Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – Treyarch’s newest installment in its Black Ops franchise. It’s been a while since David Vonderhaar revealed this beauty, but it was not without any controversy. They announced that this next sequel would be without a campaign, but would include its own form of Battle Royale, Blackout. Was this a good thing, or did they seal their fate? Let’s grab our Monster drinks, put on our sweatband and dive into what is, Black Ops 4.
What is Good?
- Graphics: The first thing that you will notice when you run around bringing death and destruction to any who dares cross your visor. Is the fact that everything just looks crisp. The maps, the guns, the characters. Everything looks smooth,clean and finished. Its certainly one of the prettiest games released this year and deserves it as well!
- Blackout: I’m not going to get any popular votes with this one, but PUBG and Fortnite? Move over because a new king is in town! Blackout brings us, what is in my opinion, the best Battle Royale experience to date. From its vehicles all the way down to the explorable zones. You get some iconic zombies themed zones, filled with zombies, to memorable black ops biomes. This will not only give you a fun and peppy experience, it also gives you a trip down memory lane. It doesn’t matter if you play this solo or with friends,blackout will bring you hours and hours of enjoyment. Oh and did I mention, you can pilot a helicopter?
- Gunplay: In previous CoD games the gunplay was snappy. You had to be quick, aim fast and shoot, making it kind of enervating as just jumping into someone’s vision would spell instant defeat. This time around,they changed the kill time a bit by bumping up your health, making it possible to come out victorious if you play it wise. Hardcore, ofcourse, will still be a one shot kill in most instances, Core on the other hand will give you more of a challenge. Not only that, the guns feel good to play around with and customise like you want it to be. With each gun having numerous of combinations as to which attachments you can equip.Put that and sound effects that would satisfy your inner audiophile soul, and your battles will be great.
Mixed Feelings
- Maps: Black Ops 4 released with 14 maps on launch, bringing us the quick, snappy action we all came to love and cherish in any CoD game. Though these maps are fully fleshed out, some just don’t stand out andare just boring and/or annoying to play on. Making it easy for one team to just camp out, with easy killing grounds if an enemy would run by without checking.While others have that special kind of flair to them that make you want to play them nonstop. With multiple engaging possibilities and making it hard for any team to stay in one place for long. Now with the Nuketown update, Black Ops 4’s map count has been bumped up to 15. Bringing us Nuketown, the Russian edition.This map looks absolutely amazing and it makes you wonder, why didn’t they think of this earlier? The Russian make over suits the map so well! From its snowy outdoors to the cozy indoor houses, this map will bring all the thrills(and rage) as it did in its previous versions!
- Zombies: The zombies’ side is something that I am quite split in 2 about. On one hand it introduces us to new and fun characters, brings us enthralling new maps in the RMS Titanic, and the ancient roman gladiatorial battles with IX. It even brings us back to Alcatraz! But on the other hand, even though the base game ships with 4! Zombies maps, 1 is locked behind a paywall that is called Black Ops Pass. Which in my opinion just utterly sucks. There are countless of CoD players that just buy the game forits zombie mode. And while they said they didn’t want to create a barrier between people that have DLC and those who have not, they did create a barrier between zombies’ players as they can only get access to this map through samesaid Black Ops Pass.
- Microtransactions: The microtransaction system was at release, missing. And people were guessing at what they could be withholding from us. When they did finally release it, it was in the form of Black Market.What it does is essentially remove the loot box system, and replaces them with Reserves Caches. These hold one item of that current event. Though these events stick around for a while, it still takes some time to unlock every tier level. Or,it wouldn’t be microtransactions otherwise, you can also buy coins. These you can use to skip through the tier system, or buy exclusive skins that are sold separately.I can understand their reasoning behind removing the Loot Box system with all the negative press it’s been getting lately. But still, it doesn’t take away the missed feeling of seeing a box suddenly drop from the sky, and all sorts of different loot spinning before your eyes.
What is Bad?
- Missing campaign: Yes, I know, they announced this.But still, for those who did enjoy the black ops campaign, this still is a mode that will be missed. Now they did put some what of a story in its Theater mode,which gives you a basic introduction into the specialists, and yes this gives you what you may call a story in itself but still. This does not replace a thrilling campaign.
- Black Ops Pass: One of the worst DLC passes to date in my opinion. Yes, there will be DLC packs, and no, you cannot buy them separately. This is what they meant with “no one will be separated by DLC again.“ Either you buy the pass, and get everything, including Classified. Oryou don’t buy it, and don’t have any DLC ever. Way to go!
Call of Duty: Black ops 4 [Score: 80/100]
Though it did not have a campaign and was met with the DLC debacle, it still turned out to be a good game. It even is one ofthe better Call of Duty games released in a while! With its gorgeous graphics,snappy gameplay and one of the best, if not the best Battle Royale modes todate. If you were still on the fence as to buying Black Ops 4 or not, I hope this then brought some more perspective into the current state of the game and my experience with it. Keeping in mind the oncoming holidays, this might be one to put under that gorgeous Christmas tree!