Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 is the 15th main instalment in Activision's military shooter franchise and the first to forgo a traditional single-player experience.

This means that gamers craving the Call Of Duty franchise's signature mix of testosterone-fuelled characters, doomsday scenarios and Michael Bay-esque set-pieces will have to get their fix some place else.

The franchise has struggled in recent years to find its identity. Since the series' debut in 2003, its narratives have shifted across a range of settings, from fighting in World War II to engaging in science-fiction battles across the solar system.

It is with its competitive multiplayer modes that the franchise made its mark on the video-game world - by pitting individuals or groups of gamers against one another in virtual spaces where they could shoot each other in the head for hours on end.

Without the single-player component, Black Ops 4 is less about conversation and more about action.

There are three beefy game modes - Multiplayer, Zombies and Blackout.

Multiplayer offers eight modes, with two new additions - Control and Heist - that focus on attacking and defending. Notably, player movements are not as slow as last year's WWII-themed release, though not as quick as those allowed by the futuristic wall-running mechanics of Black Ops 3.

Opponents can now take a little more damage before they are downed, a change from the faster "time-to-kill" that the Call Of Duty games are famous for.

Another departure from the franchise norm is the introduction of a manual heal system by way of Stim Packs, which replaces the auto-regenerating health system.

These changes add a layer of strategy to engagements. For instance, as enemies converge, players have to decide if reloading their weapon or healing would be the best course of action.

The changes are refreshing, but be forewarned that this does not change how steep the learning curve is. Just a week after the game's launch, I found matches populated by opponents who are able to steamroll over much weaker players such as myself.

The Zombies mode is a more cooperative affair. Four players are put in an arena with endless waves of the undead. Death is inevitable, but the goal is to see how long you can survive the onslaught.

Killing zombies nets you points, which you can use to buy weapons strewn about the map or to unlock new areas, essentially giving you and your team room to breathe, as the enemy horde spawns in ever larger numbers.

Like with Multiplayer, simply playing in Zombies will earn you the experience needed to unlock weapons as well as perks to bring into new matches.

This time, the Zombies mode weaves a storyline into its undead killing component, although the wacky romp through time is just an excuse to take gamers to interesting arenas and settings.

The two standout arenas are Voyage Of Despair, an arena based on the wreckage of the Titanic; and IX map, which puts players at the heart of an ancient Rome fighting arena.

The third game mode, Blackout, sees the franchise joining the "battle royale" gaming craze. One hundred players with just one life drop into a gigantic map, run around scrounging for weapons and equipment in abandoned buildings and take one another out until only one person or group is left standing.

Instead of going in solo or with a team of four for my first time, I opted to pair up. I placed 27th with just one kill, but could not wait to jump right back in again.

What Blackout brings to the battle-royale genre is the franchise's wealth of experience in shooting mechanics.

Despite adding realistic bullet-drop physics, which the other game modes lack, Blackout's gunplay is polished and dependable. If you lost an engagement, it was rarely because the game failed you.

Gamers not interested in the kid-friendly aesthetics of Fortnite or the bug-riddled physics of PUBG should give Blackout a spin. The game mode alone is worth the price of admission.

• Verdict: Chock-full of content, including a new battle-royale mode that will keep players running and gunning for hours, Black Ops 4 will please fans and make naysayers forget about its lack of a single-player campaign.