Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS4
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – (Hands-On) Preview
Call of Duty has been a series that is going on for many generations, to keep things interesting they try to set different themes in each game so we can revisit certain places in history. While games from the World War era, modern times and Vietnam are quite popular, the Cold War has not been covered that much in the genre. Those who actively lived through this era must have found the world a scary place, with nuclear war just around the corner. Then again, making a game where one faction would just drop a nuke would not make such a long game, would it?
If you have played some games in this franchise you will know that at its core the gameplay has remained basically unchanged. This is the same for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. When we received access to the first closed Beta, access was really limited, because this was exclusively for early pre-order adopters and the press. Nonetheless, it wasn’t that hard to find a match and enjoy ourselves for a few games until we put the controller down. We can immediately state that the gameplay is pretty much the same as in the previous releases and that the current developing team is quite good at polishing the overall CoD experience.
The reason for the Hands-On approach is that at the time being there was so little content to go with that it wouldn’t be enough for a decent preview of the game. So please take note that the impressions were from the first closed beta and not taken from the open betas later on. We were slightly delayed in getting this post live, and thus our apologies.
The content was limited as there were only two or three maps that could be played on with a handful of weapons to do so (at least it felt like this, looping around on the same two to three maps during our tests). It felt more like a testing ground for server stability, yet we did have some fun with the game. The gameplay feels true to what makes Call of Duty, well, Call of Duty There may have been an added mechanic or two, but nothing to write home about. The weapons are periodically correct, yet the many gadgets that you can use really feel out of place if you like your games to be realistically accurate. Of course, this is Call of Duty, and the series is known for their arcade approach. The gameplay felt pretty good, even on console, the frame rate was smooth and there weren’t too many bugs.
If you compare Cold War with Modern Warfare, the gameplay will feel exactly the same and this is good as the mechanics in that game were already pretty on point. The gunplay is how it should be and the Warzone mode makes a return as well. Weapons can be fully customized to suit your needs and give you an edge on the battlefield. It basically the standard CoD (war)fare we have come to know and love over the years. This one creates another great online setting for competitive players to rise in the ranks for this new iteration. There’s nothing really new to the game, but it’s just packaged differently and that is perfectly fine. It’s more effort than, for example, FIFA’s yearly release. If you’re a fan of the previous games, you’ll most certainly enjoy this one as well.
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