It's Like I Never Made a Sound (Call of Duty: Black Ops 3)

(Originally written on the 28th of January, 2023)

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3

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Imagine somewhere calm. Imagine somewhere safe. Imagine yourself in a frozen forest.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops trilogy following World At War does well to convey the very "black operations" that its title refers to. These secret missions are undergone with all connected threads being severed should anything go wrong. The last words we hear in the opening of Black Ops 3 before the seeing the perspective of player character reflect this:

If this goes wrong, we never existed.

Hendrick's words shine a light on the unfortunate truth of black operations: these people are not valued as individuals. Their dreams, aspirations, and morals are lost to time with no one alive to remember them. It is an existential horror, the effects of which have never been directly explored by the franchise before this instalment. The first mission of the game is titled "Black Ops," telling the player that the events about the transpire are representative of the very reality of black operations.

Following a brief skirmish, Hendrick's squad, including the player character, make their way to their objective without once being noticed by any of the soldiers that run around them. They are invisible despite being in plain sight. Once they reach the security room and check the monitors, they see captives aside from the minister they have been sent to extract. Both Hendricks and the player character voice their concern but Taylor shuts them down. When the player character asks Hendricks if they are to leave the rest of the prisoners to be tortured, Hendricks merely responds with the fact that they have their orders. The orders of black operations and the wellbeing and dignity of the individual are mutually exclusive, some animals are simply more equal than others. Only few people truly matter in their eyes. One such nobody who does not matter is the player character themselves; despite being voiced, they remain nameless throughout, referred to in the subtitles as "Player."

Player's irrelevance is met by the idolisation of Taylor. We are first introduced to him as he saves Player and Hendricks from NRC soldiers as the elevator rises to meet him. We are literally looking up at him, admiring him, before standing to the side whilst he and Hendricks catch up. Taylor has history that he and Hendricks remember. He has lived. He has mattered. It is entirely antithetical to the very nature of “black operations.” Even his design reflects this with him wearing the bandanna of his ex-girlfriend Rachel Kane. The rest of the mission is filled with banter between Hendricks and Taylor's squad, banter that Player does not engage in. This is not the case of a silent protagonist as it has already been established that Player talks during gameplay, this conveys the alienation that Player feels being surrounded by these people who have lived in ways that they have not.

Player is not the only soldier in the mission that remains silent during these conversations, the other three have no lines and all share the name tag "Alpha." It's a generic callsign associated with military operations as if they do not exist out of their missions while Hendricks and Taylor's squad all have real names as their tags. This comparison between between Player and the Alpha soldiers is made all the more apparent when the four of them man the gunner seats of an APC with Hendricks in the driver's seat. Just as the other prisoners were to be ignored in favour of the minister, the nameless are always secondary to the named in black operations.

Hendrick's final words to Player that signalled the beginning of the black operation ultimately foreshadowed Player's fate. The mission did indeed go horribly wrong and Player was left for dead. In-line with the procedures of black operations, Player would be wiped from existence. And yet, Taylor saved them, the person whom Player admired for being recognised had finally recognised them. Taylor recognised Player as an individual who existed.

This all takes place in the first mission and it sets up the entire thematic and internal conflict that Player must overcome. In the next mission, Player undergoes surgery to be outfitted with DNI enhancements. These offer more to Player than mere physical and technological enhancements, they allow them to prove their existence, interacting with not only the environment but with Taylor. When Taylor tells Player that the two of them are "connected," it is proof that Player is not only recognised by someone, but truly matters. To further convey how the DNI connects to Player's self-identity, Taylor helps introduce the new DNI abilities to Player using a simulated recreation of the very terrorist attack in 2054 that ultimately resulted in the creation of DNI. The Player is falsely experiencing something that left an impact, a legacy. It is also through learning to control the DNI that Player interacts with and makes friendly banter with Taylor's squad: the very people that he could not talk to in the opening mission.

Player's attachment to and admiration of Taylor comes to a head when the DNI makes Player relive Taylor's memories. Player superimposes themself onto Taylor with him becoming Dylan Stone: the traitor who Taylor was originally hunting down. The player is jealous of Taylor's life, quite literally trying to obtain him as they hunt him down. They live Taylor’s memories, his life, including the romance he had with Rachel Kane, because they’re afraid of dying having never truly lived. Player is an unknown, a ghost. Their overwriting of Taylor's memories is much like the ultimate plan of the artificial intelligence Corvus. The ultimate antagonist of the game, Corvus was a bug in the DNI, a truth that enraged him. His only goal is to expand and consume all of the memories of those connected to the DNI. He shares Player's desire to prove their existence and escape death. Ultimately, Player chooses to accept their fate, initiating a DNI purge that both destroys Corvus and results in Player relinquishing their hold of Taylor's memories, the final line of the game being Taylor's memories finally having him (with Player's voice) address themselves as "Taylor."

Black Ops 3's setting is entrenched in trans-humanism and the blurred line between man and technology. Trans-humanism opposes natural death, hence why they DNI enhancements feel so liberating from a gameplay standpoint; we sympathise with Player being able to literally leave more of an impact, interacting with the technology and people around them. And yet, death comes for us all no matter what life we may have lived. While we cannot choose the circumstances of our death, we can choose to accept it.

You are not cold. It cannot overcome the warmth of your beating heart. Can you hear it? You only have to listen.

Can you hear it slowing? You're slowing it. You are in control. Calm. At peace.