Until the release of 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the series seemed to be struggling to maintain its relevance in an increasingly saturated market of competitive first-person shooters. What was once the tentpole franchise of the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 generation was slowly losing its grasp on audiences over the course of the latest console cycle, but the polished return-to-form that was last year’s release revitalized many players’ love for the series. Selling over 30 million copies, nearly triple that of 2018’s Call of Duty: World War II, Activision appeared to be re-establishing themselves as the titan of console shooters, but does their recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War feel different and new enough to sustain Call of Duty’s popularity, or will the series soon be missing in action once again?
Black Ops Cold War’s campaign brings the Black Ops subseries back to its roots. 2012’s Black Ops II brought the franchise to the near-future, a setting that Call of Duty maintained throughout the majority of the Xbox One and Playstation 4’s lifecycle. With this most recent entry, however, players are thrown back into the height of the Cold War. Taking place in 1981, two decades after Black Ops’ first entry, Treyarch’s latest effort ends up feeling largely like a retread of the first game. This isn’t entirely a bad thing though. For all the gameplay improvements Modern Warfare brought to the table, its campaign felt almost oppressively self-serious. While the creators claimed in interviews that the game was apolitical, it was so grounded in the misery of real-world events that it was hard not to try and extrapolate some kind of commentary out of the game’s story. Black Ops Cold War, on the other hand, doesn’t have this problem. From its very first neon-soaked, cigarette smoke-filled environment, it’s clear that the game knows exactly what it is: a dumb, fun, Cold War paranoia-fueled romp that never overstays its welcome.
While Black Ops Cold War’s campaign doesn’t break any long-standing traditions of the series, several missions shake up the format of a traditional Call of Duty level. While only a few do this, they offer good diversions from what otherwise would be repetitive feeling shooting galleries. One mission puts players in the shoes of a double agent in the KGB headquarters and feels more like a level from IO Interactive’s Hitman series than from a military shooter. Another later mission set in Vietnam, without giving away any spoilers, reminded me of 2011 indie-darling The Stanley Parable in the best possible way. On the subject of spoilers, the big late-game “twist” won’t surprise any veterans of the Black Ops series, but still creates some fun, trippy set pieces and gives the player agency to drastically affect the course of the game’s last mission. The only mission that felt drastically out of place was the earliest one set in Vietnam. Its objectives are relatively straightforward and task the player with defending an American base from an incoming VC offensive. For a game that largely treats its setting and conflict with a certain level of bombast, this brief flashback felt jingoistic for no real reason and rubbed me the wrong way pretty early on.
Outside of the campaign, Black Ops Cold War offers two other modes that fans of the franchise have come to expect: Zombies and competitive multiplayer. I’ve personally never been a huge fan of Treyarch’s Zombies, but the mode certainly has fans who have been clamoring for a new, more traditional entry which this game seems to offer. This year’s offering feels like a return to form to Zombies with the added feature of allowing players to use custom loadouts against the oncoming onslaught of undead, a new feature in this entry.
Many players will outright skip the campaign and Zombies modes altogether and jump straight into the game’s competitive multiplayer, the mode I’m probably the most conflicted on. For the sake of transparency, I played a lot, and I mean A LOT, of Modern Warfare’s multiplayer earlier this year at the beginning of lockdown, so maybe I’m slightly biased when I say that Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer feels like a massive step backward for the series. This being said, I can’t shake the feeling whenever I’m mid-match in this game that I would rather be playing last year’s entry. While it might seem like minor criticisms, the lack of mounting on cover and not being able to run through doors drastically changes the flow of gameplay, and the higher time to kill slows down gunfights in a way that feels largely unnecessary, leaving many aspects of this year’s multiplayer feel like a less-polished version of Modern Warfare. The UI in multiplayer matches feels busy in a way that reminds me of Call of Duty games from the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 generation. Maybe this was a deliberate decision, but with how clean the multiplayer interface of last year’s game was, it feels wildly unnecessary to have dozens of badges and blurbs of text popping up all over the screen when the same information has been conveyed far more efficiently in older entries. All this being said, even at its worst, Call of Duty multiplayer is still fun, and this is far from a bad multiplayer offering. The map offerings, while slim at launch, all feel visually unique and with the very recent addition of Nuketown ‘84 with more new maps on the way, I’m positive I’ll be revisiting the game regularly to check out its new offerings.
But is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War worth your $60? It’s a complicated question that I have different answers for depending on who is asking. Long time fans of the franchise have probably already picked it up and what I say wouldn’t change their minds anyway, but if you’re someone who is largely interested in the game’s single-player offering, I would recommend waiting for a sale. The game is bound to see some steep discounts at some point early next year and there’s no rush to experience the story, even if I think this is one of the better Call of Duty campaigns. If you’re desperate to get into some multiplayer matches, however, you’ll probably want to grab the game as soon as possible. Even though I’m not in love with this year’s multiplayer, it’s a solid enough package that it would be worth getting into early just to see the game evolve over time. The first paid DLC battlepass launches in December which is sure to bring some interesting cosmetics and unique weapons to the game that will add some excitement to the grind of leveling up. All-in-all, while Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War isn’t a perfect package, it’s a solid enough entry to the franchise to be worth picking up at some point.
For those hungry for more Cold War content after Black Ops, here are some of my favorite films set during the conflict:
Operation Avalanche (2016)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Them! (1954)
The Shape of Water (2017)
Punishment Park (1971)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
