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'Call of Duty: Black Ops 4' Review

Barcode Ops

By Peter EllisPublished 5 years ago 12 min read
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[Black Ops 4 'Blackout' Mode, Credit: Variety]

Despite my dashing looks and rogue-like charm, I'm unable to get advanced copies of games so I can review them on release day. So I went the other way and waited a couple of weeks before trying to review it. I did the same with WW2 last year. I feel, looking back, I bought into the hype of going back to World War II and boots-on-the-ground combat too much.

Turns out I don't really think WW2 deserves that 8.8/10 I gave it. It's not a bad game by any means, it's actually very good, just not as good as I initially thought. Maybe a 7.5 out of 10. I never managed to play through the rest of the Zombies DLC for the simple fact Fortnite happened.

Anyway, back on topic. The announcement of the latest entry in the best-selling FPS franchise was met with even more indifference from me than WW2 was. Not only had they removed the entire single-player campaign, but they also fully went ahead with selling it as Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII.

I know a lot of people kicked off because they didn't think IIII was a Roman numeral for four. It is. It is the original one that they used before switching to IV. A lot of traditional clockmakers still use IIII on their designs. There's a bit of useless trivia for you. Now please shut up about it.

I warmed to the idea of keeping it boots-on-ground. I didn't really care either way if we had jetpacks, but after playing the beta I was convinced I wouldn't miss them too much.

After some thought, the idea of no Black Ops campaign seemed fine to me. Even if completing BO3's on Realistic with a friend is one of my proudest gaming achievements, the actual story was a mess. Treyarch probably realised this, hence why no campaign was allegedly planned from the start.

Instead, this year Call of Duty is broken up differently, solely focusing online. You've got Multiplayer, Zombies and Blackout; Treyarch's take on the ever-popular Battle Royale genre.

(There is a *small* single player portion called Specialist HQ, it's tucked away on the main menu, if you are really in desperate need of an FPS story, I'd go elsewhere.)

Victory Royale! Black Royale? Blacktory?

Go loud. [Credit:Gamespell]

Having tried the beta before release, I was really looking forward to Blackout. It sits somewhere in between the cartoonish madhouse that is Fortnite and the hardcore "realism" of PUBG. In terms of style, it leans more towards the latter, but the main difference being that Blackout is actually fun.

The map is a mashup of popular maps in the Black Ops series, including Firing Range, Raid, Cargo, Turbine and Nuketown. While not the biggest BR map in terms of overall size, the locations are varied enough to make each part of the map worth going to. That is, with the exception of the lower right-hand corner, there isn't much there besides rocks and wind turbines. Though it does look like some space has been left to add new sections in the future, so we'll have to wait and see.

They've made some needed tweaks from the beta which has made Blackout even more fun, and importantly, fair. The most notable change being that armour isn't stupidly overpowered now. The zombie boss now occasionally spawning in the graveyard has been removed, which I think is a shame.

Oh yeah, there are zombies in this Battle Royale.

Some of the locations are taken from fan favourites, like Verruckt, TranZit and Call of the Dead. It adds a unique spin on a near-saturated game mode that makes encounters more interesting, especially if you manage to lob a Monkey Bomb at your foes and they get mobbed by zombies.

The mode is an excellent start for Treyarch's first go at a BR. However, I'll be interested to see how they continue to support it in this years' cycle. Simple patches have been the order of the day so far, but I'm intrigued to see if more maps are to come.

One thing I will say is if they're really wanting to make Blackout stand out in the crowd, they need to continue to diversify, not try and be like the others. It bears a lot of resemblance to PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds, just with CoD's trigger-twitching gunplay.

The grind for XP is also way too brutal, if you don't get kills and/or finish low, you may as well have not bothered getting into the game. A small XP boost just for playing should be sorted ASAP because otherwise, people will have no desire to keep playing unless they're consistent top performers or have crippling addictions to punishment such as myself.

It can't score many points for originality as the Battle Royale genre is all the rage right now, but Treyarch can be proud they've debuted near the top of the ever-growing pile.

I won't let go, Jack!

Nice, kitty. [Credit: Console Tribe]

The actual Zombie mode has got the largest amount of launch content ever in Black Ops 4. The base game ships with three maps, four if you purchase the Season Pass.

In true Zombies fashion of only getting more complicated, we're now playing through two alternate storylines at once: the Chaos story, featuring a whole new cast and the Aether storyline, seemingly featuring both versions of the original characters, Dempsey, Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo. The new characters are a lot of fun and have some great banter between them, but for now, I prefer the cast we got in WW2, and even then they don't have a patch on Jeff Goldblum and Ron Perlman from Black Ops 3. Let's be honest, who would?

I've not played Classified, as I'm yet to purchase the Season Pass, but the other three maps are tons of fun.

Voyage of Despair is my current favourite. Taking place on the HMS Titanic as it hits the iceberg, you need to navigate through tight corridors and kitchens and cluttered dining halls as the ship is overrun by the undead.

IX is hard. I found myself constantly on edge, be it in the midst of the Ancient Roman arena or the catacombs below. It also features Zombie Tigers, which I guess is the new Hellhound.

Blood of the Dead is a soft-remake of BO2 favourite Mob of the Dead, it features several new areas added onto the original map and is an absolute blast.

The zombies themselves are much more aggressive as standard, with some running at full-speed at rounds as low as three or four. You need to keep your wits about you to do well here.

The wealth of customisation options in Zombies now rivals that of the multiplayer. You can customise multiple classes to suit your session, including special weapons and perks. The removal of Juggernog was met with some criticism, but I've not found myself missing it at all really. What I do like is that you can choose which perks spawn on the map for you, allowing you to dictate what kind of game you want to play, instead of hoping for helpful spawns of perks you may or may not need.

The Gobblegums from BO3 have returned in the form of Elixers, and you can pick four to take into each game and use every so often at the cost of a lengthy recharge between each use.

The addition of custom mutations for zombies makes private matches much more entertaining, allowing for changes in difficulty, health and spawn rates. Rush mode is also fun, but I've not done much of it to give you anything definitive, I'll be honest. But I am glad it's there, something else to do.

I also like the variety of zombie designs, they all feel a bit more unique and not the cut/paste four templates we've seen a billion times before. I like stuff like that, little things just to help with immersion.

In terms of first impressions, the Zombie mode gets another big thumbs up. It's made some great changes from its predecessor, allowing for more customising and somehow now juggling two separate storylines from three different realities, what else could it be but Call of Duty Zombies.

The future is 'Black.'

Squad, roll out. [Credit: Forbes]

Now, I am a bit weird, and I personally think Black Ops 3 is one of my favourite multiplayers and just Call of Duty titles in general.

I think out of the "Future Era" where we were flying about with jump packs, it was by far the strongest, the advanced movement system was fluid and jumping, running, gunning and flying were all done seamlessly.

Black Ops 4 manages to surpass that. While it is still set in the future (not as far, "only" the 2040s), it has ditched the advanced movement system, allowing for traditional boots-on-the-ground gameplay, with a few Black Ops twists.

Specialists have returned from BO3, with a combination of returning favourites, reimagined versions and several brand new ones altogether. Unlike the last offering, I felt a bit more enthused to try each one out to see what they bring to the battlefield. Amazingly, for a man who the only option for defending is by attacking more, my favourite right now is Crash, the medic class. His abilities allow him to throw down special ammo packs and he can also boost your whole teams' health to 200.

The addition of manual healing makes gunfights and gameplay much more tactical without losing Call of Duty's signature speed and finesse. It's something I was surprised that was omitted from WW2's multiplayer last year since manual healing was in the campaign. I personally really like it, I'm glad that it's been put in, having to remember to heal in the midst of a gunfight is key to victory.

But what really makes this multiplayer tick is that it is just fun. The movement is silky smooth, they've taken the porcelain buttocks of Black Ops 3 and polished them until you can see your face. No, I have not googled if you can or need to polish porcelain, don't @ me.

The weapons all feel supremely balanced, none feel overpowered but also none feel useless, as long as you're using them in the right scenario. Shotguns are back as secondaries! Thank goodness for that. Each specialist has their place on the battlefield and you never see a team full of Ruin's running about gravity slamming for days. Bliss.

Tac-Respawns are giving the game some serious spawn issues at times though, defaulting you straight into the middle of gunfights where you inevitably got shot in the head for simply appearing in front of a teammate. It's a small gripe, but one that does need addressing. The Call of Duty franchise has never had the best spawn system in the world, but considering we're in 2018, it does feel like a bit of a sore spot.

Levelling up is a thrill and there's always something to unlock. The Pick 10 custom class system makes a return and remains my favourite create-a-class system in the series. It makes choosing loadouts much more thoughtful and experimental. Do you want to run your regular run-and-gun setup? Or do you want to just bin all your perks for the sake of having a gun that has become a Swiss Army knife with 18 million attachments? The choice is yours. It also means that your decisions on loadouts can help or hinder you on certain maps, picking the wrong guns and/or attachments can mean the difference in getting a kill.

The classic game modes all return, but my favourite right now is Heist. You start with a pistol and $500 and you need to buy perks, attachments and equipment before the start of each round. The main objective is to collect cash and extract it. Players get knocked and require reviving like in Blackout, and you can win by either getting the cash or just killing the other team. It's as fun, if not more so than what I had with War mode last year. Though the whole multiplayer is arguably the strongest part of the game, and I genuinely didn't believe that would be the case.

In my opinion of course, while none of the multiplayer modes on Call of Duty has been particularly bad for a while (last truly rubbish one was Advanced Warfare), they became the weakest part of each release. Which is a worrying trend for a series renowned for its quality MP. That is except for the aforementioned Black Ops 3, who's solid multiplayer and amazing zombie mode saved a clusterf**k of a campaign that only made my brain hurt in between having to respawn every 30 seconds after being one-shotted from some random enemy off-screen. Black Ops 4 has managed to turn this around, taking what they've learned from previous games and giving us a thrilling middle ground between Black Ops 2 and 3. It's futuristic, it's fast, it's fluid, it's really bloody good.

While some may moan that some of the maps are Black Ops favourites from older entries, they've never looked better and do not feel out of place alongside the host of fresh maps on disc. Some do stick a bit too religiously to Treyarch's notorious three-lane design, but they're varied and interesting enough that I can let it knee-slide.

Verdict

In terms of originality, you can't give much to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. The series isn't the pioneer it once was. However, sacrificing the campaign to improve an already solid foundation for zombies and multiplayer makes it one of the best Call of Duty titles for years. It is riotous and addicting as hell. With a wealth of customisation options in both Zombies and MP to keep you playing and enthused for the coming months, Black Ops 4 has the finest multiplayer in the series since at least Black Ops 2.

The Zombies mode has its best launch content to date with amazing maps and game modes while upping the difficulty to provide much more of a challenge when trying to stay alive.

Blackout is the lovely icing on the cake. It's fast-paced fun and Battle Royale the way on Call of Duty could do. The addition of zombies in certain areas makes for interesting encounters and the improvements from the beta make it one of the best BR experiences around.

I've used the F word a lot in this review, but I stand by it because if there is one word that can summarise this game, it is fun.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a celebration of all the best bits of the Black Ops series past while keeping one eye firmly on what is to come.

The future really is Black.

8.9/10

first person shooter
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About the Creator

Peter Ellis

27// Published author and blogger.

Currently editing my debut novel⚡ Looking for a rep.

View my work via the link below! ⬇

https://linktr.ee/pm_ellis

He/Him 。◕‿◕。

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