'Black Ops 3' might be the best 'Call of Duty' for series' haters

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There's something about Call of Duty that makes most players either love it or hate it. For the former, its twitchy, fast-paced action is the epitome of competitive shooter gameplay; and for those who don't get it, CoD seems repetitive, bland and wedged too far into dude-bro fist-bumpiness to possibly be enjoyable.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 won't please everyone, but it might convince some of those haters.

Developer Treyarch is taking a luxurious three years to complete Black Ops 3, and based on the demos journalists played during a recent studio visit it seems they haven't wasted any of that time. Black Ops 3 has the most changes the series has seen since it first ditched World War II for more a more modern type of warfare years ago, and its new features might make even the most steadfastly uninterested gamer reconsider that position.

Treyarch didn't quite go back to the drawing board, but they did strip Call of Duty down to its barest essentials before determining what to add to the familiar formula of classes, loadouts and kill streaks. The result is a game with more fluid movement, combat variety and sheer personality than any other in the series.

Oh, and it has four-player online cooperative play. Wouldn't want to forget to mention that.

Image: Activision

The developers at Treyarch had time to try out plenty of competing shooter games over the last couple of years while they made Black Ops 3. The game borrows heavily from two of the best: Titanfall, an Xbox exclusive from competing publisher EA, and Destiny, a sci-fi-based shooter from Call of Duty publisher Activision.

From Destiny comes a class system that gives you the choice of several character archetypes with unique capabilities. In Black Ops 3, they're called "specialists." The game has nine specialists total, each with two abilities — a special weapon and a move or other perk — for a total of 18 choices. You pick a specialist and one of their powers before every match, much like you choose your kill streaks and tweak your classes in the lobby during existing CoD games.

The specialists take many forms, like a robot whose arm can transform into a gatling gun, or a futuristic hunter who can see through walls. Some of their powers—like the "Seraph"'s powerful handcannon, and the "Ruin"'s fists-first smash attack—are almost identical to "supers" from Destiny.

Don't take that the wrong way — many of Treyarch's folks are big Destiny fans, they confessed during our visit. And they've managed to translate one of that game's best features perfectly into the rigid Call of Duty multiplayer formula, loosening things up—and making them more fun—in the process.

The people behind Black Ops 3 emphasized that the series' signature multiplayer requires them to create a perfect balance between combat, movement and level design. But with combat getting such a major new addition in the form of specialists, the game's movement had to get upgraded as well. And that's where Titanfall's influence is clear.

When you were running around on foot in Titanfall, you could also jet through the air and run across walls like Spider-Man. In fact, many of the people working on Black Ops 3 now helped make Spider-Man games in years past, as well as games in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise. These provided inspiration too, the game's creators said.

Black Ops 3 has the most fluid movement system of any CoD game yet. You can run along a wall, jetpack through the air, switch directions mid-jump and land with a lengthy power-slide. Chaining these maneuvers together becomes a game in and of itself, and you might occasionally forget to stop and shoot while you're zipping around. That's actually fine too.

You almost never have to put your gun down now

You almost never have to put your gun down now. You can shoot while mantling over obstacles and walls, and though your aim will suffer the action won't stop.

If that doesn't sound like Call of Duty, it's because it doesn't feel much like it either. But there's good news for existing fans: you're free to keep both feet on the ground, or simply lie prone with a sniper rifle like you're used to. The new maps are designed to let either style work, creating a wonderful feeling of flexibility not present in the series before.

Image: Activision

Treyarch removed everything from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 that didn't "wind the combat loop tighter," as the developers love to say. All of it — keeping your gun up and ready all the time, having an arsenal of fun new powers — was designed to make the game feel snappier and more rewarding. And with that accomplished, Treyarch took another new approach: adding four-player co-op to story missions

BO3's campaign missions were designed to let four people navigate and fight in them simultaneously

BO3's campaign missions were designed to let four people navigate and fight in them simultaneously the whole way through. Their environments are bigger and more complex, with multiple paths through each encounter, the developers said.

The game's computer-controller enemies are smarter as well, to compensate — robots and humans and drones all act differently, and they'll band together to fight you in different ways depending on your own tactics, the devs explained.

There are layers upon layers of changes here, from the many new abilities at players' disposal to the game's more lenient approach to level design. While some additions and alterations might rub traditionalists the wrong way, it's also possible that they'll all come together to make a Call of Duty game that's accessible to more people than ever.

None of this is a guarantee, but the bits Treyarch and Activision did let us play — a half dozen or so multiplayer matches across a handful of maps and game types — felt like the breath of fresh air Call of Duty has been needing for years.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is out Friday, Nov. 6 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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