The Black Ops titles have always been great at cultural references, matching pop music to its bombastic action in highly enjoyable ways, but apart from some grainy news footage of Reagan speeches and an admittedly wonderful scene set in an amusement arcade, there’s little nostalgic revelry in the era.

What’s really disappointing is that the soundtrack and environmental design make little effort to capitalise on the early 1980s setting. En route, war crimes are committed, moral quandaries are swerved, and macho platitudes are slung about like grenades (“we don’t hope for the best, we make the best happen!”). Mostly, this is comprised of Call of Duty campaign staples: helicopter crashes escaping to rooftops and waiting for evac calling in airstrikes and gaining temporary control of aircraft miniguns.

Photograph: Activisionīut we don’t get anything truly fresh or daring, and the surreal, hallucinatory brain-washing pyrotechnics the series is known for don’t really kick off until the end.

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