Activision’s juggernaut first-person shooter returns for its annual assault on the bad guys with a focus on clandestine operations and deniable missions in Call of Duty: Black Ops. Developed by franchise veteran Treyarch, Black Ops marks a departure for the series, in that the action unfolds in neither WWII nor the nebulous “Modern” arena, but in the vast expanse of the Cold War. Players take control of several soldiers from the Studies and Observations Group (SOG), a multi-service special operations unit that, despite its seemingly innocuous name, carried out devastating precision assaults on enemy targets, captured opposition leaders, rescued downed pilots, and even conducted psychological operations.

The 13-mission single-player campaign consists mainly of flashbacks culled from the memory of SOG member Alex Mason, and the action will take gamers around the globe for battles with the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Army, Russian soldiers, and Cuban Tropas. Gamers will be able to wield more than 40 different assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and pistols; and missions find players attempting to destroy the Soviet chemical weapon Nova-6, swimming weaponless through a Vietnamese river, torturing a prisoner for information, and piloting an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance airplane as well as a Mi-24 Hind helicopter.