Reviewing Call of Duty: Cold War
On Friday, Call of Duty released their 17th game in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. For those who know me know how much I love my COD. I have been playing COD since Finest Hour and I always hold them to a high standard because we all know what COD can do when they really put their heart and soul into a game (i.e. MW2, Black Ops, WaW). But this COD felt different this year. Maybe it was because of the lack of marketing and advertising or because Warzone literally took over gaming. But something feels off!
The Good
Cold War honestly picks right off where I think Modern Warfare left off. MW was released last year and it brought COD back to what it was good at… boots on the ground. Call of Duty was at its lowest of a franchise when they started doing Advanced Warfare and having jetpacks and shit, fuck that. Then they released a totally unfinished piece of shit and the worst COD ever in WW2. But they made up for it all with MW, and not to mention Warzone. But with Cold War, it does pick up where fans were getting sick of MW.
For me personally with MW, I thought the multiplayer got stale, but Cold War does a great job with making it fresh again by adding new maps/guns and just an overall new game can do wonders. This is exactly what Cold War does (obviously), and to be honest the maps aren’t that bad either. There is always that one COD map or maps that drive fans fucking crazy. But there are also maps that fans love. But with Cold War I haven’t played a map that I have hated and honestly that’s a first for me.
Next, are the guns. A lot of the guns were pretty much copied from other Call of Duties and some straight from MW but the new ones they did add are great. The XM4 and the Krig 6 are great, and not to mention the return of the M16 and the Treyarch special – the automatic Famas. Now one thing Treyarch dominates Infinity Ward on is gun camos. Black Ops has always had superior camos and this doesn’t change in Cold War. But the icing on the cake is the return of multiplayer map selection. This was something fans LOVED. There was never a better feeling voting to play on your favorite and knowing you’re going to have a good game.
The official Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War map rankings, thoughts? @StoolGametime pic.twitter.com/BX62utzDES
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 16, 2020
Barstool clearly didn’t play the game…
The Ok’s
With any new game there is going to be an adjustment period. It’s what every gamer goes through and it usually takes about a week or two to get used to it. But the one thing I’m noticing is the blatant copy and paste of Modern Warfare. I understand having all these different variations of a gun in MW was cool and honestly I don’t mind it but Cold War from what I have seen so far hasn’t added anything new, but rather limited the thousands of variations MW gave you. I’m ok with them taking exactly the same weapons, attachments, and secondary gear and bringing them into Cold War.
This COD is different than others where I think this game and the previous worked together a lot to kind of create a continuous experience for it’s fans. But if you where looking for new stuff and a similar experience of MW but with new Cold War era gear, you might be a little disappointed but it’s not a make or break for me. Another “ok” for me is the return of Zombies. I can live with or without Zombies. No Call of Duty ever sells because of the Zombies but it sure does add that extra push to bring people in. BUT Zombies isn’t as good as Warzone, or at least not this one. I have only played it a few times but Zombies has turned away from “survive” to “objectives.” Once again, it’s not a deal breaker for me but if you were looking for a strong Zombies mode like WaW of Black Ops 1 and 2 you’re not going to find it here.
The Fugly
The good, the bad, and the fugly. Every game has them, but some have more than others. Like I said before, I am hard on Call of Duty because it was a huge part of my childhood and I know what they can do when they actually want to achieve greatness. But Cold War is not great. It’s very average. For starters, if you’re going to charge $70 for the bullshit “Cross-Gen Bundle” then you better give me a finished, smoothly run game that is worth $70.
Cold War is not worth $70. It’s a fun game that has a lot of modes you can screw around with your friends on. But the game is very noticeably unfinished. I can’t describe but for those who have played COD know the difference between a Treyarch game and an Infinity Ward game. Me personally, Infinity Ward is much better. I think they make smoother, more finished games. Whereas every Treyarch game I have played felt like Minecraft. It’s just too blocky and clunky for me.
Secondly, the servers on the Xbox One (and going to assume PS4) are terrible for this game. This game is clearly made for the new-gen consoles. So if you don’t have one yet, then maybe wait on getting this game because I don’t think it’s made for the Xbox One or PS4. It took my friends and I at least 10 minutes to find a game tonight. That shouldn’t happen in the games first week. Another really ugly part of this game is the transfer of Warzone. This is just so awkward. If you have a Xbox One you know how much space MW took up. So, when fans found out that Warzone was just transferring over they were happy. I know for me personally I could uninstall MW and continue to play Warzone and switch easily between that and search and destroy. Oh was I wrong, or maybe I am just dumb. But when I try to play Warzone, it says I have to download MW… well that’s not happening. So if that’s the case then I will probably never play Warzone again.
We’re all thinking it… pic.twitter.com/1C2tg2eEFZ
— Barstool Gametime (@StoolGametime) November 16, 2020
Should You Buy It?
Overall, Cold War is ok. The story mode is awesome but what COD story mode isn’t? The multiplayer is pretty solid and like I said, I don’t hate any of the maps. But the downside is that the game feels kind of unfinished. Maybe that’s just on Treyarch and how their games aren’t as smooth as Infinity Ward but it feels off! I also don’t think the game should have been released. I said this to my friend the other day is that Call of Duty should have ran Modern Warfare for another full year despite how stale it was getting. If Call of Duty abandons the forceful COD per year quota then maybe they can put of a game that will actually be refreshing and not recycled like some aspects of Cold War. Overall, it will be fine for the year and is worth the buy if you have friends who will play. 6.5/10
-John (Uncle_mac4)
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