I've played enough Call of Duty games at release by now not to be surprised by the level of quality of the games since the series is pretty consistent in quality. I still make an effort to remain open minded with every installment in the franchise, which I try to do with just about every game. Unfortunately some games really push your wait and see limits, and don't reward you for doing so. Call of Duty: Black Ops III is that kind of game: it reeks of mediocrity. Every aspect of the game - from graphics, to sound, to gameplay, to feel, to innovation, to level design are all average and nothing above. Now I'm not the kind of person or gamer that believes that every video game needs to be game changing (hehehehe) to succeed. You don't really need to innovate fantastically or completely reinvent your series to make a good game. As a matter of fact, some video games shoot themselves in the foot trying to do just that (*cough**cough*Assassin's Creed: Unity). Sometimes I prefer that the developers focus more on the creative side instead of the technical side and that's turned in some pretty fine games such as Assassin's Creed: Rogue. So I'm not asking of Call of Duty: Black Ops III to be Modern Warfare in terms of innovation, but BOIII isn't just not that.
If you're not going to technically innovative, I'd expect that you produce something pleasantly creative but Black Ops III isn't creative any sense. It's an unimaginative game. If you enjoy the Call of Duty formula then good for you: here's another Call of Duty game stuffed with probably the most content in a Call of Duty game. But in my opinion, this game did nothing remarkable at all. Nothing worth buying the game for, nothing worth buying this game instead of buying another first person shooter. I'll give the game points for the formula still being "functional", but they really didn't bother with the creative side of the game. For example, I played hours of the multiplayer, and there's not a single map that I'd call pretty good. If the publishers hired creative staff, then they might've created some superb maps, but as it is, almost all of the maps serve a singular purpose: that of providing battle ground. There is barely any creativity to the maps, there is even less dynamic environments in the game. An example of a dynamic environment in this game, or the closest to it, has to be Metro... where... rails... move... ergh... trains...
You know, I was expect this to at least be the best feeling Call of Duty game. And I was expecting it to be the best feeling Call of Duty game because Activision actually sold the game that way. I wasn't the only one that was expecting this game to feel different that the other Call of Duty games: that it'd result in a faster paced Call of Duty adventure with the Jetpacks to propel, powerslide and kill enemies online. That isn't the case. The gameplay pace is just about the same as any other Call of Duty game. It'd be an understatement to say that the gameplay experience that this game provides has gotten stale. I can't really spend hour after hour on multiplayer because of the predictable, monotone experience of running around the map and shooting everything in sight. If you were excited for classes in the game, then you'd also be dissapointed. Because not only are classes a wholly unoriginal idea: the classes in the game aren't really executed properly. The game consists of 9 classes, called Specialists. Each of the Specialists bear their own special weapon and special ability, something else that could have been cool, but because Activision tried unnecessarily to create a system, and it fails flat on his face
So, the game has you select a special ability / special weapon before the match begins - only one. I'm going to use the Outrider as an example of a Specialist, & the Sparrow, or bow and arrow, as an example of special weapon. For the special weapon to be available to you within the match - what do you have to do? You need to wait patiently, very patiently, for time to pass, OR earning a higher score within the game, and it's aggravating every time. It wouldn't have been as bad if the special weapon wasn't removed from you every single time that you die after you waited patiently. That's what happens. You wait calmly for the Sparrow to unlock, then it unlocks, then you're killed half a minute after before having an opportunity to use it, and you need to wait another 5 or so minutes to use it again. You will hardly use special weapons and abilities if you buy this game. If the money point of this game to you is the classes, then no: because your hands will hardly touch these special weapons. This system is intangible.
There is hardly any multiplayer variety. If the specialists did something to stick out, then the gameplay of this game would've been consistently varied but the specialists themselves hardly have depth to their range because of how inconsequential these special weapons / abilities are and how abruptly the develops rob them off of you for the simple act of dying. Specialists are in the game but I have no idea why. They exist to exist and not to actually serve a purpose and elevate the gameplay. The developers even went the "long way" of creating avatars / looks for all the specialists, but for no reason at all. Third person gameplay does not exist in this game - therefore the appearance of classes is only shown in the menus and in snippits of the kill camera. In Team Fortress 2, the appearance of the classes is justified because of the gameplay depth to the classes that have made these characters so distinct + the TF2 characters are actually iconic.
The game attempts to have new gameplay features, but these new gameplay features add up to nothing - and most of them are not even gameplay features. An example of these new gameplay features has to be 4-play co-op, wall running, specialists, paintshop feature, and free-running mode. All of these are features that are left underdeveloped, and do not add up to nothing. Free-running mode is tacked on, paintshop feature is a very minor, trivial edition that doesn't affect the overall game, and specialists as I have explained, are underdeveloped. 4-player co-op however is a nice addition. It came at a right time when my brother just travelled overseas. I get to play and complete the campaign with him, so I at least appreciate that.
At least this game understands its audience. It's audience is the Call of Duty fans that purchase this game yearly. And to some people - a new Call of Duty game, inventive or not, is a Call of Duty game and that's good for that. It's good that this game can at least appeal to a target audience, and because of that, it is by no stretch a terrible game. It also isn't a good one - visuals, gameplay, gunplay, sounds etc.- are all average at best. It's a shame that some game reviews are giving this a 9.5/10 and calling this game amazing (IGN) and another review site, GamingTrend, gave it a 95% and called in phenomenal. I'm pretty sure there's also a 100% professional review out there. Where is the honesty? My score is...
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