Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War review: Kicking off the next generation

After the big hit that was Modern Warfare, can Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War serve up good gameplay across two system generations?

Title: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software, High Moon Studios, Beenox and Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S and Windows
Release Date: November 13, 2020

There are some battles that are for the ages: Hatfield vs. McCoy, Xbox vs. Playstation, Batman vs. Joker but none like the battle between Modern Warfare and Black Ops. As a recently converted Battlefield player, Modern Warfare holds a special place in my heart. Not only has the newest Modern Warfare multiplayer sucked me in past the event horizon, but I was first introduced to the franchise via the split-screen missions in MW2. Last year we had a new Modern Warfare and this year we are jumping into the 1980’s with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Players got the chance to try this game out during the alpha and seemed disappointed in what they saw. What they seemed to forget is that an alpha can be really bare bones. In the past, Call of Duty will release a finished game as a beta just to entice players to buy the game but in this case, it was a true alpha looking for improvements. Even given that fact, I enjoyed what I saw.

Skip to the beta and a little bit more of the game was released to whet the COD player palette with you standard multiplayer modes but it also included a new mode called Fireteam which reminded me of something you may see in Warzone. Players are placed on a team of four and work to collect uranium to fill and detonate dirty bombs. The mode is included in the multiplayer rotation of the final game and it is pretty fun. UNLESS you get added to a team of bad team players who will never revive you (you know who you are and you know what you did!).

While you can’t claim that the graphics in Modern Warfare are considered realistic, Black Ops graphics have always been more on the cartoonish side. The same holds true for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. While the campaign graphics are a little better than the multiplayer, they still remain less realistic than those of Modern Warfare. Only eight maps were released with the multiplayer mode and that means the maps get repetitive pretty quickly.

While the campaign in Modern Warfare was fun, the multiplayer modes are the superstars for that came, but the opposite is true with Cold War. The multiplayer has several modes but zombies, but the campaign is a lot more interactive than what I expected. While the story is linear, you create your character with the benefits of your choice, you do main missions to collect clues to complete sides missions and the whole thing feels like espionage. It takes place in the 80’s so it really does have that late 70’s/early 80’s feel to the gameplay. One of my favorite moments was during a Vietnam War flashback. You find yourself in the jungles of Vietnam in a helicopter with “Fortunate Son” by CCR playing and that segment was a lot of fun.

I have heard a lot of people hate on the gunplay in this game but I actually really like how shooting feels. Even though there really aren’t that many guns in your arsenal, you weight you feel while shooting feels more pop-y than MW and somehow, more satisfying. What is not satisfying is the fact that I get kicked often from the server, both in multiplayer and in campaign play and that doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, it’s difficult to find a partner to play zombies (which in itself gets VERY repetitive) with but why am I being kicked off a server for solo play?

The big question that remains is…is it worth it to spend the extra mons on the cross platform edition? Do you buy the PS4 version or do you give yourself the option of picking where you play? In my experience, there is no big difference in quality between the two consoles and there is no big graphical upgrade from the PS4 to the PS5. The only benefit is the connection between the Activision accounts. I am able to connect my Modern Warfare playing on my PS4 to my Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and I was able to change my handle, which can be done twice every six months.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War isn’t as dynamic a release as its predecessor and I hope that more maps and more content will be added in the future because it just doesn’t hit as hard as Modern Warfare does in terms of quality and content. The main campaign is the star of this game but it’s only a handful of hours and what you are left with is an underwhelming amount of maps and a zombie mode that feels the same each time you play.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.