My review earlier on in the week and straight after launch would have been a very different and overwhelmingly negative one than this. Here's my story.

The first COD game I played was Blops 1, never cared for the series, I was a CSS, BF guy. But it came free with my PS3 campaign was LOL! Basically Michael Bay on roids, MP was meh. Zombies made me keep coming back. So I bought it on PC too, because I loved zombies. Never got into the MP. Since then I delved into MW2, WAW, MW3, BO2, AW. Loved the MP on MW3, loved the continuation of Zombies and the MP in BO2.

So I preordered this, my system is good, runs near anything on High/Ultra i7 2600k oced @ 4.6ghz, 16gb 1866mhz Ram, Asus 6990 4gb, games installed on a Samsung 840 Pro SSD.

On launch night I couldn't get the game to play for two hours, and looking for support or a fix was a nightmare. Turned out it was my AV Bitdefender. Don't know who's to blame here, Treyarch or BD? Fair enough. After this, the lag, the stutter started. It was unplayable and laggy at all resolutions, at lowest everything. After monitoring, formatting Windows 8.1, latest drivers etc, still same problem. Upgraded to windows 10. Same problems. Delving in more I realised when I had this game in menu my i7 @ 4.6ghz was at 100% load constantly.... It was also constantly on the MAIN MENU using 12gb of my Ram.... Googled, tried fixes, tried optimization, tried support (APPALLING SUPPORT). I couldn't play this game until two days ago, when a couple of issues have gradually started easing up. I'm still getting 12gb of ram usage... When I know people with 8gb of ram playing this fine. It seems today it has finally stopped using 100% of my CPU to about 60-70%ish, I'm still playing with everything on low or off, because the MP is so laggy and stuttering for me, to the extent there's no point playing. I might be getting 120 FPS, standing still. Then it will randomly drop to 40.... Then to 70. Mouse input lag too.

It's still erratic, still not optimized, but I have decided a couple of things. NEVER will I pre order an Activision or COD title ever again. It is also likely I will NEVER buy an Activision product ever again UNLESS it has 10/10 GOTY reviews.

With that out of the way, I have really started enjoying the Zombies over the last couple of days and appreciating other aspects of the game as they became more playable.

Not a fan of Solo campaign, so the co op option is a nice touch along with the customization of weapons.

Nightmares mode is an awesome addition that I look forward to unlocking.

I like that they allow you to skip missions and play it your way, realism mode is good. From the two or so hours I've played though, the campaign is a pile of crap. Like an episode of Agents of Shield mixed with Source Code and cliched military movies. But I'm compelled to complete it for nightmare mode.

MP seems fun, the maps look great, the weapons and the new specialist system seems good. Too bad I can't enjoy it yet without lag.

Saving grace for me in this game is the Zombies mode, I preferred BO1 and WAW Zombie maps to BO2, by a mile. Hated Tranzit, Hated Town etc on BO2. Shadows of Evil is refreshing where you can see the upgrades and intriguing game play easter egg system, weapon customizations a nice touch and the gobblegum awesome. Can't wait to see where they go with this. The Giant is what redeemed this game for me. I can see me and my friends playing that for hours on end, or at least till we get minimum 50 on Solo, 2p, 3p, 4p etc. This game can definetly redeem itself if it irons out the bugs it has in a speedy manner. I hope with every DLC they release two zombie maps, one following the Shadows of Evil story, and one a throwback to an older updated map like the giant.

Would I reccomend this game? Ask me two days ago the answer would have been hell no. Right now? Yes, it's fun and has potential. Just needs to sort its optimization issues out.

TL:DR Buy it if you enjoy COD MP with friends, and Zombies.
Don't buy it if Zombies or COD MP aren't your thing and if your system looks like it won't be able to hack it, or wait a bit see where they go with the patches.

My review earlier on in the week and straight after launch would have been a very different and overwhelmingly negative one than this. Here's my story. The first COD game I played was Blops 1, never cared for the series, I was a CSS, BF guy. But it came free with my PS3 campaign was LOL! Basically Michael Bay on roids, MP was meh. Zombies made me keep coming back. So I bought it on PC too, because I loved zombies. Never got into the MP. Since then I delved into MW2, WAW, MW3, BO2, AW. Loved the MP on MW3, loved the continuation of Zombies and the MP in BO2. So I preordered this, my system is good, runs near anything on High/Ultra i7 2600k oced @ 4.6ghz, 16gb 1866mhz Ram, Asus 6990 4gb, games installed on a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. On launch night I couldn't get the game to play for two hours, and looking for support or a fix was a nightmare. Turned out it was my AV Bitdefender. Don't know who's to blame here, Treyarch or BD? Fair enough. After this, the lag, the stutter started. It was unplayable and laggy at all resolutions, at lowest everything. After monitoring, formatting Windows 8.1, latest drivers etc, still same problem. Upgraded to windows 10. Same problems. Delving in more I realised when I had this game in menu my i7 @ 4.6ghz was at 100% load constantly.... It was also constantly on the MAIN MENU using 12gb of my Ram.... Googled, tried fixes, tried optimization, tried support (APPALLING SUPPORT). I couldn't play this game until two days ago, when a couple of issues have gradually started easing up. I'm still getting 12gb of ram usage... When I know people with 8gb of ram playing this fine. It seems today it has finally stopped using 100% of my CPU to about 60-70%ish, I'm still playing with everything on low or off, because the MP is so laggy and stuttering for me, to the extent there's no point playing. I might be getting 120 FPS, standing still. Then it will randomly drop to 40.... Then to 70. Mouse input lag too. It's still erratic, still not optimized, but I have decided a couple of things. NEVER will I pre order an Activision or COD title ever again. It is also likely I will NEVER buy an Activision product ever again UNLESS it has 10/10 GOTY reviews. With that out of the way, I have really started enjoying the Zombies over the last couple of days and appreciating other aspects of the game as they became more playable. Not a fan of Solo campaign, so the co op option is a nice touch along with the customization of weapons. Nightmares mode is an awesome addition that I look forward to unlocking. I like that they allow you to skip missions and play it your way, realism mode is good. From the two or so hours I've played though, the campaign is a pile of crap. Like an episode of Agents of Shield mixed with Source Code and cliched military movies. But I'm compelled to complete it for nightmare mode. MP seems fun, the maps look great, the weapons and the new specialist system seems good. Too bad I can't enjoy it yet without lag. Saving grace for me in this game is the Zombies mode, I preferred BO1 and WAW Zombie maps to BO2, by a mile. Hated Tranzit, Hated Town etc on BO2. Shadows of Evil is refreshing where you can see the upgrades and intriguing game play easter egg system, weapon customizations a nice touch and the gobblegum awesome. Can't wait to see where they go with this. The Giant is what redeemed this game for me. I can see me and my friends playing that for hours on end, or at least till we get minimum 50 on Solo, 2p, 3p, 4p etc. This game can definetly redeem itself if it irons out the bugs it has in a speedy manner. I hope with every DLC they release two zombie maps, one following the Shadows of Evil story, and one a throwback to an older updated map like the giant. Would I reccomend this game? Ask me two days ago the answer would have been hell no. Right now? Yes, it's fun and has potential. Just needs to sort its optimization issues out. TL:DR Buy it if you enjoy COD MP with friends, and Zombies. Don't buy it if Zombies or COD MP aren't your thing and if your system looks like it won't be able to hack it, or wait a bit see where they go with the patches.