Black ops 3 specialists missed opportunity and balance issue?

Missed opportunity when it comes to the specialists characters in black ops 3. For starters art style of each one is rather close to each other. Apart from the cyborg ones which sort of stand out but can still blend into the environment.

Impossible to tell the difference between each one at a distance.  Important information to know what sort of specialist you’re facing or what weapon.

From a design point of view also think becomes a missed opportunity gameplay wise. However I can understand why they have limited the power of them just like killstreaks they are very powerful tools.

Rejack is an gameplay mechanic which was removed from the game a couple years ago but has returned.  Allows the player to revive with health back to 100.  Many people have been saying this ability is overpowered however I think they are missing the bigger picture.  Rejack is a passive ability most of the other abilities in the game are something you need to activate.   Here a break down so you get the point…

Requires activation

  1. Gravity spikes – Offensive
  2. Overdrive – Defensive
  3. Sparrow – Offensive
  4. Vision pulse – Defensive
  5. Tempest – Offensive
  6. Glitch – Defensive
  7. War machine – Offensive
  8. Kinetic armor – Defensive
  9. Annihilator – Offensive
  10. Combat focus – Passive
  11. Ripper – Offensive
  12. Scythe – Offensive
  13. H.I.V.E. – Offensive
  14. Psychosis – Passive
  15. Active camo – Passive

Does not require activation

  1. Rejack – Passive

Glitch is very close to rejack but requires the player input in order to make use of it and rather situational.  Rejack success may be situational but the activation is not.  In game which you die so fast you want a reward which you’re likely to use.  Worth pointing out that only situational use for rejack is for you to die. Worse still every second counts if you’re wasting your time trying to kill somebody who should died 100ms ago you’re putting yourself at risk. If anything Rejack is going to become overused over overpowered without a doubt far more powerful situational abilities.

Annoying, frustrating as a gameplay gameplay mechanic no doubt.

Rejack is not that good but better compared to the other abilities.

Problem is they tried to make specialists have limited impact on the game not to over shadow perks or killstreaks but rejack is versatile.  Other abilities are far too situational for the average player.  As a result they have created something which is going to have quite a big impact on the game.

Still don’t view it as being overpowered just far more versatile compared to the others.

As for solutions….

I think they need to go back to the drawing board coming up new versatile abilities which react with certain perks or items within the game.  Giving every specialist a passive power and one which can be activated.  Of course I could be wrong with this but would be nice to see specialist impact the game more.

Not 100% on what the best solution would be when it comes to this…and just goes to show you how hard game design can be.

Worth pointing out that gameplay mechanics should be a two way street so the player using it should feel powerful but the player used against does not feel helpful.  Which is why killstreaks have been nerfed if anybody was curious that part of the reason why.

Credit to Treyarch however for making it obvious when somebody is using compared to some others which not obvious until you’re dead.

Black ops 3 Beta feedback [work in process]

Still working on my feedback but here some stuff which I feel should be changed

Feedback: Flinch

Problem: Flinch is making combat random

Solution: Remove flinch from the game or LMGs can only cause flinch

Reason:  Shoot first win, flinch counters this gameplay mechanic adding a random element into the game which is frustrating.  Flinch can completely change a fight due to blind luck.  Given how fast the time to kill is you don’t have time to counter the flinch created.

Feedback: Player Models against the background

Problem: Player models blend into the environment too well.  Died many times from people who have blended into corners or parts of the level.  This happens at close range and longer ranges.  Players can also hide within shadow or darker areas due to this.

Solution: Change the color palette used on the models so they stand out or increase the brightness or contrast

Feedback: Medals clutter

Problem: All the medals gained are displayed in order this you should only see the last one you got with rest compressed in the background.

Solution: Only see the last one with rest compressed in the background.

Feedback: Shotgun hipfire spread

Problem: Too big for the number of pellets being fired

Solution: Increase the number of pellets fired or decrease the spread

Feedback: Shotgun range

Problem: Shotguns are uncompetitive with this current range

Solution: Increase the overall range of the shotgun but keep the damage range the same.

Feedback: Combine map

Problem: Easy to spawn camp and see into the spawn points at C?

Headglitch spots

Solution:  Block off the line of sight into the spawn on the right hand side and left hand remove the desk or higher it.

Make the headglitch boxe

Feedback: Matchmaking

Problem:

Solution:

Some quick thoughts on Black ops 3 beta

Another year another Call Of Duty game this time we get a demo of sorts.

Just to make it clear in the process of downloading so here some quick thoughts on the beta going into it.

Time to kill

We always had a insane fast time to kill so no point in bitching about it any feelings of slowness is down to networking conditions.

Latency

All games suffer from latency issues and networks.  Time to kill mixed with minor delays help to make the latency feel worse.

Shotguns

Always suck never getting good shotguns again

Setting

Does not matter I just want to see what new gameplay mechanics are into the game and how big of a impact they have.

Weapon balance

Expect one or two god weapons with the rest being worse versions and one or two terrible weapons period.

Have fun

May create a review but not sure what people would want from said review end of the day call of duty game…

Black ops 3 beta or no beta?

Call of duty black ops 3 beta starts August 19th until 24th.

Beta is currently only 5 days long which is not very long at all.  Worse still you need to pre order the game in order to play the beta.  Not sure what to think about this bit of news I was hoping the beta would last two weeks.

This leaves me quite a big problem do I pre order the game just to play the beta.  Normally I don’t pre order games habit which is not good. When it comes to my call of duty play time so far the last game I did play would be ghosts so I had quite a break from the series.

Tempted to pre order the beta but right now my time is limited so would only get 3 days in which I could play it.