Treyarch is back with another Call of Duty Black Ops title. The Black Ops franchise is my favourite of all the Call of Dutys. Black Ops 1 was the first Call of Duty title that I played online extensively and it’s quite funny that most of the time, I’ve never really played through any of the campaigns, Black Ops 1 and 2 I did and loved them, but then for the other games, including non Treyarch I always struggled to get through them.
Maybe this was the reason why Single player has been left out of this years edition? Im not saying that it’s solely down to me of course, but there are probably a lot of people who will buy Call of Duty for the multiplayer and zombies, and more than likely now the Blackout Battle Royale mode.
This was kind of the first thing that I wanted to address, the lack of a single player campaign. Does it affect the game? To me, no. Not at all, as I said above, I didn’t really play any of the campaigns fully for the last say 9 or so years, so it’s omission doesn’t really bother me. There is plenty of content still in the game to keep people going and with the main base being built around the online side of the game, this won’t have an effect. I have to admit that I think this could be the way the series goes from now on, which isn’t a bad thing, but I think as time goes on the series is going to have to be shaken up a bit.
What I liked about the game when I started playing it was how fluid the movement felt. Getting around the maps feel flawless and while the movement and gameplay isn’t as fast as previous titles, it brings that feeling of boots on the ground.
The guns within the game feel good, I’ve found my home with an Assault Rifle and will probably work my way through those to see which one I feel is best for me, so far I’m liking the ICR-7 which is the first Assault Rifle you get, but the KN-57 is also a strong contender and a very decent weapon. I think this is down to each others preference of what they like. Normally, I do like an SMG but on Black Ops 4 they do feel like they’re firing sponges as it takes a lot more bullets to get a kill with them than an Assault Rifle. Also the noise from the Assault Rifles are just brilliant, I love the sound of a good ol’ fashion thud from a gun. That is another thing that I have to applaud the game for, the sounds of the gun are sensational, in fact pretty much all the sounds within the game are spot on, walking through a map and hearing the sound change under your feet when going from a metal surface to dirt and such like, it’s brilliant, although you do sound like a baby elephant stomping through sometimes.
I like the whole idea as well of being able to add a design to your gun and add that little bit more personality to it, and seeing people pick up my wife’s Assault rifle with a homage to Jurassic Park on the side. Priceless.
This year the create a class system is back to the ‘Pick 10’ system and includes the specialists. I don’t mind the pick 10 system because it makes you think about what you want for your weapons and attachments. I do prefer the old system that WWII used, but I don’t have an issue with Pick 10 and like working with it to try and get the balance right for my class.
The one thing that I am not a fan of is the specialists, I find there involvement pointless, the extras and specials that they bring could have been included into the create a class system and then have your own character which you can design to your hearts content, again, like on WWII. I understand that this could put restrictions on the pick 10 system, but there are ways to work around this, have that special and extra not included in the 10. Make it so it’s excluded and that each of the special such as the dogs, radiating etc are opened at different levels maybe? Or seems as the specialists are all unlocked from the start all of these can be unlocked too and you just pick the one you want to go with. Simples.
Blackout mode is a very good addition to the game, I’ve played a fair few solos games getting 3rd as my best score, and I’ve been in Duos and Quads with friends, yet to get a win. Were getting closer and it will only be a matter of time. I have to admit that Blackout is so much fun, and can get very tense, especially as you get to that lower region of under 20 and one wrong move could end in disaster.
I have to admit that I have played this more than PUBG and Fortnite combined since having the game at launch, I think it’s the fact that I’ve got my mates playing the game as well and it’s easier for us to team up, especially since they’re on PS4 and don’t have PUBG to play… yet.
The game mode does feel more along the lines of PUBG, which isn’t a bad thing. Blackout feels very solid and I’m sure that a lot of people would be happy with it. I will dabble in it from time to time and I didn’t really think I was a Battle Royale person, especially as I never really got on with PUBG and Fortnite, but then again I only played those in Solo, so playing this with friends has opened my eyes a bit and has made the battle royale mode more enjoyable.
The thing I did like from Blackout was the nods to the Call of Duty series. All the different areas designed in the styles of different maps such as Firing Range and Nuketown from Black Ops and Asylum from World at War, it’s brilliant to see all these maps come together into one massive package of goodness especially adding in the zombies… I didn’t realise this until it was too late… help!
Treyarch has included a couple of revamped maps into Black Ops 4 with Firing Range, Jungle, Summit and Slums. I will admit that these are 4 of my favourite maps from the Black ops era, 3 being from 1 and Slums was in Black Ops 2. It’s wonderful to see these fully remastered and looking fairly decent in their original form. I few bits have changed in terms of cosmetics, but after 10 years or so, that it going to be expected. I would honestly love to see more maps from Black Ops 1 and 2 remastered and brought into the game. Whether it’s a cheeky free map or included in the season pass, I think this would tempt me to buy the season pass if more were to be brought in. I love the nostalgia.
One very large disappointment in the game, which isn’t directly the games fault is that on launch night I encountered two lobbies with hackers/glitchers in, spamming attack helicopters all through the match. Now, I can understand if someone gets them and maybe 2 people on the team get them, but when five go up in a row, 3 from the same person it gets suspicious. I even checked his score and it looked like to me that he would have been well short of the score to get them. He was there when I checked, but you take into account the kills he had been getting with them and minus that, it wouldn’t have made up getting 3 of the attack choppers, especially when you consider its 1200 points per chopper (950 per chopper with comsec device). 3 choppers would have been around 36 kills, (28 with comsec device) so there is no chance they would have had that.
I did reach out to Activision and Treyarch for comment, but didn’t receive a reply which was disappointing.
Overall Black Ops 4 is very good, it’s brings the old and new together seamlessly and introduces some new game modes which will no doubt be a massive hit. The lack of a story mode isn’t a miss and there is plenty of content here to keep people coming back for more. The whole online only way that Black Ops 4 has gone, I can see this be the future of the franchise.
