Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a series that started with the events of the Vietnam War then moved to a near-future timeline, is going even further down the road of tomorrow. Even though last year's Advanced Warfare from Sledgehammer also introduced a high-tech, militarized era, that future isn't Treyarch's Black Ops 3 future. Black Ops has its own timeline, and the sequel's setting introduces new characters, advanced gadgets and tech, and gameplay features the series hasn't seen before.

With Treyarch at the reins, the first dedicated, new-gen Call of Duty may just be the most massive to date. Once again, Treyarch's new Call of Duty game contains three different parts: the story campaign, competitive multiplayer, and the horde-style Zombies mode. As we wait for Black Ops 3 to release on Xbox One, PS4, and PC this holiday season, check out the following slides for everything we know about the upcoming shooter's game modes, story, and more.

The last time we left the Black Ops series was with David Mason shoving his GI boot up antagonist Raul Menendez's butt. But that battle has long passed by the time Black Ops 3's events come along. The year is 2060, more than three decades after the events of Black Ops 2. So far, the Masons are nowhere in sight, but in their place you'll create and take control of your own soldier as you battle the new age's military threats.

The specifics of the global threat are still unknown, but where Black Ops 2 saw the world's military forces being devastated by city-destroying, weaponized drones, that world-ending situation will not repeat in the upcoming sequel. The world's nations are now outfitted with a whole lot of anti-drone defenses, putting an emphasis back on having strong ground forces to settle political differences - which is, of course, where you come in.

Black Ops 3 is set pretty far into the future, so physical and neural enhancements are no longer a thing of science fiction. Soldiers are often more machine than man, using cybernetic arms and legs to improve their strength and mobility. In addition to enhanced body parts, soldiers also have computers attached to their brains allowing them to use new Cyber Core and Cyber Rig abilities.

Equipping Cyber Cores gives you skills to do things like remotely hack robots and small drones with your brain at any point in the battle, while Cyber Rigs are passive abilities that can improve your soldier's mobility and defensive capabilities. The soldier you equip and take into a campaign mission can be vastly different from anything your friend might bring to the same situation, and yes, what your friends equip will matter because...

Up to now, Call of Duty campaigns have been single player-focused, on-the-rails, highly scripted rollercoasters with lots of corridor shooting and big-ass explosions. In Black Ops 3, there are still big-ass explosions, but Blops 3's campaign is giving up to four players a bit more room to explore different ways to attack their objectives. The mission environments are larger and wide open, the enemy AI has been revamped to account for multiple players and open levels, and new co-op features allow players to effectively communicate and work as a team.

The one mission shown so far was in an open plaza in Cairo, Egypt populated with human enemy soldiers, robot enemy soldiers, mini flying drones, and multiple mission objectives. The players could approach each objective as they liked, hack drones with their Cyber Core abilities, and even highlight threats, danger zones, and tactical opportunities in their co-op buddies' HUDs. The new mission style seems to emphasize player exploration and emergent tactics over setting up blockbuster set pieces like previous games, though there are sure to be massive set pieces sprinkled throughout. This is Call of Duty, after all.

Soldier customization appears to be a major focus in Black Ops 3. In the campaign, players can outfit their soldier with Cyber Cores, Cyber Rigs, weapons, and equipment before they head into battle. But you won't just be scrolling through a menu to equip those items, you'll do all that in your very own Safe House where you can customize the layout and socialize with other players.

On top of that, the multiplayer mode has cranked weapon customization up with the Gunsmith feature. Gunsmith allows you to make your weapon look unique by equipping weapon attachments and creating your own art on a predetermined section of your weapon using various unlockable symbols and shapes. Creating your weapon art is similar to using the series' emblem editor, except you're making dirty images on a 3D surface rather than a 2D plane.

With the advanced technology at the Black Ops 3 soldier's disposal, your trooper's ability to move quickly around the battlefield is even more efficient than before. You get the speed boost by using the new thrust jump, powersliding, mantling, and Titanfall-style wall running capabilities of your combat suit. This enhanced mobility works quite a bit differently than Advanced Warfare's Exo jump and dashing abilities, giving you a more controlled way of moving your soldier around the environment.

The thrust jump allows you to boost yourself into the air with both long, extended thrusts for higher altitudes and short bursts for prolonged airtime and maneuverability. This lets players bounce around corners, change direction in mid-air, and perform maneuvers in any direction at any time. Coupled with the other movement abilities, you're able to chain thrust jumps, wall runs, and powerslides to really jet across the map quickly and perform some truly amazing acrobatic kills.

It wouldn't be a Treyarch Call of Duty game without the game-within-a-game Zombies mode. As of now, there aren't many details on the specifics of this year's zombie-infested offering, but one little tidbit the developers did reveal is that the Zombies mode will include its own version of a progression system.

Whether that progression system will be as extensive as the multiplayer mode's - allowing players to unlock weapons, skins, and equipment - is yet to be seen. But given the developer's dedication to the Easte-egg-turned-full-blown-game, Zombies is sure to be a substantial part of the Black Ops 3 package.

Treyarch is adding quite a few new features to make the multiplayer experience feel much different than it has in past games. For example,Black Ops 3's Specialists are multiplayer characters with unique abilities and looks, and the maps have been designed around the new traversal abilities of the players. There are obvious flat walls to wall run on, tight spaces to powerslide under, and ponds to jump into for underwater battles.

That's right, you can swim in Blops 3's multiplayer. Making the transition from dry land to underwater gunplay doesn't have any jarring control changes, so it’s easy to jump in for cover and boost out of the water at a moment's notice. That's just a small portion of what we know about the multiplayer mode so far. Check out more details on the game's competitive component in our

Treyarch has dedicated a full 3-year development cycle to Black Ops 3 and the extra time seems to have spawned quite a bit of innovation in both the campaign and multiplayer modes. To allow players to personally experience the game and its many changes before launch, Treyarch announced that there will be a Black Ops 3 multiplayer beta made available to all who pre-order the game. And the developer will be bringing the multiplayer to E3's show floor, so you can look forward to even more details on the game in June.

That's everything we know so far, but there are still plenty of questions to be answered and Black Ops 3 features to be unveiled in the future. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the November 6 launch.