There’s a popular fallacy about the CoD brand in the “after WWII” era: the Campaign is a side item to the other experiences. To be fair, one or two in the “Modern” timeline weren’t consistent in terms of validity. And while it’s true that the replay value might not be that of multiplayer or Zombies, that doesn’t ensnare the mode as cursory fare. This hackneyed sentiment doesn’t bedraggle the BOIII story experience. You’ll start by either choosing a male or female Operative (each with a handful of face selections), and difficulty level (Recruit, Regular, Hardened, Veteran, or Realistic). After these decisions, you’re sent back into the future, where the rules of combat are at the mercy of technological advancement. A corporation called Coalescence has developed a new form of AI that can adapt to other software around the world to make all important applications faster, smarter, and more reliable. Only problem is the delivery never made it to its destination. A terrorist group called the 54 Immortals bombed the transport train and hijacked the tech. Your mission is to track down the 54i and bring a stop to their plans, whatever they may be. Luckily, you won’t have to go it alone. Throughout the 11 levels, you’ll team up with folks (Jacob Hendricks, Sebastian Diaz, Edward Taylor, Peter Maretti, Sarah Hall, Rachel Kane, ect.) that’ll assist in combat and teach you the ways of new in-game abilities. At the core of player features lies the Direct Neural Interface system, or DNI. This construct creates a sort of “smart HUD” that marks pertinent conditions of the battlefield, and adapts to them in real time. Everything from enemy positions, to ammo supplies, to live grenades, it’s all visually pronounced and is critical to your effectiveness as a soldier. I tried tapping left on the D-pad to disable DNI for the sake of experimentation, and I made it all of a minute before switching it back. It’s so entrenched in the way the mode was designed that to play without it makes you feel inept and way less lethal. Also new in BOIII are Cyber Cores. These power-ups have varying degrees of impact and cool down time, but are all beneficial and creative. The system is broken down into three categories, all with several unlockable choices. Control features hacks that tap into the DNI of baddies with debilitating recourse. Augmentation Breakdown, for example, forces robots to shut down for several seconds, making them stationary targets. Martial types offer stealth and movement buffs, like Smokescreen, which lays down a dark cloud of cover that neither the human nor bot enemies can see through. And Chaos stores destructive items that tend to effect more individuals at once, such as Blinding Swarm unleashes hundreds of nanites programmed to shred through anything with the wrong DNI imprint. Additionally, each Cyber Core ability can be upgraded with the use of a Fabrication point, earned by ranking up in Campaign progression.
Fabrication tokens are also used to unlock new weapons and attachments that can be set in custom classes. Unlike other CoD Campaigns that relied on a system of arming you with the appropriate tools for the job before each mission or checkpoint, the onus is on you to set your five custom loadout slots to deal with any situation that may arise. The more you play and the better you perform, the quicker you move up in rank and can attain bigger, better, more bad ass gear for your kits. Tactical Rigs are another first for the franchise. These loadout options act as Perks that foster advanced movement techniques like boost jumps and wall running. You can choose a loadout before the start of each mission. And throughout the level, there will be special ammo crates that can be used to pick a different loadout. Often, these are manifested right before a showcase moment in the mission, which is very handy. All of the aforementioned customization options are accessible through the Safe House. Safe House is a roam-able menu area with multiple points of interest. Armory is the place to set those loadouts, and even fine tune certain aspects like changing the reticle for certain optic sights. Combat Immersion is a mini-game training mode that spawns rounds of hologram combatants of varying lethality that works well in getting you prepared for the most active of mission onslaughts. Armory has two facets: Gunsmith and Paintshop. In the former, all weapons and attachments can be selected to create mock ups of what each would look like with certain equipment while the latter is used for designing custom paint schemes and overlays with a plethora of available color and shape options. And Data Vault contains emblem and clan tag settings, the ever cryptic, yet informative Codex documents, and a big Easter Egg for all you twin stick enthusiasts that could easily sell on Steam for $12-$15.
Of course, all this evolution wouldn’t mean anything if gameplay wasn’t solid. Not only is it reliably consistent, but it’s consistently cranked up to 11 in all aspects. If not for the innovations listed above, it would probably be too verbose for its own good, but the increased heat forces you to use DNI and Cyber Cores and upgraded, personalized weapons, and Tac Rigs at their most opportune moments. In some ways, Campaign feels like an old school, mile-a-minute, CoD action-er. In others, it goes beyond previous aspirations of Treyarch’s other releases. It doesn’t avoid all banality, but it is necessary for BOIII to stay within the relative confines of the post-CoD 4 landscape. But these are contextual remarks. What it means for you as the player is that you won’t be subject to the old, tired CoD “thrill ride” tropes. Instead of force feeding you the exact perfect weapon at the exact right time, and telling you when to pull the trigger at the exact right second, the decision making process is left up to you 98% of the time. There are a few moments of “interactive CG movie,” but they usually push a key plot point and are a nice change of pace when they do occur. While we’re on the subject, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention why I was vague on narrative specifics in the first paragraph. If you noticed, I consistently played the pronoun game, in which I didn’t explicitly say the name of the main protagonist/playable character. That’s because, well, that’s not made abundantly clear. There are several intersecting and layered yarns at play. It’s woven in a way that pivotal events can be interpreted to support multiple theories about narrative developments. Justin Pauls of Gaming Trend dubbed it “David Lynch-ian,” which is an apropos descriptor. Senior Executive Producer, Director of Campaign and Zombies, and co-writer Mr. Jason Blundell didn’t scoff at the comparison to the famed director, but did say that he doesn’t think the story is “obtuse.” The way he explained it is major points can be looked at in a multitude of ways. If said points were arranged in a certain order, with a certain interpretation rooted in story facts, then it would create a valid way to explain the beginning, middle, and end of BOIII Campaign. Due to time constraints, I was only able to give it one play through, so I can neither defiantly confirm or deny this explanation. What I can say is that I’d imagine that being accurate, especially from the debates myself and other reviewers had after we’d all finished. What I did have time for was experimenting with single player and co-op runs. A new engine component determines how the resistance increases with the addition of more players that can drop in and out at any time. Beyond just determining the amount of baddies to propagate, it also adjusts their spawn locations, movement patterns, combat prowess, you name it. In practice, though, co-op is just easier than solo runs at the same difficulty. Even with a larger number of enemies and heightened sensitivity to the combat scenarios, the old adage of two (or three or four) heads being better than one rings true. Being able to coordinate attacks and movements is paramount to tackling sections quicker, not to mention the ability to revive downed teammates or simply respawning after death. Having said that, this really, really good Campaign experience does play better with multiple people, as all solid games do. One last note before I move on. As been previously announced, every mission is unlocked from the start, so you could theoretically play the last mission or two just to see “what happens.” Although there are a couple of motivations for not. First, (again) the story isn’t cut and dry, so attempting to derive the 90% of what you’d miss based on the ending would leave someone hella confused. And two, completing all missions unlocks a totally new and unannounced game mode. I won’t say anything about that because I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Just know that it is something that some fans have been champing at the bit about for some time and requires the same 12 or so hour time investment that Campaign proper does.
Speaking of multiple people, how about online play? Yes, it wouldn’t be a CoD release without a robust multiplayer infrastructure to contrive all important replay value. As many of you may know already from the open beta in August, this component of BOIII feels familiar enough to be in congruency with the other Treyarch release before it, but showed some new innovations that makes this experience its own. To get used to the changes in character control, you may want to hit up the first MP mode listed. Freerun is a challenge mode wrapped as a tutorial that has your running through obstacle courses, demanding use of enhanced movements to get through and mark low completion times. It’s not only the best way to understand the limitations of boosting and the most effective way to wall run, but it’s a legit time suck. The obstacles in each round are arranged in such a way that it begs for replays to shave fractions, if not entire seconds, off your time to beat. Freerun highlights one of the biggest positives about the MP package: the new modulations to movement are a natural addition. Many threw shade on Advanced Warfare‘s Exo Abilities, calling foul on the double jump in the way it would unnaturally jettison a player mid-air, making them a tough moving target. While I’m not one that despised AW mechanics, I can report that BOIII‘s take on boosting and wall running is much more fluid. Using the extended abilities isn’t done out of haste. The point is to use them to take advantage of map constructions, and quickly getting to places not easily accessible to attain and maintain map control. Water elements also play a huge role on some locations. Instead of the clumsy slogging that most FPSers proliferate, H20 deposits work like areas of camo that can be used as shortcuts for those conscience of layout and movement trends.
After getting all your moves down, it’s time to arm up! The Pick 10 system makes a return to MP Create-a-Class. Ten options gives enough flexibility so participants of all ilks can customize their kits to fit their play styles, but is finite enough to restrict everyone from being too loaded. Just another Treyarch innovation that continues to pay dividends. Of course, the most important bit of kit is your primary weapon, the main tool of destruction. In this department, as with most, BOIII doesn’t flinch. There are five basic groups (Sub-Machine Guns, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, and Snipers), each with varied, but worthy selections. Because of the “up tempo” nature of Black Ops, SMGs hold a certain precedent over the other sets. That’s not to say is “sub or bust” necessarily, but the quick agility and rapid ejection just suits the pace so very well. Take the Kuda, for instance. It’s a little down on fire rate compared to some of others in the category, but dependable mid range accuracy and lack of substantial recoil are feathers in its cap and allows it to put up a fair fight in CQC and medium length exchanges. On the opposite end, the VMP has much more recoil, particularly when “aiming down sight” with a sight other than irons, but it’s so quick that beating an opponent to the trigger usually wins the duel. ARs can hold their own in match ups against SMG choices, but early target identification is key to taking advantage of longer distances. The HVK-30 is just a split second or two slower than most SMGs, making it insanely quick for the class, but the payload per round can be a liability against other rifles like the XR-2. This gun features deadly accurate and stable two-round bursts with great damage, but naturally isn’t the quickest of the bunch. Perhaps no gun type benefits more from the chain-based fluid movements than shottys. Being able to wall run while blasting buck shot from the hip to unsuspecting low angle targets is a devilish joy. The Haymaker 12 is the ultimate spray-n-pray weapon with fully auto firing orientation and a huge 16 shell clip. The 205 Brecci is comparable in range and is naturally slower, but deals much more damage, particularly when ADSing with the Quick Draw attachment in tow. LMGs seem to be slower than in past CoDs, so this is really a team decision weapon. I mean to say that in team games with territory type objectives, the very high magazine capacities are perfect for laying down respectable cover fire with cacophonous bark. The BRM and Gorgon are about even in terms of rate and payload, but the Gorgon has a more reliable iron sight, letting you add needed attachments like Stock and Fast Mag. Admittedly, I’ve never been one to snipe in shooters, definitely not so in CoD. However, on the last evening of the event, custom games were setup where all guns and attachments were unlocked. In this instance, I found a “cheap” long shot configuration. The SVG-100 is the top rated sniper, and has the most damage in the class. But instead of using a normal sight with a variable zoom, I slapped on the ELO (Emitting Light Optic) that act similar to the Reflex (read: Red Dot) but with a broader outlook. Syncing this up with Rapid Fire and FMJ, which pushes the payload per shot beyond conceivable limits, it became one-shot-kill anywhere from the waist up. It’s so powerful, in fact, that it may get nerfed to avoid too many people exploiting this particular config once most rank up enough to unlock the selection. Secondaries like pistols and launchers are also present and accounted for and serve their regular purposes: to be there if/when the primary runs out of bullets and to knock aerial aids out of the sky.
In accordance with a good gun, Perks can take each spawn to the next level. Many fan favorites have returned, as well as a few new ones. And many can go in-tandem to increase your effectiveness within a certain play style. Take the combination of: Fast Hands, Tracker, and Gung Ho. Here you have faster weapon swap and faster sprint while ADSing, sprinting while hip firing and throwing lethals like Frags and Semtex or Tacticals like Concussions and Flash Bangs, as well as highlighting glowing footsteps of close enemies, showing their latest path. This set is perfect for run-n-gunners. For all you Gander Mtn. loving campers out there, you might want to roll with Blind Eye (invis to aircraft), Hard Wire (impervious to Counter-UAV and EMP bombs), and Awareness (hear enemy footsteps more clearly). Such an arrangement makes it much easier to stay hidden while identifying those attempting to flank your posted position. Of the new ones I tried, my favorite is Sixth Sense. This one makes the mini-map flash red warning lights in the direction of encroaching attackers and emits a more intense warning “beep” the closer they get. Having this little directional cheat is great for objective game types that require attentiveness to the direction of attacks. Scorestreaks are another segment of Pick 10, and most of them are focused on dealing more death to the opposing side. HC-XD acts the same as the old RC-XD, instead the 2015 model hovers a few feet above the ground instead of rolling on wheels. Hellstorm missiles are player controlled, and rain down several projectiles while pointing out enemy positions in real time. And the Talon is a machine gun toting drone that packs a load of damage while being incredibly agile. And if none of those seem too appetizing, you can always roll the dice with the ever stable Care Package in hopes for a game breaking piece of kit. New to CoD are Specialists: nine “heroes,” each with two selections, totaling 18 possible power ups. These are earned throughout the course of a match and are meant to be another way to keep a kill streak going. The two I depended on most the first couple of days were Sparrow and Gravity Spikes. With the former, imagine a Hawkeye-esque bow & arrow set with explosive bolts that have a slight homing quality to them that can be fired very quickly over short distances or seemingly across the map with a focused, charged shot. And the latter is an area-of-effect weapon that incapacitates anyone within several radial feet of the strike point, making this incredibly useful in objective games. During our fully unlocked session, we got to experiment with some of the higher Specialists. And with things like one shot death pistols and fear inducing flame throwers, there are going to be some very awesome/salty Kill Cam footage this holiday!
Playlist offerings bring back many of Black Ops past and introduces a couple of new ones to the set. Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, Domination, Demolition and its cousin Search & Destroy, Kill Confirmed, Capture the Flag, and Hardpoint are all back. Uplink was introduced last year in AW, but makes its Treyarch debut. Here, a satellite node spawns in the middle of the map between two teams. The goal is to carry and pass the node to the other team’s area and score the tech in a floating sphere acting as the “endzone.” Completely new to any CoD release is Safeguard. Those that played the beta will be familiar. Here, the two teams take turns between escorts (no, not that kind of escort) and attackers. The escorting team is to protect a methodically moving robot from their spawn to the opposite side of the map while the attackers are to continually shut down the bot with bullets and equipment. Whichever side imposes its will the best within the allotted time wins the round. This is a really fun match type that forces action along a slowly moving path that continuously shifts a diminutive kill box along the way. Hardcore is also available, as well as a Bonus section with Gun Game, Ground War, and Mercenary Moshpit. I asked Multiplayer Director Mr. Dan Bunting if we would see any more modes added at later dates (like my personal favorite Sticks & Stones), to which he said it is very possible. Maps are the last huge part of MP, and is arguably the most important. All the innovations, and new weapons, and fresh takes on movement don’t mean anything if the play locations are lame. Fortunately, all is well with BOIII in this regard. All the maps I played consistently fostered solid, competitive games of the “big three” match types: TDM, Dom, and KC. Others fared better in certain locations. Fringe is a medium area with tight outdoor corridors, short sightlines, and congested indoor rooms which is perfectly suited for Hardpoint. Demolition specialists need look no further than Havoc for their home field with its small stature and hotly contested midfield that makes attacking and defending the bomb depots wildly entertaining. Combine’s rooftop construction with plenty of CQC hallways and wall running opportunities is great for FFA and Aquarium’s smedium build with pronounced water features affords many stealth paths in S&D. One of the largest maps is Redwood. A beautiful forested area with wide open spaces and action alleys is perfect for the hurry up and wait style of Safeguard. And if CTF is your thing, check out the wintry, decrepit French village of Infection, with two opposing sniper positions that make traversing the middle a dangerous affair. One last note about multiplayer is the new Black Market. This is an in-game currency system awards Cryptokeys that are taken to the Dealer in exchange for “Supply Drops,” which act as packs of items in the form of weapon camos, calling cards, taunts, customization options, reticles, and the like. While it remains to be seen if the acquisition of Cryptokeys will stay exclusive to in-game progression or also fall victim to the disturbingly growing trend of microtransactions in premium AAA releases, I was told that it has been policy not to house things that would offer a “competitive advantage” behind any sort of pay wall. Let’s all hope that stays true for BOIII as well.
It’s hard to believe, but there was a time that Treyarch wasn’t necessarily thought of as being the limit pushing studio in the CoD collective. In 2007, Infinity Ward blew the doors off expectations for the franchise with Modern Warfare. Moving away from the World War II roots of the series and making the game relevant against other big console FPS titles of the time was ground breaking, and ignited CoD into the annual money train it is today. Too bad Treyarch was already knee deep in developing another WWII inspired release. When holiday 2008 rolled around, World at War was platitudinous compared to the previous year’s flavor. The one aspect that kept the studio relevant while it cooked up heralded Black Ops was Zombies. An exalted solo and co-op “horde mode” where you and others can take on endless rounds against the undead. That relatively simple core has spawned several iterations and maps that have added layer upon layer of complexity and playability without losing sight of the main thread. The same can be said for the new excursion, Shadows of Evil. Welcome to the 1940s and welcome to Morg City. A rainy, seedy, speak-easy inclined, underbelly part of town plays host to our four stage players: Jessica (Heather Graham), a budding femme fatal actress, Jack Vincent (Neal McDonough), a corrupt city detective, Floyd Campbell (Ron Perlman), a salty prizefighter, and Nero (Jeff Goldblum), a shady magician. Each of the four have skeletons from their past they’d like to distance from, but for some reason, supernatural forces have marked them for some unbeknown purpose. The only thing that is clear is that they’ll need to fend off a brigade of zombies on their way to unlocking the truth.
Before each round, you’ll want to adjust in-game items according to your plan of attack, just like in Campaign and Multiplayer. BOIII introduces a new Zombie mode heuristic leveling method. The more you play, the more you’ll unlock weapons and attachments. Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll load in with these guns in hand. It does mean that when you attain a particular weapon, if it’s one you’ve unlocked for customization and have done so, it’ll be given to you in that configuration. And this counts for the Mystery Box as well as wall guns. Another new “progress as you go” system is GobbleGum. This acts as a tangential associate of the more prolific Perk-a-Colas. You load five possible options that you could get from the GobbleGum machine. For a nominal fee that’s less than the cost of traditional Perks, one of the five selected powers will be offered, and they range in type and effectiveness. There are dozens of them that, again, are unlocked the more you play. The two types are Classic and Mega. A few of the Classics are things such as: Always Done Swiftly (aim and walk quicker while aiming), Arms Grace (respawn with your previous life’s weapons), Coagulant (longer bleedout time), and In Plain Sight (ignored by zombs for ten seconds). Some of the Megas include: Aftertaste (keep all Perks after revive), Pop Rocks (melee attacks emit AOE lighting bolts a la Electric Cherry), Cache Back (insta Max Ammo), and Respin Cycle (“reroll” the current Mystery Box offering). The biggest difference between Classic and Mega is the way you acquire them. Classics become available by simply ranking up. Megas are “crafted” by finding vials of Liquid Divinium within the map and taking them to Dr. Monty’s Factory for creation.
Overall, the feel of Shadows of Evil is overwrought-ly positive. What I mean is, the layout is simple enough that you could just play straight up and make it a few rounds. But if you intend on making a seriously deep run, two things have to happen. One: you’ll need to grind away with “dead end” runs to unlock custom builds of the better wall guns and set yourself up with advantageous GobbleGums. Yes, 2015 CoD Zombies will make you embrace the grind if you intend on accessing every nook and cranny the map has to offer, which by the looks and sounds of it is very expansive. To stay within theme of the time period, the characters in Shadows don’t have the advanced movements of other modes, so be ready for exhaustive sprinting and useless jumping, just like Zombies of the past. But to be fair, true fans of the mode wouldn’t have it any other way. One thing they may not like is how fast paced the new map plays. Developer Mr. Robert Sanchez told me that this version will “punish” players for standing still. Holding up in areas and “training” the horde to complete rounds will not work. You’ll have to be quick on your feet and adapt to the changing environment. Shadows will take many concerted hours with other players to really reveal itself in full and peel back the many layers that are undoubtedly hiding thrilling, terrifying, and unique secrets.
The presentation is a solid contribution, but is the weakest aspect compared to literally every other piece of the game. Graphically, the 60 frames per second are crisply consistent and avoid any uncanny artifacts or distracting motion blur or tears. Full 1080p resolution is attractive enough, but it isn’t as awe inspiring as several of the other games I’ve played this year. It just has a coarseness to it that makes the look seem sort of caustic. That effect is no more prevalent than during cutscenes. Renderings of the Campaign cast like Katee Sackhoff and Christopher Meloni are instantly recognizable and is solid work, but they don’t come close to the in-game models of Mike Colter and Nathan Fillion in Halo 5: Guardians. When the action gets going, and the scope of the battlefield retakes center stage, things even out and the flaws are much less noticeable. Art design in Zombies is really awesome, with neon accents and true to form architecture of the time period. Shadows of Evil is definitely the best looking belle of this ball. I just wouldn’t go so far as to call BOIII a “pretty” game. Sound is at about the same level of give and take. Aspects like spacial recognition made our supplied Astro a40 sets pop with an awesome surround sound production. And things like the multiplayer AI team communications coming through on the speaker of the PS4 pad are great little touches. However, there’s not enough bombast to suit me, considering the genre. I don’t want it to make my ears bleed, necessarily, but I would like the track to seem overtly powerful when a monumental happening occurs on screen. The level changes are a tad too “safe,” which isn’t typical of Treyarch productions. To be fair, I’m splitting hairs with a lot of these minute criticisms, but they were prevalent enough for me to notice and remember then over top an otherwise amazing game, so I’m obliged to mention them.
