By moving into the U.S.- Soviet era of mutually assured destruction, Call of Duty: Black Ops will be the first Call of Duty game developed by Treyarch to go beyond World War II.

In addition to our First Look on the game in print and some impressions from Brett Molina here, we have additional comments from Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia. "The team is really excited about creating a game in this period," he said. "We really felt like it was fertile ground for us and we could provide something fresh for gamers."

Beyond the single-player story, the game will have a cooperative mode for two to four players and an online multiplayer mode. As for the story, players will see it story unfold from the point of view of at least two main characters in multiple covert international conflicts. "Our writers are focused on telling an epic story," Lamia says. "You will see the evolution of some of these characters through time and the conflict."

The preview level shown to Game Hunters (it actually takes place later in the game), "immediately puts you in the boots of these blacks ops soldiers and behind enemy lines," he says. "This setting, this period, was perfect for us because it allowed us this creativity. This period hasn't really been done in games and it spans a period of time. We are not getting into the exact period of time, because it is part of our story that we are going to reveal later, but it does cover a longer period during this era."

During the Cold War, Lamia says, "there were these black operaions, these deniable conflicts, there was unconventional warfare that occurred. Uunderneath the surface of this cold war, there was this hot war and it was taking place between the superpowers. This is not Russia of today, this is the Soviet Union of that period, whose leaders would say, we will bury you. But under the threat of mutually assured destruction, these conflicts never could go hot. So they put together these black operations to carry out conflicts.

Research for the game included consultations with Maj. John Plaster, a veteran of the Studies and Observations Group (SOG), a multi-force black operations unit led by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War. (He also wrote the book SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam).

"(Plaster) was able to talk through what it was like being in the SOG and in particular his experiences during the Vietnam War era and the kind of, at the time, classified and sort of black operations that he was a part of," Lamia says. "He talked about everything from his training to missions to tactics. He reviewed our characters, our weaponry and, aside from the inspiration and drawing upon some of the history he was able to talk about, he was able to advise us on very practical matters. Like a SOG behind enemy lines would be wearing this, doing this and carrying this."

"Their stories in particular were not ones that were ever told and while we are not endeavoring to make a historical account, it's an entertainment product, he also feels that this could inspire people to want to learn about the history of what these soldiers experienced and went through," Lamia says..

Also adding intel was Sonny Puzikas, a former Soviet special forces operative. "He has come into studio as well, and offered his advice and expertise on how Soviet special forces trained, the weaponry they used and what it was like to be in that force. When you meet with these people you can't help but feel inspired about what they are telling you and it opens up new avenues of gameplay."

With their assistance, "we learned about how the SOG and these special forces went about their conflicts," Lamia says. "They got the superior intelligence and then they were able to outfit themselves as appropriate for the mission. They would literally go into armories and list out the weaponry they needed for the teams. As we learned about that, we would have alternate forms of ammo and modified forms of weaponry in the game."

Lamia continues: "We do our research, which are our inspirations, and we strive for authenticity. But we create our fictions from looking at all of this. It was exciting for the team to do something it had not done before with Call of Duty."

The modified military crossbow seen in the preview level, Lamia says, "is a great example of how elite black ops teams were permitted to equip themselves for whatever job they had at hand, which means that they could get a hold of anything and modify it any way they wanted to accomplish their missions objectives. The specific crossbow in the game is based off the design of a military grade crossbow. The use of the our crossbow was inspired by a story we heard about from Major Plaster about a member of SOG who would equip himself with a bow for some of his real-life missions, and our research, which showed its use by indigenous warriors in Vietnam that fought with special forces. In our case here, it served this mission as a dual-purpose weapon used for stealth, and one which when modified, could stealthily and precisely place a lethal explosive at range."

From the initial piloting of a reconnaissance aircraft to on the ground combat in the Soviet Union -- and several other examples of action in different settings -- Black Ops seeks to push Treyarch's Call of Duty missions to a new level. "Variety of gameplay. Variety of setting. There is a real focus and an attention to detail and pacing," Lamia says.

Readers, excited about Call of Duty: Black Ops?