Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Beta Impressions

Call of Duty is arguably one of the biggest games of this generation of consoles, and easily the biggest in the First Person Shooter genre of games, starting all the way back in 2003, the series has gone on to produce some of the best games of the past few years. Such as the Modern Warfare Series, and the Black Ops Series, they have usually been to a high standard, and been enjoyable to play, but over the past few years, certain fans (myself included) feel like they have went off the boil. With the latest entries in the series (Ghosts, Advanced Warfare)

With Ghosts not functioning as a game and not being an enjoyable experience on all fronts, and Advanced Warfare being a whole new type of game by introducing the aerial dynamic with the Exo-Suits, fans had started to lose patience with the Call of Duty series, until the next Call of Duty Game was announced

Black Ops 3, the next game in the Call of Duty franchise!

From developers Treyarch, who previously worked on World at War, and Black Ops 1/2, Black Ops 3, releasing on the 6th of November 2015, is their newest attempt at a Call of Duty Game.

As more details began to emerge about the new title, fans became interested to see exactly what this next game would contain, as part of a Pre-Order bonus with the game, it was announced that an early access multiplayer beta would be available as a way for fans to properly get to play the game and see exactly how it feels. The beta was available first on the PS4, and after it was finished, it was made available on the PC and Xbox One.

To begin with, the Beta only had 3 maps available, these maps were:

Hunted, Evac, and Combine (the map Stronghold was made available a few days in to the Beta)

The beta only had a few game modes available, these were: Team Deathmatch, Domination, Demolition, Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, Capture the Flag, and Search & Destroy. (with Uplink being added in a few days in)

To begin with, the maximum level of the Beta was 28, but it was increased at random intervals throughout the Beta, and ended up being a maximum of 49. This allowed nearly all of the unlockables to be got and experimented with, while still keeping a lot of the maps and game modes locked too.

On to how the actual game itself plays. Although it is still a beta and not the finished product, it still felt extremely good and enjoyable to play, while the jet-packs and air based gameplay still exists to an extent, it has been fine tuned and worked out to be much more better than in Advanced Warfare, and it isn't as relied upon because of this, during my time in the Beta, I rarely noticed it being used to escape gunfights, it was more used for speed or accessing areas, rather than avoiding a battle.

The movement system itself felt great, along with the all of the weapons not feeling too overpowered, the majority of them had a feeling of equality, sure there are weapons that are better than others, but it really comes down to skill and personal preference now, which is a good thing, and any "overpowered" weapons will have been worked on by the time the actual game releases, so this isn't a worry.

The perks in the game are well done also, it all depends on what exactly you're looking for with your classes, as there are many different options for setups to run during the game, while keeping a degree of sacrifice (you may not be able to have 2 perks in the same group that you want, without sacrificing a grenade) this helps promote change and individuality, while keeping the creation of classes to a simple level.

A new addition to the Call of Duty series is the Specialist System, these are choosable special abilities that unlock after a certain period of time in the game, ranging from Explosive Crossbows, to extremely high damage guns, to a "glitch" ability that allows you to teleport back to a previous location. While these sound "overpowered" they really aren't, they have been designed to be a quick-use thing after a few minutes of gameplay, and are lost upon death or expiration, mostly able to kill enemies with one shot or attack, they do not give increased health to the user, thus making you still just as easy to kill, just slightly more dangerous.

Although it's just a Beta, and is likely to change in a few ways before the official release, it felt like a very polished and refined game, freshening up the series, but keeping it true to the "Call of Duty feel" we've all become accustomed to over the years.

The beta was still a very enjoyable experience for me, and many other fans of the series, for the first time in a few years, I feel like it is possibly safe to say, that this Call of Duty may be the game we've all been waiting for since the older games.