Last weekend, the first true open multiplayer beta of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War took place. Contrary to what actually happened during the Cold War, the bullets and explosions flew around our ears for days. The cautious conclusion: developer Treyarch makes a different game than Modern Warfare, but should not go too far in that.
With Call of Duty, preferences differ per player. That sounds like an easy cliché, but after so many years on Call of Duty, that personal preference has become increasingly prominent.
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Big contrast
That’s because Modern Warfare and Black Ops have always been sort of ramifications within the same series. Of course, all Call of Duty parts look more alike than they differ from each other, but within that very specific spectrum, Black Ops and Modern Warfare have their own approach.
Black Ops, for example, is smoother and smoother, which you especially notice while running around and sliding, but the overall pacing and time-to-kill (or the number of bullets that require a kill) is slower than in Modern Warfare. And then there are things like health bars, swimming, underwater duels and stim spraying (to heal yourself): such small elements in Cold War are immediately familiar to Black Ops players.
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If you were to summarize the multiplayer of Cold War really shortly, it is a bit of a modern continuation of Black Ops. Black Ops 4 was an excellent Call of Duty game, so normally that’s not a problem. Only this time the contrast is extra great because Modern Warfare was one of the best Call of Duty parts in years.
It is going too far to suddenly call such differences ‘pain points’, but it certainly takes some getting used to. This is mainly reflected in the maps, navigating through those maps, the weapon balance and general innovations that simply don’t seem to play a role in this part.
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Get used to
The maps in themselves are far from classic level, but they are entertaining. The new Combined Arms mode (twelve versus twelve in Assault and Domination) is a lot of fun and is reminiscent of the somewhat bigger battles in World at War’s War mode. The relevant maps have logically been adapted to the larger number of players. Combined Arms offers welcome variety, also thanks to the vehicles. Compared to Ground Wars from Modern Warfare, there is also much less chaos and much more collective tactics.
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The smaller maps seem somewhat traditional in beta in the beta, which is less like it. Where you could really go on an adventure in Modern Warfare by climbing and scrambling and finding cool spots, the beta maps are fairly horizontal. That could of course be due to beta. The spawn points also require some key work (but that can really be said about every Call of Duty beta) and a lawn mower would sometimes be just as useful as a machine gun. Good heavens, what makes that high grass in the Cartel map make camping far too easy!
The time-to-kill also takes some getting used to, but not necessarily annoying. The weapon balance seems to shoot out a bit to sub-machine guns, but that feeling is more prevalent in Black Ops: sliding over the ground makes fast close-range guns attractive. The lack of tactical sprint feels like a shortcoming: the sprint takeoff, a kind of automatic small boost at the start of your sprint, is a moderate equivalent. The tactical sprint was of much greater use in firefights.
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Awkward gunplay
And that is where it pinches a bit: it is not only the tactical sprint from Modern Warfare that is missing. Executions played a very small part in Modern Warfare, but were rare enough to be cool – Cold War ignores them completely. The return of score streaks instead of kill streaks is also no gain, although that is often a personal pain point. But what really doesn’t feel quite right for now is the gunplay itself – again, especially compared to Modern Warfare.
The speed of aiming through the visor (or actually initiating it), sprinting and walking sideways while looking through your visor: it all feels slightly different than in Modern Warfare. It feels uncomfortable. The recoil and ‘sway’ of weapons is without a doubt less and less consistent than in Modern Warfare. Compared to the alpha, that has already improved slightly, but there is noticeably less of a military weapon feel like in Modern Warfare. That feels like a step back.
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If you could really sum up Cold War’s multiplayer very briefly, it’s a bit of a modern continuation of Black Ops
Oh, and on the subject of taking steps, gliding along the ground is a lot less efficient than in the alpha version of the game, but still too prominent. In some places in the map, players slide as often as they walk. Around corners, on straights, in one-on-one battles. In the smaller levels it is almost like twelve slices of butter compete against each other in a hot pan. And maybe this is a bland point, but it’s a bit weird anyway to see so many soldiers gliding across the ground during the Cold War.
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Fun!
Cold War beta was fun, make no mistake about that. It’s not like Cold War suddenly throws the successful Call of Duty formula overboard.
The new modes in particular surprise positively and provide the now well-known gameplay with surprising new élan. In addition to the Combined Arms mode, this also applies to Escort the VIP, in which teams must take turns guiding a trivially chosen teammate to one of the two endpoints. This mode has no ‘own’ maps, but is fun enough to end up as a keeper.
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The maps included in the beta are not very exciting, but they are very different and each thrives on the mode (and corresponding gameplay speed) they were made for. Compared to the alpha, the necessary steps have also been taken in the right direction. Sniper rifles are now much less prominent in small maps in particular, a field of view slider is a useful addition and the statistics of weapons are actually clear and useful – and therefore much better developed than in Modern Warfare.
There are only a few points of annoyance, which are magnified by the successful predecessor. Treyarch will be absolutely aware of Modern Warfare’s heavy shoulder burden. The studio is known for listening to the community and the differences from the alpha version of the game illustrate that. But some important aspects don’t feel completely consistent in beta. If those pain points are resolved, Cold War can also become a good Call of Duty in addition to a fun game.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be released on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S and PlayStation 4 on November 13, and on PlayStation 5 on November 19.
More previews:
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