Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 review – plenty to see, but nothing to shock

Activision's monolithic shooter series returns with a blast of new content and features - but the cracks are showing

It is difficult to recall now how innovative the original Call of Duty was when it blasted on to the first-person shooter scene in 2003. Dropping players into a series of vast and chaotic World War II battles, it combined cinematic verve with a new sense of being part of a much wider offensive - a small cog in a massive machine rather than the solo gun-toting hero of Doom or Duke Nukem. When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare arrived four years later, it revolutionised the mainstream multiplayer component, adding killstreaks and XP points, bringing a sense of progression to the previously transitory online experience.

Now in 2015, after a decade of annual iterations, Call of Duty has come to symbolise the deadening cycle of the Triple A video game industry. Every year, a few new features, a graphical overhaul, some extravagant claims. It's the same story from Assassin's Creed to Fifa.