Given the unenviable task of following up Modern Warfare, Treyarch took Call of Duty back to World War II. Best moment: Defending Hill 262 from German tanks remains an emotional moment, the odds continue stacking against the player, crescendoing into a last-ditch rescue from the Canadian Air Force.
That said, it offered more of the same for those that wanted it, and the SAS soldiers’ discussions about their French counterparts was a clear highlight - even if the action remains a little derivative. Treyarch’s first release in the series, this third mainline instalment apes much of what made Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 2 so good but lacks the same panache. Unfortunately, the rest of the game struggles to follow.
Best moment: Black Ops 3’s tutorial offers a really great set-piece where players battle a terrorist threat on a moving, futuristic train. A disappointment after Black Ops 2’s solid campaign, Black Ops 3 tells a story that it never really commits to - even opening up all missions for players to pick and choose the order in which to complete them.Ī campaign absolutely stuffed with exposition and technobabble, what makes Black Ops 3 more interesting (but not necessarily much better) is that it features a second campaign called “Nightmares” - an alternative version with zombies and other otherworldly monstrosities.