Opinions on Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War

Another year, another Call of Duty game. If you're a fan of the franchise or even if you're not, this time of the year in the gaming sphere is dominated by Call of Duty. This year is no different with the release of Cold War, Treyarch's Black Ops fifth installment. Here's my thoughts on what the game is like and how it's and my thoughts have changed since the Beta.

CAMPAIGN MODE

Set within the Cold War era, which you probably guessed, the campaign mode follows you as your team tries to find and capture mysterious enigma, Perseus. This year's campaign had a couple of different additions however, with the inclusion of a couple little side missions, which also includes the completion of puzzles basically. As you play the main storyline, you can find various evidence which will come in handy for when you attempt to complete said side missions. They give you information in order to crack encrypted floppy disk and unravel a deep seeded soviet undercover ring. What I found interesting with these but, is that they're mostly different for each player. The numbers for decrypting the floppy disk change for each player, locations change, people are different. It really is a nice inclusion. As usual for most games now, the graphics behind the game are fantastic. I play on a PS4 Pro and I couldn't fault the graphics, for the most part. There were the occasional glitches and issues with shadowing that you could just tell weren't bothered to be properly optimized for the PS4. But other than that it was decent. 

MULTIPLAYER

The multiplayer mode in Call of Duty franchise is what the game is really known for. This year's multiplayer, in my opinion, is very lackluster. Having played the Call of Duty franchise for the better part of almost 15 years, I haven't been more annoyed at a multiplayer mode at launch before. The maps are bad, with only two really good ones and they're just a condensed version of their larger maps. There isn't any variations in the guns to use, with the MP5 once again being way too overpowered. Any attempt at battling them from a medium to far distance with an AR results in the AR being nerfed into something that is unusable. SBMM (skill based matchmaking) is the worse thing to ever be included into online gaming. Usually, I've never really understood the complaints about SBMM because its pro's whining about not being matched up against other pro and armature players and not being able to shit on noobs but this year I finally understand their complaints. Some games I'm unstoppable, getting 40 kills and dying only 14 times but I can go from that, which realistically a lucky game for me, and get thrown into another match and go 0 and 11 to start off. And that happens every time. I just bounce around from either dominating or getting dominated and it just isn't fun. I want to be able to lean back in my chair, have my legs up and do at least somewhat decent, not have to sit an inch from my monitor and act like I'm in the COD World Champs. The camouflage for weapons, which is another staple point in the online scene, are incredibly lackluster. There's one or two decent main ones and then there's the classic gold, diamond and dark matter. The issue I have with these, is they only cover the body of the gun. Not the barrel, not the handle, not the stock, nothing else. And it looks lazy. If I've spent hours grinding out challenges in order to get a diamond cammo, then it should cover the entire gun, not just one part that you can barley see when playing. It's embarrassing on treyarch's part who usually do great cammo's and maps for that matter. There's an update for a new map coming out in a couple days, which brings back the classic Nuketown map, something that has been in every Black Ops installment. After that, the first real update is coming on December 10th where the game will be integrated with Warzone, the COD Battle Royale. With it will also come new maps and updates for multiplayer which I can only hope is good.

ZOMBIES

Zombies is a game mode that many, many fans love to play. Having to last for as long as possible, while trying to get better guns, complete the Easter eggs, all while fighting off hordes of the undead. This is a game mode that I spent a lot of time in my younger years, playing by myself and with friends for hours and hours. Not this time but. The Zombies mode this year is online only and that is something that really annoys me. I don't want to have to rely on random people doing the right thing in order for me to advance. It isn't as easy nowadays to find the time to play with friends now and even if I do, I need at least three others, otherwise it gets filled with random people. It is a really shitty thing to do. Sometimes I just need a break from multiplayer and playing Zombies was the best way to still play the game and veg out, and now I can't even do that.

All in all, I'm disappointed in the game. So much has changed from the beta where I felt like this was going to be the best COD game ever made. Now, I don't even think I'll stick with it, having already felt like going back to last year's installment of COD. I've tried so hard to like this game and all it does is make me angry and disappointed that this is where the game is at now. The maps feel lazy, the cammos look lazy, they don't know which guns to nerf or buff. This is a multimillion dollar company and we should hold them to a higher standard as a player base. Who knows but? The game hasn't been out for that long and maybe once they finally introduce that first update, things will become better.