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Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (PC)

There was one question I just could not stop asking myself throughout my playthrough of Activisions latest Call of Duty shooter; why on gods green earth is this game branded with the moniker “Black Ops”?

Obviously, this is the third in the series, but for some odd reason, Black Ops 3 has no connections to the previous two, and seems to never actually warrant the Black Ops title. Granted, some may say that this is a trivial matter, but I for one think that it perfectly encapsulates the differences (both bad and good) of this latest in a long line of Call of Duty games. Let us proceed to unravel why.

First up the story, which, whilst being completely unrelated to the previous two games, is actually quite a departure from traditional COD games. The year is 2065. Augmentations and robotics are rife across the world, with many people now having brand new DNI’s implanted into their minds, allowing them to interface with robotics and technology the world over.

If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been done many times before in other forms of media: Ghost in the Shell springs to mind for example. Where Black Ops 3 deviates though is in the philosophical applications of DNI’s. Very early on in the game you’re taught that you can interface with another person’s DNI, allowing you to see everything they’ve ever thought. Doing so will make them brain dead, and it’s through this moral ambiguity that Black Ops 3’s story actually stands tall.

You see, whilst it’s a nuisance that there’s no relation to the previous two games, Black Ops 3’s futuristic story manages to carve out an extremely believable and unique world. The use of DNI’s to interface with peoples imaginations and memories allows for dramatically different and crazy landscapes, with the stylised future feeling fantastic, even going so far that it would feel right at home in a Deus Ex game.

With an AI intent of never dying eventually making its way into the plot, the moral ambiguity starts to increase a notch or two. The characters that take part can at times feel like stereotypical caricatures, but overall they help to give the story more believability, showing how different personalities can help in truly showing a devastating force. Overall, by the end of the 8-10 hour campaign I was left feeling hugely satisfied with what I had just taken part in, something I can’t necessarily say for other Call of Duty games (I enjoyed the previous Black Ops games, but don’t take too fondly to their stories).

This isn’t an understatement when I say that the futuristic setting helps to add more to the gameplay than any COD game before it. Your suit not only has augmentations that allow you to do things like hack enemy AI, or cause explosions at a distance, but also allow you to traverse the environment at tremendous speeds. Wall running, double jumping and sliding are all present, and they add such a sense of speed that it’s going to be hard to go back to previous Call of Duty games I haven’t played before (e.g. COD Ghosts).

About those augmentations: they’re fantastic at changing up the “strategy” (I use that word lightly) of a traditional Call of Duty game. In the past you’d run from encounter to encounter, shooting down everything you saw without thinking. With the new abilities to hack, destroy and paralyse enemies you’re given greater freedom to take any challenge that is thrown at you how you would like to. For my part, I admit I relied on the instant kill robot feature a little too much (especially when it’s upgraded and can explode other surrounding robots), but the versatility of different options to mess and tinker with is truly astonishing, and weird in a franchise that’s become accustomed to pushing out the same features year in, year out.

The addition of a new “Hub” world base between each mission is also another weirdness that truly sets Black Ops 3 apart from anything that came before it. During each level, you’ll pick up and find collectibles, as well as modification kits that are earned through levelling up. Back at the base you can choose to use these kits to upgrade your abilities, make new guns, or simply upgrade existing weapons. The collectibles you find can also be showcased on your walls, along with any accolades that you’ve learnt in tough missions. It’s odd and small, but all of this makes your playthorugh feel personal: you get to choose what you want to do and what you want to showcase within your base, making everything, from load outs to mission completions feel rewarding and personalised, with a sense of progression which is always present.

The new enemy types were a welcome departure from constant humans being able to just hide behind buildings and objects in the environment. Robots march towards you without hesitation, which are first seems really simple (just shoot them right?!?) but soon becomes a challenge in itself when you also have to worry about other enemies firing at you. Then there’s the big enemies; these monstrosities can be seen as bosses, as they require a lot of rockets, and a lot of bullets to be taken down. There’s also drones, which are weak but high in number, and finally bullet-proof humans. All this variety makes for a challenging experience, especially when you have multiple enemy-types homing in at you at once. If anything, the enemies on display push you more and more into using your augmentations, which results in a splendid gameplay loops of running, firing, hacking and repeating, all whilst trying to stay alive.

Graphically, Black Ops 3 is an absolutely stunning game. I took so many screenshots throughout my play through that at times I would die from taking in the scenery rather than actually playing the game. Characters brim with life, environments look just as stunning as anything you’d ever see within a Crysis game, and for the most part my 1070 GTX was well and truly put through it’s paces. There are times where you can see that Treyarch are still using the old COD engine, all with glitchy AI and the same animations as previous games, but these times are few and far between.

Finally, the music, which for the most part was ignorable. You’re not really going to come to a COD game for it’s music, especially with so many explosions and so much gunfire going off at all times. On that note, the explosions were just as explosion-ey as ever, with guns sounding like what you’d expect a future model of an AK-47 to.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Black Ops 3. The changes made since the last Black Ops were significant enough to keep me more than entertained, with the new augmentations and hub world helping me feel that this was my own personalised experience. The only thing I just cannot get my head around is the use of the Black Ops name. There are so many changes, such a different story, and overall no relation to previous games that I don’t see a need to use the moniker at all. For a title as fantastic as this, Black Ops 3 deserved its own franchise name, God knows it deserves it for how much of a departure it is from the tried and tested COD formula.

5/5

02/12/2016
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Black Ops (PC)

I genuinely cannot believe that it’s almost been 6 years since Call of Duty Black Ops was introduced to the world. The game still (in my mindset at least) feels like it was just announced yesterday, with it’s weird mid-60’s era warfare being quite new and revelatory for the time. But alas, here we are 6 years later, and with myself having never given the game a go. For someone that was a fan of the series (I specifically asked for COD 2 for christmas one year, loving the series that much), I was never that interested in the concept of Black Ops. Maybe it was because, to me at least, the series was trying too hard. Modern Warfare was astounding, and it’s follow up, Modern Warfare 2 was just as good, so I suppose I just couldn’t be bothered with what felt like a stand in for a fully fledged game between games. But in dismissing Black Ops as an off-shoot, did I miss anything? Yes and No. Let me elaborate.

Black ops makes sure you know it’s trying to tell it’s own story, and is trying to create characters you fall in love with (just like the whole world did with Captain Price). From the offset you’re given a mysterious premise to the game, that there’s numbers that need decrypting, and it’s up to mason to crawl back through his memories to find out what they mean. This mystery takes you from one place to another, and is actually a good way to explain why Black Ops takes place in such a variety of places.

You fight in the jungles of Vietnam, the island of Cuba, the harsh winters of Russia, and even see the Pentagon during your travels, and whilst Black Ops’ graphics is certainly starting to show its age, I for one enjoyed the attention to detail given to each locale. My only gripe is the Call of duty engine itself, which not only makes shooting enemies feel hollow (I can’t count the amount of times I wasn’t sure whether my shot landed or not), but also does a bad job of lighting environments, resulting in characters looking “plastic-ey”, especially when you’re up close to them during intense story moments.

Those moments are few and far between, because for the most part you’re going to be mowing down countless amounts of enemies as they swarm towards you in open areas. The typical COD action is present throughout, with the ante constantly being upped whilst more and more enemies swarm your way. One advantage Black Ops had over other titles in the series is it’s ability to give narrative as to why you’re in all these different circumstances. Underground fighting Vietcong? There’s plans under there which lead back to the soviets and their Weapon of Mass Destruction. In a Lockheed Blackbird guiding troops through Russia? There’s a plant nearby that manufacturers deadly gas. It all ties together quite nicely to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few moments which felt like tropes (the guiding of people from a Lockheed was one of them), but overall Black Ops done a good job of explaining why you were in each location.

The gunplay as ever was entertaining and constant. Any downtime between gunfights was great for receiving narrative relating to the story, but overall the variety of weapons to use and abuse was staggering, and enjoyable for the most part. As I mentioned before, the game engine was annoying in so-far as not communicating to the player whether an enemy was hurt or killed, but overall I enjoyed mowing down thousands of enemies with different weapons. There’s a reason players keep coming back to COD after all these years, and the gunplay is certainly the main one.

It should be noted here that on PC, the gamepad was not an enjoyable controller to use in Black Ops. I for one prefer using a controller on PC games (call me a peasant all you want, to each their own I say), but found it impossible to do so in Black ops. It just felt wrong, no matter how much I changed up the settings, each and every kill just felt weird or lucky, never as though I had any skill. Half way through the campaign I switched to keyboard and mouse and felt a hell of a lot better for doing so. Take heed if you’re like me and prefer controllers, Black Ops may say it supports gamepads, but it does not feel nice at all.

I spoke of the story/mystery earlier on in this review, so how does it play out? Overall Black Ops does a genuinely good job of intriguing the player, and introducing enough likeable characters that you feel bad should they be hurt. The cold war setting is a point rarely explored in games, so to see key figures from the era (like Kennedy) rendered within the engine was a delight. Plot points come frequently, and whilst the main twist in the campaign was predictable from a mile off, it still done a good job of upping the ante throughout the campaign. The conclusion is also satisfying, albeit with the caveat that you can’t help but think the developers left the franchise open to a sequel in two years time.

A big gripe I do have with the PC version is it’s lack of extra settings to truly use the power of the platform. The graphics engine is clearly made for consoles, and it’s a shame that my PC could easily run the game at over 140fps, especially given the fact Treyarch (the developers) have experience with PC gaming in the past.

Oh, and before I come to the summary, I’m glad Treyarch brought the Zombies mode back for Black Ops. Whilst I didn’t give it a go on PC too much (it’s more of a co-operative mode), I’m glad it exists; I have so many fond memories of killing zombies whilst trying to survive with Uni friends.

So in conclusion, 6 years on I can see why Black Ops was actually seen as the one true competitor to Infinity Wards behemoth Modern Warfare series. They set up some memorable characters, and some plot points that truly standout compared to the stories of other Call of Duty games, and all whilst maintaining the fantastic 60fps gameplay everyone knows and loves. Just be warned if you now wish to play the game since reading this review: Activision RARELY reduce the price of their games. The only reason I have Black Ops 1 and 2 on PC is because of a Steam summer sale. If you still want to give the game a go, get it from amazon; it’s still $40 on Steam.

07/10/2016
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (PS4) Review

It’s been years since I’ve played a call of Duty game. That’s not to say I don’t like them, far from it in fact, I spent hundreds of hours playing Call of Duty 4 and World at War with friends whilst at uni. The problem is, in subsequent years since I fell in love with the series, not much has really changed in the way it’s played out. I found my time in COD Modern Warfare 2 mediocre at best and only entertaining because me and a work colleague brought it at midnight on release day and managed to finish it within a day. COD Modern Warfare 3 didn’t fare much better, as I only played it purely to finish the story, and purely to see how to game turned out considering all the controversy that happened around infinity ward’s directors.

The world of Advanced Warfare is huge and detailed. Scenes like this made me forget I was playing the game on a PS$ and made me think I was playing on my PC

I picked up Advanced Warfare as it’s genuinely one of the only COD games in recent memory which has actually peaked my interest. I managed to get a few matches of the games multiplayer done over Steams free weekend, so decided to pick the game up on PS4 where my other friends would be playing it.

So, to start with the differences, the setting. Previous games of the franchise have taken place either in the past, or in the present, with others straying semi into the future (black ops 2). Advanced Warfare doesn’t piss around, and is set firmly 50 years in the future, ensuring the player has access to all manner of different vehicles, settings, and technologies we could only dream of. This setting has it’s advantages; it allows sledgehammer games to imagine a world not too different from our own, but with the whole world being taken over by LCD screens. It’s pretty cool actually, seeing a world that isn’t completely sci-fi but actually imaginable compared to the technology we have today, something I compliment Sledgehammer on portraying fantastically.

Next up, the combat. Apart from introducing a new double jump that allows a player to see the terrain better or get up to new heights, not much has changed in the traditional Call of Duty formula of hiding behind a wall until an enemy hides and peeking out to kill them. The addition of homing grenades and new gear which help to highlight enemies on the field better than simply zooming in help to allow the player to kill more enemies than ever before, but doesn’t stop the core combat from feeling hollow as a result. I easily mowed down over 1400 enemies in my play through of the campaign, which would easily class me as a psychopath in most games, but in Call of Duty, it’s a standard affair.

Whilst action sequences are broken up and varied at times, they feel far too contrived, and offer little in the way of freedom.

The hollowness isn’t to say that the combat is boring, far from it; it’s still easily one of the best shooters on the market by far, with its simple Left Trigger Right Trigger combo of aiming one of the most satisfying by far. I just merely wish that the campaign/ would have some gravitas to it, some personality if you will, rather than the entire world being in danger and it’s up to you and your team to save it.

Graphically, Call of Duty games have come a long way. I seriously was gobsmacked at times at the intensity of the lighting effects on textures and shadows across the world. Add to this the amazing facial animation on characters in the world (with House of Cards’ Kevin Spacey playing the main antagonist), and you’ve got a truly delightful game to behold, one that really does honour the title of “next gen”.

You’ll be seeing a lot of vistas on your travels through Advanced Warfare’s campaign, with the game taking place over the whole globe.

Story wise, the Call of Duty formula unfortunately rears its ugly head once again, with a huge organisation (Atlas) threatening all of the free world with it’s tight grip on security giving it a plentiful supply of targets on the planet. This is another “one man saves the world against one insane dictator” type stories, but one which is made more believable due to Kevin Spaceys ability to make Irons an actual believable character, one which really does believe his own motives behind killing america or any other free state in the world due to governments inability to act within a timely manner.

The multiplayer of Call of Duty hasn’t changed a great deal, but my god is that a good thing. The timeless mechanic of die and repeat seems like it’ll never get old, with each death pushing you on to find your killer and put them down. It’s odd, but for all the new guns and advantages players are given (such as the double jump), things have relatively stayed the same, with most players staying grounded through fear of other players catching them whilst jumping. It’s all brilliant in the end, and I can easily see why players continue to buy Call of Duty games for the multiplayer alone, let alone the over-the-top campaign. There’s nothing more satisfying as seeing your own name at the top of your team with no deaths and many, many kills.

Actions sequences constantly try to keep you on the edge of your seat, but being that you know your character won’t die, they rarely feel threatening.

So, all in all, am I glad I brought back into the Call of Duty hype? Yes and no. The series is still easily one of the most recognisable in the world, with it’s shooting mechanics and priority of 60fps gameplay being a staple of the series, it’s not hard to see why. What I wouldn’t have minded seeing was after all this time away, experiencing something new and unique would have been nice. Scripted sequences like the jet level merely give the illusion of player control, and don’t necessarily go so far as to actually give you freedom to explore. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but considering games have the ability to give players an experience no film or book can give you by allowing you to make choices, it’s a shame the medium still hasn’t pushed forward or advanced. If you’ve kept your distance from the Call of Duty franchise for some years, Advanced Warfare might be worth coming back to, if not only to see how little has changed but how fun the core shooting mechanic still is.

4/5

31/07/2015