Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Review
Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Hub
Author: Griffin.
Genres: Reviews, FPS.
Here is our Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Review giving you a subjective, unbiased review helping you make a more educated decision on whether or not the game is for you.
Release Date
13-Nov-2020
Platforms
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
Price At Launch
£54.99 Current Gen (PS4, XB1) | £64.99, Next Gen (PS5, XSX/S)
Developer
Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher
Activision
Genre
First Person Shooter (FPS)
The game
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is a very large game broken down into 4 different modes, the main campaign which sees you progress through a very well imagined story which is set in between the events of Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2, both excellent games in their own right.
Multiplayer which is as polished as ever with a good selection of maps, which now include vehicles you can use making the game feel like its trying to encroach in territory usually reserved for the Battlefield series.
Zombies mode which sees you work your way through an abandoned base trying to solve the mystery of where the zombie hordes are coming from and is as brutal as any other zombies entry in the series with dogs and mutants to take on as well as an entire new dimension you can warp to.
Finally, you have the Dead ops Arcade mode which is a top down (mostly) twin stick shooter which tasks you of hunting down the Momaback through 64 levels of madness.
The Campaign is set in the ’80s and takes the COD series in a slightly different direction making you utilise stealth more than ever before, choices have impact on the story as you play through the game and your decisions feel more impactful than they have in previous entries to the usually linear series of all out gunplay.
Multiplayer feels more sped up than in previous entries, the weapons feel well weighted and feel as good as they ever have as you are racking up the kills. I particularly like the interaction with the majority of the maps now, allowing you to enter vehicles to increase your Killstreaks. the maps also bring good verticality and seem well thought out for whichever playstyle you choose either camping with an Assault Rifle or run ‘n’ gun with a Sniper Rifle.
Zombies mode is the usual round based slog through the areas it has always been meaning returning players will be very comfortable with the mechanics and gameplay, however, newcomers might feel a a bit lost with no real guidance given in the game except some sporadic dialogue and a mission marker that may feel impossible to reach.
Dead Ops Arcade sees you play a twin-stick top down shooter against hordes of zombies as you make your way through the Wild, avoiding traps and collecting power ups and new weapons as you make your way through to take down the Momaback, an incredibly powerful opponent. You have 64 rounds of hell to fight through and a game overwill see you back at the start so play carefully and keep on the move.
The good
Black Ops Cold War, as with the majority of Call Of Duty games is at its absolute best when you’re right in the thick of it with the combat, enemies coming in from most directions and you fighting them off.
The guns feel amazing, especially on PS5 with the DualSense controller, those responsive triggers give weight and a good “trigger feeling” which changes depending on the weapon type whilst other consoles still get incredibly fluid, responsive feeling controls.
Multiplayer is always a good laugh when things are going well and a brutally harsh time when things don’t go so well, ultimately, for those who put time in to the game, they will be rewarded with a well polished experience which needs time invested in to get the most rewarding experience back.
The not so good
Whilst the game is smooth as silk on next gen with fast loading on both the PS5 and XSX/S, the game is lacking on the PS4 and pretty poor on the Xbox One with clunky gameplay and a lack lustre finish that was disappointing.
You can tell a lot more time was put into the next gen editions.
Also, the game, whilst fully detailed in the first half of the campaign looks very good with a lot of detail, the second half of the game lacks a fair bit and is noticeable. Whilst this can be partly put down to the global pandemic, I feel Activision should have loosened the chains a little bit and delayed the release (not something that would ever happen, I know) allowing the developers to properly polish the game.
Whilst zombies is a good time, it would be nice if they mixed things up a bit or changed the formula, it’s not a bad experience or anything, but for returning players, it’s more of the same round based combat which we’ve had for years now.
Although, that said, I do fully appreciate with something like a zombies mode the developers would be criticised if they changed or kept the current formula so for those who love zombies, they will feel well at home, for players who are tired of the mode, there’s nothing here to really invigorate you
Online
Online features heavily in Black Ops Cold War with Online Multiplayer seeing you able to play through a multitude of game modes from the standard team death match and kill confirmed to capture the flag and Fireteam modes.
As well as decent, sometimes essential online coop being available in Zombies and Dead Ops Arcade, there is a lot of scope to be able to play through with your friends or a random lobby in order to progress that bit further or get some help in unlocking an elusive trophy.
Trophies
There is more variety in the trophy list than ever before in the series with the lists tasking you with going through every game mode available performing multiple different tasks or completing things like Dead Ops Arcade where one game over will you straight back to Round 1 or complete the entire campaign on Veteran difficulty.
Multiplayer and zombies also have some very good, challenging trophies you will need to be highly skilled and in some cases creative in order to unlock.
Click the link to go to the complete Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Trophy Guide.
Gallery
Here are a series of photos to show you how the game looks.
Overall
For me, this is definitely one of the best Call Of Duty games in the series which has redeemed itself in my eyes from its previous failures, but! Only on next gen consoles, the pre-gen (PS4 and especially XB1) versions of Cold War are less than polished and feel under developed with a lot more time having been dedicated to the PS5 and XSX/S versions which considering the cost of the game on pre-gen isn’t good (covid non-withstanding).
Multiplayer and zombies is a good, solid time with hours and hours of replay-ability and different weapons to experiment with.
Dead Ops Arcade, whilst not everyone’s cup of tea is a challenge that will stretch your skills to the limit and can be taken or left depending on your preferences.
I’m certainly no Call Of Duty fan boy in any way but I honestly feel they have done a very good job with this game. Yes it could be better but so could most things out there.
Overall I award Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War a solid 8 out of 10.
Final Score: 8/10
Related Posts:
Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Hub
Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Trophy Guide
