I’m not going to even try and defend Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III. I’ve just completed the campaign mode, so that is what this review is based on (I was only really interested in single player). I got the game as part of my PS4 Pro and thought, “Hey I’ve heard this isn’t too bad.”

How wrong I was.

Where do I start? The main protagonist is terrible and very poorly voice acted. Honestly I’ve seen better B grade action performances in movies. The other characters don’t fare much better. Don’t get me started on the really poor plot. It is just woeful. For a bit in the middle I thought that it was going to get interesting, but then it just got much worse than the slow and bland beginning. To me the plot felt like a very piss poor attempt at something along the lines of Ghost In The Shell.

The only saving grace is that it looks pretty good and has some decent gun customisation.

The sound is passable and the graphics, particularly on the PS4 Pro, are actually very good (it runs at 1800p). But this doesn’t really make up for the fact you are barely struggling to finish the game because you ears can’t handle the terrible voice over work and your eyes can’t believe the story you are watching.

I will say another positive of the game is the gun customisation and painting options that are available. There is a really good perk system for weapons too, so they did think about how players could tailor the guns to their tastes. If you intend on playing a lot of multiplayer this is actually pretty good. You have a range of player perks too, but I only ever used two and didn’t feel the need to try the others.

Unless you intend on playing a lot of the Zombie Mode and Multiplayer, do not buy this for the single player campaign mode. I am so glad I didn’t buy this. Because it is one of the few disc games I own (I’m mainly digital these days) it will be traded towards my Xbox One X pre-order.

Thankfully Sledgehammer Games’ attempt at Call of Duty this year takes us back to World War Two. I hope they do a much better job of the story this time around. Looking at some of the early trailers it does look promising. I think it is time to put the near future plotted COD games behind us.

Reviewed on the PS4 Pro.