Not the best option, but still a good one.
By Brian Albert
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is a letdown, and not just because it doesn’t have a single-player or co-op campaign.
Its competitive multiplayer and co-op Zombies modes get the job done with tons of cool new powers, weapons, and secrets to unlock, but it can’t measure up to the high performance and visual standards set even by previous Call of Duty games on these systems.
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Watch the Xbox 360 vs. Xbox One graphics comparison above.
Again, the campaign is missing entirely, so make sure you don’t buy it expecting to play the solo or co-op story found in the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or PC versions. This wouldn’t have been an issue if the campaign was forgettable or bad, but it wasn’t. Despite a tough-to-follow story and some weak characters, Black Ops 3 mixed fun new powers into the shooter formula with terrific results.
At least the price is $50 instead of $60, to reflect the missing content.
Multiplayer is intact, but when you first find a match, you might think you’re playing a poor imitation of Call of Duty. Everywhere you look, you’ll find messy textures, jagged shadows, and distractingly simple props. Some surfaces look like they’re not affected by lighting at all, and even menu text and images are fuzzy.
Next to the great presentation of Black Ops 2, it’s disappointing. But while a beautiful, great shooter is an amazing thing, an ugly version of that great shooter is still really darn fun to play.
An ugly version of a great shooter is still really darn fun to play.
In multiplayer, everyone has a thruster pack regardless of their loadout – similar but different enough from last year’s Advanced Warfare that learning to use it effectively was a new challenge.
The new thruster pack movements feel smooth, easy to control, and offer tons of precision. They’re great for chasing down or escaping from enemies, reaching objectives quickly, and navigating levels without overshooting your target. Because you can always fire your weapon, there’s often no need to think twice about bouncing off walls like a caffeinated hamster. Being out of cover makes you a big target, but at least you’re a target who can fight back. This makes for fast battles that can start at any time and from any angle, thanks to maps that were built with enough paths and shortcuts to make use of your skills.
Black Ops 3’s competitive multiplayer brings back the same reliable Pick-10 loadouts, which let you select 10 weapon attachments, perks, grenades, and more to take into battle. This isn’t anything new, but it’s still a solid system that ensures you can go into a match with exactly the gear you want, and nothing more. Multiplayer includes a huge array of unlockable guns, perks, and gear that let you mold a playstyle of your own. It’s excellent, but at this point Call of Duty fans should expect nothing less.
The important new change for multiplayer is that you no longer play as generic soldiers. Before a match begins, you pick a Specialist to play as – anything from a murderous robot to an elite archer. Each Specialist has one exclusive power and one exclusive weapon, and you get to take one of the two into battle.
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Watch a full Hardpoint match in 1080p 60fps (on PS4) above.
Special powers and guns aren’t a free win button.
This is one of the best decisions Treyarch made for Black Ops 3’s multiplayer. Because each character is useful, and because there are nine Specialists, there’s no way for a team to have every power and every weapon available. So more than ever before, you have a chance to be useful even if you’re not the most skilled player.
If you pick the character who can see enemies through walls for a short time, you are invaluable for warning your team about incoming foes. If you grab the new Hive weapon, you can set up proximity traps to cover the weak points in an otherwise strong defense. Special powers and guns aren’t a free win button, though. If you pop your special and get killed a second later you need to wait for it to recharge, even after a respawn.
The new Zombies co-op mode, Shadows of Evil, is the best version of the undead slaying mode in Call of Duty yet. It has its own progression system, the 1940s urban-style setting is gorgeous, and it’s a place where a magician played by none other than Jeff Goldblum says lines like “With each subsequent transformation I grow ever more confident with my tentacles.”
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Watch the first 15 minutes of Zombies as Jeff Goldblum above.
Shadows of Evil’s four noir-esque characters – a magician, a boxer, a cop, and a burlesque dancer – are liars and killers thrown together against their will, and each is introduced with a great short video that shows them at their worst. It’s interesting to see what kind of information they do and don’t share with their new companions.
Shadows of Evil’s four noir-esque characters are liars and killers.
It plays much like the Zombies mode has before, with players earning money for repairing barricades, killing enemies, and more, then using it to buy upgrades to survive the next wave. However, thanks to a new persistent XP and perks system, you can customize weapons and abilities before a match begins – you won’t likely see everybody running around with the same guns this time. The mode lasts as long as you can hold out, so specializing your characters becomes more important as the difficulty ramps up.
One big new addition to Zombies is the ability to “Become the Beast.” At certain fiery shrines, you can transform into a tentacled, lightning-spewing monster that rips the undead apart. It’s incredibly powerful, but it doesn’t last long, and you can’t use it very often. Some of the best and most tense moments in Shadows of Evil come from quickly having to decide as a group whether you can handle the current wave, or whether you’ll die without using the Beast.
Unfortunately, finding a match takes considerably longer than in other 360 and PS3 games. Once you’re in, you’re golden, but it could take an unacceptable 15 minutes to get to that point.
With no campaign, rough graphics, and Zombies connection issues, the last-gen versions of Black Ops 3 are the weakest way to play the newest Call of Duty. However, the slick gameplay, new Specialists, crazy unlockables, and revamped Zombies modes are all included and perfectly playable. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions can’t measure up to their newer counterparts, but they’ve still got it where it counts.
