On the 12th October 2018, the latest Call of Duty game hit shelves to critical acclaim to many fans around the world, but is the game what every Call of Duty fan was looking for or was it simply another CoD that was overhyped and played out. Read until the very end and you’ll know exactly how good or bad the game really is and whether or not it’s worth a recommendation.
Story
Starting with the story – or at the very least, a resemblance of a story. As there is no campaign this time around, the game implements a Specialist HQ game mode, that effectively has you playing as one of each specialist available in the multiplayer of the game. While the game mode is basically multiplayer but with bots and is completely unremarkable, each specialist has their own part to play in a story that won’t make sense until you’ve pieced everything together. Not to spoil anything, but the story is interesting enough to hold a player’s interest but isn’t quite as engaging as an actual campaign for the game.
Gameplay
Gameplay is pretty typical of the Call of Duty series. You run around the map, pointing and shooting at anything that gets in your way, except this is the second Call of Duty in some time that doesn’t have any type of vertical gameplay. Moving away from Infinite Warfare and Black Ops 3 exo-suits, the game has you playing like classic Call of Duty gameplay, with a couple of changes. With the main multiplayer, specialists and their unique equipment and gear makes a return and so does the non-recharging health. Just like it was in WW2, you’ll need to manually recover your health, except this time around it’s attributed to a piece of gear available to you. Press a button and you’ll start to heal; all in all, pretty simple.
Outside of multiplayer and the previously mentioned Specialists HQ, there’s also a return of Zombies and the new game mode, Black Out, Call of Duty’s version of battle royale. In this new game mode for the series, you drop down anywhere on the map and must acquire perks, equipment, weapons, and armour to keep you and your squad alive until only one team remains. For anyone that’s played other battle royale games, Call of Duty’s doesn’t do much in the way of change, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it makes for a nice extra piece of content to sink your teeth into.
Graphics
Visually, once again the series has improved on that scope. While the game does look rather similar to the previous Black Ops game, the overall visuals are nice to look at, with fresh colours, and the only real disappointment are a couple of textures here and there that don’t exactly look their best.
Pros and Cons
Moving onto the pros and cons – starting with the pros – the game definitely benefits from the lack of vertical movement. The developers promised to bring it back to fast-paced, boots on the ground gameplay, and that’s exactly what we got. Return of the specialists is a nice extra that makes playing certain game modes more strategic and tactical, especially when it comes to Search and Destroy. Overall gameplay feels solid as well; if you’ve been playing Call of Duty for a while, you’ll notice a significant improvement on the overall gameplay/gunplay in this one and makes for a stronger experience.
Onto the cons, however, the lack of campaign really does feel like lazy game development and anyone that was looking for single-player content aren’t going to find it in this one. The Specialists HQ mode is basically just multiplayer with bots and is not a good substitute for any form of single-player content. Also, a lot of the maps in the game are ones that have been in previous Call of Duty titles. Some fans are probably looking forward to playing some of their favourite maps again, but the fact that a lot of the maps are simply remastered originals can make the map selection somewhat stale.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the lack of single-player content in any form and the rehashed maps are a little bit lazy on the developer’s side of things, but the series has greatly been improved from a couple of its past iterations. Gameplay is improved, along with the overall visuals, and for fans of both CoD and battle royale, Black Out is a rather fun extra game mode.
By any chance you’re sick of playing Call of Duty each year, Black Ops 4 isn’t going to change your mind in the slightest, but if you were looking for a purely multiplayer focused Call of Duty that you could lose hours into every single day, then Black Ops 4 is the game for you.
