Black Ops III is quickly shaping up to be one of the best Call of Duty games ever made. That’s the overriding impression I have after spending a few days with only a fraction of its multiplayer content. Although inherently familiar, there’s an exciting concoction of fresh ideas at play here, hand-picked from elsewhere within the online gaming spectrum. As a result, Black Ops III feels both intuitive and reactive at the same time, skirting around some of its biggest competitors while mimicking others. Some of its best ideas may not be of Treyarch’s own design yet they come together beautifully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpm1yk3enzY
At the centre of this new multiplayer experience stands a roster of elite operatives known as Specialists. Instead of filling the boots of a randomly generated grunt or designing your own, Black Ops III has something akin to a character select screen where players can pick which Specialist to take into battle. Each one has their own personality and cosmetic traits, as well as two powerful abilities exclusive to that particular character.
Using the single unlock token available to them, players are given access to one of four starter Specialists including Ruin, Outrider, Prophet, and Battery. At first, this made me a little hesitant. It’s a completely foreign way of introducing Call of Duty’s multiplayer and almost felt like choosing my first ever Pokémon in Professor Oak’s laboratory – minus the adorable little monster, mind you.
The choice isn’t a permanent one as I immediately found out, scrolling through the currently unavailable Specialists, nor is each character its own separate entity. Although they imbue players with unique and helpful gameplay modifiers, they all share from one custom-made list of loadouts, replete with any unlocks you purchase as you rank up.
Still, despite there being no fundamental difference between them, the mere presence of these Specialists alone shows how Black Ops III is drawing inspiration from some rather unconventional places – namely, the burgeoning MOBA scene. Games such as League of Legends and DOTA 2 have long surpassed Call of Duty in terms of online player counts, boasting millions of fans and spectators around the world. With these huge multiplayer titles placing a heavy focus on pre-made characters, it’s no coincidence that Treyarch has made a move in the same direction.
Of course, as touched on before, there’s only so much the developer can do to enhance Specialists without breaking the Call of Duty template. Therefore, each one has access to only one of two abilities at a time. Upon scraping together enough points, players can then pop these powers in-game, usually allowing them to dominate their portion of the map for a short time period.
For example, Battery’s special (or “ulti”) will place a War Machine in the player’s hands, allowing them to spew a clip of grenades using the launcher’s explosive triple-shot fire. Meanwhile, Prophet can summon the arc-firing Tempest and Outrider will nock a high-power composite bow. In a single match, you can expect to activate at least one or two of these powers to devastating effect. It’s here that Black Ops III mimics one of its biggest rivals, this time a little closer to home. When using Ruin’s Gravity Spikes – a supercharged area attack – I couldn’t help feeling as though my Titan from Destiny had popped into the match for a quick hello.
Titanfall is another game Treyarch has had in its crosshairs. Although Advanced Warfare mimicked the EA shooter’s enhanced mobility with a double-jumping exoskeleton, Black Ops III takes it a step further with the inclusion of wall-running. In addition to regular walls to run along, each map will have a few key spots in which players can run across vertical surfaces, some of which are precariously placed over huge drops. This new feature, combined with a more stable jump boost, gives players more options to navigate their surroundings. There’s even a new powerslide function, letting you whip between cover points without drawing enemy fire.
Some constants still remain, however. First conceived for Black Ops 2, you have the Pick 10 version of the loadout creation system, and for better or worse, Call of Duty’s catalogue of scorestreaks is back once again, littering the battlefield with supply drops and airstrikes every few minutes. As annoying as they are when on the receiving end, there’s plenty of fun to be had when you’re the one punishing the enemy team.
Needless to say, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be an off-year for the Call of Duty franchise. For me, personally, it’s the most fun I’ve had with multiplayer since the original Black Ops and World At War. Although the many smaller refinements have something to do with this, it’s the Specialists that really caught my attention. By adding real characters to the multiplayer, there’s a sense of personality that was previously missing and I just hope Treyarch can capitalize on this, especially with other online shooters like Overwatch and Paladins adopting the same approach.
Youles
I’ve found the Beta underwhelming. All the menus and custom class screens look incredible yet when you’re thrown in the matches (after the ugly loading screen), it just looks like a cross between Black Ops 2 and Advanced Warfare. Level design is basic and boring, and it appears they’ve decided to drop any kind of texture detail to enable the game to run super fast (have you seen how ridiculously fast the character activate their UAV)? As such it appears clinical and ugly, in my opinion, not gritty and realistic like older CoDs – think maps like Downpour in CoD4 or Underpass in MW2. It’s almost like an Arena shooter, bouncing around like Quake III. It’s not Call of Duty anymore, it’s some Sci-Fi shooter. Coincidentally I will still buy this, but for zombies, as I more than get my monies worth from that mode alone.
Tuffcub
Kinda agree with Youles, I watched some footage and thought it was more like Quake than CoD.
Tuffcub
We already have Halo, and Killzone, and Destiny. CoD was always a military shooter, it’s gone a bit silly for my liking.
Youles
I concur TC.
Jim Hargreaves
That’s the thing, though. As much as I revere Modern Warfare and the criminally underrated World at War, I don’t we’re going to see a return to that template any time soon.
Such fond memories have made it difficult to enjoy some of the more recent CODs. Black Ops III has almost severed that tie completely, something which actually works in its favour.
As for the maps, we’ve only seen three so far. Although I’ll admit two of there weren’t fantastic, the jungle complex map (with the underwater section) was a really nice blend of obstacles and geographical elements.
Youles
I guess I’m stuck in my old ways, being a mature (age, not behaviour) gamer – I guess this is what the people of today want. I just find it disappointing to see, as someone how loved the earlier CoD2 Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 games. I had hoped with 3 different developers we wouldn’t have had 2 futuristic games in succession. Perhaps I’ll have to overlook it on this occasion as this is part of a (presumably pre-planned) trilogy.
If CoD does move away for the current-day military shooter genre entirely, then it’ll be bad for us consumers as Battlefield won’t have any competition.
leeroye
“Black Ops III is quickly shaping up to be one of the best Call of Duty games ever made.”
This line must be printed somewhere about every CoD game released!!! Let the hype train begin.
I have spent a few hours on it and I wouldn’t agree with that statement at all. What so different about it to every other COD game? Over the top killstreaks, check, game breaking lag built into netcode, check, No deiciated servers, check. I could go on.
They have brought in specialists, which really all that is, is an extra ability you get to use for a few short seconds once you have scored enough points.
This game is the same old shite they have been churning out for years, this was the last place I expected to see a hype article. Oh well.
Jim Hargreaves
Well, opinions vary from writer to writer. As mentioned in the preview, it’s the first Call Of Duty I’ve warmed to since World At War and (at a push) the original Black Ops.
I genuinely wouldn’t write it off, especially if the co-op campaign can hold up its end.
Gareth Chadwick
You disagree with the writer, therefore this whole article is just for hype?
Blayney
This is so far removed from the Call of Duty I knew and loves. The last good Call of Duty was maybe Black Ops. Modern Warfare 2 was the peak of multiplayer. Modern Warfare is still the best.
I picked up Ghosts and played it for a week. It was okay. I totally skipped Advanced Warfare.
If someone did a ps4 update of Modern Warfare 2 with all the DLC for that game and didn’t add any of this arena shooter garnish on top I’d buy it in an instant. This I will happily give a miss.
I am more interested in seeing what Rainbow Six Siege is like.
hornet1990
Despite my general dislike for them I’m still hoping for a remaster of either MW, MW2 or the original Blops for a return to the old style of gameplay.
blast71
Currently waiting for this to download before I have a bash. I’ve enjoyed advanced warfare in small doses, extinction is still my personal fave of the last few cods tho.
hornet1990
Must say it did feel instantly comfortable, with very much a Blops2 vibe. However within a few minutes in my first match I was bombarded with a series of announcements of killstreaks etc that left me thinking “WTH?” – I mean seriously, when you introduce a whole bunch of new names and terminology is it too much to ask for a manual, or popups/help system telling me what x that has been called in is? Every now and again I kept being “illuminated” red – no idea why! I’m sure it means I’m visible to someones perk, or being targeted or something…
But I do agree with the general comments here, it’s not the COD of old, but it’s not quite the ridiculousness of AWs movement either. Probably not something I’ll be picking up until it’s cheap though. About the only saving grace for it may be zombies, like extinction was for Ghosts, but until we get to play that who knows.
Starman
I think as they’ve added more gimmicks each year they’re afraid to strip it back for fear of it being called lazy, running out of ideas etc. Though it seems there’s a big demand for a more basic CoD like WaW or CoD4.
MrJimmy
Grrr that CoD discussion again, every freaking round! I’m not playing, not a word more from me until I play it, and I won’t buy it unless it proves very different, which it won’t. I WOULD buy zombies separately for 25 or so…
blast71
I much prefer the classic option on advanced warfare, gimmicks schmimmicks ;)