I have a love/hate relationship with the Call of Duty franchise. On one hand, I enjoy the mental release that comes with playing a first-person shooter. I don’t typically find the violence gratuitous or distracting. In a FPS, you aren’t typically very engaged with the stories or the characters, so the violence doesn’t seem so bad. In games where you really attach yourself to the world, the characters, and the stories, the violence affects you most: Life is Strange, The Walking Dead, and even Bioshock. Call of Duty has never seemed as violent as even a Grand Theft Auto. I think the appeal of the series lies in that very ability to totally disconnect from your feelings and become engaged in pure id. Shoot to kill. Run. Save a teammate. Breathe. Do it again. BOOM headshot. Blow up that truck. Capture the flag. Call in an airstrike. For each beautiful 20 minute multiplayer session, you can forget all of your worries and just be an immortal badass.
Then again, I struggle with some aspects of the game. I have a hard time with the physical aspects of the game—I’m not that fast reacting to the screen on my controller. That’s probably why I always prefer turn-based strategy. My internet is often slow as well, making it damn near impossible to play the game at all. When players can shoot you before they even pop up on your screen, it’s not going to be a fun match. The other aspect I don’t dig about the series is just how terrible many people are when they’re playing. There is constant racist and homophobic slurs, and I would NEVER reveal myself as a woman playing the game. It is a toxic, testosterone filled environment. I have some other nitpicky things about the game that bothers me, such as giant maps that cater to snipers (or cowards, I call them), but those are more of a taste thing rather than a foundational issue.
That said, I still really enjoy the CoD series and Black Ops III is absolutely no exception. I have played almost two hours of the campaign, and a handful of matches online (OMG you guys, the new Nuketown). One thing I love about the game is that you can not only play a female character, but that they are 100% badasses. They don’t make wussy moaning sounds when shot; they aren’t wearing makeup; they don’t have unrealistic body types, face types, makeup, outfits, or anything. They look like what I imagine a female black ops soldier would look like. Unfortunately, they really limited the race you are able to be. The picture to the left shows a picture of the darkest female character you can be. While it’s clear that m
any of the characters are not Caucasian, it’s also very obvious that none of them are black. It just really feels like an oversight: you have 9 female characters; you clearly have identified diversity as being an important part of gameplay; why stop at medium skin? Why not add more representative skin tones? I hate to knock a franchise that has been showing improvement (regardless of how slow), but come on. It’s not like you would be shocked that black people play your games, so why intentionally leave them out? I genuinely am perplexed, racism aside. Game makers want to make money, and players are extremely diverse. Why not give us more options? Was it a purposeful slight? I don’t know, but it is puzzling.
The story isn’t something you typically think about when you’re playing a first-person shooter. But the story does set the scene for all that lucrative multiplayer play. Do you want to play multiplayer matches in boring scenarios? No! You need to feel like something is at stake, even if you don’t pay attention to what the story is. It always impacts the game in at least a peripheral way. While I like when games tie in to current events and topics, I get really uncomfortable when games like this do the white American vs. the dark-skinned enemy theme. It’s boring, and the overwhelming unethical way that story plays out genuinely takes away from my enjoyment of the game. It’s lazy, and it’s offensive. Now, on the other hand, ROBOTS. I am not sick of fighting robots or crazy human/robot hybrids. While it may have impact on demonizing technology, it at least isn’t so overwhelmingly wrong that I can’t enjoy the game. And that’s what BO III offers: a new spin on the human v. robot theme. On one hand, you are fighting robots, on the other, you are also part robot. And there is terrorism. This story feels much more science fiction than any of the previous Call of Duty games, which really hooked me. Fighting realistic war scenes doesn’t do it for me as much anymore, but adding that scifi aspect makes it more compelling.
Another thing that CoD usually doesn’t do well—which is somewhat to be expected—is developing complete characters. Usually the characters are all so bland that you don’t care what happens to any of them, and you never really connect to your own character. I think that while Treyarch didn’t totally redeem themselves in this respect, they have done a better job than usual. For one, they have Christopher Meloni playing the main person guiding you through the game. His character is dynamic and interesting. But even better, they have Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) voicing Sarah Hall! FANGIRL DROOL. Ever since Peter Dinklage killed it voicing the Ghost in Destiny, I have been a huge fan of celebrity voice actors in games, and these do not disappoint. Okay, I might be overselling it, but I still enjoyed it.
The gameplay of BO III is fun and intuitive. It’s very similar to previous games, but there are several new abilities you gain as a 2065 super soldier. They spend a good amount of time teaching you your new skills, though, so the mechanics are fairly easy to use them once you get used to them. The cut scenes are also very well done. I usually skip cut scenes to get to the action, but these are so badass I found myself playing through the action parts quickly to see how the story would evolve, something very unusual for me. Further, the couch co-op play is absolutely stellar. The cut scenes unfortunately are also in split screen if you’re playing in couch co-op mode. But hey, I’m so sick of not having couch co=op options, I don’t care that it isn’t perfect. It works, and it’s fun. That’s all that matters to me.
Overall I say this game is very solid, and is worth the $60 you’ll spend. I don’t know how much longer the CoD franchise can exist on this same formula, but I can say that it is not depreciating in quality, playability, or fun. So go out and kill yourself some robot super soldiers, because this game delivers.
