Treyarch is now taking their turn at Call of Duty and are introducing a new battle royale game-mode to Call of Duty for the first time ever. In this new game-mode they implement new mechanics that were never in any of their previous games. They added features such as vehicles, armor, a little of bullet lead, 88 people in one game, looting, players will have 150 health when they drop, and there are also zombies thrown into the mix for fun.

The map for Blackout is the biggest map that Treyarch has ever made and consists of popular spots from past multiplayer/zombie maps such as Nuketown, Raid, Turbine, and many more. You choose your destination while flying over the entire map in a cargo-bob, then after you’ve chosen where you want to land you dive out and make your way down with a wing-suit. You can travel across the entire map in a variety of vehicles such as a helicopter, truck, ATV, or a boat.

Once you’ve landed, your first job is to get as much loot as possible, which include different perks, weapons, attachments, and items to help regenerate health. There are also 3 levels of armor you can pick up to increase your chance of living. Level 1 armor reduces the damage by 40%, level 2 reduces it by 50%, and level 3 being the strongest reduces it by 65%.

After you’ve looted everything you can carry, your next objective is to make it to the safe zone. If you’re not fortunate enough to already be in the zone when you land then you are given a fair amount of time to grab everything you need to survive, but once that time limit is up you better find yourself a vehicle or start running before you get caught in the chaos. After you’ve made it into the circle, your biggest challenge will be other players who are more than happy to pick you off as you approach the safe zone.

As for our opinion on the game, it has its’ ups and downs like most games. While we do enjoy the fast pace and intense game-play, it does sometimes get a little too fast and difficult for someone who may be new to the battle royale modes. The armor is another issue we have, we feel as though the armor is too powerful and reduces too much damage. In our opinion, all levels of armor should be reduced by 10%-15%. The vehicles worked very well with getting from point A to point B when having to get across the map in short amounts of time. Overall, while this game-mode isn’t perfect, it definitely exceeded expectations and impressed many of the doubters. Therefore we rate it 3.5 out of 5.