A much more stable game

As part of their new partnership with PlayStation, the Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta was available to all PS4 owners over the weekend. From what we have played, the game isn’t as radical a shift as Advanced Warfare, but it seems to take a different approach to the same formula.

The movement in Black Ops 3 feels surprisingly different from the Exo system of last year’s Advanced Warfare. Players can no longer jump way high up, dash mid-air or pull off any number of these combinations to rapidly move from one side to the other.

Advanced Warfare felt a little bit too fast and out of control and it always seemed like you had to keep dashing in order to survive. Black Ops 3 adds more stability to the system. The fast-paced action is still present, but movement feels much more important and impactful as compared to randomly dashing in any direction.

With that being the biggest difference, everything else gives a fairly standard Call of Duty experience. All of the general modes were present in the beta along with three well-designed maps. A lot of focus was also given to the new Specialist system of Black Ops III. Separate from scorestreaks or loadouts, players are given a choice of one of two abilities, such as being able to create decoys or teleporting to a previous location, for a specialist of their choosing. This ability works similar to the super from Destiny and charges over time.

Given that every modern shooter is emphasising on mobility, Black Ops 3 feels like a more refined version of everything that has been released so far. It is less crazy than Advanced Warfare and players need to be more mindful and aware of what they are doing in that moment, which can be the difference between killing and getting killed.