Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Multiplayer Hands-On Preview – This Is Black Ops, But Not As We Know It
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Sunday, April 26, 2015
I’ve been doing this games journo lark for a ridiculous amount of time – nearly 10 years now, in fact – and there’s one thing that I learned early on that is very much apparent today: how much access we, as writers, are given to games is directly tied to their quality. Hide a game, and it’s usually naff. Give unprecedented early access, it’s going to be good. The latter is where we found ourselves with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 recently. Not only do we never see a Call of Duty game this early – we did – but to go hands-on with it in April, well, that’s unheard of. But that confidence seems not to be misplaced. Before we talk about the new campaign – which we will do in our next preview – let’s turn our attention to the bread and butter of the Call of Duty franchise: the multiplayer.
There is one disadvantage about talking about the multiplayer first, and that’s that the justification – from a story and world perspective – for the design choices is not overly apparent, but let us tell you right now, it exists. To sum it up succinctly, the world has gone to shit, and bio-augmentation is now a thing.
Yes, you guessed it, Black Ops 3 multiplayer has gone the way that seemingly all multiplayer games are going, and that’s putting more of an emphasis on agility and, as Treyarch likes to call it, “winding in that combat loop.” It’s easy to think I’m saying they’ve straight up used a similar mechanic to the exo-skeletons of Advanced Warfare, but honestly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. They’ve evolved it, perhaps crafting the most controllable and audacious Call of Duty to date.
So what am I talking about from a gameplay perspective? Simple, we’re talking about unlimited sprint, better traversal, a new thrust jump, power slides, underwater combat, and – my favourite – wall-running. It all comes together to be some sort of beautiful Call of Duty and Titanfall-like hybrid… but better. Let me delve into a little detail here regarding the new combat and movement changes and why it makes the experience more frenetic and fast-paced than what you’re traditionally used to.
First things first, unlimited sprint: the ultimate risk vs. reward mechanic. It doesn’t really change much in the grand scheme of things, because of how Call of Duty has always been designed with fast-paced action in mind. What does change things though is a few of the traversal tweaks. Ever get annoyed at being shot at mid-mantle when your gun was down? Well now you can shoot back… mid-mantle. Black Ops 3 is designed so that your gun is up for pretty much the majority of your experience.
The big change is the bio-metric augmentations that allows players to thrust jump. It’s not just an exo-skeleton in disguise though. Players are allowed much more control over their movements in Black Ops 3. It allows players to jump in all directions, ascend to higher storeys with relative ease – it even has auto-mantle - and if you like, change directions. Of course, the more you stay in the air, the more of a target you become. It’s the classic risk versus reward mechanic, and as always, there’s a power meter attached to it, meaning you can’t exploit it.
Those biometric augmentations also mean players can now powerslide. Yes, thankfully the annoying “dolphin dive” – where players jumped into prone position – is now gone, but players can now slide along the floor instead by double tapping crouch. That system can be combined with thrust jump to devastating effect. On top of that, players can now wall-run, which is where the Titanfall comparison comes to mind. But it's not just a simple wall-run, as you can shoot while doing it, even with aim down sights, and even change direction mid-run.
Rather interestingly, Black Ops 3 features underwater combat too… and not just pistols and the like, no. Everything you can do on-land, you can also do underwater. Granted, there isn’t an overabundance of water in the game's MP maps, so it’s not overused too much, but when it is, it works. Putting a flag or capture point underwater is a particularly great piece of map design, especially considering that you can only hold your breath for so long – although it’s not a short timer, in any way, shape or form.
But wait, that’s not all! At the game’s core is what Treyarch is calling Specialist classes, of which there will be nine in the final game. Each class has an ability and a power weapon, which can be used once they've charged up. It’s worth emphasising that you can choose either the ability or the weapon, and not both, and whatever you begin the match with, you’re stuck with for the duration.
These can range from explosive bows, one-hit kill hand cannons, abilities to see through walls, and even really cool skills like ‘Glitch’ that allows you to jump back to where you were five seconds ago - hard to master, but an absolute joy when you pull it off. These specialist abilities are meant to be mid-level power abilities available to everyone who maybe don’t get access to those high-end scorestreaks. It’s not a set timer either; better players who amass points more quickly than others will simply unlock their abilities and weapons quicker. According to Treyarch, in a six minute game average players will charge their weapon in about two minutes (four minutes if you do absolutely nothing) or their ability in one minute (two minutes if you do absolutely nothing). The Specialist skills aren’t a case of entering cheat codes either, they require skill and thought if you’re going to be successful with them, so don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Even now, they seem fairly balanced for the most part, which is a good sign, and they’re definitely a superb addition to the franchise. They may not sound like it, but once you’ve tried them, you’ll instantly fall in love with them.
How and why the system works so well is the player’s potential to chain these abilities and powers together. Want to wall-run into a boost and then slide around a corner where you one-shot someone with your Annihilator Specialist power? You can. Want to wall-run, Glitch back five seconds to kill someone who was wall-running behind you? You can do that too. Obviously all the above still requires a level of skill, and even after all the new additions, the cream floats to the top, but mid-to-lower level players might not feel so inadequate this time around. In terms of the usual elements, Black Ops 3 still has scorestreaks, pick 10 and so on, so the new additions are just that: new additions.
In terms of maps, Treyarch had three to show off: Combine, a research facility in the Egyptian Sahara with plenty of tight corridors, an open area in the middle of the map and some adventurous flank paths for those who are willing to get their wall-run on; Stronghold, a high-tech Swiss chateau in the Alps, with asymmetrical design and plenty of wide-open spaces for more mid-distance combat encounters; and Hunted, a hunting lodge beneath a waterfall in the mountains of Ethiopia with bridges galore, an underwater pathway that connects the two sides of the map and a nice mix of small enclosures and wide-open expanses. Three well designed and great maps, in all, each with something that complements Black Ops 3's new combat elements. My only complaint was that a few maps had invisible walls , highlighted by the fact that you can now thrust jump to a fairly decent height, something we’re hoping Treyarch can address before launch.
So there we have it. New combat abilities and weapons in the form of the Specialist classes; and new traversal techniques like the wall-run and the thrust jump; all combine to make Black Ops 3 one of the most enticing Call of Duty titles to date. It’s a little bit Titanfall, it’s a little bit Advanced Warfare, it’s still a little Black Ops, but it’s 100% pure and unadulterated fun. It’s quite possibly shaping up to be the best Call of Duty since Call of Duty 4, which yes, is saying something. That’s why we said it. Duh.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is scheduled for a worldwide release on November 6th 2015.