Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, review: Beyond the lazy tropes this is a true gem

Although it is set 50 years in the future and 40 years after Black Ops II, this 12th entry in the Call of Duty franchise may, on the face of it, give the impression that nothing really changes. Wars are still waged, soldiers still trot out throwaway, generic soundbites and everything is just so loud and bombastic like a parody of a blockbuster movie.

After all, this game is set in a world falling apart at the seams in which the inhabitants are just about holding up. It's about grabbing a gun and blasting your way though the problems you face. But for all of the cliches and the tendency to fall back on lazy tropes, there is a true gem of a game in here. And from what we've seen so far, we're loving it.

One thing's for sure, it's a fast-paced, packed first person shooter. Developer Treyarch has had three years to make this game and it would appear it has barely wasted a day standing next to the whiteboard. It has packed barrel loads of features into this game, from being able to choose to play as a man or a woman to some cool cybernetic cores – Control, Martial or Chaos – each of which are enhanceable and have differing effects as you do battle. The huge campaign can be played by as many as four players co-operatively and it means there is less of a route-one feel through the levels. It's a fresh spin that works so well.

Being able to choose from one of the nine specialist characters is a lovely addition in multiplayer, given that you can benefit from tailor-made abilities and weapons. You can perform some dazzling moves, chaining them one after another in moves that will undoubtedly go down well among those who enjoy watching people play games as much as they like to play themselves.

But then being cybernetically-enhanced soldiers, the range of moves is expanded and it allows players to stretch their belief system. Given there are dream sequences and a mash-up of genres – slicing in some horror here and there, for example, – it's a case of anything goes and there is absolutely nothing wrong in that approach: CoD has to keep with the times and it can't keep falling back on old ground.

At the same time, though, there is much familiarity, as if Treyarch has been wanting to add to the franchise's feature set rather than take stuff away. So there are many more cutscenes, the return of zombies using a map which far surpasses that of previous games and those bits where you're stuck in a vehicle and razing everything in sight as it moves automatically.

There is no harm in having fun with the established structure, though, and that is what Black Ops III provides. To that end, it's a different Call of Duty; a reimagining to an extent. And it's one you really must play (unless you have an Xbox 360 or PS3 in which case you may want to hold off – you only get the multiplayer and miss out on the campaign).