Call of Duty: Black Ops III Reviews

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is ranked in the 79th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
8 / 10.0
Nov 10, 2015

If Activision's goal was to get people excited about the prospect of a prime-grade multiplayer experience, then their mission is a success. It's hard to imagine what else they could have done to make this a great multiplayer game, but that's not in dispute. Treyarch still knows how to make things happen.

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Digitally Downloaded
Nick H.
Top Critic
Nov 12, 2015

Call of Duty: Black Ops III tries to do several things, and does so with differing degrees of success. It all boils down to what you look for in the series. I put most of my eggs in the multiplayer basket and it delivers, but your mileage may vary.

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8 / 10
Nov 18, 2015

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 proves why Activision's three-year development cycle for Call of Duty is necessary. Black Ops 3 packs a huge amount of new content and feature innovations, along with keeping the core features that everyone knows and respects.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 17, 2015

Black Ops III really is a mixed bag. On one hand you have possibly the best multiplayer experience since Call of Duty 4, with a strong set of maps and a hugely immersive Zombies campaign to go with it. It's just a shame that it's been let down by a campaign that has some great ideas, but doesn't know where to run with them. I'm sad to say that I think the days of the good Call of Duty campaign are behind us, with last year's decent outing being the exception. Still, there's a lot of content here. In terms of a multiplayer shooter, Black Ops III is easily the best that Activision has published in a long time. After being roped back on board the Call of Duty train last year, I think I might as well buy an Oyster Card at this point, because it has its hooks in me once again. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Call of Duty 4's campaign again.

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7.6 / 10.0
Nov 23, 2015

An fantastic singleplayer campaign with a multiplayer component that's both familiar and slightly evolved in all the best ways possible. You'll be hard pressed to not enjoy this game for the singleplayer story itself. One of the best stories ever created.

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75 / 100
Nov 11, 2015

The graphics get a little prettier, the story gets a little darker, and another Call of Duty counts time as we march together toward death.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 7, 2015

Treyarch's latest instalment in Activision's blockbuster military shooter is packed with content and modes, some better than others

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NZGamer
Top Critic
7.5 / 10.0
Nov 12, 2015

Call of Duty is the Coca Cola of the game industry. Popular, unchanging, and tastes good to most, but it's still the same stuff.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 13, 2015

Compared to past entries, keep in mind that Black Ops III falls squarely in the middle of the series in terms of overall quality.

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7.5 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2016

Black Ops III hits two out of three big marks for me. We were promised a wealth of mindblowing graphics, exciting new content and dynamic gameplay and Treyarch most certainly delivered on all points. Black Ops III is a fantastic Call of Duty game, but despite its best attempts to be completely different, it can't help but to fall into its own category. Underneath the glamour, it feels like just another Call of Duty game - to the delight of existing fans, but the chagrin of players seeking new turf. It is severely let down by its clumsy campaign mode, but additions to movement and customisation in multiplayer mode make it one of the best Call of Duty multiplayers ever created. The new zombie map, Shadows of Evil, is also an enormous high in the series, and is innovative and replayable enough to mark it as the largest and most exciting zombie modes yet.

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Nov 10, 2015

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 a familiar experience dressed up in a way that it might feel slightly different at first, but getting into the nuts and bolts reveals not much has changed.

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7 / 10
Nov 10, 2015

Call Of Duty's most concerted effort to break the usual formula is unfortunately the most unsatisfying sequel in years, especially the badly flawed story campaign.

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Polygon
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Nov 6, 2015

Black Ops 3 doesn't meaningfully move the series forward

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7 / 10
Nov 5, 2015

Black Ops III presents fine-tuned multiplayer, engaging fights against the undead, and a boring campaign.

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Nov 19, 2015

This year's Call of Duty is a mixed bag that will polarize opinion depending in which part of the game you find the most enjoyment. All of the previous mechanics that have made the franchise what it is today are still there and they feel as good as ever. If you play CoD for the campaign, Black Ops III is a low point featuring a confusing and uninteresting story, poor pacing, cheesy dialogue and over-the-top voice acting that results in a story that resembles what the outcome would be if you dropped the cast of Team America: World Police on the set of Inception or Source Code. Zombies once again provides a fun alternative, and the setting and new gameplay additions are enough to keep it feeling fresh for fans until the next DLC pack hits. Multiplayer is as well balanced as it has been for a while and provides the same fast-paced experience that is known and loved. The addition of increased mobility adds a new way to traverse the world and even helps to bring new life into game modes that we have been playing off and on for the past ten years, but this is hit and miss as only some maps allow you to truly explore what it has to offer.Black Ops III's biggest plus points are that it's the most content-filled and best looking release in the series yet, and there are enough new additions to the gameplay across all game modes to help freshen things up for returning visitors. It's a good game for sure, but it does very little to stand out from what's already available and, in some areas, doesn't live up to the standards that the franchise has set over the years.

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Nov 9, 2015

Black Ops III tries hard to freshen the Call of Duty formula, and it's clear a lot of time and money went into creating the game. But other than the online multiplayer component, which should keep the faithful occupied for a few months, it's just slick, disposable entertainment, easily consumed and instantly forgotten. Then again, who am I to talk?

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PCMag
Top Critic
Nov 19, 2015

For better or worse, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is exactly the straightforward big-budget shooter you expect, offering entertaining gunplay, a ridiculous (but fun) campaign, and deep online multiplayer with a bevy of game modes.

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7 / 10
Dec 15, 2015

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a game of two thirds that gives us a fantastic multiplayer experience and an ever addicting Zombies mode, coupled with a poor single player. Hopefully Treyarch's next entry can finally give us a commendable campaign to boot.

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7 / 10
Dec 5, 2015

Decent effort, but far from COD mastery

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Nov 10, 2015

With a very predictable story and a great gameplay Black Ops III fails to excel in any particular field.

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