Call of Duty Black Ops 3 – New Lease of Life?

INTRODUCTION

Developer:  Treyarch
Game: Black Ops 3 for Playstation 4
Price: £38.99 (at time of review)

Today we are taking a look into the world of Call of Duty Black Ops 3, more specifically on Playstation 4. Black Ops 3 is developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It has been released on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One and also had a feature limited release on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 which only supports multiplayer game modes.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay of Black Ops 3 flows very well and features a lot of development from the original game. We can see, over the years of development, the Black Ops series flourish both graphically and dynamically. Starting with the movement and usability of the game, Black Ops follows your traditional set up per platform like most FPS games but uses this to its advantage in such a way that it feels like you are immersed within the game itself. The originally Black Ops felt a little rusty, movement was basic and only offered simple features for the player while exploring its singleplayer, zombies and multiplayer. Moving onto Black Ops 2, there were a few cool additions that assisted the game to flow in a different fashion such as the addition of futuristic abilities that helped the player maneuver his/her surroundings.  Now we see Black Ops 3 offering a huge development that has bridged the gap from past and preset to the future, with bio-suits, power perks (online) and a whole new arsenal. These extras as the franchise has gone on have now aided players with grasping the adaptability that comes with smooth gameplay while interacting with the environment.

Single player takes the player through the basics to start, like most games, but is very confusing to say the least. We are taken on a train full of flashbacks, literally, while we come to terms with what has occurred in the life of the character we are currently charging through robots and jumping from building to building. If you can deal with the amnesia themed games where the player must learn who they are as they play then this game is for you but for those of you who struggle to grasp stories that throw you from one side of the planet to another galaxy, like myself, then it may come as a shock to you while entering the campaign. This was a downside for me as when getting to grips with the way the game plays, your surrounding and playing while unraveling a story from 3 corners of the tense can get very confusing if not aggravating. The singleplayer generally plays well once you come to terms with the mechanics and extras like wall running and sliding around on the floor, it keeps the flow of movement going while you battle through a vast variety of enemies. It will take a while to grasp when you can transition between controls/actions but once you have that under your belt, expect to make every moment look like an outtake from the Terminator. Graphics are same old for your typical Call of Duty game, a little far behind games like Battlefield but still doesn’t take away from the adrenaline rush. We would like to warn you however, the content int he game can be a little … graphic … violent … gory and a little sadistic at times.

Multiplayer feels very incomplete in many ways, with net-script being everywhere and connection/ping rate being the decision between who shot and killed the other person first. From playing on a bad and good connection, the ability to kill you enemy did seem entirely based on who was running the higher upload an download speeds. Either way, the experience of multiplayer was very similar to Black Ops 2 and felt like leaps ahead of the original Black Ops game. There doesn’t seem to be many game modes in comparison to other titles in the Call of Duty franchise which could have made for some great gameplay but we cant have everything. We certainly miss infected and wager matches like one in the chamber and sticks n stones. Having said that, they have introduced two new gamemodes, Uplink and Safeguard. Uplink  (as seen above) is a futuristic game of basket ball, you need to pick up the ball and score in the enemy teams orb to score points. Safeguard is an escort style game where teams must escort a robot to a specific location. We found that most gamemodes were not nearly long enough and most felt very competitive, feeling bored after an hour or two of online game time.. Adding in some wager matches and apposing currency would make things a little interesting, or alternatively add a large conquest style game type could add for some great gameplay.

Once again, we see the return of the famous Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies, but this time we was VERY disappointing.

You start, with no incline as what you need to do except survive and waste infinite amounts of ammo killing waves of the undead. Your original Black Ops Zombies was straight forward, just buy and upgrade guns to kill and follow the simple story mode while batting off the dead with real world weaponry. Now we have squids, meatball looking rolling ball … things, plants that look like aliens and eat things as well as the most complex story known to man. We disliked it so much that after 3 hours gametime, we put the game to one side with a confused look on our face as though to say “What did I just play”. The only thing we liked was the 1940s style which was very original but a shame to be filled with futuristic weaponry and more aliens than Star Wars!

With the Season Pass readily available, you can pay £35 to receive all 4 DLCs for Black Ops 3 which includes maps from the past 2 Black Ops games and World at War. Each DLC contains 4 multiplayer map pack and one zombies map. The Season Pass does NOT include the NUK3TOWN map though so be warned.

AUDIO AND GRAPHICS

Black Ops 3 audio was actually very disappointing, re-using old audio clips form past games which are distinct enough to know straight away the developers were too lazy to revamp them in some way. Rock guitar solos and general undertones have been added to the game but this tends to be very annoying as with the Playstation 4 version, the audio comes form the controller, a feature that was quickly disabled. Some more effort could have been added here and there but generally, the audio for Black Ops 3 is OK.

Graphics wise, the game won’t win many awards if compared to rival series Battlefield but it still follows the good ol’ fashioned Black Ops styled. Developed form the original and much earlier version used on Black Ops, we can see the hardware being put to good use in the latest gen consoles. The graphics are gentle to the eye and textures are sharp where applicable.

CONCLUSION

Overall, Black Ops 3 was more of a disappointment considering the hype that lead to its arrival on 6th November (UK) with the game seemingly rushed prior to being on the market. Some features adapted from previous titles should have stayed there as previously, fans have complied about the reoccurring use of annoying concepts like futuristic warfare and “bio suits”. Having said that however, there are a few good points that did not let us down like the well designed structure of the controls that allow the player to immerse themselves in the game and follow movement after movement as they play through numerous maps and levels. Value wise, the heavy price-tag cannot justify itself to us as Black Ops 3 feels like more like a recycled game. There are hours of fun to be had with the singleplayer, multiplayer and zombie mode, made even more entertaining when playing with friends but this does not speak levels to us that other titles in the franchise has offered.

With every Call of Duty game to date, there are always good and bad points. Many will argue the case regardless of the facts but the information we have disclosed as part of this review are solely of our own unbias take on the latest title by developers Trayarch.

So, what do you think of Black Ops 3? Worth the money or just a pit of fire awaiting fans to jump right into? Let us know what you think!