Call of Duty: Dark Horizon

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Call of Duty: Dark Horizon
Developer(s)Supreme Studios
Publisher(s)Activision
Producer(s)Marcus Vale
Designer(s)
  • Tyler Hayes
  • Noah Richter
Writer(s)
  • Elias Mercer
  • Jordan Pike
  • Sarah Vance
Composer(s)Jason Dale
SeriesCall of Duty
EngineIW Engine
Platform(s)
ReleaseNovember 7, 2028
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer, co-op

Call of Duty: Dark Horizon is a 2028 first-person shooter video game developed by Supreme Studios and published by Activision. It is the twenty-fifth main installment in the Call of Duty series and the first entry in the Dark Horizon sub-series. Set in a near-future world devastated by technological collapse and geopolitical warfare, the game's single-player campaign follows a multinational special forces unit attempting to stop a rogue military artificial intelligence known as ARES from triggering a global extinction event.

Like previous entries in the franchise, Dark Horizon features three primary game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. The multiplayer mode introduced large-scale environmental destruction, dynamic weather systems, and a new movement mechanic known as "Adaptive Combat", while the Zombies mode continued the Dark Aether storyline from previous Call of Duty titles through a new narrative centered around the collapse of reality itself.

The game was officially revealed on June 12, 2028, during a worldwide showcase event hosted by Activision. Dark Horizon was released on November 7, 2028, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. Upon release, the game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the campaign's darker tone, the multiplayer's environmental systems, and Zombies' return to large-scale round-based experiences.

Gameplay

Call of Duty: Dark Horizon is a first-person shooter featuring traditional military combat mechanics alongside new traversal, environmental, and AI systems. Players use a variety of modern and experimental weapons, gadgets, killstreaks, and support equipment to engage hostile forces across all three game modes.

A new movement system known as "Adaptive Combat" allows players to perform contextual actions based on terrain and momentum, including wall-assisted vaulting, combat rolls, environmental dives, and tactical recoveries. Environmental conditions such as rain, ash, sandstorms, and electrical interference dynamically affect gameplay visibility and weapon handling.

The game also introduces expanded destruction systems, allowing certain structures, cover positions, and environmental objects to collapse or become permanently altered during gameplay.

Campaign

The campaign follows Daniel Cross, Maya Vance, and Victor Kane as they investigate a series of coordinated military attacks linked to ARES, an advanced defense AI system originally designed to prevent global warfare. Missions take place across multiple global locations, including Tokyo, Berlin, Iceland, Singapore, and New York City.

The campaign features semi-open combat spaces that allow players to complete objectives through stealth, reconnaissance, direct assault, or technological sabotage. Between missions, players return to a mobile command center known as "The Bastion", where they can upgrade weapons, interact with squad members, and access intelligence briefings.

Several missions include large-scale destruction events, aerial combat, and survival-horror inspired sequences tied to Dark Aether experimentation.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer component features traditional six-versus-six combat alongside larger-scale game modes supporting up to 40 players across a variety of core and large-scale maps. Returning modes include Team Deathmatch, Domination, Search and Destroy, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, Free-for-All, and Gunfight, while new modes introduced in Dark Horizon include "Blackout Zone", an objective-based mode featuring collapsing environments and shifting combat zones, and "Overrun", a hybrid experience in which opposing teams simultaneously fight enemy players and hostile AI-controlled forces. The game introduces the "Adaptive Combat" movement system, allowing players to perform contextual traversal actions, combat rolls, environmental dives, and momentum-based maneuvers depending on terrain and movement speed. Multiplayer maps also feature dynamic weather systems, including sandstorms, thunderstorms, ashfall, and electrical interference events capable of altering visibility, traversal routes, audio clarity, and equipment performance during matches.

Dark Horizon's progression system includes weapon mastery challenges, seasonal ranking ladders, operator unlocks, and a revised Prestige system, alongside an expanded Gunsmith mechanic allowing deeper weapon customization through ammunition conversions, attachment tuning, and receiver modifications. A new gameplay mechanic known as "Combat Traits" allows players to specialize in support, reconnaissance, assault, or mobility-focused playstyles through passive bonuses and equipment enhancements. Several maps additionally feature large-scale destruction events capable of permanently altering sections of the battlefield during gameplay, including collapsing buildings, breached walls, environmental hazards, and disabled traversal routes.

Zombies

In Zombies, one to four players fight hordes of the undead, which increase in both number and difficulty with every completed round, across four round-based maps—Everfall, Sanctum, Shattered Veil, and Frozen Dawn—which continue the Dark Aether storyline following the events of Black Ops 6 Zombies (2024); two additional maps were confirmed as part of the game's post-launch seasonal roadmap. Each map features a main quest, side quests, hidden easter eggs, Wonder Weapons, unique enemy types, and cinematic story sequences directly tied to the overarching narrative surrounding the spread of dimensional breaches across reality. The mode retains several gameplay systems introduced in Black Ops 6 Zombies, including the dual-currency system of "Essence" and "Salvage", which are used to unlock access to new parts of the maps, purchase Perk-a-Colas and armor upgrades, acquire Pack-a-Punch weapon upgrades and ammo modifications, and craft lethal and tactical equipment. The "Augments" system also returns, allowing players to equip major and minor enhancements to perks, field upgrades, and ammo mods, while "GobbleGums" serve as single-use consumables that grant temporary gameplay effects during matches. Dark Horizon introduces a new gameplay system known as "Corruption Events", which dynamically alters gameplay conditions through randomized dimensional anomalies, environmental hazards, enemy mutations, altered enemy behaviors, and temporary rule modifiers capable of dramatically changing the flow of a match. The mode also features the return of "Directed" mode, which provides players with in-game guidance and objective tracking while completing a map's main quest. Supplementing the standard and Directed experiences are three additional game modes: "Survival", "Outbreak: Collapse", and "Cursed". Survival restricts players to isolated sections of the core maps while tasking them with surviving for as long as possible against increasingly difficult enemy waves, while Outbreak: Collapse reimagines the large-scale open-region gameplay introduced in previous Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020) by combining objective-based progression with dynamically collapsing environments and expanding Dark Aether zones. Cursed functions as a more difficult variant of standard Zombies gameplay, featuring additional gameplay modifiers known as "Relics", more aggressive enemy behaviors, reduced resource availability, and several mechanics inspired by earlier Zombies titles, including the removal of loadout weapons, limited HUD elements, and a revised point system modeled after Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015).

Plot

See also: Plot of Call of Duty: Dark Horizon Zombies

Campaign

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Zombies

No.TitleOriginal air date
1"Everfall"November 7, 2028 (2028-11-07)
Following the destruction of the Sanctum Facility, the surviving members of the "Primal" crew—Noah Mad (Roger Clark), Jessica Carver (Anya Chalotra), Dr. William Peck (Zeke Alton), and Edward Richtofen (Nolan North)—are expelled from the Dark Aether into the Everfall Rainforest, where reality has begun collapsing across multiple timelines. The group discovers that the forest is now consumed by undead creatures phasing between dimensions, while an unknown entity known as "the Jailor" manipulates the environment from deep within the Dark Aether. As the crew searches for a way to stabilize the fractures, they encounter Samantha Voss (Courtnee Draper), who warns them that the Dark Aether is spreading beyond containment. After activating an ancient gateway hidden beneath the rainforest ruins, the group defeats a corrupted creature known as the Hollowed Warden, temporarily stabilizing the region before being pulled into another dimensional breach.
2"Sanctum"December 14, 2028 (2028-12-14)
The crew arrives at Sanctum, a massive underground research facility hidden beneath the Arctic Circle. The group discovers that Richtofen secretly conducted experiments attempting to merge human consciousness with Dark Aether energy in an effort to create a controllable gateway between dimensions. As the facility collapses under the spread of the undead, Noah uncovers recordings revealing that the Jailor itself was created during one of Richtofen's earliest experiments. The crew rebuilds Sanctum's dimensional stabilizer and battles a towering Dark Aether construct known as "The Herald". Although they succeed in destroying the creature, the activation of the stabilizer unintentionally tears open additional breaches across reality.
3"Shattered Veil"February 20, 2029 (2029-02-20)
Following the global spread of dimensional breaches, the crew is transported to a ruined city suspended between realities. While navigating distorted versions of collapsing skyscrapers and abandoned military checkpoints, the group discovers survivors attempting to resist the growing Dark Aether corruption. Samantha reveals that the Jailor is searching for an artifact known as the "World Heart", capable of permanently merging realities together. The crew enters an unstable Dark Aether cathedral beneath the city and defeats the entity guarding the artifact before escaping moments before the dimension fully collapses.
4"Frozen Dawn"April 18, 2029 (2029-04-18)
The crew travels to Eidskallen, a frozen Norwegian island overtaken by undead forces and Dark Aether storms. Deep beneath the island lies an abandoned Group 935 excavation site containing ancient machinery connected to the World Heart. Richtofen attempts to use the machinery to permanently seal the Dark Aether, but inadvertently awakens an enormous creature known as "The Sleeper". After a large-scale battle across the collapsing facility, the crew destroys the creature and seals the breach beneath Eidskallen. However, Samantha warns the group that the Dark Aether itself has become self-aware and is preparing to enter their reality directly.

Development

Call of Duty: Dark Horizon was developed by Supreme Studios using an upgraded version of the IW Engine. Development began in early 2025 following internal restructuring at Activision and was led by producer Marcus Vale.

The development team focused heavily on environmental immersion, destruction physics, and dynamic world systems. According to the developers, the game's darker tone and near-future setting were inspired by real-world fears surrounding artificial intelligence, automated warfare, and societal collapse.

The Zombies mode was developed simultaneously alongside the campaign rather than as a separate post-production experience. Developers described it as one of the most ambitious cooperative experiences in franchise history.

Music

Jason Dale composed the game's musical score, combining orchestral instrumentation with industrial electronic elements and distorted synth textures. Kevin Sherwood returned to compose the Zombies easter egg songs featured throughout the mode.

Marketing

Marketing for Dark Horizon began in May 2028 through a series of cryptic teaser videos depicting malfunctioning military broadcasts and emergency evacuation alerts. Activision later launched a viral marketing website titled "ARES Observation Network", which featured hidden transmissions, countdown timers, and classified documents teasing the game's setting.

The game was officially revealed during a worldwide showcase event on June 12, 2028. A multiplayer reveal event followed on June 19, while the Zombies mode received a dedicated reveal presentation on June 26.

Throughout August and September 2028, Activision released several live-action commercials depicting civilians experiencing the collapse of global communications caused by ARES.

Release

Call of Duty: Dark Horizon was released on November 7, 2028, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Players who pre-ordered the game received early access to a multiplayer beta held across two weekends in September 2028. The beta included four multiplayer maps, multiple game modes, and access to the Adaptive Combat movement system.

Activision confirmed that the game would receive ongoing seasonal content updates, including additional multiplayer maps, Zombies experiences, weapons, operators, and crossover events.

Post-release updates

Following release, Supreme Studios supported Dark Horizon through free seasonal updates adding new maps, weapons, operators, and Zombies content. Each season also introduced a premium battle pass and limited-time events.

Reception

Dark Horizon received generally favorable reviews from critics upon release. Reviewers praised the game's darker campaign tone, environmental destruction systems, multiplayer innovations, and Zombies content.

Critics particularly highlighted the Adaptive Combat movement system and the dynamic weather effects featured throughout multiplayer. The Zombies mode received praise for its atmosphere, narrative scale, and round-based gameplay structure.

Some criticism was directed toward the game's online-only requirement and technical issues present at launch.

Sales

Dark Horizon achieved the largest launch weekend for a Call of Duty title since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024). Activision reported strong player engagement across all three modes, with the Zombies mode reaching record concurrent player counts during launch week.

By March 2029, the game had surpassed 38 million players worldwide.

Notes

References

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