Call of Duty: Eclipse

Call of Duty: Eclipse is an upcoming standalone title, developed by Conthan Studios for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. It's key design point was both to revisit and pay homage to previous Call of Duty titles while still managing to be its own work. A Spin-off title, dubbed Call of Duty: Lost Banners, is also planned for release for the Nintendo 3DS.

Gameplay
Eclipse, according to its lead developer, is an attempt at recapturing and paying homage to various highlights from the Call of Duty franchise. Like most of the Call of Duty series, the gameplay takes place in First-Person. The game moves away from "Future Warfare" settings to take place in a mostly modern day setting.

The Multiplayer Create-a-class system returns to a system much closer derived from Modern Warfare 3, with players picking a primary and secondary weapons as well as three class perks and a "Death Streak" which adds an advantage to a player who has died repeatedly without scoring a kill. Furthermore, weapons can also be granted a perk, such as increasing its stopping power or enabling faster aiming. Picking scorestreaks remains the same as more recent titles, however, with streaks being earned both via scoring kills and fulfilling match objectives, such as capturing a node in Domination.

Plot
Eclipse is set in the year 2020. International tensions are on the rise as war continues to plague the Middle East, hampering the developed worlds ability to access its increasingly precious oil. To further compound matters, several Special Forces, mostly Tier One, operatives have gone MIA, leaving no traces as to who or what caused their disappearance. With World War III on the horizon, the UN Security council approves Initiative: Unthinkable, founding Task Force 66 with a twofold goal; Prevent World War III and uncover the fate of the missing SF Operatives.

Prologue
Players are immediately thrust into the shoes of US Army Ranger Jack Taylor, who is helping to instruct local Pro-American insurgents to fight against islamic terrorists. After aiding in the training of the Militia, Jack finds his team deployed to a nearby town in pursuit of a HVT; A local warlord with a possible link to a shadowy organisation. After fighting his way through the town, however, Jack and his squad are ambushed and killed by a mysterious Blue-haired operative, who reports back to her superiors that there were no survivors or the incident and that the data is secure.

Act I
A Month later, the UN Security council appoints LT Colonel Norman Samson to head the newly approved Task Force 66, with Admiral Natalya Strensky acting as overall commander of the operation. Lt Colonel Samson immediately travels to Vietnam alongside Delta Force Operative Samuel Hassall to recruit the Australian 1st Commando operative Connor Higbed into the Task Force. However, before Connor can be recruited they come under fire from the Vietnamese Army, who are currently fighting the Indian Army after a failed attempt on several key Indian officials was traced back to Vietnam. After repelling the attack, Task Force 66 is re-routed to central Africa to investigate a possible human trafficking incident that may be linked to the missing SF Operatives. While little evidence of this is found, evidence of a sale of a Nuclear Warhead is uncovered alongside a possible plot to deploy the device in an attack on Moscow. The Kremlin is informed and Spetsnaz forces, notably a Sgt Nikita Zhukov, are deployed to intercept the warhead. While the Spetsnaz are able to stop the warhead from arriving in Moscow, they are unable to disarm it before it is remotely detonated.

Recognizing the need to locate whoever sold the Warhead, Task Force 66 continues to operate in Africa, finding that the warhead had been sold via a notable international Arms Dealer code-named "Jack of Spades", who is known to operate out of Portugal. In the meantime, Sgt Nikita and the Spetsnaz continue to hunt down the group who had intended to destroy Moscow, tracking them to a village in Northwestern Russia. Despite managing to locate the main Safe House of the group, Sgt Zhukov is drugged, overpowered and captured by the same Operative who had previously killed Jack Taylor. She says he shows promise and to take him back to "Raven", before killing the remainder of his squad.

Act II
Continuing their line of investigation, Task Force 66 arrives in Portugal, joining forces with the local authorities to hunt down "Jack of Spades". However, its revealed that "Jack of Spades" is protected by a well-trained and well-equipped group of mercenaries. Connor comes within striking distance of the Arms Dealer, until he is attacked by the Operative. She studies him for a moment, unsure whether to kill or capture him, but is quickly driven off by the arrival of Sam. After losing "Jack of Spades" the Task Force manages to meet a woman named Josefina, who offers the Task Force a lead on "Jack of Spades". This turns out to be the location of his main base and Safe House, which the Tack Force quickly storms, capturing "Jack of Spades". He mentions that he got the warhead from the military but is killed by a sniper before he can say more.

Meanwhile, the Russian President has voiced his outrage both on the attempted Nuclear Attack on Moscow as well as the death of several squads of his Special Forces. Furthermore, the Warhead was identified as having been a missing weapon from the British Armory. NATO is quick to rise to the UK's defense after Russia demands reparations. Meanwhile, MI6 is given an anonymous tip that the sale of another Warhead is underway in Wales. The SAS are deployed, with the focus shifting to Lt Montgomery Waller, as they struggle to disrupt the deal, barely managing to prevent the warhead from being airlifted away. However, they soon discover this was a decoy operation as two confirmed nuclear attacks are reported: One in India and another in Russia. Both sides blame the other for the attack and it seems War is imminent.

Back west, Task Force 66 manages to use the bullet that killed "Jack of Spades" to trace its origin back to the United States. As they report this to the staff at the Pentagon, the facility comes under attack by the same Mercenaries that had previously defended "Jack of Spades", however they are armed with predominantly Russian-made weapons, implicating Russia in the attack. Connor is once more overpowered by the Operative during the Pentagons defense, who whispers with him that "Asgard awaits" before attempting to drag him away. However Connor is able to break free long enough for several of the Pentagons security forces to drive the Operative off. Just as the Pentagon is secured, there is a confirmed report that a confirmed Spetsnaz operative, revealed to be Sgt Zhukov, has successfully assassinated the President of the United States. Desptie Zhukov having been declared MIA, the American government declares War on Russia.

Act III
With their only lead being the phrase "Asgard awaits", as well as suspicions Zhukov might have been brainwashed into assassinating POTUS, Task Force 66 calls in every available contact to find out what this "Asgard" is. One of Admiral Strensky's contacts in the Afghanistan reveals that the local Warlord, Ibrahim Zahael, had mentioned a group called ASGARD to several of his subordinates bring the Task Force to join forces with both the Local Militia, but also several members of the United States Marine Corps that had been deployed in preparations for war with Russia. The Task Force is able to capture Ibrahim, Connor managing to foil a similar sniper incident to the one that killed "Jack of Spades", before confirming that it was indeed the Operative who had attempted to kill Ibrahim.

As this is happening, the SAS are deployed to reinforce the embattled Turkish army, as well as rescuing a VIP, revealed to be one of the top heirs to the British Throne, who had been visiting Turkey. The Russian army had invaded Turkey as part of a two-pronged offensive against NATO, attempting to cut it off from the Oil in the Middle East. Lt Waller is able to secure the royal before joining a Turkish mechanized column in turning aside a Russian Tank Formation in a grueling vehicular battle. As the Russian Army begins to fall back, the SAS receive new orders that they are to rendezvous with Task Force 66 before travelling to Norway.

In Norway, the joint SAS and TF 66 uncover a hidden bunker complex belonging to ASGARD, having gained the information from Ibrahim. The Taskforce storm the complex, finding evidence that ASGARD was indeed behind the Nuclear attacks on Russia and India and had stolen several warheads from the United Kingdom, Pakistan and the United States. However, all forms recovered were signed by Curtis Smith, who had been present at the Pentagon attack. Using further information gleaned from the complex, TF 66 back to the US, only to find Curtis has gone to ground. Luckily they are fully aware of his hiding spot, a bunker near the Oil Field of Alaska. Task Force 66 storm the complex and manage to overpower Curtis. However, Sam is wounded in the resulting fight and Connor is forced to kill Curtis, but not before Curtis reveals that ASGARD has existed for some time, having been formed during World War II.

Before Connor can report back to his superiors, he is shot non-fatally by the Operative, stopping a knife stab with his hand before having his leg broken. Sam is shot again, also non-fatally, as the Operative kneels over Connor. Connor overhears that the Operatives callsign is "Alchemy" as she is ordered back to base. She kisses Connor before dragging him from the complex, while whispering to him that "ASGARD awaits...and you have been chosen to serve..."