I’m pretty sure at some point in everyone’s gaming life they would have played or at least heard of Call of Duty. Black Ops Cold War is the sixth instalments of the Black Ops series but incredibly it’s the seventeenth instalment in the overall Call of Duty franchise. I have been a part of this franchise since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so I have been through the highs and the lows that this series has offered over the last thirteen years. Personally, I find myself drawn towards the Infinity Ward side of the franchise just because they have had the better COD games however, Treyarch has always won me over by having Zombies present in their games but that’s not what this article will be about. This little article will cover my time in this weekend’s Open Beta that was available to PlayStation 4 players. If you pre-ordered the game you got early access from the 8th to the 9th of October on PlayStation 4 then from the 10th to the 12th October it was a free for all with all PlayStation 4 players who had PS Plus. You got to play a small segment of the online multiplayer and see what will be on offer for you all when the game is fully released on November 13th 2020.
So Right off the bat, there isn’t anything majorly different from any of the Call of Duty games that we are used to. Mechanically, it all works the same and I’m perfectly fine with that. The plus side to it all is that we are still staying away from the whole futuristic side of things, so that makes me incredibly happy. I got so annoyed when the franchise took a turn toward the Halo side of things and just became a weird mix between Titanfall and Halo. That wasn’t my cup of tea and if anything, it was the thing that ruined the franchise for me. So, I was even more hyped when I saw that Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War was sticking to the more realistic guns and warfare instead of trying to give us more sci-fi nonsense.
The Beta allowed you to play on a few of the new maps that well find in the full game and I have to say I’m stilling finding my feet in them but overall, I’m happy so far. Some of them do feel a bit crazy in the scene that every corner you turn there is someone there and you just keep getting into fights but that isn’t always a bad thing. We got to see a selection of Operators that you can use as your avatar online and my personal favourite was Stone from the SAS, there were ten in total. It had the barracks available so you could get a head start in a sense of all your progression that you do in the beta, I’m not sure whether this will carry over into the full game but over the weekend you could unlock a fair bit and get a lot done if you sunk enough hours into it. There were a few featured game modes that you could try out in the Beta these being Combined Arms: Domination, Combined Arms: Assault and VIP Escort, the one that I enjoyed the most was the VIP Escort one. This has teams alternate in extracting a VIP member of the team. The VIP is chosen at random each round and you have to protect the VIP and get them to one of two extraction points, team members have one life and must protect the VIP at all cost, if your VIP dies then you lose the round. You can get downed in this game mode so if you are near teammates you have a chance at getting revived but in all honesty, it’s a very quick-paced game mode and rounds don’t last very long which isn’t a bad thing. The other two are modes where you have to control zones for a period of time which I don’t enjoy but the fun thing about these was that they feature big team lobbies so a lot was going on which made them quite hepatic and fun. I found myself mainly playing in the quick play modes which were made up of Team Deathmatch which I love. Just classic COD, two teams fighting it out and first one to reach the score limit wins, simple and sweet. I was very fond of the maps in all the game modes and even noticed that a few of them had vehicles that could be used to get around the maps quicker as the odd one was big.
Even though it was just a Beta you could create your own classes and level up. So, you were able to unlock most of the weapons and truly get a feel for all the available guns. My personal favourites were the XM4 and the Stoner 63 but there were plenty of weapons available and all felt balanced and not overpowered. I liked the Field Upgrades as these were like an additional bit of equipment you could use alongside you Lethal and Tactical weapons. Again, my favourite was the proximity mine, nothing like putting one of these bad boys down in a doorway and watching some unsuspecting player run over it and BOOM! I also like the fact that we have Score Streaks and not kill streaks as this gives me a chance to get some big heavy artillery off instead of just constantly getting UAVs, the one thing I am so happy to see again is the RCXD. I’m such a huge lover of this streak weapons and 90% of the time will always have it as one of my streaks.
Conclusion
Ultimately my time playing this Beta made one thing clear. Call of Duty has steered itself back onto the right tracks in my eyes, it offers players a more traditional First-Person Shooter experience rather than shooting for the stars and adding a load of stuff that isn’t needed. If you are an avid COD player like me then this game looks to be ticking all the boxes from what I have played so far and this is only the multiplayer. It looks like we are going to get another amazing campaign and don’t get me started on the fact that Zombies will be present. If you didn’t manage to get into this weekend’s Beta then stay tuned for the cross-play Beta weekend starting the 15th to the 17th of October. It will give everyone the chance to dive into the latest addition to the COD franchise and see whether it tickles your fancy.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Pre-Order the version you want here https://www.callofduty.com/uk/en/blackopscoldwar
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