![]() ![]() While I’ll wish for more games to elegantly and completely support co-op the way this game has, that’s probably a vain hope. Whether playing one of the campaigns, trying to decipher Zombie mode, or just configuring a comp-stomp in standard multiplayer arenas, Black Ops 3 is the most co-op friendly FPS I’ve seen in a long time. Not all of the FNF crowd are first person shooter fans, but we all universally liked Black Ops 3. Checkpoint saves are logically placed, and if you suffer a total party kill, all of you respawn at the last checkpoint, avoiding the need to run through the entire level again. This allows you to level your character up, useful for collecting more weapon and ability unlocks. When you proceed through the campaign, you can pick-and-choose from any previously completed level. You can choose male or female characters, and unlock appearance customizations as you level up. It’s dead simple to assemble a group, whether private or public. That’s all well and good, but what Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 gets absolutely right is how co-op is implemented. But for the most part, it hangs together pretty well, and bots are good enough for our crew of relative geezers. The bot AI is a little weak, even in the harder modes, particularly in some game levels. You can make bots spawn only one one side, allowing human vs AI matches (aka “comp stomps”). Setting up matches is simple, including the ability to configure bots. Character archetypes which offer some level of customization replace the usual simplistic roles. The standard arena-based multiplayer modes exist as well, and there are a bunch of them, ranging from the pretty stock deathmatch modes, through domination, and bomb defusing. Voice acting comes via veteran actors Neal McDonough, Heather Graham, Jeff Goldblum, and Robert Picardo. Once you gain a little experience, and start to unlock more gates, you discover a pretty big city lies beyond where you start. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a dark, gritty future where a new breed of Black Ops Soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own. In reality, what you experience is considerably different. As with previous versions, when you first dive into Zombie mode, it looks like Left4Dead’s poor cousin. Then there’s Zombie mode, aka Shadows of Evil. Nightmare isn’t a slavish replay of the original campaign, though maps are in a different order, objectives change, and weapon pickups happen differently. The developer, Treyarch, used the same cutscenes, but replaced the original dialog with voice overs that describe the new story as it unfolds. ![]() Nightmare cleverly reuses existing levels and assets to move players through a familiar world, but one now ravaged by zombies instead of human enemies. Then, just when you wrap up the main campaign, a new campaign reveals itself, called Nightmare. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 incorporates four-player co-op through the campaign story, which proved to be a blast. Our Friday Night Follies (fondly referred to as FNF) LAN gaming group skews older, and we all love good co-op games. What the game gets just about perfectly, however, is co-op. The game does add some neat science fiction elements (killer robots! cyborg augmentation!), but the game plays pretty much like other current generation military shooters. The story is impenetrable nonsense, for one. Regardless, it's always interesting to get a glimpse at what could have been, and see how these types of changes might have impacted future games.Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is not a great game. Polygon in particular noted that "Treyarch doesn't meaningfully move the series forward here." It certainly sounds like the game's open-world concept could have helped with those kinds of critiques, though the game still managed to find significant financial success. However, many reviewers commented on the game's lack of innovation. The resulting change was apparently quite difficult on the developers, who were forced to endure significant crunch to meet the game's deadlines.Ĭall of Duty: Black Ops III released in 2015 to mostly strong critical reception. Unfortunately, plans were abandoned for the mode "midway through production," and the game's actual campaign ended up being much more linear. Last but not least, players could have expected economy and construction elements. There would have also been a day and night cycle, as well as weather patterns. The game's open-world environments would have contained various mini modes, such as assassinations, defense, and sabotage. ![]()
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