#XBOX ONE BOOKMARK GAMES BO3 SERIES#

What’s more, the better you shoot and the cleaner your kills, you’ll level up your chosen protagonist faster, which in turn grants access to even more weaponry and gadgetry.

Yes, guns still feel remarkably ineffective to shoot, but they get the job done, as does the rest of your arsenal. There’s a reason Call of Duty sells so well, and it’s all due to the impeccably well-balanced controls. There’s a fairly starry cast, though, including Christopher Meloni and Katee Sackhoff, but really all the double crossing and betrayals and reasonably pretty graphics - Black Ops 3 runs on an older game engine than last year’s title - are merely dressing around the gameplay. Hearing the other characters speak to you without ever using a name is somewhat jarring, but then so is the rest of the script, which maintains Call of Duty ’s incredibly (and somewhat impressively) low standards. Players take control of The Player (no, really), who can be assigned a gender and a preset face, but who remains anonymous. In terms of the story, it’s all incredibly familiar, despite the often impressive scenarios the futuristic setting offers. Really, Black Ops ’ world isn’t too far removed from our own. Cue protests, government crackdowns, leaked documents and acts of terrorism. The soldiers themselves are so intertwined with their robotic enhancements that humanity has legitimate fear that robots could soon take over.

Robotics are a key player, with autonomous bots joining cybernetically enhanced soldiers in advancing on enemies or defending important areas. The battlefield is a very different place in the future. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Credit: Activision Covert missions that quickly become utterly obvious assaults are the series’ bread and butter. What’s an angry ruler to do, then, to topple an enemy state? Send in covert operatives, of course! This is Black Ops, after all. In the year 2065, most major nations have developed incredibly sophisticated air defenses, rendering aircraft and missiles useless. In true Call of Duty fashion, they’re utter garbage - so it’s nice to see some things never change. Let’s start with the main story missions. In true Call of Duty fashion, the story is utter garbage. Everyone is clamoring to add boosters and enhancements to their games, and Black Ops is no exception. Respawn Entertainment’s robot-enhanced, vertically-mobile shooter has set the precedent for this generation, just like Halo and Call of Duty did before them. What does this mean for gameplay? Well, as you can likely expect, everything’s coming up Titanfall. Emulating Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3 also makes the leap to future combat - in this case, the 2060s, where cybernetic enhancements are commonplace and megacities with glistening skyscrapers and glittering, digital finery are the norm.

This time around, developer Treyarch seems to be the one that’s a little lost. I loathe zombies with a passion, but grabbing three friends and working through those missions was always guaranteed to draw laughs, arguments, scares and invariably one of us (usually me) screaming at the other three to hurry up and revive them. With an emphasis on elite, team-based specialists performing bombastic covert ops missions - that invariably ended up being anything other than covert - I found the campaigns a guilty pleasure and the multiplayer more of the same addictiveness that has come to be a hallmark of the Call of Duty franchise.

#XBOX ONE BOOKMARK GAMES BO3 SERIES#

While last year’s Advanced Warfare finally found its bearings after a couple of titles that staggered around in the dark, desperately trying to find focus as the Modern Warfare franchise died a repetition-soaked death, the Black Ops series of games always seemed to be a fun break between flagship releases. To say I wasn’t particularly excited for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 ( ) would be a mild understatement.

Xbox one bookmark games bo3