[Review] Call of Duty - Black Ops Cold War: Fantastic Campaign Execution!

[Review] Call of Duty - Black Ops Cold War: Fantastic Campaign Execution!

However, for Black Ops Cold War, the visual improvements offered are not quite significant.

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14 min read

Call of Duty Review - The game industry always talks about the release of AAA games every year. This goal is to fill the holiday period for the countries of the western region, which is usually associated with a massive shopping action.

So, like in previous years, among the ranks of these AAA games, the name Call of Duty came back with Black Ops Cold War this year.

The year 2020 was truly special. Because instead of being done by Sledgehammer Games which should be responsible for the three year cycle. Where usually, has been determined by Activision. Instead, Treyarch did it again two years ago – releasing COD: Black Ops IV to the market.

With a situation like this, it's no wonder he feels a little worried.

Fortunately, the first impression he managed to make, ended up being quite positive. Those of you who have read the best zombie games from various sites, seem to have gotten a pretty clear picture of what kind of experience it has to offer.

Treyarch returns with a campaign mode positioned as a direct sequel to the first COD: Black Ops series, where Marson and Woods are back to play important roles.

The fantastic thing is not rooted in the conspiracy story itself, but the implementation of various new mechanics. It also includes a conversational option based story branch which does have a significant impact.

Everything is wrapped in the familiar multiplayer zombie game mode .

So, what does COD Black Ops Cold War actually offer? Why do we call it fantastic campaign execution? This Call of Duty review review will discuss it more deeply for you.

Call of Duty Plot Review:

Unlike the previous Black Ops series, although they share the same common thread, they come with far timeline jumps. Black Ops Cold War serves as a direct sequel series to the first Call of Duty: Black Ops which was released in 2010 ago.

In the early 1980s, the United States, which succeeded in securing the masterminds behind the Iran hostage crisis, turned out to find a name that was never thought to have surfaced before.

Those who are responsible for this case, clearly mention that the figure of a mysterious spy named Perseus is behind the scenes.

This figure is believed to have great potential to harm the United States, and because of this – President Ronald Reagan commissioned a dark operation to destroy him.

A special forces group is assembled for this task, which includes CIA Russell Adler, Alex Mason, Frank Woods, Lawrence Sims, Lazar, Hudson, Helen, and a new operative named – Bell.

The mysterious Bell figure will be the main protagonist, where most of the story will be presented through his perspective.

The search for the dark operations team around the world, which was also followed by the death toll, believed in one thing – that Perseus controlled one of the United States' most classified information. It is known as "Operation Greenlight".

This operation reveals how this superpower, in fact, has prepared so many neutron bombs in almost all major European cities. The goal was to anticipate a future Soviet invasion.

As one might predict, Perseus wanted to take command of these bombs, detonate them, and make the United States a scapegoat.

So, can this team prevent this small doomsday scenario? Who is the real Bell figure? Who is Perseus' real identity? You can get all the answers to these questions by playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Similar to Modern Warfare

The visual leap offered by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from last year's Black Ops IV is indeed quite significant.

With the lack of comparison material offered by Black Ops IV, considering that it does not contain a campaign mode at all, Modern Warfare feels like a tempting jump.

However, for Black Ops Cold War, the visual improvements offered are not quite significant.

Those of you who like how Infinity Ward handles the quality of the character models and pre-rendered cut-scenes for key story moments, like when Ronald Reagan appeared, can anticipate a similar quality to Black Ops Cold War.

This similar approach is also the case with ray-tracing content which today, indeed “defines” next-gen visual quality.

As happened in Modern Warfare, the implementation of this visual technology for Black Ops Cold War also does not make the visual presentation side soar.

Why? Because unlike most RT games which usually tout the reflected side of light and mirrors, for example, such as Control or Battlefield, the ray-tracing side of Black Ops Cold War is more focused on shadows and ambient occlusion.

Therefore, what he pursues is the accuracy of the image that must be admitted, it takes extra attention to be able to enjoy the difference.

With most of the action happening so fast in mission mode, you might only be able to "enjoy" the RT feature that he carried in the campaign mode hub, where you can enjoy a moment of pause before moving to the previous area.

You can also see how Treyarch seems to have designed this hub with the intention, indeed, to show off the ray-tracing feature which in essence, is already difficult to distinguish between “OFF” and “Ultra”.

Without confirmation whether it also runs on AMD's latest graphics card, this impression we get with the RTX 3070, of course with DLSS technology also available and enabled.

Fantastic Campaign Execution!

Before we dive deeper into the Black Ops Cold War campaign mode and the reasons why we don't hesitate to call it a fantastic execution, it would be good if we warned beforehand that, what you will read after this paragraph will end up being spoilers.

We like it or not, we have to talk about the ending he brought, because we have to admit, he is one of the reasons why we chose the subtitle above.

There is something different and special about the way Treyarch executes this Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War campaign mode.

One of the coolest now comes from the side mission system that you can take and complete outside of the main mission, which usually ends by asking you to finish off certain targets, which do have a strong connection with Perseus' network figure.

But unlike side missions in general, which usually take you straight into the story and complete whatever is asked, Black Ops Cold War "locks" it through a fairly clever puzzle system.

A puzzle where you have to find the solution first, before you can complete the side mission and get the best result you can get.

Clue for the side mission will be spread in several main missions.

The shape is similar to the Intel collectibles available in the old Call of Duty series, which are almost useless other than providing extra lore for the story carried by the series.

In Black Ops Cold War, these intel that you can chase and get will unlock the extra information needed to solve the puzzle. It therefore allows you to trigger the best-case scenario for target kill in each mission.

These Intels usually contain snippets of clues that will give better context. Also supports content from other clues that you've gotten before.

In one mission it simply contains a list of codes that have the potential to end up being a password floppy disk whose contents you need to unlock, while in another it can contain information about the gender of potential targets. This is useful to make sure you don't end up choosing the wrong victim.

This offers new challenges that make the Call of Duty experience even more unique and innovative, while also making collectibles systems like Intel now have value to pursue.

Extra appreciation also deserves to be directed at the design of the campaign missions, not all of which now contain only shooting and explosions.

In one of the missions, you will play the role of a spy in the KGB headquarters who has one clear objective – to infiltrate the secret United States troops into it.

In this mission, instead of weapons and explosions, you are asked to explore the freely unlocked KGB HQ map. This is useful for you to explore in order to complete this specific mission – where it must begin with securing the access card first.

You are given the freedom to choose the path of "solution" like what you want.

We ourselves ended up stealing cigars in one of the officials' rooms, killing the informant who had betrayed the team with a "clean", and then exchanging the cigars as a "bribery tool" for one of the officers who happened to be guarding the technology room for reprogramming the card.

We believe you may find a different solution.

In this KGB headquarters too, Black Ops Cold War comes with a twist that you never predicted before. That he turned out to be a bridge for the Modern Warfare series as we know him, especially through the opening of the figure of Zakhaev who still looks young, but already has a super important position here.

With Zakhaev's presence, we get a little background on the figure who became the antagonist in the first series of old Modern Warfare.

Everything is sweetened by the fact that in one of the missions, Soviet troops are seen practicing war in a fictional city of the United States, with the words BurgerTown food franchise clearly visible there, complete with a landscape design that feels so familiar, if you had a chance to taste the Modern Warfare series. ago.

It seems safe to assume that all of these elements made their way into Black Ops Cold War not in the name of mere "chance" and easter eggs.

The best part about this Campaign mode is that there are various options for you to choose from, especially through conversations that will give you an interesting branch of the story.

Unfortunately, they don't execute this branching story option at all choice points.

We had time to try out different options in two separate playthroughs. Where then finds that regardless of what choice he makes, he will still end up in the same event.

Trying to save one NPC character and let them live? Adler was the one who would put a bullet in their head.

Trying to kill the agent who leaked your location information on the wrong mission? The antagonists will still find you for different reasons, and the cinematic sequence will remain the same, regardless of which choice you make.

But when that moment comes and the choices you make do affect the storyline that Ana gets. That's especially in the ending, Black Ops Cold War executes it so sweetly that you can forget the weakness of this choice system in the previous story sequence.

This choice will affect at least what kind of final mission you get and what kind of ending you trigger.

Which is our favourite? Of course the opportunity to become a real antagonist, regardless of whether he is counted canon or not.

After all this time there have been calls for Call of Duty gamers to play a character who takes the Soviet or Russian side and defeats the United States, the opportunity has finally arrived in Black Ops Cold War.

Still not sweet enough? You also have the opportunity to sling large-caliber bullets, in dramatic slow motion, into Woods and Mason's heads, if you so desire.

The temptation to trigger the ending on this one, is too big.

Familiar Multiplayer

Not a Call of Duty series if they don't offer a solid multiplayer mode.

But like the previous series too, it still carries a fairly similar concept.

For the various classic modes that are carried, such as Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, or Domination as well as various other modes, you will still be faced with a similar gameplay concept – close combat that will require you to shoot quickly, run to find the next target, and keep going. repeat until you win.

Black Ops Cold War actually offers more multiplayer modes, but for us personally, it's hard to care. Because in the end, the essence of Call of Duty multiplayer always lies in the modes that you can complete in a matter of ten minutes.

Presented in a multitude of battle arenas, some of which come in larger sizes depending on the mode you choose, most of these level designs come with one common consideration – an enclosed space, which is usually divided into several main paths, each of which also reinforced by so many “tunnels”, which are connected to each other.

A design like this makes it impossible for you to go camping for a very long time, before ending up being invaded by the enemy team.

The rational move, like the Call of Duty series so far, is to find a comfortable place, kill some enemies, and then move on to the next location.

Like the Call of Duty series in the past, with this fast pace of battle, it's hard to expect an automatic collaboration within the team, even for modes that require collaboration like Domination.

While the progress system for characters also comes with a familiar concept.

The more often you use specific weapons in Black Ops Cold War, the greater your chances of making them more powerful and effective.

It usually comes with a level system, which as the number increases, will open more attachments related to the weapon that will affect various statuses, from recoil, zoom scope options, to running speed. Each user will also have a separate level whose numbers will also be related to weapon options, equipment, and of course the "special power" Scorestreak that you can access and put into your Loadout later. Apart from all these upgrades, you can also complete various challenges for cosmetic items.

Unfortunately, tasting this game with the PC version also means opening yourself up to cheaters who "act without guilt" in this competitive mode.

From at least 20-30 matches that we went through in classic mode (Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed), we at least had time to meet two cheaters whose actions ended up being caught. That's because they were chosen as the “Best Play” highlight.

Seeing how these users easily turned around and automatically shot at any enemy that was near them, was a sad sight.

For console gamers, there is always the option to turn off the crossplay feature to avoid this one situation.

For PC gamers, considering that the root of the problem is always PC gamers, this is a nightmare tied to your experience.

The problem? There was never any certainty how quickly and intensely Activision and Treyarch would tackle this issue.

Another multiplayer mode that is tied to the Treyarch name and has always been their mainstay is of course the Zombie mode.

A bit missing the characteristics of the previous series that came with unique characters with special settings, Black Ops Cold War comes with a simple approach.

The core of the game itself is still fun, with an effort to survive the zombies that come in the form of waves, while trying to strengthen the character by completing various missions in the arena, buying weapons, upgrading for more effective killing actions, and working hand in hand for all. team members alive. As the number of waves increases, the types of zombies that emerge will be much scarier, thicker, and more deadly.

Apart from the fun it offers, which incidentally is a familiar sensation for all gamers who love Treyarch's zombie mode, we also started to find problems for this one mode.

The desire to taste more zombie modes ended with a random matchmaking process that took a long time.

Either because of our wrong playing time or indeed this one mode is not as popular as other competitive Call of Duty modes. What is certain, for now, the matchmaking process takes longer than when you play competitive mode.

The combination of competitive multiplayer mode and zombies that he stretches, seems to be enough to keep you busy if you really intend to invest time with him.

With Activision committed to continuing to provide content support, as was the case with Modern Warfare, it seems safe to speculate that the same will happen in Black Ops Cold War. You'll still get an intense and fast-paced gameplay experience, before you move on to the next battle, win or lose.

Conclusion

Present as an annual series, it's understandable if gamers immediately conclude that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will present the same gaming experience.

Allegations of “Reskin” are usually spread here and there without any trial and error. But if you dive into it, especially for the campaign mode that it carries, you will understand that it is an effort to inject something new and different with it.

The result itself is a campaign mode whose execution is quite fantastic, especially through story branches, mission designs, and side mission elements with extra puzzle content on top.

A sense of familiarity and excitement at the same level for multiplayer or zombie modes, seems to be seen as something positive or negative, depending on what kind of gamers view it.

Of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is not a perfect game.

From the campaign side, seeing that your second playthrough action still produces the same consequences regardless of the different options you've taken is certainly disappointing.

Although everything pays off sweetly in the different ending options, it's hard not to imagine how rich Treyarch can achieve if they are serious enough to weave a branch of the story that is really influenced by each option you take.

As for the multiplayer mode, outside of the cheat issues, Activision and Treyarch fail to offer a solid reason to try other competitive modes outside of the classic modes such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed which, for us, are the essence of what Call of Duty should be.

Excess

  1. Side missions are now reinforced with side puzzles on top
  2. One of the ending branches lets you play the antagonist
  3. Sound design in competitive multiplayer mode
  4. The sensation of using weapons is still satisfying
  5. Zombie mode is still tense
  6. Quite a variety of multiplayer modes to enjoy

Deficiency

  1. Conspiracies related to Perseus in campaign mode still feel cliché
  2. Multiplayer still comes with the same concept
  3. The cheater problem still arises
  4. Not all conversation options end significantly in campaign mode

Suitable for gamers: who enjoy every Call of Duty series on the market, want an FPS game with a fairly solid story.

Not suitable for gamers: more comfortable with multiplayer Warzone, more comfortable with FPS gameplay like Battlefield.

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