Let’s take Primis Richtofen for instance, because he happens to be my favourite. Like he says, he “has been trying so very hard to do the right thing.” From what we see of the multiverse, most Richtofen’s happen to be conniving and evil, but Primis Richtofen is an exception to this, “I was the nicest one.” He wants to find his redemption and put the universe right. He also wants to earn his comrades trust, but throughout the BOIII DLC season they have an uneasy alliance. He keeps info from the rest of the crew, but only because he feels it is for the best even it may not be (Not telling Takeo about the Emperor’s betrayal of him). When the rest of Primis kill their alternate selves, they become more understanding of Richtofen, as he has helped them gain some sense of closure or peace. They start to see that Richtofen does genuinely want to help purge the multiverse of the Apothicons and the undead, so he gains their trust (perhaps with the exception of Nikolai). They may have even gotten off lightly compared to Richtofen, as we have hints in Alpha Omega that he had to kill a child version of himself in order to capture his soul. But ultimately, Richtofen has a greater desire than saving the universe, and that’s preserving himself. He has an innate fear of death, and so help perpetuates the cycle we’ve seen throughout the course of Black Ops III. Yes, Revelations ends with Primis finally purging the Apothicons from Monty’s perfect world, and yes when they are transported back in time, Primis do win the Great War. But it’s not a permanent solution. Group 935 will still discover Pablo Marinus’ journal, they’ll still unearth the Templar undead contained within a French excavation site, and the universe will still shatter into pieces causing the destruction of multiple worlds and the suffering of countless innocents. Richtofen is happy to keep this cycle going even if it is the equivalent of putting a band aid on the situation because it means he gets to live. Ultimately he’s selfish, but in a very different way to his counterparts. He doesn’t want global domination, he just has a very simple and human fear of death. Now, I don’t think the other three are as layered as Richtofen, but they still received a lot of development especially in comparison to their Ultimis selves. Nikolai has deluded himself into believing he has had multiple marriages, after the devastating death of his own wife. Takeo desires nothing more than to preserve his honour and dedicate himself to his nation and Emperor, even though he is completely blinded by the Emperor’s disdain for him. Dempsey is a lot more sophisticated and mature, and is willing go to the end of the line to complete his mission and his orders. So as you might be able to tell I like these characters a lot. ? I can understand that some people prefer Ultimis more though. They were definitely more wacky and in line with the over the top humour of Black Ops 1, so I can get that. I will say I’m a fan of their development in Black Ops 4 though, even if it feels a bit inconsistent with how they acted in Black Ops 1. (Dempsey acting mildly annoyed that all their work in the Moon Egg only resulted in destroying the world vs. incoherently rambling and being distressed about these events in Classified) I guess you can write it off as the brain washing easing off on them, as they start to get their memories back, but eh it still feels a bit jarring IMO. So yeah, I hope I’ve explained adequately exactly why Primis resonate with me as well as they do. I’d love to hear your own thoughts on them as characters.

I always assumed that after they “seemingly disappeared from history”, they would return back to 1918 France where the cycle can begin again and again.

Off-topic, but where did this info come from? I seem to vaguely remember a PlaytheGame video talking about this years ago, but is that the only source for this info? Interesting stuff regardless. As for the main topic of this thread, I do think Aether is definitely, for real, no takesy backsies, done with DLC 4, at least in its current iteration. Am I a fool for taking Treyarch at their word once again on this story finally ending? Probably. But I do find the Zombies Writing team quote interesting, since it seems to line up pretty heavily with the current rumours of Aether getting a fully fledged reboot in Treyarch’s next game. And in regards to receiving more one-off maps in the future that fill in some story gaps, I wouldn’t be a fan. A map every now and then like Classified is cool, but I’d much rather the main story progress instead of having multiple ‘side-quels’ for a story that has already finished, but maybe that’s just me.

Black Ops III. I would’ve said Black Ops II, but I’m such a big fan of the character development that Primis received and the journey they went on, that I would’ve rathered the story end at 3.

This is why Nikolai taking over from Richtofen as the group leader felt a bit off to me. Considering all this info, i think Dempsey would’ve been the more natural choice after Richtofen.

Huh, TIL. Can understand why it was removed, if only for the reason it doesn’t really fit with Zombies.

1. The One - Still holds up IMO after all these years. A classic as Pizza said. 2. Nightmare - When was Imma Try It Out used in Zombies? 3. Remember Forever - Completely biased on my part, as I’ve only heard Stormbound maybe once or twice. 4. Shepherd of Fire - Works great in the Origins intro and is probably my favourite A7X song in Zombies. 5. Dead Ended because Carrion is straight trash.

Yeah, as soon as I finished the Egg I thought to myself “Well I don’t really have any reason to play this map now”. Story wise it’s pretty cool, but in terms of gameplay it’s definitely lacking. It’ll go under the “meh” category of maps for me just like the rest of Black Ops 4 has so far.

Ha, I could actually nearly buy this considering the type of person Marlton is. Yeah, this does seem likely. Especially considering the Zombies eyes are white for some reason (which is odd in itself) as opposed to the classic yellow we see on regular NTZ. Regardless, if this is true then I have to say I’m kind of getting sick of so many maps being in alternate timelines to each other. I assume on Treyarch’s part though that the how and why of the Avogadro being sent to Hanford was genuinely meant to be how he came to be at TranZit.

I haven’t made a thread here in a while, so apologies if this isn’t in the right section. I wanted to discuss an idea that I haven’t really seen much discussion of since Alpha Omega launched, which is the presence of Marlton in the map. Now again, this could all be hashed out and deemed not an issue already, and I might just be an idiot. But in Alpha Omega, we’re told by Marlton his explicit purpose for being at the site. “My reason for being here should come as no surprise. The A.D.A.M. Initiative?? Project Toy Soldier?? I am aware of the advanced robotics programs happening at this facility. I had to come see for myself if the rumours were true. This is a secret the Government shall not keep from us!! I don’t care if it’s been sixty years!!” Okay, this is all well and good then. Marlton is there essentially to try and blow the whistle on the secret happenings taking place at the Nuketown site. However in Nuketown Zombies, (which if I’m not mistaken is slightly before Alpha Omega) the only thing we know of Marlton’s reason for being in the bunker is that he’s been in some way banished by his group. ”What an interminable waste. Just because one is different is not a valid excuse to simply banish him.” “They ask me to leave? I was the one reporting this disgusting behavior! Makes no sense...” So what’s the deal here? Am I missing some info, or this is just another example of a Treyarch discrepancy?

Yes, I can agree there. The interface can often be glitchy. And of course whenever the consoles servers get DDoS’ed, Xbox is always up before PlayStation. At least the terrible 30 days has been deducted to a mere 7 now, even if it maybe couldn’t have come at a worse time for the community.

What is the difference between the PlayStation and the Xbox? They’re pretty similar consoles as far as I can see. And as far as I’m aware, Black Ops 3 sold more on PS4 than Xbox One.

Yeah, what I mean is content meant for BO4 will probably end up being pushed to BO5 because of Treyarch being shoved head first into this project. Can’t say I envy the 3Arc devs currently, they have a lot of crunch time ahead of them.

I think Chronicles 2 was definitely at the very least planned to happen at some point. Last SDCC Jason said to the crowd something like “if there’s demand for it it’ll happen”, and obviously there is. I think looking at how well the pack did in sales alone, is enough of a reason to be thinking that Activision gave the green light on Chronicles 2 not too long after that. However, with 3Arc taking over duties for next years CoD, the cynic in me is thinking that the Chronicles 2 maps planned for BO4 will release on that game instead to make up for a potential lack of content at launch.