BLACK OPS 4: REVIEW

PREFACE

“IIII” makes for a compelling logo, but it is not a proper roman numeral. Anyway.

From what I’ve heard and seen this is the strongest launch of a Call of Duty title in a long time. I didn’t play any of the preceding titles at launch, so this is a first for me, but the servers are always active and I’ve been [spoiler] really enjoying myself!

BLACKOUT

This is what I came for. The strength of Call of Duty’s foray into Battle Royale is what got me to put my sixty bucks on the digital table. It’s been a blast. A really addicting blast. For every match where I claw my way to the top ten over twenty minutes of play, there’ll be two or three where I die within the first sixty seconds. These only push me to keep going, to chase that high of the top ten.

I’ve played the other two big battle royale titles a fair amount, but I’ve put more hours into PUBG than Fortnite by a pretty wide margin. The things I don’t like about PUBG are gone here, polished out by the franchise’s top notch mechanics and level design. The map is small enough that I’ve never spent more than a minute trying to chase down the boundary of the “collapse” (COD’s take on the murder-circle). Plus it knits together some of my favorite locations from the series, like nuketown and the zombie map Verruckt.

Five or six hours in I haven’t unlocked any new characters, but that has not impacted my enjoyment.

MULTIPLAYER

Like a socialist ghost, I’m not a competitive spirit. In the past I’ve tried and failed to git gud at Call of Duty’s other multiplayer offerings but I always end up somewhere below the middle of the scoreboard for my team. A lot of times I’m more of a liability. I’m the “Shit we could have won if that one guy were pulling his weight!” guy. So too for the Black Ops 4 multiplayer.

The new specialist system reminds me of Rainbow Six Siege, but the similarity stops there. It’s still a fast paced, twitch-dependent, anxiety fueling deathmatch. I’m not good at it, but I don’t hate it.

ZOMBIES

There is a lot of deviation from the COD Zombies that I’m used to. I pumped a lot of hours into World at War’s zombie maps, and probably even more into Black Ops’s. Around Black Ops 2 I fell off of COD altogether, and didn’t play past Mob of the Dead. I have loved Zombies in the past, and I was excited for this new installment.

The biggest change, off the bat, is the new perk system. You’re still buying four different power-ups from locations around the map, but now you can predetermine which perks are available based on your class. Also, none of these perks are from the classic lineup: Juggernaut, Speed Reload, Double Tap, and Quick Revive. The game has evolved, and like a band they can’t just put out the same album over and over again. I see the new perks as a welcome change to the form. Also, the player’s health now requires four swipes to deplete instead of two, so juggernaut is no longer a necessity.

These perks are supplemented by reusable “Elixirs” which you can activate during your run. They let you teleport, recharge your weapons, revive your squad, and lots of other stuff. They’re alright, I feel like it adds an extra layer of strategy without removing the challenge. I’m sure I’ll come to see them as indispensable the longer I play with them. Also, apparently these replace something called Gobblegums, which I’m not familiar with as I skipped BLOPS 3 where they featured.

Each class has a unique mystical weapon that can be summoned every few minutes or so to make your damage output skyrocket and help you out of some sticky situations.

Overall, I think Black Ops 4 has taken Zombies from a fun after-credits mini game and turned it into a truly unique and interesting wave-based game mode.

CONCLUSION

With no story mode to speak of, COD: BLOPS 4 is all rooty-tooty-shooty with no storytelling to “get in the way”. I’ve enjoyed the campaigns in the past, but I also see plenty of value in a game that encourages you to log on, waste some people, and then get out. It’s a real pick-up-and-play experience. Am I going to get bored? Probably, unless there are important major updates like new zombies maps and new blackout maps. Call of Duty as a “live service” gets a big ‘ol eye roll from yours truly.