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Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Multiplayer and Zombies Review + Impressions

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Welcome to our Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Multiplayer and Zombies first impressions and review. The segments will be split up into multiple pages so that we can clearly separate the Multiplayer portions from the Zombies portions. We hope you have a great time listening to what we have to say about the new game. Feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments on how you feel about Black Ops 3 below!

This entire article was written with a modular design in mind, in the aspect that you can choose what you want to read by following the hyperlinks below.

It's been just over a week since Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was finally released, and since then, players all around the world began the annual grind to get to Master Prestige. Me personally, I didn't expect much out of this game, considering how much I disliked Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The only reason I even considered buying this game was because of Treyarch's history in Call of Duty development. They have made some of the most popular Call of Duty titles and they are yet to completely make a mess of a game. So with that in mind, I crossed my fingers and picked up a copy of Black Ops 3 for my Playstation 4, and much to my surprise, I actually enjoy it.

My impressions going into the game were pretty bitter. I didn't play much of the beta because of how much the idea of wall running and jumping around everywhere displeased me. Most of my friends, however, took the time to play it and they all said it was much better than the last two entries into the Call of Duty franchise. With this in mind, I hopped onto my PS4 last Friday and quickly jumped straight into the multiplayer section of Black Ops 3. I got into a match of Domination on Evac and chose the first default class available. I quickly realized how much the maps relied on your movement abilities, and by quickly I mean I fell off the map during my first few minutes of play. The learning curve wasn't too hard, as I learned the basics of wall running and sliding in my first match. After finishing that first match, my initial impressions coming into the game began to form. Now let's fast forward a week. Here I am with about twenty hours played, sitting at 1st Prestige level 31.

Weapons

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My personal mentality in any Call of Duty game has been to kill anything that moves, or in other words, slay. This has been quite the challenge in Black Ops 3 because of the wide array of movement abilities, which allow for enemy players to appear from any place, at any time. Considering my play-style, I jumped for the SMG subclass of weapons. I discovered that only a few SMG's were getting the job done for me. Those would be the Kuda, the VMP and the Pharo. All of these guns each excelled in their own way. The Kuda has a slower fire rate than most of the other guns in this subclass but it deals a lot of damage and the recoil is easy to control. The VMP was great for smaller maps such as NUK3TOWN because of its fast fire-rate and good damage output. One drawback would have to be the small clip size which often led me to be killed when I was in engagements with multiple enemy's at once. The Pharo is somewhat of a unique SMG because of how it is a 4 round burst SMG. This obviously led to some sketchy situations when dealing with multiple enemies, but it would be an understatement to say that this thing didn't melt players at close to even medium range. I could usually get a kill with just 1 to 2 bursts.

Personally, I would have to say that the AR's in this game are the more dominant subclass of weapons. They may fire at a slower rate than most others but they deal a ton of damage and are all very versatile. I have actually been using the HVK-30 and KN-44 on NUK3TOWN with great success, I even obtained a Nuclear medal using the HVK-30. The best way to use any of the AR's would be to find a spot with decent cover and pick off enemy players as they cross your line of sight. This works well in game modes such as Domination. I have been finding a lot of success by patrolling a certain area using an AR and picking off enemy's one by one. The AR's will usually get outclassed in close range gunfights by an SMG or Shotgun but even then, guns like the HVK-30 have a decent fire-rate which can sometimes compete with those close range weapons.

Now the Shotguns are really hit or miss for me and for a lot of others. Shotguns like the Haymaker 12 were very easy to use under small to mid-range engagements but on bigger maps, I didn't find a lot of success with them. The KRM-262 for example will usually decimate any opposition in close quarters combat, with one shot kills being extremely common, but as I said earlier, bigger maps aren't as merciful as smaller maps. The movement abilities also either add or detract from these guns, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, you could quickly get behind the enemy and pick them off easily but they can also do the same by adding distance between you and them to leverage the gunfight in their favor.

Now if you have played the game up until now, you would know how overpowered the LMG's are in this game, particularly the Gorgon. The Gorgon was a 2 shot kill from virtually any distance, which led many players to find a decent camping spot on a map and just sit there the entire game. The weapon has been nerfed a bit but it really promotes a slower play style in such a fast paced game. The same goes for the 48 Dredge. This is another unique 6 round burst LMG which also has many players infuriated over how easy it is to use and how rewarding it is to players to tend not to move much.

Snipers are also a bit clunky in my opinion. They are very powerful for sure, especially the Locus and the SVG-100, but they scope in extremely fast which leads me to die in situations I believe I shouldn't have. Maybe this was Treyarch's way of making the Snipers more viable to use in a fast paced game, because from what I have heard, they weren't this strong in the beta. Now I haven't used much of the pistols since I usually opt to take them out and add something along the lines of an attachment of some sort, but from when I did use them, they seemed fairly strong. I really haven't experienced any overpowered pistols and they all performed the way I would have imagined them to, as a secondary weapon when all else fails.

Specialists

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Now let's shift our attention towards the newest addition to the Call of Duty multiplayer experience, the Specialist characters. Going into the game I heard great things about the Prophet specialist and its special weapon called the Tempest. The weapon basically shoots a bolt at the enemy and kills theme instantly, but it takes about a second to recharge after every shot. I really wanted to try that first but after using it, I realized that the way I was playing the game, I couldn't really find a lot of consistency with it. I would often die while trying to recharge it because multiple enemies would appear. I then tried out the Vision Pulse ability that the Outrider specialist has to offer, which I ultimately stick with. It doesn't necessarily always get me kills, but it is very useful in every situation imaginable because it gives you valuable intel on where the enemy team is by making enemies visible through walls and etc, allowing for different plays to be made to maintain map control.

To be fair, most of these different Specialists all suit a different play-style, but the most common ones I saw were Gravity Spikes, the Scythe, and the Tempest. All of these, when used correctly, have the potential to earn the user a lot of kills. This is probably why I see so many people using them. The Gravity Spikes are very hard to counter, since if the user goes into the mode while you're trying to shoot him, you're probably going to die by them slamming down onto the ground and sending a huge blast all around them. On top of that, the radius for the blast is ridiculously big and I sometimes found myself being killed by the Gravity Spikes from seemingly out of nowhere. One of the most underrated Specialist abilities would probably have to be the Combat Focus ability. It basically multiplies your scorestreak experience earned which allows you to earn them faster. If you combine this while capturing lets say the B flag in a game of Domination, you could rack up hundreds of points towards your streaks if you add capture kills on top of that. Overall, I think that the Specialists add a great new dynamic to the game, there is a different Specialist that suits everyone's play-style and it is a good way to change the dynamic of the game.

Movement

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Movement would obviously be a big turning point in this game, considering how we have never really seen things like wall running before this year. Using wall running online is pretty straight forward. Just jump onto a wall and begin to run across it. In my opinion, it isn't the most useful feature ever. More often than not, wall running just gets me killed from below. It's also pretty difficult to shoot off of the wall while you're running since you don't have the best accuracy and your field of view is very limited. Most players also have the issue of randomly wall running when they meant to do something else. This has happened to me on multiple occasions, especially when jumping down from a elevated area. Although, on some maps the wall running is quite useful because it can get you from point A to point B quickly. I tend to only do this if the wall running spot is somewhere more discrete and sheltered, just so that I don't get shot and killed while trying to move. Overall your wall running experience will vary from map to map, and from scenario to scenario. I would probably just avoid it most of the time, just to stay safe.

Sliding also returned this year and it is much like previous years. Simply run and then hold the crouch button and you'll slide a few feet forward. I find this very useful at the beginning of games to get to certain choke-points quicker than the enemy team. This tactic usually gets me a few kills. Sliding is also great for maneuvering out of harms way quickly. All in all sliding is similar to how it was in the past, with the addition of the thrust meter, however, the distance you can slide and how frequently you can slide have been put up to vary. The same can be said about how long you can wall run and how far up you can thrust jump. Speaking of thrust jumping, this is also sort of new this year. I say sort of because we have seen a variation of this last year in Advanced Warfare. Thrust jumping isn't as big of a factor as it was last year in my opinion. It's a good way to move around the map a bit quicker and to reach certain points on the map faster, but it really makes you stand out like a sore thumb and you will be easily spotted if you go up to high. The height you can jump also depends on how much thrust you have, as I mentioned earlier. You honestly cannot get very far without running out of your thrust meter. I tend to only really jump when I need to reach a height or in some instances when I am in a gunfight and I can use the elevation to my advantage. This is usually when I am in a gun fight with someone sitting on a head glitch spot. All in all, the movement system has been greatly improved upon this year and it definitely adds some new aspects to the series.

Maps

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To coincide with the movement system, lets discuss the maps. Treyarch has always had a good formula for maps. They usually consist of the typical 3 lane basic layout with added aspects such as heights and underground portions. This year is no exception, with most of the maps being based around the same 3 lane idea that has worked for Treyarch all these years. One thing that is different though is the amount of heights and leverage on these maps. It is very noticeable that there are a ton of heights in these maps, and generally speaking, players who get above other players generally have an advantage. I learned this fairly quickly throughout my 20 hours of playtime. Another aspect we were introduced to this year were the wall running locations. The main wall running spots on all maps are very distinct and you can tell that the wall you are looking at has been strategically placed. It is very easy to get from point A to point B using these walls, since most of them are located towards the outside of the map anyways.

Generally speaking, the maps look exactly as what you would expect from Treyarch. We have a nice variety of different locations, scenery and weather conditions. The colour pallet is also very vibrant and beautiful, much like any other Black Ops game. This is one thing that Treyarch always gets right because personally, I hate the dark, grungy maps that Infinity Ward tends to make. The maps also play very well, they have various choke points where most engagements will occur and most of the outside of the maps seem to be for traffic, as in moving around the map faster and more discretely. A few of the maps do have a few weird head glitch locations and distinct camping spots, which in turn make it very difficult to kill the enemy. I have encountered more people using head glitches in this game than any other. Something I didn't mention in the movement segment of this review were the swimming mechanics. I thought it would be better to discuss it along with the maps. A few of the maps have certain spots where you are able to swim in water. These locations are obviously very distinct. It offers a great new way to play the game but it is very hard for you to do anything about someone shooting you from the outside, even though you can use your gun while swimming. I think of this as the same way I look at the wall running locations, I will only use them depending on the situation. The maps are much like what we have all come to expect from Treyarch, terrific. Overall some of them will still have their flaws but most of them will still all play out using the 3 lane formula we have all come to love.

Scorestreaks

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Now let's jump into the Scorestreaks. I had high hopes coming into Black Ops 3 that the Scorestreaks would have been decent like they were in Black Ops 2, but I was fairly let down. We have the standard streaks we have been seeing for quite a bit now, like the UAV, Counter UAV, Care Package and Sentry Gun etc. The biggest changes came to the higher end streaks. Some of the new Streaks would be the Cerberus and GI Unit, both are robots that can are deployed on the ground. The Cerberus is a robot that is deployed on the ground and it patrols a certain area. From my experience with it, it doesn't get you very many kills. There is an option to control it yourself but most would rather opt out of that so they can continue to get kills themselves. For a scorestreak that takes 1000 points to obtain, I was fairly let down at how ineffective it is. The same can be said about the GI Unit. Although it's better than the Cerberus, it still doesn't get the amount of kills one would expect out of it.

There are a few decent streaks though, like the Wraith, Talon and R.A.P.S. The Wraith is simply the Stealth Chopper from Black Ops 2, or if you aren't familiar with that, an attack chopper that flies around by itself shooting the enemies. The Talon is exactly like the Wraith but it is much smaller, and it only flies around you to protect you from enemies. The R.A.P.S is like the Dogs streak from past games, except it is an army of robotic balls that blow up once they come close to you. These streaks usually net me a decent amount of kills. The H.A.T.R is another re imagined streak from older games. It is basically the Orbital VSAT, or Advanced UAV, from older titles. It still serves its purpose well in this game so no need to say anymore about that. The Hellstorm and Lightning Strike also made returns this year but they are both much weaker than what I was used to in Black Ops 2. The way that the Lightning Strike is called in is also a bit clunky, since it is very small and hard to see where you are placing your strikes. The Scorestreaks really have let me down this year since I really enjoyed just raining down fury on the enemy team once I earned the best streaks in the game. This year it doesn't feel as rewarding as it did in the past.

Perks + Leveling System

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Now in terms of Perks, most of them are exactly what we have been seeing for a long time now. A few new ones are Afterburner and Overclock from the first category. Afterburner recharges your thrusters quicker so you can jump and slide faster while Overclock gets you your specialist ability quicker. Continuing on Tracker is a new one which allows you to see enemy footprints for a period of time and Ante Up is apparently replacing Hardline by giving you a small boost in Scorestreak points everytime you spawn in. Sixth Sense is another new one that indicates if enemies are close to you on your screen. There isn't much to say about these perks as they're pretty much the same as previous titles, and they all seemed to function well back then and they function well now. I must say that Scavenger is basically a necessity if you wish to earn those bigger Scorestreaks, but it is unlocked until you are in around the mid level 40's, so choosing to permanent unlock that would be a smart decision.

Leveling up in this game seems to take a decent amount of time. Many others also feel the same way. I have personally come to the conclusion that Domination, Uplink, Kill Confirmed and Hardpoint are probably your best bets at leveling up at a decent pace. Treyarch did add a new gamemode this year called Safeguard. Basically you escort a robot from one teams spawn to the other in under a certain amount of time. The enemy team has to hold back the other team from advancing into their base while attempting to slow down the operation by temporarily disabling the robot. The gamemode is fun at times, but the lack of XP gained and sometimes the lack of kills really makes it a hit or miss gametype. Kills are only netting you about 50xp and games usually end fairly quickly, depending on how strong the teams are.

Customization + Black Market + Conclusion

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Customization has always been a strong suit with Treyarch. They brought back the emblem creator this year with even more improved functionality. The basics of the emblem creator are generally the same and if you have ever used it in Black Ops 1 or 2, then you should be fairly familiar with it. They also added custom weapon camos this year. They function basically they same way the emblem creator does and it in turn, allows for some pretty unique camos to be made. You can even customize your attachments, mainly through earning different skins through supply drops from the Black Market. Character Customization has also been added into the game. You can customize your Specialist character by doing different challenges to unlock different clothing and helmets. I never really tend to pay attention to any customization in Call of Duty but this year, Treyarch have really stepped up their game by offering so much to do. The Gunsmith also makes things a lot easier by allowing you to manage all of your guns in one area. I am still yet to make myself a cool looking emblem but from the time I have spent checking all of this out, it looks very solid.

The Black Market is also what Treyarch is using instead of the Supply Drops we saw in Advanced Warfare. You trade 10 Cryptokeys for a regular crate or 30 for a rare Crate that guarantees a Rare item or higher. You earn Cryptokeys by playing matches online. The drops contain different taunts and gestures that are displayed in the winners circle, as well as different camos for your guns and attachments. This seems to be a better way of integrating some form of Supply Drops into games because the more you play, the more you can earn. There are no gun variants either so everyone uses the same guns, resulting in fair matches, unlike Advanced Warfare where it had gun variants coming out of Supply Drops. This system has been working fine for me as of now and I don't think many people actually have anything negative to say about it.

All in all, this years Call of Duty title has really blown away my expectations. I came in expecting another mediocre experience but I was proved wrong by the great maps, great guns and fresh gameplay mechanics that Black Ops 3 has to offer. Feel free to leave your own thoughts about the game below. I'll probably be playing this game for the next few months, as it has certainly rekindled my love for Call of Duty.

Zombies 1

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Each of the different Call of Duty developers all bring something different to their games to make them unique. Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward offer some interesting modes such as spec ops, but nothing really compares to Treyarch’s original bonus mode, Zombies. Black Ops II zombies brought a lot of interesting changes to the mode that made it almost like a whole new experience. Following a similar formula, zombies has once again made a return in Black Ops III.

Black Ops II zombies had various different types of game modes that can be played within zombies. This time around there are only two different zombie modes available. The first of which is the traditional round-based survival mode that has been in all previous zombie games. The next mode is nightmares mode, which offers a zombies twist on the default campaign missions. Unfortunately, this is more of an extension of the campaign mode and isn’t very related to regular zombies and the storyline behind it.

The gameplay mechanics are mostly the same when compared to older games, but there are some new features that give Black Ops III zombies a unique twist. One of the biggest differences is the all new ranking system. Ranking up in zombies is done in a very similar way to multiplayer. Kills, survival, and various challenges will gain you different amounts of XP. All the XP you earn goes towards increasing your zombies rank. As you level up, you unlock different guns in the weapon kits menu. All guns are available to obtain from level one, but unlocking a gun for weapon kits means you have the option to make permanent customizations to the gun. These customizations are applied whenever you get the gun in zombies, whether it be from the box or off a wall. Much like multiplayer, there is also a prestige mode available in zombies that resets all unlocks in exchange for a new emblem and a permanent unlock.

Leveling up in zombies can also unlock new GobbleGum flavors, which is another completely new mechanic to zombies. GobbleGum is very similar to perk-a-cola in the sense that it is a consumable that can be purchased from a machine in the map, but the effects of GobbleGum tend to be much more powerful. The caveats are that you get a random flavor from the machine and once you purchase a piece of gum, it can only be used once. As you level up, you unlock more powerful flavors that can be put into the mix of five random flavors that can be obtained from the machine. In addition to unlocking GobbleGum through leveling up, it is also possible to craft Mega GobbleGum with Liquid Divinium. Mega flavors are more rare to get from the machine but offer extremely powerful perks. The other downside is that they have a limited use across all games, so if you craft one Mega flavor you can only use it once. The Liquid Divinium that is used to craft these Mega flavors is randomly awarded when you use points to buy something during a game of zombies. You can use a small amount of it to craft a lower-end Mega flavor, or you can use more of it in exchange for a more powerful perk.

The final big change to the core gameplay mechanics is the new repack-a-punch ammo. After pack-a-punching a weapon for 5000 points, you have the option to upgrade it again for 2500 points. Upgrading a gun more than once gives it a very powerful type of ammunition. There are five different special ammo types and they range from releasing a blast of wind similar to the thunder gun all the way to turning a zombie into your ally. These effects have a random chance of occurring every time you shoot a zombie. If you are unsatisfied with the ammo you get when repack-a-punching you can pay 2500 points again for a different ammo type.

The default map that everyone gets is Shadows of Evil. This is a completely new map that takes place in a fictional 1940s city, Morg city. This map features four brand new characters that we’ve never met before. All of them have somewhat mysterious background and have done something dark in the past that they are trying to hide. As you play on the map, you start to learn more about the characters and how their lives are all intertwined. In addition to the four playable characters, there is also a fifth main character, the shadowman. The shadowman interacts with players and questions them about their past, he also play a rather large role in the easter egg and story behind this map. At this point in time, it’s clear that this map is related to all the other maps in the series, but how it exactly ties in with the story is still a question.

The mechanics of Shadows of Evil is fairly similar to the mechanics found in the Mob of the Dead. The most striking similarity is the ability to enter beast mode. Beast mode is very similar to afterlife mode since it requires you to shock and melee various parts of the map to unlock certain areas. Also similar to Mob of the Dead, getting to pack-a-punch is no easy task. Instead of simply buying doors or assembling parts, you must activate four different rituals, one for each character. These rituals consist of activating an altar with hidden parts that are only accessible with beast mode. Once the ritual has been activated, you must survive a never-ending swarm of gatekeepers, which are similar to zombies, for a certain amount of time. After completing the ritual, you are presented with a gatework that must then be brought through a rift and used for a final ritual in a hidden room. After completing all of these steps, you have finally unlocked pack-a-punch.

If the above makes the map seem really complicated, that’s because it is. While it isn’t very hard once you learn what to do, it can take upwards of 30 minutes to even get passed round five since you take so much time unlocking pack-a-punch and activating various parts of the map. Some people may enjoy this complexity because it can certainly be rewarding. However, it would occasionally be nice if there was an option to play the map with everything opened so you didn’t have to spend so much time to just unlock what I consider to be the essentials when playing zombies. The map also has a lot of really cool areas and features, such as the ability to use a train to get around, but the complexity can sometimes take away from the map itself. Another issue with the complexity is that it seems to create a huge gap in the player base. To inexperienced players, Shadows of Evil may seem like a bit much and they can easily get confused. For veterans, however, all of the complex parts don’t really add to the challenge, but just make it take longer to get started on a playthrough.

To add to the complexity, Shadows of Evil also has a rather long easter egg. While multi-step easter eggs aren’t new for Treyarch, this particular easter egg takes the cake when it comes to complexity. It’s not necessarily the actual steps that are hard, but what it takes to figure them out. There are certain parts of the easter egg that are near impossible to figure out without looking it up online because there is no indication in-game on what to do. There are also a lot of parts of the easter egg that have bugs or glitches, some of which will make the game unplayable or just straight up crash. The truly unfortunate thing is that the only thing players are rewarded with upon completion is a very short cutscene that hardly explains anything we didn’t already know.

Shadows of Evil is a really great map with a lot of cool features, but the complexity can sometimes take away from the fun of it. Despite this, the map can still be fun to play once you have really learned your way around the map and can dedicate time to set everything up. The better news is that the core mechanics of Black Ops III zombies are really great and have already proven to translate well to other maps. The season pass map, The Giant, is really fun to play with the new mechanics, so my hope is that Treyarch can find a happy medium between complexity and fun with future maps.

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Multiplayer portion written by Crooks
Zombies portion written by Monopolyman
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Crooks
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