Christmas is 'CoD' time

It's almost Christmas and that can mean only one thing: another Call of Duty has been released.

 

Call of Duty Black Ops III

For: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360
From: Treyarch
Three stars (out of five)

 

CoD gets a bad rap in my opinion.

People lambast it for being the same thing every year, but I think in the past few years tit has taken some tangible leaps forward in terms of story and overall quality.

Unfortunately, Black Ops III bucks this trend and takes one (or more) steps backwards.

CoD Ghosts had an entirely predictable story, but the overall campaign was fun to play.

Advanced Warfare has probably the best campaign of recent games, although you saw the twist coming a mile off.

Black Ops III, however, has no real story to speak of.

You start off shooting robots, for no reason other than they are shooting at you, and that does not change.

What is more, the whole futuristic war thing sort of loses its appeal when the previous game ploughed the same field, and did it better.

But let us be honest here, you play CoD for the multiplayer.

Not much to report here, other than it has toned down the jetpack usage that was a significant part of Advanced Warfare, and added a wall running mode that is exactly very similar to the one in Titanfall.

CoD is much like ordering your favourite coffee at a cafe: you know what you are going to get here.

Black Ops has been famous for its zombie mode, a mode I thought I would hate but actually loved for its simplicity.

Come Black Ops III, and simplicity has long left the building.

It is no longer just a ''survive as long as you can'' horde mode, it has gained a story (that once again I didn't really get), as well as objectives and various power-ups, in an attempt to bolster the mode's replay value, I suppose.

Ironically, I felt it had greater replay value when the focus was purely on survival, but I am sure fans of the previous two zombie modes will get a kick out of this.

Call of Duty Black Ops III is just average: there is nothing bad about it, but nothing exceptional either.

There is one thing that sticks in my mind, however, and that is the gore featured in the single player mode.

The developers seem to have been intent on creating shock value like the ''No Russian'' mission from Modern Warfare 2, and have cranked up the gore.

Limbs fly, hostages' heads get blown off, and you come across a particularly gross scene where people's faces have ... you get the idea.

It adds nothing to the experience, and is just tasteless.

Part of me feels this review is somewhat null and void: those who like CoD have already bought a copy, and those who don't like it are pretty firm in their stance.

Oh well, bring on this time next year for the next instalment.

- Simon Bishop