New Additions create a new COD experience
(Reviewed on playstation 4)
By Austin M., ’19
This year’s new call of duty titled Black Ops 3 was released November 6 and this installment from veteran studio Treyarch is full of firsts for the series. Everything from new multiplayer specialists to an entirely revamped zombies experience call of duty has created something entirely unique this year. However with new additions come new problems, that take away from this otherwise fantastic call of duty.
Multiplayer
The cover art of the long awaited Black Ops 3. Image courtesy of Erin Kaine from Forbes online magazine
The incorporation of specialists was a surprisingly smooth transition, which like last years incorporation of exo-suits into multiplayer, was a seemingly odd element to add to the series but it felt like it had been there the entire franchise. However specialists feel in place, some just seem unnecessary compared to the usefulness others. For instance Ruin’s overdrive ability allows the player to run extremely fast but it’s pretty much a faster way to get killed, and when there are abilities like Rogue’s sparrow, a bow that shoots explosive arrows, there’s no reason to use overdrive.
Lobbies occasionally crash and often take a while to enter, but that’s not their largest problem. High level players dominate lobbies filled with weaker players and manage kill/death ratios of 50-3 on occasions. This can be really frustrating if you’re a low level player trying to gain xp only to find yourself being bullied out of it by a level 54. If you play smart you can still get kills on higher levels, just be aware of what may be around the corner before charging into a room.
Campaign
A more personalized approach has been taken on the too often dry and replayed campaigns of the past. Unfortunately the approach fails to affect the story and emotional aspect of the campaign. The new DNI abilities allow for extremely fun new ways to take on a fight, whether that be unleashing a swarm of robotic bees to attack the enemies, or hacking the sentry gun they’re hiding behind and using it to mow down half their forces without them even knowing what happened.
This is all fun and great but having to pause the game and contemplate what’s happening, why the black ops are attacking this place or just trying to figure out some of the technical jibber jabber takes away from the campaign tremendously. The campaign feels like a really long mission pulled out of a Mass Effect game and not like your usual call of duty campaign, which is surprisingly a negative thing.
Zombies
As with the rest of the game, Black Ops 3 has a unique twists on the beloved zombies mode with its own leveling up system similar to multiplayer and cool new things to buy like gobble gum. The new map Shadows of Evil is absolutely massive, with loads of new weapons, traps, and the new beast mode which allows players to transform into a massive squid like creature for a limited time. Although there are lots of new things to do, it seems almost impossible to achieve them as the map is one of the hardest to date. Not to say that it isn’t fun, discovering new things you didn’t even know were there before is a really cool thing to experience while playing alongside your friends.
Conclusion
Black ops 3 is a thrill ride of a call of duty game. Things seem harder to complete, but when you finally achieve them there’s a real rewarding feeling that comes when you call in your RAP ship in multiplayer, or finally pack a punch your gun in zombies. Everything seems a little better knowing that you had to play smarter and quicker than ever before to reach that point. For the games consistent $60 price point this year’s call of duty is a worthy purchase. My friends and I are often frustrated with the game but when we look back we feel great about how far we grinded the last game and look forward to make a little farther next game.
Rating: 8.5/10