Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes place in 1981, where U.S. President Ronald Reagan tasks CIA operatives Russell Adler, Alex Mason, and Frank Woods with hunting down Qasim Javadi and Arash Kadivar for their involvement in the Iran hostage crisis. After tracking the two down and capturing them, Arash reveals that Perseus, a Soviet spy, was the one who organized the crisis. Upon learning about Perseus and the threat he poses to the U.S., Reagan sends the trio, accompanied by an agent known as "Bell", to hunt down and stop Perseus.

For starters, the game was rushed due to Treyarch having to take Sledgehammer Games' spot as one of the development teams because of conflict between Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, which lead to many of the problems I'm about to go into detail. And due to their greedy nature of the company, Activision made the next-generation upgrade program for this game very confusing, with the program varying depending on which version you buy and what platform you have.

The story is pretty good and unpredictable, and does a good job in connecting the stories of the first two Black Ops games unlike Black Ops 3 and 4. The campaign missions, with non-linear level design that goes well with the time period the game takes place in, are pretty fun and action packed to play through. While enjoyable, most campaign missions are not much fun, creative and interesting to play through, however, especially in comparison to Black Ops I and II. Some campaign missions in addition feel really bland. Not helped by the fact that some missions are HUB and interactive cutscene fillers. Also, despite various hints that the game would feature a mission set during the Nicaraguan Revolution, it ended up being scrapped and replaced with an uninspired mission set in Cuba. This is evident by the mission's name in the console code - "cp_nic_revolucion" (Campaign_Nicaragua_Revolucion). Better yet, the game has multiple endings just like its chronological successor, Black Ops II.

There are several historical inaccuracies, for example the Soviet troops in the campaign were found to occasionally carry the M16 assault rifle instead of the correct AK rifle (yes, really, I know it's crazy); also, for some unknown reason, the Deutsche Volkspolizei (East German Police) in the campaign carries Western weapons, this is most likely because some weapons like the FB PM-63 (which appeared in the first Black Ops) and others that Deutsche Volkspolizei carried in real life are absent from this game.

The cutscenes, while looking amazing, are very poorly optimized, which causes numerous problems that annoy and irritate me, such as severe frame-rate drops (these are very common, and the cutscenes often have to speed up to catch up to the audio) and the bitrate (it also drops drastically at times, making the cutscenes blurry).

You can also create your own character for the campaign, a first for the series that implements RPG-like elements into the game. But this is shoehorned inclusivity in the form of a "non-binary" gender option for Bell's customization, which doesn't even make any sense, given the game's setting and especially the fact that Bell turns out to be a Soviet operative (although in the game itself this option is played carefully by being named "classified", as in keeping more of Bell's personal information a secret, allowing non-binary Players to associate more with the character).

Although the other characters are very well-written and memorable which helps in making the story a good one, a bunch of voice actors don't return to voice the returning characters, and the new voice actors poorly resemble what these characters originally sounded like (especially Mason, who sounds bored out of his mind). There are also some laughably terrible dialogue, such as when Woods says "I'm a goddamn onion, Mason." At least dialog options are introduced, and can alter the outcomes in the game's story, like unlocking side missions.

The hub area is an improvement over the previous ones, as players can talk with the other major characters, watch the characters interact with each other, watch TV, and investigate evidence and clues collected in missions to solve, which is challenging and encourages the player to think outside the box, with the solutions also randomized to prevent cheating. Many cool mechanics are used in the campaign either very rarely or only once, unfortunately. For example, spy gadgets and the famous RC-XD.

Crashes are very common, many of which crash the console itself. Glitches are also common. Some notable examples include:

• The rendering distance. This makes the textures more blurry, interiors disappear/won't show up until you get closer, happen when using a sniper/camera and zoom in during a mission such as (Echoes of a Cold War).
• The models of other players not rendering properly, such as missing arms or holding guns in a very odd fashion.
• Some of the scopes lack a reticle, making it difficult to make accurate shots with them.

While it doesn't look bad, the game has noticeably weak graphics for a next-gen title especially compared to 2019's Modern Warfare. The main problem is that the game uses an outdated engine (it reuses the Black Ops III engine with some features from IW 8.0 (from Modern Warfare 2019) engine, which, the code itself is originally based on the id Tech 3 engine that debuted in 1999 with Quake III Arena, instead of using the Black Ops 4 or IW 8.0/MW 2019 engine), although the previous game have the engine that was completely rebuilt (while also continues using the id Tech 3 code with it's new graphics engine). The reason why Treyarch continued to use this outdated engine, alongside the modified BO3's IW engine at the time instead of BO4's IW Engine was likely due to some familiarity with the code for the IW 3.0 engine used in COD 4 - Black Ops 1. However, this would be changed with the upcoming Modern Warfare II 2022 (and later titles) as the version of IW engine (9.0, which was used by upcoming MWII and later version) was co-developed by IW, Sledgehammer and even Treyarch involved and they will use the new engine for all future titles.

Just like other recent Call of Duty games, there is a severe lack of multiplayer content, with much of the upcoming content planning to be drip-fed as time goes on. A lack in multiplayer maps compared to 2019's Modern Warfare causes the enjoyable game modes as mentioned above to suffer from repetitiveness after a while. Matchmaking is a mess, as sessions are determined by how players performed in the last session rather than their overall performance/ranking. This can lead to players constantly going back and forth between sessions with skilled players and not so skilled players. Additionally, most of the game modes are underwhelming, as they have nothing special about them that makes them stand out. The only exceptions are "Combined Arms" and "VIP Escort". There's also less modes than previous games.

Just like multiplayer maps and modes, there's were less weapons to use at launch, with only 28 weapons, while 2019's Modern Warfare had 39 at launch. At least the weapons, with their statistics well-detailed, are more balanced to allow for more playstyles in multiplayer without being either too overpowered or underpowered. The map designs also allow for the different playstyles to work well. Even the fireteam modes in multiplayer are an interesting addition as it consist of battles of 10 quads. The scorestreak system was radically changed, it works just as the Persistence trait from Infinite Warfare and the Requisitions basic training from WWII, where the score progression doesn't reset on death but they cost so much points, for doing things worse, once you use a scorestreak there's a cooldown to get back to progress for getting the scorestreak again.

Aim assist is very overpowered, which results in a lack of challenge in killing other players and enables cheap kills. Some of the perks unlocked with a high enough score are ludicrously high, to the point of being nearly impossible to acquire, such as the Gunship requiring a whopping 10,000 points.

Although it is an improvement over Black Ops 4, the zombies being tougher limits what playstyle the player wants to choose. The zombies mode has been improved upon at least, with the charm returning, a satisfying progression system, perks that aren't too overpowered, and weapons now having different tiers. There's also two new Zombie modes, Onslaught, and Outbreak. Even Dead Ops Arcade is back with a third part.

Unlike in Black Ops 4 where there was two season passes, one for Multiplayer and another one for its Blackout mode, the battle pass of Cold War is universal and not only for this game but even in Modern Warfare, however, most of the rewards are only available to use in Warzone.

Following the end of DLC in the franchise, new weapons, multiplayer maps and even zombies maps are being added to the game for free. And for the first time, new scorestreaks and items for the zombies mode are being added.

This game seems too decisive for our tastes. Is it really recommended? Or is it addictive? Then, again, probably not.