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At this point, it seems pretty obvious to me that the people behind the Call of Duty franchise have decided to shift things in a more futuristic direction. I’m not against this because I think it opens the door for more gameplay options rather than just the typical “boots on the ground” style the series is known for. Technically, at the time they released, the Modern Warfare games were set in the future, but I think the franchise really started focusing more on let’s call it “high tech futuristic warfare” in Black Ops II. Infinity Ward dabbled more in science fiction by introducing aliens in Ghosts and Sledgehammer Games fully embraced the high tech futuristic stuff with Advanced Warfare.
In my opinion, Treyarch has developed the more interesting campaigns and have told the better stories. They like try new things with each game and Blacks Ops II was the biggest deviation from the established formula. It was quite refreshing so I was very curious to see what they would do with Black Ops III. Developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in November, 2015. For this review, I played the PC version. It is worth mentioning that the version released for seventh generation consoles is missing a lot of content including the campaign.
Set in the future during a third Cold War between two global alliances, the Winslow Accord and the Common Defense Pact, the story follows a black ops team working for the Winslow Accord. During a mission in Ethiopia, a combat robot critically wounds the protagonist. The protagonist undergoes cybernetic surgery which saves his or her life and is embedded with a direct neural interface (DNI). The DNI essentially grants the individual special abilities and allows them to connect with various robotics. When the team is sent to investigate a CIA black site in Singapore, they learn the data was stolen and the staff there was murdered which leads them to uncover a nasty secret behind the DNI.
Ultimately, I think the story is okay at best. I don’t think the characters were compelling enough to keep me engaged in how far “out there” the plot gets. It feels far gone from the previous Black Ops games and centers heavily on mind fucking and augmented soldiers. The big celebrity talent in this campaign is Christopher Meloni who plays Commander John Taylor. Actor Robert Picardo also makes an appearance. Black Ops III does see the return of the Zombies mode which comes with its own cast of celebrity talent including Heather Graham, Ron Perlman, Neal McDonough and Jeff Goldblum.
Blacks Ops III features one of the best campaigns in the series so far just for the gameplay alone. Much like Advanced Warfare, it’s your typical Call of Duty stuff but with the added benefit of special abilities. The campaign can be played solo or cooperatively and in my experience, the community is still active. In fact, I was able to play with others in both the campaign and Zombies. It was the multiplayer that was dead but you can play against bots. I also want to mention that the game does come with microtransactions, unfortunately.
Blacks Ops III is packed with content and gives players plenty of options when it comes to customization. You must create a character for the campaign and can unlock different outfits and helmets but you can also customize weapons and create your own paintjobs and emblems. Guns can be leveled up which unlocks new attachments and cosmetics for them. You will earn experience and level up during the campaign and earn various rewards including Fabrication Kits which can be spent to unlock weapons and Cybernetic Abilities. In between missions, you’ll get to roam around a safehouse where you can customize your character, loadouts, and access the Combat Immersion terminals where you can experiment with different weapons and abilities and try for high scores.
Most of the environments in the campaign are large and open-ended. In fact, during an early mission designed to show you the ropes, a character actually tells you there will often be multiple routes to take. Plus, all the abilities you have access to allow you to engage enemies in a variety of ways. Augmented soldiers can wall run and thrust jump thanks to their traversal enhancement tactical rig. Then there’s the Cyber Cores which let you utilize abilities like remotely hijacking enemy robots and turrets, making enemy robots and drones fight for you, locking down enemy weapons, and unleashing swarms of nano-bots to blind and burn foes. There’s all kinds of different abilities to use and the ones you have access to will depend on which Cyber Core you select.
This is by far one of the most replayable campaigns in the series. It gives you several reasons to return. In addition to leveling up and unlocking stuff, you can try out different loadouts with different weapon, attachment, and tactical rig combinations, try to complete all the accolades each mission has to offer, try for high scores, and try to complete the campaign on each difficulty. In fact, Black Ops III introduces a new difficulty called Realistic which is the hardest in the game. It requires both skill and patience. I ended up joining another player’s game and didn’t realize we were playing on Realistic at first so I found out the hard way. One bullet can drop you so needless to say, the gameplay can be quite challenging.
For the most part, the campaign’s pacing is pretty good. The action does slow down more in the early missions to show you how things work but when things finally get going, it remains pretty consistent. That said, there aren’t as many set pieces and scripted sequences here as there are in the previous titles. You will use a turret to defend a vehicle in one mission and a boat in another and at one point you’ll get to pilot an aircraft and use it to engage enemy aircraft and defenses but most of the campaign is made up of run and gun action. You’ll primarily engage soldiers, robots, drones, and heavily armored units like Warlords. There’s even some what I would consider boss battles.
The more open-ended environments were obviously designed to accommodate multiple players but whether you play with others or solo, the open-ended nature makes for a great time. You’re always given plenty of room to maneuver and experiment. There’s a lot of cool firefights in the game and with all the options your given in terms of loadouts, abilities, and routes – there are just so many ways to approach situations. I think my only gripe with the campaign is the numerous ASPs you have to battle. ASPs are basically giant battle tanks and you’ll have to engage them quite a few times throughout the campaign. There’s a very specific way to take them down and I felt these encounters just became repetitive. It’s as if the developers couldn’t think of another way to make certain encounters more challenging or interesting so they just throw ASPs at you, sometimes multiple. They’re not really hard to take down, they’re just time consuming and it’s the same thing every time. I guess they’re supposed to act as bosses or sub-bosses and in that case, I would have preferred more unique boss types that required different strategies instead.
The campaign will take you to a good variety of locations in Ethiopia, Singapore, and Egypt and due to DNI-related story reasons, you’ll also visit Bastogne during World War II and engage the Germans. The campaign even throws Zombies at you at one point. Speaking of Zombies, you can replay through the campaign again in the Nightmares mode. You play through the same missions but it comes with it’s own storyline and replaces most of the enemies with Zombies. They’ll drop power-ups and weapons with random skins and attachments and you can also acquire weapons from Magic Boxes found throughout the environments.
As for the Zombies mode, the core mechanics and gameplay are basically the same as that of the previous games. You run around maps shooting Zombies to earn points that can be spent on various things including new weapons, Perk-a-Colas, and access to new areas among other stuff. The community does appear to be still active, more so than the previous games in my experience. I didn’t always find people to play with but did more often than not, although it does depend on the map. Some are more popular than others.
One of the biggest new features is Gobblegums. These are consumable items that grant specific and largely temporary bonuses during matches. They are acquired from Gobblegum machines in the maps and you can customize different Gobblegum packs and choose one before jumping into a match. Furthermore, you can craft mega versions of the Gobblegums in Dr. Monty’s Factory and even convert those into other mega Gobblegums through the use of distills and new recipes are available daily.
Zombies are also present in Dead Ops Arcade II which is similar to the first Dead Ops Arcade in Black Ops. It plays like a twin-stick shooter and the objective is to survive hordes of Zombies in each area as you make your way to the final boss. There is some new stuff like minigames and new power-ups including one that puts you in the first-person view. Dead Ops Arcade II can be accessed from the Bonus menu along with the Nightmares mode and Free Run which is a mode that centers on movement. It comes with several courses and your objective in each one is to reach the end as quickly as possible. You’ll have to run, jump, slide, and wall run. It’s not my favorite mode but it’s a nice little addition and a good way to practice using the traversal mechanics.
Visually, I don’t think Black Ops III looks quite as good as its predecessor but it certainly doesn’t look bad. The character and weapon models look great, I love the visual and particle effects, the texture work and lighting is good, and the environments are detailed. The action is accompanied by some excellent tunes. The songs range from sounding dramatic to heroic and even the Zombies mode comes with great tunes including some catchy jazz stuff. Overall, not unlike its many predecessors, Black Ops III is pleasing on the eyes and ears. On the technical side, some cut scenes were choppy from time to time but the gameplay was smooth. Other than that, I can’t say I encountered any major issues.
I think Treyarch has outdone the other primarily Call of Duty developers’ most recent games. I think Black Ops III easily blows away Infinity Ward’s Ghosts and surpasses Sledgehammer Games’ Advanced Warfare. In some ways, Black Ops III feels like a continuation of Advanced Warfare with all the high tech augmentation stuff but I feel Treyarch designed their campaign much better. Mainly because it doesn’t restrict you as much as Advanced Warfare. Interestingly enough though, I think this is one of Treyarch’s weaker storylines. But in terms of gameplay, this might just be my favorite Call of Duty game up to this point. This should set a precedent for the future titles.
Even if you strip out all the futuristic and augmentation stuff, I think this would still be a phenomenal campaign because it has all the right ingredients. It’s action-packed, the environments are open-ended, there’s plenty of reasons to return, the progression and reward systems can be addictive, and the pacing is pretty good. Outside of some of the early missions like the one that introduces you to the cyber abilities, the action doesn’t really slow down all that often. Plus, cut scenes and many story beat interactions can be skipped. Best of all, you’re not restricted to playing through the campaign solo. But that’s not all. The multiplayer was dead in my experience so I can’t really comment on it but the Zombies mode is just as fun as ever and the game even supports mods.
I would absolutely recommend Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It’s packed with content that can be enjoyed solo or with others. From the fun campaign to the Zombies mode to the progression and customization, there’s a lot to see, do and unlock. It’s fun, addictive, and in my opinion, Black Ops III is one of the best games in the series so far. Definitely check it out.