Call of Duty: Black Ops III review

Written by Vasilis Zafiridis

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and released by Activision. While initially it was announced that will be released on February 5, 2015, he was 9 months late, with a final release date on November 6, 2015. Black Ops III is the twelfth game in the series Call of Duty. It took three years to develop it.

Before Call of Duty: Black Ops III prior to Call of Duty: World At War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the last Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

If we can say that Call of Duty is a well-oiled machine, the Black Ops III is a replacement, make the wheels move for another year. It presents minimal changes to an established formula, the team that wins does not change , and in some game elements, which reach their peak, thanks to Treyarch design team. However, Call of Duty: Black Ops III has great lack in inspiration.

The Treyarch had set the bar very high with its contribution in the series Call of Duty. In the first game of the series, he has presented a complex, attractive campaign with vivid characters and historical conspiracies. In Black Ops II renewed the adaptation of multiplayer and gave deeper choices for a player  and competitive experience. And now, in Black Ops III, we see something similar, but with more plot options and results.

In the new Black Ops III of Treyarch there is a new drive system, allowing players to move smoothly into the environment using controlled impulse jumps and many new capabilities, while maintaining complete control over your gun at any time. We see the soldiers of the future of humanity, dressed in armor made of titanium and equipped with multi-million weapons. There is also a new option in the customization of the character. You can still have the traditional loadout system with 10 slots for the player for weapons, items and equipment.

Each character carries a powerful weapon or a special ability, which charges several times during the game. You have to choose between these two, since you can have only one weapon each time. For example, if the Outrider is equipped with Sparrow compount bow, she shoots explosive arrows at enemies. If however, is selected Vision Ability, which as a careful player I prefer, you may reveal the figures of the enemies behind walls, allowing your group to approach them much easier and you have a better sense of the whole situation.

This dichotomy between powerful weapons and capabilities-and the possibilities that reveal - lead us to exciting battles scenarios.

But this sense of exploration fades as time passes. Black Ops III gives access to four characters from the beginning (John Taylor, Sarah Hall, Jacob Hendricks, Rachel Kane), and other options are unlocked later with trickle. By the time I unlocked Seraph and the One Shot Annihilator handgun ability at level 22, both of her skills didn't offere sufficient variety to keep me pretty excited for the next unlocking. This brings Black Ops III to evoke a more general experience Call of Duty.

Multiplayer

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the multiplayer of Black Ops III offers one of the best-designed maps of the series. Each arena is a mix of different shooter areas, feverish collision points and variety of uneven territories. The new movement system additionally creates an action - reaction dynamic. You can run on walls, sliding to the ground avoiding enemy gunfights and arrive in places you could not reach before. In short, Black Ops III is fluid. And this is something that I like.

But the lack of variety after 10 hours of play, removes all the excitement you have in the beginning. The usual progression is based on experience and even the variety of weapons and equipment unlocked, they may be enough to keep some players awake. But not for me. The proverbial carrot still hanging in front of us-just  smaller than usual (are we however donkeys?)

Guns and Zombies

The weapons found in the game are:

Submachine guns

Kuda · VMP · Weevil · Vesper · Pharo · Razorback · Bootlegger (ZM)

Rifles

KN-44 · XR-2 · HVK-30 · ICR-1 · Man-O-War · Sheiva · M8A7

Carbines

KRM-262 · 205 Brecci · Haymaker 12 · Argus

A sense of continuity in multiplayer of Black Ops III and maintaining a question of balance, comes fully to the new map Zombies, Shadow of Evil. Imagine a fictional city in the 40s, populated by  Cthulhu and you see everywhere portals for spaceships. There are four characters played by Jeff Goldblum, Ron Perlman, Heather Graham and Neal McDonough - actors picked as from noir novels of Raymond Chandler. Imagine constantly shooting a crowd of bloodthirsty corpses under the unaccented sounds of a saxophone. Do not make mistake. This picture with Zombies is strange. But it is also fantastic.

The exploration pushes things as our four friends march among hordes of undead. It dominates a simmering mystery as you choose which doors will unlock after, what weapons are proved effective and what the heck does this green glowing plant. Here is the difficulty. I managed to pass round 4 very difficulty with 10 attempts.

The new  Zombies design make their way on the map, new Perks Machine for weapons, and the smallest detail to the heroes and Zombies are unique. Furthermore collect EXp's from the Zombies and level up. Fighting zombies anyway, now more than ever, is an evolving exciting experience. Surviving the streets of this strange world, it is itself a reward. Once reached 20º level, I began to feel like a veteran

Nightmares

The horde of undead make their way in another mode of the game. It called Nightmares and it is unlocked after finishing the campaign. Treyarch has recycled the campaign missions Black Ops III - level design, objectives, animation of the character etc. Now there are Zombies and a booming voice from an anonymous character. Believe it or not, it works. There is a slower pace in the missions here. The Treyarch let things take their time.

General evaluation

The traditional campaign mode is a chore. After a torture scene - which has become common in the universe of Black Ops -you are transported between waves of enemies on your next target. There are of course some branches in this pattern. Dogfights, large turret missions, underwater escapes. But somehow I was on autopilot until the fifth mission and obedient to his routine: "aim, shoot, reload, repeat".

There are fleeting moments that some changes in the plot, change the way you play. So driving enemy drones, knocking down enemies or put fire to robot's internal systems. These skills would have greater effect if there was  variety in enemies. 

While Black Ops III offers the option to play the campaign with your team, however the degree of difficulty rises with this option. Instead of creating better scenarios, including cooperation and communication among four players, Black Ops III decides to throw in the battle more difficult enemies. A Warlord, an enemy that needs quite a few bullets to be killed, it is quite annoying. Four of them are simply irritating.

In the mode with the Zombies and the first 10 hours of multiplayer, the game excels. But in the main campaign, barely advances. Black Ops III does not offer anything remarkable but gives as much as needed to maintain  Call of Duty's status quo.  The series relentlessly continues its course.