The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Beta has ended with Xbox One, PC, and PS4 players getting a taste of what to expect when the game launches in October.
The good
Straight away players will notice that the Specialists make a return from Black Ops 3, with some new additions. This is a good addition to the game as it expands on what was introduced in the previous title, even if some could use a little love (looking at you Prophet’s Tempest).
Apart from some flow-breaking verticality, the maps are vibrant, action-focused, and fun to play on. These include Frequency, Contraband, Seaside, Payload, Hacienda and Gridlock. Game modes such as Chaos Team Deathmatch (allowing 6v6 and two of the same Specialists to be selected), Search and Destroy, and the new Control game mode work best here. The Heist game mode was another fun addition, allowing players to gradually earn better weapons, perks and gear with cash, much in the same way as games like Counter-Strike. Surprisingly, one of Call of Duty’s core gamemodes, Domination, played rather poorly, with seemingly random spawns ruining the flow of most games.
Most of the guns available to use in the Beta felt well balanced and satisfying to use. The maps did sway towards SMG play, however, with the announcement of classic maps such as Jungle coming to the game at launch I’m not too worried. One of the most interesting new weapon features is the ability to equip ‘operator mods’ which allow the gun to become very powerful, at the cost of extra pick ten class slots. An example of this attachment in use is the Cordite sub-machine gun which with the belt-fed operator mod, allows the gun to fire continuously without having to reload, with the player just having to watch out for over-heating.
The bad
Scorestreaks. More-or-less every streak in the game feels like downgrade (which I guess they are seen as the game is a prequel), sporting some pretty hilarious AI. Throughout my total play time the strike team performed the worst, almost refusing to engage the enemy at all, with the mantis coming in a close second, and the reliable RC car even getting stuck on things like stairs.
Though it has been announced that it will be patched for launch, the new Fog of War mini-map system isn’t great. Players were able to be spotted from behind, resulting in a lot of turn-ons, rendering flanking with suppressed weapons completely useless.
The new health system, which allows each player to have 150 health, results in some inconsistent-feeling gunfights. This is made worse by the fact that players can choose to equip body armour (essentially one-use juggernaut), and can also be health-buffed by medic Specialist Crash’s Tak-5.
Overall
The Black Ops 4 Beta left me feeling strange. On one hand the game runs very smoothly, and is fun in some situations, but on the other hand, I feel as though I enjoyed the Black Ops 3 Beta more, and also played Black Ops and Black Ops 2 religiously, so it has an almost impossible bar to reach. That being said if the scorestreaks are improved, Fog of War is altered, and gunfights can be made more consistent somehow, then I can see Black Ops 4 ranking highly amongst it’s predecessors.
Blackout
There has been much controversy surrounding the Blackout battle-royale mode, with fans almost split in half on the mode’s inclusion in the game. The Campaign, which was ultimately sacrificed in favour of the popular survival mode, was rumoured to be too convoluted for Activision, so a story will be crafted in the multiple Zombies maps, as well as the backstories of the Multiplayer Specialist characters.
The mode will allow a multitude of players, equipped with weapons and skins from the iconic Black Ops series, to compete in a Hunger Games-inspired survival match. Players will also be able to drive land, air and sea vehicles, as they traverse fan favourite maps from the franchise, with a total size over 1,500 times bigger than Nuketown.
https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/1029411078315204608
Players will have to wait and see what is in store when the Blackout battle-royale mode is available to play in the September 20th Beta.
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