@@nerovergilous8276 main reason I didn't like it was that you died way too easily and the overuse of the spider mech bosses and the overuse of the robots and the overuse of turret sections and the extremely long tutorial that takes up 1/5 of the game. And the last mission wasn't very good honestly. Way too much happens way too quickly. The game could benefit from an extra mission or two.
This is one of the few campaigns i didn't finish just because of how mind melting and confusing it is.
To summarize the game you are basically dying and in your last moments as your brain is shutting down you basically imagine all of this. The only real thing to happen was the first mission, after you nearly get killed they try to save your life by turning you into a cyborg and as the operation is proceeding Taylor links you to his memories but you are dying and your brain us shutting down so it gradually becomes nonsensical. Throughout the game other characters will say stay with me and stuff along that line as if you are zoning out and you basically are because you are dying.
So to sum up the story doesn't matter because it isn't real at least to you. What you see are basically snippets of missions that Taylor went on and you aren't given full context so your brain makes up stuff.
Not going to lie i was kinda piss at black ops 3 because it was nonsensical but after a 3rd playthrough it clicked at the very end. Yes its convoluted when you untangle Taylor's story from what you play in game because that's the actual black ops stuff, that stuff ties to the other black ops games otherwise you can basically conclude that the campaign is pointless
I would love to see how you decipher the call of duty zombies lore
I used to play BO3 all the time with my brother and finally beat it like two years ago with a friend. I loved playing the campaign. The story though was definitely handle wrong. Making a separate game entirely and doing more to add less confusion to the story would have been better though. It definitely would have gotten less hate that way.
That ending reminds me of the Callisto protocols dlc ending, where things happened in the story but to us the player looking at it from afar nothing we did really mattered as our fate was already sealed. The twist works better when there is a bit more of a fleshed out epilogue, I think.
Harry has done what most people who played this game, simply cannot. He understood the story.