Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was expected to be a game that would be revolutionary to the first person genre. A game so good, it could make up for past flops such as Ghosts and Advanced Warfare.

The Black Ops series holds a lot of value to it’s name because the first two games were incredible and have a lot of replay ability. In fact, up until Black Ops 3’s release, it wasn’t uncommon to see more players on Black Ops 2 than both Advanced Warfare and Ghosts combined. Black Ops 3 lives up to the hype, hitting half a billion dollars in sales its first weekend on the market.

Black Ops 3 has the three normal modes of campaign, multiplayer and the infamous zombies.

Multiplayer includes a new feature called specialists, where you pick one of four characters that have unique abilities. The abilities range from exploding arrows to spikes that can be slammed into the ground and cause an explosion on impact.

Multiplayer also introduces gunsmith, which gives players the ability to customize their weapons like never before. Gunsmith is also available in zombies to give players access to created paintjobs and camos.

Aside from customization, the gameplay is excellent as well. As a player, you can wall run, swim, slide, and thrust jump. The thrust jump was one of the most risky features put into the game by Activision, for fear that they would be similar to exo suits from Advanced Warfare. Exo suits allowed players to boost themselves up to ridiculous heights, and have an unfair advantage over players who didn’t know how to use them. Thrust jumps boost players up a little, but soon after, they fall down to the ground. It is not really similar to the exo suit jumps players were able to perform in Advanced Warfare.

Underwater combat is not as complex as it sounds. You just swim underwater to get from place to place, and, depending on how you use it, you can kill or be killed very easily.

Wall running is a nice feature, although most players rarely use it. In reality, wall running is just a quicker way to get places, but can result in your death. Either you fall off or get killed because someone spotted you running.

The maps are amazingly designed and complement the multiplayer experience heavily. It feels amazing to play. All in all, the multiplayer brings a lot of new things to the table, but none of them really change around the original run and gun feel that Call of Duty games are famous for. This only makes the game more fun to play, and keeps it out of a boring state.

The next feature, zombies, lived up to its hype. Treyarch released Shadows of Evil, a map that takes place in the made up world of Morg City, United States, in 1942. It introduces four new characters, each with a unique backstory. The new characters are Nero the magician, Jessica the dancer, Vincent the cop, and Campbell the boxer. Each backstory to these characters ties into the gameplay of Shadows of Evil.

Although the map can be complex, it is overall very fun to play and becomes easier as you discover how to access perks and pack-a-punch. Aside from this map, Treyarch released The Giant, a reskin of Der Riese from World at War and Black Ops. Unfortunately, The Giant is only available to players who purchase the season pass for fifty dollars. The campaign includes eleven missions to play through, and just like every Black Ops campaign, is expected to blow players away. Unfortunately, it fails to do so.

It includes new features such as swarm, which releases nanobots to completely tear players apart. This doesn’t make up for the nonstop process of shooting and reloading then running to go shoot and reload more. You will spend most of your time crouched behind a crate, then popping up to fire more rounds at enemies. There is a lack of action found within this Black Ops campaign, which is a real surprise to most players. It fails to keep players drawn in, and the storyline is weak at many points. Two of the three game modes are incredibly fun to play through and help players look forward to future DLC releases. The game seems to hold a lot of potential for replay ability, just in case Call of Duty lets buyers down again in the future. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 can be purchased at your local Best Buy or GameStop for sixty dollars. Overall Rating: 8/10