Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 started off so well last year. I thought the game was great and felt like it was one of the best entries in the series for the content it had, and how well it executed on its three main pillars. I purely played the multiplayer in BO4, and although I continued to play the game up until last week, things took a turn for the worse with the game post-launch. Loot boxes were added in and at first they were simply cosmetic. I would prefer no loot boxes, but I get that in the current state of gaming, companies need to make money somehow, so sure, throw some cosmetic items in there. But of course because Activision wants money, brand new weapons were put into the loot boxes and they could only be earned by opening loot boxes. That’s where the problems arise.
The game’s Black Ops Pass got us access to new maps that would drop alongside new seasons for the game. Some of the maps such as Artifact and Lair were pretty cool. They took us to places that were different from the norm and were visually interesting. Other maps were just alright, while others were downright horrible (Arsenal Sandstorm was by far one of the worst). The game’s take on the Fortnite Battle Pass for unlocking new content was also not done well. Instead of being able to also do challenges to unlock tiers on the content stream, you only made progress by the amount of time played. So if you played a short match, you barely made any progress.
What I found was that one hour of game time equaled one tier. When the content streams have about 30-60 tiers on average, that’s a lot of time to simply sit and grind out the game to unlock stuff. And a lot of the stuff that was in the stream was cosmetic stuff such as stickers or calling cards. Sometimes there would be weapon bribes that would guarantee you a new weapon from the loot boxes, but it was RNG so you never knew which one you’d get. You also had to complete matches for your progress to be counted, meaning that if you got kicked out of a 10-minute match in the final seconds, all that time was wasted and you made no progress on your tiers. They eventually threw us a bit of a bone with daily tier skips. With either your first win in Multiplayer or your first merit in Blackout you would automatically get the next tier in the content stream free. This was nice, but all it did was make the grind a tad easier, but not by much.
For the past couple months I found myself playing the game everyday not because I genuinely enjoyed it and wanted to get better, but so that I could unlock everything in the content stream that wasn’t locked behind a paywall of some sort. The game became a mindless activity that I did while listening to podcasts or talking on the phone. Each season I found the best way for me to get through the tiers as quickly as possible so that I could also play other games and have time to take a break from it before the next stream started up. It became more of a chore and less of an enjoyable reprieve from my actual job.
The content streams could’ve been so much better if the rewards were actually worth all the grinding that was required to get them. If the weapons were actually in the content stream instead of loot boxes, then there would’ve been something cool to always look forward to each time a new season came around. Especially when new seasons would bring 3-4 new weapons with them. Calling cards, stickers, and emotes are nice and all, but they’re not something to get excited about. The same goes for the character and weapon skins. The best ones were behind locked behind COD Points, and the only way to get COD Points is by spending actual money. You can’t earn any by just playing the game. I’m not one to really care all that much about cosmetic options, but it would’ve been nice for some of the better skins to be available in the content stream for everyone to get.
I still think the game started off great and could’ve continued being great if it didn’t fall victim to money grabbing schemes and had better post-release maps. But because of the way that it all went down, I’m so happy that Black Ops 4‘s time in the sun is fading and that a bright new future appears to be on the horizon. With the release of Modern Warfare, Activision has stated that there will not be loot boxes in the game at launch or post launch. This is a major change for the franchise and one that fans have wanted for years. All we can hope is that Activision keeps to their promise and doesn’t succumb to the call of money.
TheComfySpot 