Let’s talk about Emergence.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
Emergence, the thrilling and compelling mission in the Black Ops 6 campaign, has everyone talking. A coworker of mine texted me at 10:02 PM last Friday, quite late for him, about the mission. He texted me, unprovoked “THE MANAKINS”. His spelling error and lack of context aside, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
Emergence is absolutely a superb Call of Duty campaign mission. There is no denying the fun and thrills to be had while playing it. Zombies in the campaign? I'm all for it. Grappling hooks to zip around the map? Put it in every single mission. Hallucinations making it seem as if I'm going insane? Give me more. Mannequins chasing me but only when my back is turned? I'm keeping the lights on tonight.
Not circling back to nearly any of the plot points and questions brought up in this mission which was seemingly made specifically to circle back to? That’s not cool. There are questions burning the inside of my skull that the campaign did not answer. The whole time I played the final mission, I kpet asking myself when they were going to explain everything. Even worse, I can't figure out why they weren't answered. Let's explore some of them.
What was the purpose of the bio weapon that created the zombies? My first thought while playing the mission was that there was some kind of MK-Ultra-like experimentation going on and the government was trying to figure out mind control. However, as I played the mission, there seemed to be several indications that the government was actually trying to create a super soldier. This would make sense as elite zombies have super powers. Manglers have super strength, Disciples can fly, suck the life force out of you, and raise the dead, Abominations can shoot energy out of their faces, and Amalgams are just gross. There’s a chance zombies were created to try and make Captain Activision. Maybe all of my theories are wrong.. I don’t know because it was never addressed in the game.
Who was the voice in my head? My leading theory is that she was a handler or psychiatrist of some kind who worked with Case during whatever happened to him at this facility. That would be an interesting plot point if it was ever revisited. However, I feel like I remember her using the word “us” repeatedly, possibly indicating she is a fellow patient. Maybe there will be some kind of seasonal content released for the campaign, but the Season 01 roadmap said nothing about the campaign, so this seems to be unlikely.
How does the Dark Aether fit into all this? I’m certainly not an expert on the plethora of Call of Duty Zombies lore, but doesn’t the Dark Aether essentially create zombies? Maybe the Dark Aether was accessed by the CIA and turned into a super soldier program that went wrong. Maybe the bio-weapon Case and his team are hunting down was actually created from Dark Aether energy. That would be very interesting. Too bad we’ll never know.
How did exposure to the weapon effect Case? Is he insane? Is he some sort of human-zombie-hybrid walking among us like a Call of Duty version of a Daywalker from Blade?
The question burning the biggest hole in my subconscious is this: why was none of this answered? I have three potential answers. The first of which is maybe the answers to all these questions are in the zombies easter eggs. I personally have not completed the Terminus easter egg, but I did complete the Liberty Falls easter egg. I suppose I could look it up and find out, but I want to do the easter egg myself now that there’s a guided mode. Providing an explanation in the zombies mode would be fine, but I do think the campaign should explain itself within itself. The second, and the one I like the least, is that there is some sort of campaign continuation content that will be released season by season that I mentioned earlier. I do not like the idea of an intentionally unfinished campaign (looking at you Suicide Squad) designed to draw players back in incrementally. Again, this does seem fairly unlikely now that Season 01 is upon us. The third answer is the one I find most likely. The writers of the story wanted to answer the questions but content was cut to make room and allocate funds towards the true money makers: zombies and multiplayer.
Other than the lack of explanation for how zombies fit into the story, I really enjoyed the Black Ops 6 campaign. I think it’s one of the best Call of Duty campaigns in years.
Do you know the answer to these questions? Are you an expert on zombies lore who can explain it? Let me know!