Call of Duty: Black Ops 3’s similarities ‘an improvement’ over Advanced Warfare’s gameplay, says Activision

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was officially unveiled last month, my immediate thought was Advanced Warfare mixed with Deus Ex.

Despite mostly positive reaction to the reveal trailer, much of the "negative" conversation surrounding Black Ops 3 were comparisons to other popular games, like the two mentioned above as well as Titanfall and Destiny. Simply put, many view Activision's upcoming shooter as a "rip off or rehash" of what's already been done in many popular games before it.

Even Activision agrees to a certain extent, and addressed the topic during its latest earnings call yesterday. When asked how Black Ops 3 "will be differentiated from prior versions of Black Ops and even from Advanced Warfare," Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg responded:

"Honestly we're building on the successes of all of those games, but we're also bringing a lot of fresh ideas."

Acknowledging the similarities, he continued:

"I understand what you mean when you say you see similarities with Advanced Warfare, I think the movement system in Black Ops III picks up where Advanced Warfare left off, but improves it and makes it more athletic and intuitive and smoother than ever before, and that's been a big theme we've heard from the press who got hands on with the game at Reveal, which we've never been able to do before, which is another good advantage of the three-year cycle."

While Black Ops 3 may be similar thematically to Advanced Warfare, early previews say the game feels much more fluid and free. Additionally, Treyarch is bringing all sorts of new additions to the game that we've yet to see in past Call of Duty experiences, including the ability to play the entire campaign as co-op with up to four friends, as well as Specialist classes for multiplayer that boast unique powers and weapons.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will release on November 6, 2015. An open beta will be made available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for anyone who pre-orders the game. There's no mention of Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii U, though Activision maintains "actual platform availability and launch(s)" are still "to be determined."