It happens every year – and I mean, literally, every year since Call of Duty was first released. The new Call of Duty game gets massive marketing hype, a closed beta with top members of the community, and hundreds of thousands of players on release day.
Then the inevitable happens: the hype wears off. People who were hyped for the game in its beta are now exposed to its flaws. And Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has quite a lot of flaws.
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I should note before I start ripping into the multiplayer aspect of the game that both the campaign and zombies mode have been quite enjoyable so far. Cold War isn’t a direct sequel to the original Black Ops campaign storyline, but it’s shaping up to be as interesting as its predecessor.
This short review is concerned with the Multiplayer. The bog-standard Call of Duty fare for the majority of players, the Domination, the Search and Destroy, the Free For All. These are staples of the franchise and should be something the devs get right.
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And yet…looking back on Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare, the Multiplayer never quite…got there. The game released with hardly any maps, the gameplay was considered slow for the genre, and it was littered with bugs.
Unfortunately, Black Ops Cold War is no different. Now the tainted glasses of “IT’S A NEW COD!” wear off in the community, people are realizing that being able to quickscope again doesn’t necessarily mean the game is any good.
There are few maps to get stuck into – some of which are just not fun (Cartel, I’m looking at you) – and the progression system is so slow that everyone just seems to be running an MP5.
To add on top of this lackluster offering, the SBMM is back with vengeance. Good luck playing on your own if you have a half-decent KD. You’re going to get stomped by a 6-stack.
Lastly, the game is covered in bugs, pretty much expected now from a rushed out Call of Duty title. Splitscreen is busted, spectator mode is glitchy (why, why is this always a problem?), and the gun balance is all over the place.
Despite the hype and the tournaments and the FaZe quickscoping montages, I don’t think Black Ops Cold War has the metal to go the distance. Compared to the long-lasting success of Warzone, Treyarch’s title hardly stands a chance.