What will you be doing during the holidays as you wait for your family to cook and cut the turkey? When winter break comes after finals, are you going to just be shoveling snow everyday out in the cold? Why spend this time with friends and family when you can sit in front of your TV or computer screen, gaming your heart out? If that sounds like your type of vacation, I have one specific game for you.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is worth ditching your family and even ditching school. The Call of Duty franchise has been releasing games every year since 2003, alternating between  game studios Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch. This year Treyarch took the wheel in the 3-year cycle and gave gamers exactly what they’ve been looking for in previous Call of Duty games. Additions like full customization in each game mode, more game modes that differ from past Call of Duty games, and new game mechanics make the game faster and more fluid compared to the past 2 years of Call of Duty.

First off, let’s start with the game mode most people tend to ignore, the Campaign. Every year, Call of Duty implements stories into their games ranging from the Cold War to the events of World War 2. The past 2-3 games have contained campaigns involving possible future events revolving around World War 3, exo-suits, and, with this game, robotics. But what Call of Duty fans are interested in with this new campaign experience is how it is now a co-op campaign. Compared to the past games, gamers would have to go through the whole story alone and put so much time into it, but now they can go through this story with their friends and plan each move they make in the storyline together. Past Call of Dutys featured cooperative play, but they were never as in-depth as Black Ops 3.

Next up is something every gamer wants to hear about: multiplayer gamemode in Black Ops 3. This game mode has innovated itself so much over the past two Black Ops games that Treyarch made. With gameplay mechanics like dolphin diving to sliding and now wall-running, the multiplayer experience gives competitive gamers what they’ve been looking for. Black Ops 3’s newest most innovative multiplayer mechanic is the new specialist abilities. They add new dynamics to a franchise everyone loves by giving each specialist character that you choose at the start of your multiplayer experience an ability that they earn from consistently getting kills and completing objectives for your team. Each specialist has different abilities including an arrow where you can shoot out explosive bolts, a quick burst of speed, or even the ability to teleport to avoid being shot at. The multiplayer, player versus player, experience has really set the bar for Call of Duty games with the addition of Black Ops 3 to the franchise.

Lastly, something I’ve been looking forward to for the past three years is Zombies. This Zombies game mode has changed so much throughout the years. For all of those Zombie fans out there, this is the game for you. This game mode should be the reason why you stop reading this article and go out and buy the game. My experience with a 24-hour game session with my cousin completely got me attached to the blood and gore of zombie flesh that this game has to offer. The Zombies game mode has improved the most out of anything Treyarch has made over the past couple years. The main thing this game mode improved on is stability. In the past, gamers would go into Zombies and just go for the highest round on the game’s leaderboards. But in this game, you have more of a goal to achieve. You can level up, exactly like how you level up in multiplayer and unlock weapons that you can buy off-the-wall or randomly get from the mystery box in-game and customize them how you want so when you get that gun, it will always have its customizations you like in every game you play in. This completely changes the game because before you can’t have attachments that you specifically want on guns to help you in the game. Another new feature Treyarch has added to zombies is GobbleGum. In Black Ops 3 Zombies, these are special unlockable abilities, or persistent perks that can give the players specific effects or bonuses that can help them throughout their playthrough. Before every match, you can customize your GobbleGum pack and choose up to 5 different types of GobbleGums or abilities. Once you get in-game, there will be GobbleGum machines all around the map that will dispense 1 of your 5 types of GobbleGums that you decided on before the game. Other than customization, this game mode offers a lot more like an easter egg storyline that is implemented in the 2 maps available with the game, (1 map must be purchased and downloaded separately with the Season Pass). I’ll leave the storyline easter egg hunting to yourself.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has really innovated gaming for the better to best fit what gamers have been looking for in a first person shooter. This game’s involvement around customization itself innovates a player’s experience. When I first lay hands on a game, I focus on unlocking everything possible. Black Ops 3 does exactly what every gamer wants. The game modes are all so in-depth that you will be spending hours and hours just on the game mode you love the most. If you love a good storyline, campaign will take you a good 8 hours of straight gaming, plus an extra campaign gamemode that I don’t want to spoil for anyone, (It will please zombie fans). Multiplayer and Zombies itself will spend more than just hours, but will take days just grinding through levels and obtaining max prestige status. I recommend gamers to buy this game as soon as possible. Black Ops 3 is available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. As soon as I build my PC, this is the first game I plan on buying myself as it is the one game that I’ve been looking forward to when finishing up building my PC. All fans of a first person shooter game will be really pleased with Black Ops 3.