Flowing with your team
Above: I see a friend covering that hole, so there’s no need for me to go over there.
I’ve gotten to a point where I am using the minimap and know how to read all the cues Black Ops III is giving me. I can usually make a good guestimate about where people are and what direction they’re going. I can run off on my own and try to flank the enemy, but maybe it would be best if I try moving with my team instead. There are a couple of things I need to consider if I am going to go with my team’s flow.
Obviously, this is much easier to coordinate if I am playing with a bunch of friends in my own party chat. We can coordinate who is going to go where and inform each other on the things we see. Most of the time, however, I am stuck in a game with nothing but strangers. It’s still possible to coordinate with these other players, however, without saying a word.
The basic idea is that, if I am entering a small area with two other team mates, I need to make a mental note about where they are heading and then cover the one route that the other two are not. I try to stay just close enough to them on the map so that if one of them is in trouble, I can assist, but never so close that I’m right up their ass in a doorway.
This has a sacrificial bonus here in that if I die, my teammates are close enough (and hopefully aware enough) to know where my attacker came from.
The No. 1 thing to avoid is grouping up on top of each other. In fact, the vast majority of my multikills, and multideaths in the Black Ops III beta come from players insisting on running right on top of each other. These people think covering the other player means standing right behind their friend, while aiming down the same directions. That’s the dream set up for anyone looking to flank.
Play to your strengths
Above: The optimal shotgun range.
One of the earliest lessons I learned playing Quake deathmatch was learning when a fight was a lost cause. In Quake, I have a lot more room to engage an opponent in a fight and decide midway through to run away when things don’t look good. In Black Ops III, that decision often needs to be made when I’ve spotted a potential target, but haven’t fired yet (and they haven’t seen me). Once I’ve engaged, it’s often an all-or-nothing situation, so I try to make sure it’s a fight I can win.
I’ve noticed during the PlayStation 4 version of the Black Ops III beta, however, that people have a tendency to pull the trigger at every single thing they see. This can often be a short-sighted, if not straight up horrible, habit. Letting a difficult to shoot target go, at times, can yield some positive results. Sometimes an enemy that I’ve deemed not worth firing on is actually letting me know which direction the team is flowing. Other times, it will reveal two or three other threats that I didn’t see coming right behind them, which would’ve really screwed things up if I gave up my position.
And occasionally, it’s as simple as just knowing where that person is going and moving into a safer position to ambush them more effectively.
It’s smart to be realistic about the loadout and playstyle you choose. If I am running a close quarters friendly load out, I need to avoid long-range exchanges. If I’m trying to snipe people from far away, I obviously don’t want to pick fights in a stairwell (unless my quick scope is really good).
If you’re going to play a team mode, be a team player
Above: Working together to move this hunk of crap
One of my biggest pet peeves is playing a team mode full of people who just want to play Deathmatch. Guys, collect the tags, protect B, kill the flag runner, and protect the damned robot. Kills are good, but some of these modes are all about other objectives. Here are a few notes on some of these modes:
Domination
Two teams attempt to capture three positions on the map (A, B, and C). Capturing a position requires staying within the boundaries of a site for a certain amount of time.
On a public Domination game full of strangers, I can tell you which team is going to win within the first three minutes of the first round. It’s going to be the team that can capture and hold onto B site.
What about the team that keeps bouncing between capturing A and C, but never snags B? They’re playing a losing game of Pong.
The only time this isn’t true is when the winning team decides to take all three sites. Unless the lead is ridiculous, don’t do this. You’re randomizing the losing team’s spawn points, which means you no longer have a good grasp on where they are coming from.
Kill Confirmed
This is essentially Team Deathmatch, but when a player dies, they leave behind a set of dog tags for someone to pick up. Picking up an enemy dog tag is worth 50 points, recovering your own or a friend’s dog tag nets 25.
I’m amazed at how many people don’t collect their dog tags in this game. These things are the key to victory, not the kill/death ratio. If you’re near a tag, whether they’re from a fallen comrade or an enemy soldier, pick it up.
There are only two instances where I don’t pick up a tag: it’s somewhere way too dangerous, or I am setting up a trap. On the latter, it’s nothing especially involved or complicated. There have been times, however, where I killed someone and I knew they’d be back for their tags. So I resisted picking them up for a few seconds to see if they’d come back for them (your own tags show up on the minimap, if they’re not picked up right away). Sure enough, they did … and I wound up with two sets of dog tags.
Safeguard
This is an interesting mode where one team is trying to protect a robot walking to a specific location. The opposing team is trying to destroy it. The problem is that the robot requires someone standing right next to it to guide it to the finishing line … and no one wants to be that person.
First off, I’m dying for the riot shield in this mode. I didn’t see one in the weapons menu, but it wouldn’t be Call of Duty without one.
Secondly, this seems like a mode that could work out really well for scorestreaks and equipment that are all about poisoning chunks of the map. Stuff like the microwave emitters and heat sensing machine guns, coupled with land mines and electronic bug hives. Things that allow the defending team to make the robot’s path a really nasty environment.