Right, so where to begin with this one? I primarily play Battlefield. I love EA’s Battlefield. I have primarily avoided Call of Duty (CoD) and it’s extensions like Call of Duty Black Ops III and the rest because the obsessive fans started claiming it was the best game franchise in the whole world, that and the screaming children on Xbox… Mainly the screaming kids on Xbox… I gauged the community based on them, and thus have avoided the title.
But now as a game reviewer, I know that I have to get in-depth about the titles I play, and at long last, I have finally touched a Call of Duty game: Black Ops III (if you were too lazy to read the subject line for this article).
Now as I started playing, the controls felt somewhat familiar. It seems there’s a universal setup for first-person shooters (FPS), so there’s virtually no learning curve for me. The only thing that’s different is the fact that there are now two different kinds of grenades, tactical and standard; each with its own properties, which I found pretty nice.
At first, I found the “specialist” set up to be a bit confusing. I was hoping to play with each of them in turn before deciding on which to use. Ultimately, I choose The Battery until I reach level forty-something and unlock The Mech. I am a Mech fan. I was also taken aback at just how many weapons there are in the game and really had a hard time picking a useful setup. Then a very disgruntled player with fifty kills shouted, “Use a shotgun you f–king noob!” I took these words of wisdom to heart. The pump-action shotgun, while slow to reload, is pretty much a one-shot kill on anyone (assuming you manage to hit them). It’s an ideal weapon for new players!
Now a thing I didn’t really like about the weapons is the fact that you must level up your character account in order to unlock them. What’s more, even after you reach a high enough level, you need to use special tokens you get from leveling up to then select the weapon you unlocked. Do you follow that? I hope so because it’s really annoying. The game forces you to play with others to unlock the equipment you want. Some pieces of equipment (mainly specialized weapons like the wrench, combat knife, and various other melee items) can only be unlocked by using CoD Points or CoD Tokens, which you use to buy chests. You open these chests and pray they contain a desired item. I was lucky enough to get the combat knife on the first try, and I’ve seen enough YouTube reaction videos to know that it’s a big deal for many players.
Another issue I had with the game is simply the maps. Yeah, people like the maps and I did find them easy to memorize, which made it easier to kill people…in contrast to Call of Duty‘s long-time rival, Battlefield. The latter simply does it better due to its massive maps and teams. I just think that Call of Duty tossed everything together too quickly; it feels cheaply made.
Hell, even the “fall physics” in the game is hilarious…seriously. If you shoot someone down from the sky, they will tumble like something out of a cartoon. This isn’t even taking into account that I’m playing this on the PC, which is horrifically bugged to the point that it feels like Minecraft with guns. Textures don’t even render everything properly. They wind up being a single bland, opaque color. Not to mention a lot of the characters look like this gem right here from my gameplay:
But ultimately the determining factor for the game isn’t based on its story. In fact, I neglected to mention much of the story in this review because I’m focusing on the core aspect of Call of Duty. Readers want to know how the multiplayer experience is, and what I can tell you is this: I was wrong, there are assholes out there…loads of them. But as much of the PC Call of Duty community has shown and told me: “Don’t buy the console version. Buy for PC because people on the PC are more civil and understanding!” So in this case Call of Duty: Black Ops III is indeed worth it; at least on PC. I honestly hope they fix the bugs, as they’re really the only disappointing feature for me.
So is it worth investing in Black Ops III at the moment? Not really, no. We can’t live-stream it and we can’t record it without it crashing. Even my friends are unable to join me in the game. It has so many bugs, you’d wonder if the title wasn’t still in Early Access and made by Warner Brothers. I recommend playing Black Ops II until things are fixed.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!