Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the best shooter game of 2015

Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III is one of the finest installments in a series that has generated $10 billion in lifetime revenue. The single-player campaign is challenging, surprising, and has more interesting missions that take full advantage of the next-generation game consoles. It’s too bad that the servers didn’t work perfectly on day one, frustrating many players who wanted to go straight online.

But as Activision straightens multiplayer out (and it has as of today), players should use the time to play the single-player campaign and the extra zombies campaign that you unlock once you finish the first one. You won’t be sorry, because Treyarch has shown that creativity and Call of Duty are not mutually exclusive. Black Ops III is the latest attempt to keep Activision — which just bought King for $5.9 billion — at the No. 1 spot in the hardcore video game business. And it shows that even when you’re making an expensive blockbuster, you can still take a lot of risks that could either delight or disillusion a loyal fan base. In this case, the fan base is as hardcore and committed as they come, as an estimated 40 million people play Call of Duty every month. Market researcher Nielsen says Black Ops III is this fall’s most-anticipated game.