This is the raw, unreconstructed CoD experience: super-fast-paced online shooter action, where most players will move through the spawn-die-respawn cycle at hypnotic speed, as though trapped in an internal combustion engine of military horror.
The traditional multiplayer mode offers Team Deathmatch, Control (which sees teams taking it in terms to protect two key points on each map), a selection of capture-the-flag derivatives and newcomer Heist, a taut, round-based, no-respawn challenge where teams compete to grab and extract a bag of cash. When playing with friends, there is a brilliant interplay of camaraderie and selfish panic. The visual design is lovely, the environments are labyrinthine and interesting, and there are some decent quips from the cabal of weird characters. The maps are riddled with secrets, traps and easter eggs, and part of the fun is exploring and working out new ways to evade your stumbling, rotting enemies. My favourite is Voyage of Despair, a steampunk-infused gallop around a sinking ocean liner, where the undead surge from cabins while you desperately search for better weapons. Meanwhile, Zombies provides a selection of short narrative challenges to get involved with. I can count the number of times I’ve helplessly cried with laughter while playing a video game, and attempting to hide in a tiny bathroom with three friends to avoid much more skilled players in Blackout was definitely one of them. Add in the pilotable helicopters and you have a game that truly blasts its own stamp on the battle royale playing field.
The gunfights, powered by a huge range of guns and grenades, have the traditional turbo-lethality of the CoD series – one second you and your teammates are healthy and relaxed, the next, two of you are down and the others are desperately searching for where the machine gun fire is coming from. Creeping through deserted buildings and along quiet highways, trying to cover every angle while spotting untouched buildings to scavenge from, is deliciously tense.
It is frantic, exhilarating and enormous fun with friends. The multiplayer maps are tight but scenically varied.