It’s a wild ride, ladies and gentleman. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been out for roughly a week and the lines in the sand have been drawn between Nato and Warsaw Pact. Cold War is an exciting new title in the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise and can only improve with time and new content. But just how much is worth your time in this latest entry?

How Treyarch Have Stepped Up


One thing that Call of Duty fans have always been divided over is which Call of Duty titles they feel are the best. Most of this disagreement comes simply from the style of the developers. It’s always tricky to compare different Call of Duty titles, as the franchise is quite diverse in content and style, courtesy of the different developers who work on the different titles. The last Call of Duty game that was released, Modern Warfare, was made by developers Infinity Ward, known for their more realistic approach to the franchise. Many players enjoyed that game style and customizable options for the weapons and characters. While Treyarch have always produced truly immersive games that catch you in the feels, their style tends to lean toward the arcade and Cold War is no exception. While the latest title feels smoother and the pace is faster, the sense of realism from Modern Warfare is a little less.

Campaign


The campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is unfortunately a short one. Just because it is short, however, does not mean that it is lacking. Cinematically it leaves players feeling as if they had actually stepped back into the 1980s - even the hairstyles look pretty convincing! The cutscenes flow nicely and the animations are realistic and lifelike. The missions tell a story with twists and surprises and entice the player with secrets they want to uncover. Be prepared to engage in beautifully choreographed scenes of crashes and explosions, fall scenes and takedowns - true to the iconic titles that have made Call of Duty a staple in FPS titles.

Personally, I would have liked the single-player campaign to be less rigid and linear and allow a player more freedom to choose their approach. It tends to feel more like a long, interactive cutscene than a first-person shooter.

Multiplayer


Whether purely for the social aspect of playing with other people, friends and newly acquired nemesis or to compete in various leagues and tournaments, the multiplayer modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is why most people purchase the game. The gameplay in multiplayer feels smooth and quick, although some movements do feel clunky and strange. Watching players, you can see issues with the animations, making characters appear awkward, more like corpses running around than the specially trained forces in their dossiers.

There are many details that need attention in multiplayer. From the balancing of weapons that are way too overpowered, to sound and party chat issues - these are the things Treyarch needs to focus on getting right before looking forward to the new content it will produce.

Players will continuously spawn over and over again at the original spawn points, no matter how far your team has pushed forward...

Map layouts and spawn locations tend to become frustrating on the multiplayer maps. Players will continuously spawn over and over again at the original spawn points, no matter how far your team has pushed forward (cue the infuriating spawn trapping ‘tactical waiters’ who seem to have purchased real estate on the many awkward head glitches). Maps are laid out in the traditional 3-lane template, however it does feel like there are less flanking options on some maps which creates a “kill hole” scenario once the spawn trappers are set up.



Weapon skins are of course a staple in any Call of Duty game and many players are already grinding away to get their weapon levels up to gold. Once you have gold level on all your weapons for a certain class, that class will be awarded diamond camo (okay, so I am going to be the one to say it, but from the look of the diamond camo previews that you can see, it is possibly one of the ugliest camos I have ever seen). Thankfully, the diamond camo is not the highest multiplayer camo to unlock. Once you have all the classes to diamond, you unlock the Dark Matter Ultra camo - a dynamic, colour changing camo that looks pretty awesome.

There are currently 8 quick play modes to choose from on 8 different maps from the launch of the game, as well as the featured mode Fireteam: Dirty Bomb. Ground War for 64 players has not made a comeback in Cold War, however. Cold War’s answer to taking Ground War away is to offer Combined Arms, a larger game mode than the standard, but capping player count at 24 rather than the aforementioned 64 players.

Theatre Mode is probably one of my favourite additions to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and content creators will enjoy this feature.

Theatre Mode is included in Cold War and is a great feature for improving your game. Not only will you be able to go back to your last session and review your own matches per map that you've played, but you can also move to other players and see how their style differs from yours. It's a wonderful tool to be able to study your enemy movements and patterns if you are really serious about the game. Theatre Mode is probably one of my favourite additions to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and content creators will enjoy this feature.

Zombies


Now for the real kicker that most players have been looking forward to - Zombies!

It’s an immersive horror experience and as you go through level upon level of zombie hordes, the adrenaline kicks in and you feel the nerves and excitement build. I found myself running away from hordes, screaming behind my screen as if I was really being attacked by the undead and my brains were particularly yummy.

Currently the Zombie mode is only on one map, but hopefully more maps and Easter eggs are added with extra content downloads. Currently you can also play Onslaught which is a different take on Zombies mode, dealing with the Dark Aether hot spots and you can play with up to one friend. The Dead Ops Arcade is definitely one of my favourite modes in this game - it’s childhood nostalgia all over again for us OG gamers. The fun, cute graphics are addictive and really entertaining. Just watch out for the spikes!



Like the multiplayer guns, the Zombies guns also level up their camos to eventually unlock the mythical Dark Aether camo. It’s another animated weapon skin and looks simply amazing! It’s a very hard grind, but worth it for such an impressive camo.

The game mode is exactly what it sets out to be - a fun, stress inducing rollercoaster that challenges players to keep grinding and keep setting the bar higher for themselves by raising their personal best. One can only hope that when the real zombie apocalypse is unleashed on us, that we will have this much fun!

Conclusion


Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes some getting used to. There are various bugs that will need to be patched, weapons, and equipment that need to be balanced, skill-based matchmaking tweaks to be done, spectator mode has some improvements to be made and there are occasional glitches on the Theatre Mode for older generation consoles, but all in all, Treyarch have delivered a smooth, enjoyable base game that should get better and better with updates. The more I play the game, the more enjoyable I find it... And the Zombies!



*PS4 Review code provided by Activision
*Reviewed by Sheree "Endseeker707" Buchholz