| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 4 | 7.00 |
| Overall | 7.00 |
|
I have taken a two year break from Call of Duty, I have never been a big fan but I get dumb enjoyment from some campaigns. Black Ops 3 seemed to be one of the better ones as treyarch had three years to make this game. The amount of content is staggering and the focus on movement and powers got me interested so I jumped back in. Well it's still Call of Duty. Let's start with why everyone plays these games, the campaign! Ok so everyone seems to hate this one, I kind of liked it. It's still really stupid simple fun but this one has the advantage of giving the player some options with skills and powers. If you give me options in combat where I actually can think and come up with different strategies that is not all “shoot guy in head” then I am pleased. Most CoD games are mindless whack a mole roller coaster FPS, at least this one gives big environments with skills to use it against enemies. Those skills include a wall run, double jump, super speed and a whole assortment of powers that let you hack robots, control them, blind enemies, create diversions and so much more. I loved turning the tide of a battle by taking control of the enemies spider tank. I also liked the crazy hud with a ton of colors and icons giving you loads of info on enemy times and danger zones. It's still a linear simple FPS but the encounters were at least more fun than your average CoD campaign. But what took a hit were the huge scripted moments, of which there are some but not as many as previous games. Also the story is really weird going for a computer AI take over story rather than the usual America Fuck Yeah army story. I enjoyed it, I've played much worse. The star of the show is of course competitive multiplayer and this seems to be the most balanced and robust CoD in years. It plays great, gameplay is super responses, the new powers speed things up without changing the core shooting. Shooting is still super fast, enemies die within a second, it remains a twitch shooters dream. There are now different characters to choose from who have two special skills each. These skills are activated after a few minutes, you can usually get two to three of them in one match. They can be super weapons that kill enemies in one hit or more strategic ones like seeing enemies through walls or being able to teleport out of danger. Somehow all these skills don't unbalance the game at all, it's a testament to the careful planning that went into the multiplayer. There are loads of maps and modes to choose from and near endless things to unlock and level up. For every action you do there is some bar filling up toward a new level and unlock. Too me it's just overkill, leveling up lost its luster, I don't care about the new gun cause I just maxed out the old gun, now you want me to start over with a gun with no attachments. The maps are all pretty fun, there are standouts but all of them are fun to play. There are so many modes, the traditional ones play as you expect but the best one is a new one where your team has to escort a robot to the other side of the base while the other team tries to disable it. Matches are super intense as the fighting gets pumped into wherever the robot is. Black Ops 3 is still a CoD boys club, I find you are either good at this kind of game or not. The core is shooting people faster than they shoot you, you are either fast at aiming or not. To me the most boring aspect of an online game is shooting others so this bores me quickly. The new powers don't do enough to change the balance. The other modes outside deathmatch don't help either cause people rather shoot you in the head than go for the objective, It's all about KDR, so stupid. I can see why people that enjoy this style of shooter love these games, no game is as responsive and has as much content but man it's the most basic online shooter out there. Zombie mode is the third major mode and that too has loads of content. I didn't get to play much of it cause my psn buddies hate interesting and rather play the same mode over and over! Anyway it's still has rounds and the money progression going as other zombie modes but now there are these gumballs that give you buffs. The map is filled with secrets that can be accessed by transforming into a mutant monster that is like the darkness. It seemed like a cool mode, I was hoping for a more traditional campaign with levels and bosses but they want it to stay as a semi horde mode like thing. The sheer amount of content is quite impressive in this game. Once you finish the campaign you unlock zombie campaign which takes the same campaign and adds zombies and changes enemy encounters. Strangely you still have to watch all the scripted stuff again but the narrate a new story over it, kind of weird. I was not ready to play the campaign again so I skipped it but it seems like a nice challenge. The campaign has this mode where you go into a cyber arena and battle waves of enemies with every skill unlocked, it's a blast. There is also a top down shooter game included that is basically it's own game. Of course it has all the leveling up and unlockables all CoD games have, meaning people that love this have something they can play for months. Graphically it's very good, nothing groundbreaking but it moves at a great frame rate. It has a few known actors but nothing on the level of Kevin spacey, the acting is mostly garbage. Overall BO3 seems to be a return to form in the online arena, I wouldn't know because I don't care about that. What I like is that mechanically it is becoming more complex and maybe some day they will develop an interesting game around that. For now it's just another quality Call of Duty game. |
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Posted by Dvader Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:44:44
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 10:31:49
Outstanding review.
Sun, 03 Jan 2016 11:50:06
Eh. I'll replay Goldeneye instead.
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