Starting on Wednesday, August 19 through Sunday, August 23 PlayStation 4 owners that pre-ordered Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be able to exclusively access the game's Multiplayer Beta. The following week, Xbox One and PC will be able to participate in the event (starting Wednesday, August 26, to Sunday, August 30).
If you're in the Beta there are a couple things to know, like what maps will be available, which modes you can play, what each Specialist's talents are and just what the dang Weapon Paintshop is.
The Weapon Paintshop is more than just an Emblem Editor, it will allow you to design your own custom graphics for your gun. The Paintshop will let you apply up to 64 layers to three sides of your weapon, allowing you and your killing machine to truly stand out as the unique snowflake you are.
As it is a beta, be warned: Servers might not work from the get go — I will instruct you to simply deal with it for the time being (it's normal and happens to almost every online game).
The Multiplayer Beta will only have you playing on three different maps, so as they say "git good" — also, don't be filthy camper,you know who you are (I am one):
- Hunted:
- This big game hunting lodge is situated beneath a waterfall in the lush mountains of Ethiopia, where rugged terrain opens up to long sightlines and a stealthy underwater pathway.
- Combine:
- Set in the remote Egyptian Sahara, this vertical farming and sustainability research facility plays fast and frenetic with tight interiors, an open middle and a dangerous flank path.
- Evac:
- An abandoned emergency evacuation zone atop an overgrown rooftop in the middle of Singapore’s flooded quarantine zone.
Multiplayer Beta participants will have the option of playing seven familiar game modes:
- Team Deathmatch
- Domination
- Demolition
- Kill Confirmed
- Hardpoint
- Capture the Flag
- Search & Destroy
Upon entering the Multiplayer Beta you will have the option of choosing your own Specialist, there will be four Specialists available between ranks 0 and 22.
Callsign: Ruin
- Real Name: Donnie Walsh
- Bio: Raised in a military family in a tough neighborhood, he is fearless and headstrong, an infantry soldier through and through. He uses his unique abilities to rush into battle and surprise the enemy with sheer force.
- Weapon: Gravity Spikes – Creates a devastating area of effect shockwave in the surrounding area.
- Ability: Overdrive – Initiates a burst of speed that accelerates all movement for a short period of time.
Callsign: Outrider
- Real Name: Alessandra Castillo
- Bio: Developed keen observation skills growing up in the streets of the Favela, traversing the rooftops to watch the action of the city below, and this earned her a place in the ranks of the Brazilian Special Forces. She outsmarts enemies by finding them before they have a chance to know what hit them.
- Weapon: Sparrow – Compound bow w/explosive bolts and variable range.
- Ability: Vision Pulse – Pulses the surrounding area to reveal the location of all enemies within range.
Callsign: Prophet
- Real Name: David Wilkes
- Bio: Wilkes got his first set of cybernetic augmentations while serving in the British Engineering Corps. Five years and many upgrades later, he is the embodiment of the cutting edge of human weaponry on the battlefield, using his superior technology to disrupt opponents’ tactics before moving in for the kill.
- Weapon: Tempest – Charge-shot weapon that fires an arc of electricity, shocking targets and chaining to all nearby enemies.
- Ability: Glitch – Flash back to a previous position with this system mod that hacks the battlefield simulation grid.
Callsign: Battery
- Real Name: Erin Baker
- Bio: The only daughter and youngest child of five siblings, Erin Baker always had to fight to get her way. Following in a family tradition of over 100 years of military service, and watching her brothers enter the US Army one-by-one, she finally graduated high school and enrolled herself. Driven to excel by her ongoing rivalry with her brothers, she volunteered for Airborne School, before crushing the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program. Heavily armored, she fearlessly operates ahead of the front lines, nimbly traversing urban environments, as she destroys HVTs with salvoes of advanced high-explosive munitions.
- Weapon: War Machine – Grenade launcher that fires bouncing grenades which detonate after a shot time or by hitting an enemy directly
- Ability: Kinetic Armor – Reactive armor that deflects enemy bullets away from the body. Still vulnerable to headshots and non-bullet damage while active.
Between rank levels 22 and 28, you will have two more choices of Specialists: Seraph and Nomad. Both have a unique take on combat.
Callsign: Seraph
- Real Name: Zhen Zhen
- Bio: Militant enforcer of the 54I crime syndicate’s rule of law. She is known for her focused and unflinching combat discipline, striking fear within the ranks of the cartel.
- Weapon: Annihilator – Massive high-caliber revolver that fires devastating rounds with increased bullet penetration.
- Ability: Combat Focus – Triggers a bonus multiplier to score earned towards Scorestreaks for a period of time.
Callsign: Nomad
- Real Name: Tavo Rojas
- Bio: Last surviving member of an elite Rapid Deployment Force unit specialized in Jungle Warfare, Rojas has gone off-grid using his survivalist training to stay alive. At home in the wild, he uses his skills to turn the environment against his foes.
- Weapon: H.I.V.E. – Deploys pod traps which release a deadly swarm of nano drones when triggered.
- Ability: Rejack – Recover from near death by injecting a nanoparticle serum into the bloodstream.
If you progress through the game's beta more Specialists will be made available to you – depending on your rank and progress of course.
The following Specialists will be locked until you have progressed and ranked up appropriately:
Callsign: Reaper
- Real Name: Experimental War Robot (EWR)
- Bio: Started as an expensive military R&D project to supplement Special Operations soldiers in the field, the EWR was a cutting-edge prototype combat robot, the most advanced in the world at the time. Budget overruns and embarrassing political incidents left the project all but a resource for scrap metal, except for the one prototype that remained.
- Weapon: Scythe – Robotic arm that transforms into a high power Mini-Gun.
- Ability: Psychosis – Infiltrate enemy DNI systems to simulate three decoy clones.
Callsign: Spectre
- Real Name: CLASSIFIED
- Bio: Next to nothing is known about the presumed wet-works Specialist, Spectre. The designation itself is a codename agreed upon by the various agencies that have pooled their intelligence on unsolved assassinations, inferring his or her existence based on either evidence found at the scene or from fragmentary reports given by shaken bystanders. Despite heavy redaction, all accounts suggest an individual capable of extraordinary stealth, able to evade or neutralize the most sophisticated of manned or automated security set-ups. In every case, Spectre’s victims have been ‘handled’ with surgically precise mid-line wounds with rarely any signs of struggle.
- Weapon: Ripper – Spectre deploys mono-edged twin blades before gracefully dissecting victims with lethal, surgical precision.
- Ability: Active Camo: Advanced meta-materials rapidly change their properties, guiding photons over their surfaces instead of reflecting them, rendering Spectre temporarily invisible.