Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Video Game Review)

Activision and Treyarch will release Call of Duty: Black Ops III on November 6th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC with a limited version on PS3 and Xbox 360. BioGamer Girl got some hands-on time with the new release, and we are excited to share our thoughts. Read on.

It's that time of year again and Call of Duty fans are gearing up for another exciting release in the series. Call of Duty comes every year and has become a regular tradition for gamers in November--much like turkey and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving day. The first Call of Duty debuted in 2003 and now over a dozen installments later gamers are hoping for another blockbuster release on November 6th. Does Call of Duty: Black Ops III take the cake and deliver a mouth-watering surprise for fans? Am I hungry? The answer is "Yes" to both of those.

Most of November--all you will hear is Call of Duty this and Call of Duty that. You know why? Because it is that freakin' good! Black Ops III decided to give long time fans more of what they always wanted--ZOMBIES! Everywhere you look in the game there they are...those little flesh eating monsters smiling at you with a mouth of rotten teeth ready to make you their next meal. Most of the time you don't want that creepy dude staring at you from across the room, but in the case of Zombies, it is a welcoming feeling.

Black Ops III starts out like most fairy tales--in a desolate future where the human race has literally crumbled beneath a world built on desperation and despair. Technology has taken over with humans being more machine than flesh and blood. The military has started to make robotics a key part of combat and has developed supersoliders to fight on the front lines. It seems like a lot of things have changed in the year 2065 with science and technology shaping society into mindless drones bent on being more super than human.

The game's campaign starts out with a leak that cripples military defenses around the world. Your Black Ops team is sent to investigate and extract  fellow soliders from enemy territory. The campaign has been designed for four-player online co-op with customizable weapons, loadouts, abilities, outfits, and progression systems.



A new open area design allows players to take on enemies with an impressive new momentum-based, chain movement system allowing 360-degrees of motion across their environments. Combining thrust jumps, power slides and wall running now delivers a more fluid way to maneuver across maps and take down enemy forces. New cybernetic modifications like Cyber Cores and Tactical Rigs provide players with new abilities and upgrades to further enhance the combat experience.

In between campaigns, players are able to visit the safe house to customize their weapons & loadouts, view their achievements and search through information in the game's wiki.  The campaign can be completed as you wish with all of the chapters being available from the start to promote 4-player co-op. The storyline for Black Ops III is probably one of the weirdest ones in the franchise's history, but many diehard fans will love it. Once you beat the campaign, players unlock 'Nightmares' mode which replaces the campaign's enemies with blood-thirty zombies. The game's characters are well-written and the voice acting is impeccable. And did we mention that the graphics and animations are mind-blowingly realistic?! There is also a fun mini-game hidden within the campaign, Dead Ops Arcade II. Black Ops III looks and plays fantastically, but what blew us away the most was the new multiplayer features and badass zombie mode.

Black Op's III has added nine new specialists to the game's multiplayer mode with each one having their own unique look, personality, abilities and weapons. Players no longer have to step into the shoes of some anonymous character and can now level up through each one's unique unlock progression system. On top of this, Treyarch has added a new Gunsmith system that lets you customize your weapon with up to five attachments, emblems, and optics. To further create your signature weapon, layers can now design their own graphics to display on the side of their guns. The new movement system has entirely changed the combat mechanics and made multiplayer ten times better than any of the previous releases. Add in 12 new maps like Hunted, Stronghold and Evac and you have got a boatload of replay value!

Now to the best part of Black Ops III--the Zombies! The new zombies mode 'Shadows of Evil' takes players away from the war-torn world of Black Ops III and into a 1940s film-noir era. The action-packed co-op survival experience introduces four characters--the Magician, the Femme-Fatale, the Cop and the Boxer. Players are thrust into an eerie world controlled by the Shadow Man. He offers the characters redemption and the path that lies before them is full of challenges and dark secrets. The voices and likeness are played perfectly by Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Independence Day), Heather Graham (The Hangover 1-3, Californication), Neil McDonough (Captain America: The First Avenger, Band of Brothers), Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy) and Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1). Zombies mode has transformed into its very own game, and the Shadows of Evil map alone is reason enough to pick up Black Ops III.



Shadows of Evil starts out with a beautiful animation giving players the backstories of the characters they are about to play. After it ends, you find yourself locked in an area with three other strangers with a shadowy figure lurking above. You are given around a minute or so to look around before the first horde of zombies start coming at you. Between each wave of undead, players have but seconds to form a strategy and make preparations. One of your options against the undead is the ability to change into the 'Beast' which allows access to hidden locations and items. The more undead you slay--the more in-game currency you earn. This currency can then be used to purchase better weapons, ammo, and items. Gumball machines are located throughout the map and allow players to gain special abilities for short periods of time. The mode's intriguing storyline and full XP-based progression system really adds a great depth of immersion and replayability.

In the end, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a fantastic title thanks to its impressive visuals, realistic sounds, innovative mechanics and superb storyline. The addition of 4-player co-op for the campaign, the nine specialist classes and the amazing zombie mode really making Black Ops III one of the best multiplayer games to release this year.

Score: 9.5 out of 10
Reviewed for PS4

Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision Publishing, Inc.
Release Date: November 6, 2015 (global)
Platforms: PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, Windows PC (Beenox and Mercenary Technology are developing Call of Duty: Black Ops III for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360*)
Website: https://www.callofduty.com/blackops3