Black Ops 4 Isn't The Worst???

BLACK OPS 4 IS *NOT* THE WORST CALL OF DUTY EVER. HERE’S WHY…

This one may or may not make the call of duty heads really mad. Please don’t get mad, it’s just my opinion.

COD v FORTNITE v PUBG

Now when someone talks about Call of Duty these days, the conversation usually sounds like one of two ways. First coming from the die hard fan who spends their $60 every year around November, in this year’s case the middle of October, “Dude, are you getting the new COD it looks so sick!” “Hell yea man, its the Fortnite killer!” Let me poke a big ol’ hole in that real quick. Even I caught myself comparing Blackout to Fortnite, which is entirely the wrong game to draw comparisons from. When comparing Blackout to anything the only game that you should really be talking about is PUBG. These games are both first person shooter- battle royale style games thus are the exact match for comparison. So for those who insist that Blackout is going to kill Fortnite… I really don’t think Fortnite is going anywhere, especially with how great Epic Games is at marketing and cranking out patches for bugs, broken weapons, and introducing new items into the game what seems to be constantly. However I DO think Blackout is going to take those players who hate the idea of building and prefer a first person POV from Fortnite, a small percentage but not an insane amount.

The second conversation that people have when it comes to Call of Duty games, the conversation I have had with people when they’d ask me if I was going to buy Infinite/Advanced/Eternal Warfare (the ones with the jetpacks that give you motion sickness) was always, “Why am I going to waste my money on something that couldn’t grasp my attention from the beginning?” When the first trailer for Black Ops 4 released, I thought to myself, “Damn they’re really trying to cash out on that series huh?” They are, and Battle Royale was a brilliant move to bring in those kids who love both COD and Fortnite, but want something more polished than PUBG, so by introducing something NOT unique to its genre, but unique to the game’s series as a whole, Activision is betting on their name and quality of game to rake in those players from the two biggest Battle Royale games out right now.

WHAT BO4 GETS RIGHT

Black Ops 4 does something in this installation of the series that might be what they’ve needed for quite a while now. Getting rid of a single player campaign. Can you tell me the whole plot of Black Ops 3? Unless you keep every COD fact in a section of your brain titled “will use this someday” I highly doubt you could. From what I remember, there were drones and jetpacks still? Did they have jetpacks? See. The story in 3 wasn’t even close to be compelling enough to be remembered as much as the Modern Warfare series which *muah* had some of the best writing and pacing any COD has ever seen. Even MW3, which is some players least favorite, which is understandable, kept the pacing and tied up loose ends from the previous game, but like how could you top MW2?? Anyways, Black Ops 4 delivers you story in Specialist missions, which gives you background on each of the Mercenaries you can play as in multiplayer. That’s something I’ll touch on later. In this game, there’s absolutely no need for a campaign, there’s already so much going on with Blackout, Multiplayer, and Zombies, the addition of a *main* story would seem a bit excessive.

As for Multiplayer, this game decides to go for more of a Hero Shooter type of approach. There are about 12 or 13 Specialists you can pick from each game, each with their own unique abilities you can earn throughout a match. Create a Class is still the same with there being a max of 10 items you can select per class, and these classes are fluid, meaning they can be used on every Specialist. This path which has never been done in a COD I can remember, was the right choice mainly due to there being more consequence for whichever Specialist you chose. I can also see this working in the favor for competitive play, where pro teams feel out which characters are most effective for different scenarios and game types. Overall this new implementation feels refreshing, and it might even compel some people to start watching some pro games.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

There are many things that could be in this category. The main one that jumped out at me was studio support. This being the rate at which Treyarch and Activision weed out problems, fix them, and how well they are received by the community. This is what Epic Games does with Fortnite and does it almost perfectly. When a problem or bug is brought up by the community, most likely from Reddit, Epic has a solution or speaks on the problem within days, a perfect example being the guided missile. People thought it was way too broken and spammy, Epic addressed the issue by first commenting on Twitter and Reddit and suddenly the guided missile was gone from the game, for months, until recently when it made it’s second debut, with slower reload time, slower rocket speed, and a decreased drop rate. Community feedback and support is something that needs to be seen in Black Ops 4, or else the game might see some of its players leave. From what i’ve seen, on launch the community noticed something right away. Emote peaking. Where a player could emote behind a wall or a tree, and move the camera to see around corners before peaking. This was brought up and talked about on twitter, then came Treyarch saying a fix will be implemented soon. What that fix exactly is I don’t know. Maybe a different style of camera during the emotes or maybe simply locking the camera during the emote. However it was impressive to see Treyarch address a problem, brought up by the community, and say they’re working on potential solutions.

THE GAME MODES SIDE BY SIDE

Black Ops 4 gives the player 3 main game modes of play this year. Multiplayer, Blackout, and Zombies. Each comes with its own unique differences which makes this COD a surprisingly good game.

Multiplayer goes back to Call of Duty’s roots, no jetpacks or wall running, nothing too crazy when it comes to gadgets, and gun play is as smooth as ever. For the first time in a while I had a lot of fun playing a COD multiplayer, it wasn’t stupid crazy like Advanced Warfare, but there’s enough there for it to be considered a futuristic shooter, without losing itself in the tech. There isn’t that much to say about this mode, as it’s pretty straight forward but brings in some nuances that separate it from the mistakes of the past.

Blackout is the most refreshing addition to the franchise. Surprisingly after getting killed out of nowhere, the game never made me infuriated with myself. If i died, it was because I didn’t check a corner or left myself out in the open, so there came a sense of “i could have done something different” with each death, and that lead me into the next game wanting to try out something different. Blackout lets you deck out the guns you pick up on the ground with a variety of attachments each with its own advantages and drawbacks, giving consequence to each item you pick up. The map is full of callbacks to different maps from previous black ops game as well. Many drop points share the same name as the map they’re modeled after, bringing even the slightest amount of map sense to players who remember the layout of where they are. The vehicles are useful for getting inside the storm but are so loud, you might consider not getting in one to retain some stealth. This is a gamemode that I had been looking for ever since the Battle Royale genre exploded.

Zombies is as gripping as ever. With three different experiences to choose from, the fact we as players don’t just have one zombies map at launch is exciting. The first and featured map called IX places you right in the center of a fucked up version of a Roman Coliseum with hordes of undead gladiators, tigers, and this tall, creepy monster you’re forced to fight if you meet a certain round. The second places you on the Titanic the moment it hits that damn iceberg, initiating the sinking. Yes the boat sinks as you fight the dead passengers who come out of their rooms. My friend and I didn’t get too far on this level so we didn’t see the boat completely split in two, if it even does, that would be sick to see though. The final map Aether brings back the original cast of zombie killers, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen, as you continue their convoluted journey to make things right in the universe. The one thing that’s different with this version of zombies is that you can have a max of 4 perks, that you can chose in the lobby. Each perk will be at the corresponding God or Good ol’ Machine you decide to assign it to. So now players can select perks and acquire them to make some kind of build, rather than like previous games where it seemed every player would get the same op perks, as it slowly turned into an intense fight for survival.  

OVERALL SCORE: 8.0/10. Honestly this game surprised me with how many new ideas were brought into what was becoming a dated franchise. Hopefully Treyarch can continue to address problems the community deems worthy of fixing and maybe we’ll see another battle royale mode in Modern Warfare 4… Please Infinity Ward.

P.S. I really hope anyone reading this is taking something away from them and thinking about the topics I bring up. Games have been and always will be an insane passion of mine that I really believe everyone can enjoy. Thank you for reading.

plug time:

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