Treyarch unveils Black Ops multiplayer

By Tom Bramwell Published 2 September, 2010

Wagers, COD Points, bots. Vid inside.

Update: For full details on Black Ops' multiplayer modes and new features, check out our huge Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer hands-on preview, which has just gone live.

Original story: Treyarch has unveiled Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer including Wager Matches, which utilise a new COD Points system, Combat Training mode and gun customisation.

The new COD Points currency is earned as you play, and can be spent in various ways, one of which is to gamble it on the new Wager Matches.

"Wager Matches are these four brand new, free-for-all based game modes that we created for Black Ops. These game modes were designed to be pure kind-of adrenaline junkie fun," design director David Vonderhaar explained in the announcement gameplay video below.

"These are separate from your standard ranked progression in your online competitive play," said Dan Bunting, online director. "In Wager Matches you take the currency that you've earned and you can gamble it against other players, and what you're gambling on is that you're going to come in the top three on the final scoreboard."

"If you're in the top three players, it's called being In The Money, those three players get paid and the rest go broke," said Vonderhaar.

Wager Matches detailed by Treyarch.

As you can see in the video, those four modes are called One in the Chamber, Sticks and Stones, Gun Game and Sharpshooter, and each has a solid core concept along with a cute little twist.

In One in the Chamber, everyone spawns with a pistol, one bullet and three lives. If you kill somebody, you get to take their bullet, but if you miss then you're down to just melee attacks.

Sticks and Stones, meanwhile, gives everyone a crossbow, ballistic knife and tomahawk, and if you toss the tomahawk and hit someone, you "bankrupt" that player, presumably meaning they lose all their COD Points.

In Gun Game, players start with the pistol then move onto a new weapon with every successive kill. The player who progresses through all the weapons first wins, but if you get knifed then you're set back one tier.

In Sharp Shooter, finally, every player starts with the same randomly selected weapon, and everyone uses it for fixed amount of time, after which everyone is cycled to the next random weapon. With each kill you earn a perk and eventually a score multiplier.

Outside Wager Matches, there's a new Combat Training mode featuring computer-controlled bots and its own progression system, as well as gun customisation options so you can add clan tags and other stuff that you can rotate and resize.

Apparently Treyarch also unveiled a new type of grenade launcher and a mini-gun at its announcement event in Los Angeles, which just ended. Our man on the ground is busily typing up his impressions of the new content as you read this and it should be online soon. (Update: Check it out!)

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 9th November. Wii and DS versions will also be released.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Alf-Life #1 1 year ago

    What's more addictive than COD MP? Gambling! Let's add the two together... :p

  • Dave797 #2 1 year ago

    An interesting twist, I hope the same kind of attention has gone in to the team based multi-player modes.

  • UKLL #3 1 year ago

    At least they are putting the effort in.

    Feel a bit sorry for Treyarch, any COD game by them gets instantly dismissed because it's not made by IW but W@W was pretty good especially the multiplayer.

  • Fab4 #4 1 year ago

    Fuck the team-based multi-player modes. I hope the same kind of attention has gone into the actual netcode. There is fuck all point playing online if the actual netcode is borked.

    Edit: awww! look at all the negativity. I guess netcode isnt that interesting to most people....look at the shiny shiny!!
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/10 @ 10:09

  • Nighthawk_08 #5 1 year ago

    Sounds awesome. I reckon One in the barrel has huge potential. Can't wait

  • motti82 #6 1 year ago

    Very promising, just await the "Counterstrike has had betting for years" comments, but sounds like Treyarch are making a good effort to win over the haters :)

  • Pedrolot #7 1 year ago

    Sounds awesome!

  • superstu1337 #8 1 year ago

    Counter Strike has had betting AND gungame for years. But seen as CoD is more addictive,this is now about to be pre-ordered! :D

  • neems #9 1 year ago

    CoD has GunGame now? Now that's interesting.

  • bodypopper #10 1 year ago

    Playing against bots will be a welcome relief from being called a noob or a f-g by some seven year old Yank every five minutes.
    My interest has been piqued.

  • BigDannyH #11 1 year ago

    Not sure the addition of gambling (and not even pretending it's anything else) is exactly what the games industry needs from it's biggest brand name.

    I think it sounds like a decent game dynamic, just bracing myself for the headlines.

    Other game modes sound ace and would've greatly increased MW2's lifeline in my gaff.

  • SilverInfinity #12 1 year ago

    Sounds interesting ... I wonder if there is an achievement called "Economic Meltdown" where you bankrupt 10 people in one match or a 100 people in online games :D

    I wonder if playing this on veteran will frustrate me as much as W@W ... nearly threw my xbox out of the window during the last couple of levels

  • arcam #13 1 year ago

    bet ct all

  • Climhazzard #14 1 year ago

    Wager matches.......ok well i dont do ffa either way so thats a feature i wont be using.

  • winter #15 1 year ago

    "Playing against bots will be a welcome relief from being called a noob or a f-g by some seven year old Yank every five minutes."

    mute is your friend.

  • bodypopper #16 1 year ago

    Winter wrote:

    "mute is your friend."

    Granted, but sometimes getting grief fires you up to do better ;-).
    Edited by 1 at 02/09/10 @ 10:12

  • Timbercottage #17 1 year ago

    Treyarch devs - "Hey, what ideas can we steal this time around?"

  • berryl227 #18 1 year ago

    Have to say those online modes sound interesting, good to see an attempt at freshening up online matches. I'm glad to see this as online shooters have really gone stale for me. I liked AVP as it tried a couple of twists on the usual deathmatch modes with infestation and hunt the predator modes, admittedly the game was a bit broken but for me they were the best bits. Good work treyarch maybe if this carries on they can convince me to purchase after the shambles that was MW 2

  • Ryboy #19 1 year ago

    Was. That. A. Mini Gun?! A MINI GUN?!!!

    SOLD!

  • Lee_Morris #20 1 year ago

    Those modes actually sound pretty cool. If the supermarkets go crazy again like last year then I'll probably pick it up.

    I remember I paid £27 for MW2 and traded it in for £23 6 months later.

  • Gromit #21 1 year ago

    I was totally cold about this game before watching that video and it reminging me of COD2 + 3, plus hearing about the bots for multi-player. I'm up for this now!

  • StartCat #22 1 year ago

    This didn't really feel like a FULL multiplayer reveal, now did it? black ops has a lot to offer. They should reveal more soon, as many people have high expectations with call of duty black ops and as always want to know it all. Treyarch more info plz!