The Call of Duty franchise has been in a state of flux over the course of the past year. Last year’s WWII was meant to be the return to the series’ roots that the community had been clamoring for for years, but it ended up being simply good and not the great revamp that everyone was hoping it would be. On top of that, Fortnite has taken the world by storm with its battle royale mode, making it the most popular game in the world right now. In the past, you’d hear people always talking about Call of Duty and see friends lists filled with people playing the latest game in the franchise. It dominated YouTube in a way that no game before it did.
Now Fortnite is the game that’s all that anybody can talk about or play, putting the Call of Duty franchise on watch. With Black Ops 4, the series is at a point in its life where it needs a win in its belt to regain some of the ground that it’s lost over the years, and compete with new players in the shooter genre. In this guys opinion, I feel like Black Ops 4 is the win that the series needed, and is the best game in the franchise in a long time.
Black Ops 4 consists of three different parts: Treyarch’s signature zombies mode, classic multiplayer, and for the first time ever, Blackout, their attempt at a battle royale mode. Notably absent from the game is a traditional single-player campaign. I was initially worried that the lack of a campaign would cause me to enjoy the game less than I ordinarily would. Sure the campaigns aren’t always the best (Black Ops III definitely doesn’t rank that high), but you can always count on them being fun to go through. They were always the first thing I would do in the game before diving headfirst into the multiplayer for the remainder of my time with the game. This year though, there’s so much great content in the game that I haven’t thought about there being no campaign at all.
Although there isn’t a single-player campaign, there is some sort of story to be gleaned from the game. There’s a mode called Specialist HQ which serves to give you some backstory for each of the Specialists from multiplayer, while also teaching you how to use each character and play different game modes. I get why the mode is here, but the story that it offers is so lackluster that I feel like it shouldn’t have been included, and the mode should’ve just been a tutorial one for you to practice and learn the ropes in, free of the pressure of online multiplayer.
You go through a Specialist tutorial, see a short cutscene about their backstory, play against bots in a mock multiplayer match as that Specialist, and then are given another very short cutscene that fills in some of the current day Specialist story. There are also audio files for you to unlock by completing challenges in the Specialist HQ. These audio files add extra story for you to digest, but there isn’t much desire to slowly play your way through tutorials over and over in order to unlock these bits of information.
The multiplayer on the other hand is amazing and some of the best the series has ever had. To be quite honest, I haven’t had this much fun with Call of Duty multiplayer since Black Ops III in 2015, a game in which I reached 9th prestige over the course of the game’s life, something I’ve never done in any installment in the series. There aren’t many mind-blowing changes to the multiplayer this year, but there are a number of changes and additions that make it as good as it is. First off is the increased focus on team play. Specialists return in this game, both new and old, and they’re made even more unique this time around. Each Specialist has their Specialist ability they can use after filling up a meter, and they each have their own unique piece of special equipment that’s on a cool down. These items are each important to consider when choosing who to play as because they can be the different between winning a match and losing one.
Take for example the Specialist Torque, who’s arguably the best one to use. His ability allows him to drop a barricade that provides defense, as well as emits radiation from the front, damaging anybody who crosses its path. His special equipment is a razor wire barricade that damages enemies who walk into it. When used effectively, Torque can block off paths for the enemy and funnel them down a specific path for your team to focus on. When you combine this with the other abilities and equipment that Specialists have, you have some really powerful setups. Of course, this is really dependent on the people that you’re playing with. Playing with randoms online isn’t going to give you that experience a lot of the time because randoms don’t really care about syncing up their skills with yours, but if you’re playing with a group of people that know what they’re doing, this increased focus on team play will truly shine.
This increased focus on team play even translates to player counts and compositions as well. When playing an objective game mode, matches are 5v5 and teams are limited to having only one of each Specialist on it. If you’re playing a game mode like TDM or Kill Confirmed, matches are 6v6 and teams can have 2 of the same Specialist on them. I like these restrictions because it keeps objective modes from becoming overwhelming with full teams running the same Specialist and annoying the mess out of you, something that would be prone to happening in BOIII. It makes the objective modes more serious than they ever were in the past, and the kill focused modes more casual like they always have been.
The biggest change to the game is the removal of auto health regeneration. For years it’s been a staple of the multiplayer mode, but for the first time ever, you have to manually heal yourself. This change causes you to think about your enemy engagements differently. You’ve taken damage and only have 10 bullets left in your magazine. Do you heal yourself first and hope your enemy doesn’t come before you reload, or do you you reload and hope that you can possibly start to heal yourself before the fight continues? These split second decisions that you’re forced to make can cause fights to be a bit more intense than they were in the past. Your ability to heal is on a cool down as well, so after each heal you have to wait a bit before you can do it again.
Returning once again is the classic Pick 10 system that Treyarch invented. I’ve always felt that it was the perfect way to go about create-a-class, so it’s great that they’ve brought it back and haven’t changed much about it. What has been added are two new categories: gear and equipment. Gear are items that benefit you in one way or another. Some pieces of gear are things like armor which gives you extra protection from damage, the equipment charge that speeds up your equipment cool down, and the stim shot that speeds up your health regeneration cool down. By far the most helpful one is the stim shot since it gets you back into the fight faster. Honestly, it’s almost a crutch item that everybody should be running on their classes.
The other category, Equipment, is where items such as trophy systems and frag grenades are, and it’s also where your Specialist equipment is. The stronger emphasis on the Specialists and team play continues to show itself here. Items that you choose for your class have take up space in your 10 slots, but your Specialist equipment is given to you free of charge should you choose it. If it wasn’t obvious, the game strongly encourages you to use this equipment. On top of that, you don’t unlock any type of grenade until you’re deep in the multiplayer progression. This decision is one that I’m actually happy with because it greatly reduces the amount of grenade spam that you encounter. Past games would be filled with people tossing grenades left and right, but that’s not something that happens at all in this game. Essentially being forced to use your Specialist equipment for such a long time in the game really makes you realize how much you don’t need a grenade or anything else like it in order to succeed in the game.
In regards to game modes, there are your standard Call of Duty modes: Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Search & Destroy, Domination, Free-For-All, and Hardpoint. The two new additions are Control and Heist. Control is a mode that’s similar in essence to Domination, with a stronger focus on team play. Two teams take turns capturing and defending two points on the map, but they each have a shared pool of 30 lives to use. Rounds end if one team loses all their lives, if both points are captured by the attacking team before time runs out, or if the defending team can hold their points for the entire round. Control is a fun game mode that mashes two classic modes together in a really smart way. Due to a pretty short time limit, rounds feel fast paced in an attempt to capture the points or eliminate the enemy team before time runs out.
This mode more than any other shows just how much Treyarch wants people to work together and make their Specialists sync up in smart ways during matches. Playing it with randoms can be annoying because people will just charge headfirst into a fight and burn through half your pool of lives with reckless abandon, while the enemy is sitting pretty at a comfortable 25 lives. If you play with a group of people that are smart and careful with how they approach the game, you’ll end up having the some of the best matches possible.
The other new mode Heist is a Counter Strike-esque mode. The goal is to extract a pile of cash out of the map before time runs out. Everyone only has one life though, so if you die, you can’t come back until the next round, just like in Search & Destroy. What makes it like Counter Strike though is the fact that at the start of each round, you have money that you can spend to equip yourself with weapons, attachments, perks, and equipment. Specialists don’t matter at all in this mode, understandably so because of how it’s set up. I’m not the biggest fan of this mode, but that’s mostly because I don’t really like Search & Destroy, and Heist is very similar to that mode.
Treyarch typically makes some pretty good maps in their games, and they don’t disappoint here either. There are 15 maps on offer, with four of the maps being remastered from the first Black Ops: Jungle, Summit, Slums, and Firing Range. These classic maps play really well with the Specialists and faster movement system that the first game didn’t have. I forgot how much I actually liked to play on Jungle in particular. It’s a good looking map and it has a level of verticality for you to take into consideration as you go around the map, something that hasn’t been in too many recent games in the series.
Let’s not ignore the new maps. Though they all have the three lane design that is typical of Treyarch maps, they aren’t boring to play on and hold their own really well when compared to the classic maps. I’m a big fan of the island map Contraband. It’s a fun, balanced map that plays well with every game type, and I love to just look around on the map. The colors are vibrant and full of life, something that Treyarch is also known for doing with their maps. One of the most unique maps is Icebreaker. It’s set on an iceberg that’s trapped a submarine. What makes it unique is the fact that going into the water causes you to slowly freeze to death, even if you don’t go under the water. This forces you to move throughout the water quickly so you don’t die, even if there are enemies that you’ll be going towards.
When it comes to technical issues, things have been pretty good for the most part. The multiplayer’s been stable so far and has been pretty issue free from my experience. Unfortunately, it’s a Call of Duty game, which means that spawns are going to be an issue, and they’re a pretty big issue in Black Ops 4. I’ve had numerous occasions where I would spawn, take two steps forward, and be killed by an enemy who rounded the corner and got me. I’ve been spawned directly next to an enemy, and in an enemy’s line of sight. Most annoying though is the spawn trapping. This issue is most prevalent in objective modes such as Domination, Harpoint, and Control, where teams have set spawn areas.
There have been games where my team would be spawn in and be surrounded by enemies that were running in and out of our spawn and killing us, and the game would continue to spawn us in that area. I’m not sure why the game refuses to flip the spawns in situations like this, especially since it’s something that would happen in the past. This spawn issue is less prevalent in other modes, causing me to play more TDM and Kill Confirmed simply because it’s far less frustrating than playing the more interesting objective modes.
The second, and perhaps most important pillar of Black Ops 4, is Blackout, Treyarch’s take on the battle royale genre. It’s by far the most ambitious thing that not only Treyarch has done, but the Call of Duty franchise as a whole. While it isn’t perfect, it’s really good. I’m not trying to exaggerate or anything, but it’s actually shocking just how well Blackout was put together, considering that the series has never done anything like this before. And let’s be honest, this was without a doubt a last minute addition to the game after the battle royale genre blew up and Fortnite started to take some of the Call of Duty pie. When you think about all that, there’s no reason for Blackout to be so damn good, but it is.
Just as in other battle royale games, you can play either solo, in duos, or in four person squads. When you jump into a match, you first drop in to a staging area with other players while you wait for the lobby to fill. You never have to wait long though, as you get to the actual match very quickly. You’re then flown over the massive map (for Call of Duty) by helicopter and wing suit your way down to wherever you want to drop in. Once on the ground, it’s a race to get a weapon and prepare to survive. This is all typical of a battle royale game, but there are a number of things about Blackout that make it distinctly Call of Duty.
First off is the map itself. The map is really large and made up of a number of classic multiplayer and zombies locations. It’s a bit surreal to be in these classic spaces that you know so well, but to see them expanded in ways that change them enough to make them feel fresh. You may think that you know Firing Range real well, but the location in Blackout has hills, fields, and trees surrounding it that other players can take shots at you from, so you have to be on your toes as long as you’re there. The zombies locations are home to the zombies themselves, and provide some of the best loot in the game. This loot comes with the risk of attracting the attention of any nearby players that will hear your shots as you kill the undead to get the good stuff, so you really have to weigh your options and think about whether it’s worth it or not.
Loot is another area where Blackout makes itself unique. On top of the the standard first aid, armor, and weapons that are available for you to scavenge, you’re also able to find weapon attachments, perks, and different pieces of equipment such as trophy systems and barricades for you to use. Perks function differently here though than they do in multiplayer, instead acting as temporary buffs that only work for about two minutes before wearing off, keeping players from being overpowered. The loot pool is pretty balanced, with the more valuable pieces such as level three armor and weapons that are fully kitted out with attachments being pretty difficult to find. This balance is much appreciated since it keeps you from constantly coming across people that have some of the best stuff in the game.
One of the best things about Blackout is how much of a celebration of the Black Ops series it is. That extends from the map and weapons to the character customization as well. You’re able to play as characters such as Richthofen and Dempsey, Mason and Woods, as well as each of the Specialists from multiplayer. In order to unlock these characters, you have to complete challenges in Blackout. These challenges typically ask you to collect a certain amount of some specific item and then survive until the late game stages of a match. That may sound easy, but it’s pretty difficult, so you definitely have to work to play as your favorite characters.
Most importantly though is how Blackout plays, and I’m so happy to say that it plays very well. Sure there are other battle royale games that feel good to play, but there hasn’t been one yet to offer the feel of a AAA game. Call of Duty is known for its tight and fluid gameplay, and that carries over to Blackout as well. Fortnite controls well and has a nice level of polish to it, but it’s not Call of Duty, and Blackout is definitely one of the most polished battle royale games out right now. On a technical level the frame rate is consistently smooth throughout, but the graphics do take a hit in Blackout. The mode doesn’t look as good as multiplayer or zombies, but it doesn’t look bad by any means. This graphical sacrifice is understandable given the scale of the mode, and the fact that it still looks and runs as well as it does deserves praise.
There are some flaws with Blackout though. Looting enemy backpacks can be a slow process that takes a bit too much time, and it’s annoying that you can’t automatically pick up ammo by running over it. These may sound like little things, but when you’re in the heat of the moment, looting needs to be done as quickly as possible so you can get out of dodge and to a safe spot. And I know I just said that the graphical sacrifice is understandable, when you first drop into the map and enter a building, textures haven’t fully loaded in and items aren’t visible on the floor. The items being invisible is the bigger issue because your initial landing in any battle royale is the most important part of any match. That’s when you’re scrambling to find whatever you can before someone finds you, so to not be able to see things on the ground for a short moment unless the icon pops up as you run over it is a major issue.
The final piece of Black Ops 4 is zombies, the mode that started off as a simple joke mode in World at War, and has now evolved into an increasingly complex experience that could be its own game. There are three maps available at launch. Blood of the Dead takes place in the Aether storyline and sees the return of the classic zombies crew in a remade version of Mob of the Dead from Black Ops II. The other two maps, IX and Voyage of Despair take place in the Chaos storyline with a brand new cast of characters. These two maps have some really creative and unique settings, with IX taking place in an ancient gladiator stadium many centuries in the past, and Voyage of Despair being set on the Titanic on that fateful night it hit the iceberg. If you have the Black Ops Pass, you get a fourth map called Classified as well. Classified is a remake of the map Five from the first Black Ops.
The maps are all cool and unique in their own way, but I’m not a fan of the added complexity and increased reliance on the “easter eggs” that zombies is known for. You’re able to level up and choose which weapons and perks you want to have placed on the map, in addition to special elixirs that give you a temporary buff. This additions are cool because they give you more choices in how you want to play, but it also takes away the simplicity of zombies that there used to be back in the day. I miss being able to just jump into a map and not having a loadout to customize or anything before playing. I know that there are many people that like these additions to the mode, but I’m not feeling it too much. The same goes for the easter egg. If I wanted to engage with the easter egg in the past I could, but it wasn’t really necessary for success. Now it feels practically necessary in order to be able to reach high levels.
One neat addition to zombies this year is the ability to tweak and customize zombies matches to your preferred settings. It’s possible to make yourself do more damage to the zombies and have them do less damage to you, or even set up bots to help you if you want don’t have a full team to play with. The bots aren’t dumb either. They’re really helpful and are able to take a lot of damage before they end up going down. You can’t use them to complete any easter eggs though. You’ll need real people for that particular task.
Black Ops 4 is a great installment in the long running franchise. Going all in on multiplayer and ditching the campaign proved to be a worthwhile risk, with some of the best multiplayer the series has had in years. Blackout is a very impressive battle royale mode that definitely has legs to stand on for a long time, and zombies offers a lot for die hard fans of the wacky mode to have fun with. There are issues with each mode that with time can be fixed, and the lackluster substitute for a campaign mode, but none of these things keep the game from being a well rounded package that’s a lot of fun. It may not be able to take its top spot back from Fortnite, but with Black Ops 4, the series proves that it’s still one of the best shooters out there.
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