Campaign

Like Modern Warfare (2019), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s campaign is definitely worth playing, and is grounded in realism (1980s nuclear arms race) but retains the classic over the top Call of Duty formula of crazy set-pieces and larger than life characters. Set after the events of the original Black Ops, the player “Bell” is tasked with teaming up with a special ops unit lead by new face Russell Adler, to take down the terrorist known as Perseus. I especially loved the return of Mason & Woods (though I’m not sure why James C. Burns wasn’t re-cast), and some villains later on in the story.

For the first time in the series we can edit our hero, well somewhat anyway. You are given quite a smart way to provide background information on your protagonist whilst weaving in perks that will stay with you throughout the campaign. The choices don’t end here, directional dialogue is present throughout the game, although it doesn’t change the game all that much, bar a drastically different ending. It was a nice idea and something we appreciated to start the campaign off right.

In-between your antics out and about in the neon drenched streets, you will be brought back to a safe house to catch your breath and chat with your colleagues. Amongst the clutter and hardened soldiers, there is a bulletin board where your missions, tasks, and intel live. This was an innovative way of approaching the campaign, with certain missions allowing you to play them in any order, and each mission highlighting what intel was required to proceed on other missions.

Though the campaign is slow to take off, it does get better, and crazier, towards the end, much like the original Black Ops did. The freedom that it gives the player is also a nice addition as it is not as linear as in other titles, allowing side quests to be taken on, as well as multiple endings depending on player choices (one is definitely more fun than the other however).

Black Ops Cold War Adler — *Adler is the new main man on the scene…*

This bulletin board style was aesthetically pleasing, although it did symbolise how the campaign was sometimes very fragmented and jumped around a little too much. From flashbacks in Vietnam, to fistfights in 1980s Berlin, the choice to play missions in your own order does sometimes ruin the natural flow and tension building a traditional campaign holds. Despite this, the cutscenes were stunning and the setting of some of the missions were remarkable, especially when backed by a banging soundtrack and some classic COD gunplay.

To sprinkle in a bit of criticism, at times the stealth play was laughable, which is not normally a problem, but it is sprung upon you quite regularly. Additionally, some of the missions, mainly the optional side missions, completely missed the mark. One mission in particular stands out, where you and Woods head off to infiltrate a base, but it is executed like a poor Spec Ops mission. The entire campaign on veteran is not a challenge, but this mission in particular had vast open spaces and enemy reinforcements coming in, but it equated to a handful of enemies getting killed easily whilst Woods yelled that he couldn’t cover me. It was bizarre and certainly took away from the rest of the campaign.

Overall, the campaign was great fun and looked and felt terrific. Despite problems with crashing at launch and the weird disparity between certain missions, this truly unique campaign delivers an engaging story with tensions feeling even higher with you filling the protagonist’s shoes directly. Considering that the Cold War saw, quite literally, no direct warfare, a smart story has been created here in a classic, weird, and wonderful Call of Duty style.

Zombies

A ‘third’ mode which blows the likes of Spec Ops out of the water, Zombies, is a staple of Treyarch developed Call of Duty games, and this year’s is a ton of fun, despite only getting half the offering that Black Ops 4 had on launch. The map, Die Maschine, is a simple throwback to the original World at War map Nacht Der Untoten, which follows up to four operators as they uncover the dark secrets of Omega Group, teaming up with Weaver and Samantha.

This map revolves around exploring the evil roots of zombies, collecting and pack-a-punching overpowered weapons along the way, though there are some new additions as well as some returning fan favourites, such as Juggernog. Going for Dark Ops challenges or simply high rounds and exfilling is addictingly fun, and the added simplicity and unified weapon levelling system this time around, means more players can experience the undead slaying action.

The new map layout is one of our favourite maps for quite a while. It draws you in with nostalgia but then delivers a very smart layout full of surprises; even the fact we get to see where it all started, decades later all graffitied up and desolate is so cool. You can play zombies now with your online create a classes, and you even get a free special powerup that you can upgrade. All XP carries over and special Zombies skins can also be unlocked that you can use in multiplayer too. Everything can be upgraded just by playing the game, so the more you play, the more you are rewarded.

Easter egg fans should be excited too, because this one is a real treat. In addition to the special zombie types appearing for the first time here, and a special meme inspired cutaway, the story themed easter egg is very creative and a real challenge towards the end. This is one of the best steps forward for zombies in several years. There is challenge, incentives for replayability with rewards and upgrades, a great map layout, and a stimulating easter egg story.

Multiplayer

This has been my (James’) bread and butter for at least 13 years now, and this year I can safely say it has taken a step back. Modern Warfare was a mostly polished experience, though not to everyone’s liking, and though the Campaign and Zombies modes are very good in Black Ops Cold War, Multiplayer just currently feels off. Whether this was due to a rushed development time, in which Treyarch had to team up with the likes of Raven and Sledgehammer is unclear, however certain aspects need addressing.

It’s a mixed bag, and may take some time to grow on me, but right now areas of the Multiplayer experience could use some fine tuning. The progression system is better than last year’s ‘officer ranks’, reintroducing prestiging, but still not in the classic way which is baffling to me. The old progression system was never broken or complained about, as those that didn’t want to prestige could simply not and keep their unlocks. I can only assume that it needs to be this way due to the seasonal battle pass system, to keep players coming back to rank up after being reset – at least this time we can keep our prestige icons.

The content in this mode is lacking, with only eight 6v6 maps at launch. Even with the battle pass (introduced in Season 1 on December 16th) bringing new skins, blueprints, weapons, and maps (such as Nuketown ’84) more is needed. Black Ops Cold War does try and spice things up however, with new modes like Dirty Bomb (a team based game with unlimited spawns that plays similar to battle royale), and VIP Escort (a search and destroy type game in which a random chosen player has to be protected and exfil).

Weapons

Speaking of guns, weapon balancing is a problem in Cold War. Though they look great on next-gen consoles, it doesn’t really matter when shotguns can now be equipped as a secondary without a Wild Card, and the burst fire weapons – the AUG and M16, dominate the meta.

The gunsmith, while I’m thankful is in the game, is also a step back, as customisation options are lacking, though this can be changed in later updates and additions. In Modern Warfare entirely new weapons could be built out of real-world attachments that meant more to gameplay, and the same just can’t be said here. Though unlocking these attachments is a slow grind (without double XP), playing around with what field upgrades and Wild Cards work best for you will improve your gameplay, as well as choosing what streaks will work best for the map/game mode you are playing. Though don’t expect to do well just yet…

Gameplay is faster in Cold War, as the maps are simpler in design (utilising 3 lanes for the most part), yet retain some Infinity Ward elements to make newer players feel at home. Gone are doors and mounting, and returning are vehicles and Wild Cards, which can be used to create some insane classes. It is unfortunate however that ‘crutch’ perks also return, as Ghost, Ninja (Dead Silence) and Flak Jacket are almost essential due to players using headsets, spamming UAVs (thanks to killstreaks not resetting upon death), and yeeting multiple grenades at you (thanks to the new Danger Close Wild Card).

Health is also higher at 150 so takes more bullets to kill, though the chaotic gun fights, strafe jumping and drop shotting (there’s even an attachment dedicated to this), will make this seem quite the opposite. Especially with fast killing weapons like the MP5 and aforementioned M16 clogging up the kill feed.

Skill based mundane matches

Remember when I said don’t expect to well just yet? Well this year’s biggest Multiplayer controversy is skill-based match making, which even has pro players up in arms as it is so noticeable in Black Ops Cold War.

The system, which has been around in some form since Black Ops 2, is designed so that new, less skilled players match with people of their skill level and returning veterans must essentially play in CDL lobbies all the time. This is frustrating to the point where some players are actually reverse boosting to get easier lobbies or are simply joining ‘bot’ accounts to get good gameplay (or are simply cheating). My solution to this is simple; have a ‘boot camp’ playlist for new players to get to grips with the game, and a ranked mode for competitive gamers, leaving public lobbies as connection only. They did this in the older Black Ops titles so could easily do this again.

How does CALL OF DUTY not get released with a ranked playlist every year. I am just genuinely confused. It should be a staple, but it gets ignored. Interesting to think about.
— OpTic Scump (@scump) November 15, 2020

Hopefully with Warzone integration, bringing with it the new map Rebirth island as well as fan favourite MP map Raid, many of the games bugs and issues can be ironed out. Both Modern Warfare and Cold War will be linked after this update, meaning progression between titles will carry over, as well as Black Ops weapons showing up in Verdansk.

Final thoughts

All in all, the game feels like a cross between the more authentic feeling Modern Warfare and the fast and fun Black Ops 4. Treyarch did the best that they could do given the circumstances and the development time that they had, but some confusing additions to the series need looking at. This has resulted in Black Ops Cold War being a decent combined package of Multiplayer, Zombies and Campaign, which should only get better as free seasonal content comes to the game.

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