3/5 ★ – thecherylmain's review of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is Treyarch’s most recent installment in the Call of Duty franchise. It’s sort of a mixed bag for me. There’s a lot of things I enjoyed, but other things I disliked. I feel like Treyarch and Activision could’ve done better in a lot of places. I will be sorting my review by 3 categories: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. I will be reviewing the PlayStation 4 version of the game. Campaign: The campaign follows the return of iconic Black Ops characters, including Frank Woods, Alex Mason, and Jason Hudson. It also includes new characters, such as Russell Adler, Helen Park, Lazar, and Sims. For the majority of the game, you play as Bell, who can be whoever you want. Male, female, or non-binary. I know the game is set in the 80s, but a non-binary option for Bell is very cool. The characters even use the proper pronouns, which is awesome. The story is well written, too. A Soviet agent named “Perseus” is plotting to shift the balance of the Cold War by detonating American nukes in Europe, and blame the United States. I won’t spoil it, but I had a good time with all the missions. They were very well paced, and the character’s personalities kept me engaged in the story. My only real issues were at launch. Cutscene stuttering, graphical and technical issues galore. I’m glad it was patched, but they seriously should’ve done more testing. The branching choices were an excellent feature in Black Ops 2, and I’m glad they brought the feature back in this game. Overall, the campaign was an amazing experience, and I recommend you play it. Multiplayer: This is where Black Ops Cold War falls short for me. There’s stuff I do like, but there’s more that I dislike. I do understand that this was developed during a pandemic and wasn’t developed in time, but it should’ve been delayed. At launch, the game had 8 multiplayer maps and 29 weapons. I don’t understand why they launched the game with such little content. It also didn’t help that there were several glitches and bugs at launch. I was one of the unfortunate ones to preorder the game, and it was just not that great at the time. The bugs are fixed now, and the multiplayer is a lot better. However, for me it still falls short. Treyarch claims that the game runs on the same engine as Modern Warfare, the previous Call of Duty game at time. Despite this, even after several patches and updates, the game still doesn’t hold up to Infinity Ward’s engine. The game still looks great in many ways, but is a step down from a technical standpoint. The gamemodes added after launch were a lot of fun, even if one of them was a mimic of Innersloth’s Among Us game. My biggest issue with the multiplayer is the weapon balancing. It seems like submachine guns dominate multiplayer lobbies all the time. I swear, every time a new SMG came out, it was the meta for a short period of time. The only multiplayer maps I seem to enjoy were the remasters, which was an issue that was also present in Black Ops 4, Treyarch’s previous Call of Duty game. The game didn’t even launch with Nuketown, which is a staple of the Black Ops franchise. At launch, the multiplayer mode felt nothing like Black Ops aside from one of the multiplayer operators being a character from the previous games. The game now feels more like a Black Ops game, but still lacks the magic and charm from 2 and 3. Overall, while multiplayer is not a bad experience, I would much rather play Black Ops 2 or Modern Warfare 2019. Zombies: This is where Cold War shines. While there was a lack of content at launch, the mode now is the main reason you should buy Cold War after Vanguard’s release. Die Maschine, Firebase Z, Outbreak, Mauer der Toten, and Forsaken are all fantastic maps. The upgrade system is a fantastic feature. It allows for more crazy matches and makes high rounds a lot more fun. Field Upgrades are an amazing addition as well, and allows for more diverse gameplay. You could be the medic of your team and revive everyone with the press of a button, or you could mow down an entire horde with Ring of Fire. The best feature in my opinion is that there is no perk limit. You can be a perkaholic, and become one of the most powerful beings the Dark Aether has ever seen. The elites and HVTs are all well designed, and the Mangler from Black Ops 3 makes it’s glorious return in Firebase Z. The easter eggs are all fun, and Forsaken was a wonderful finale to Cold War’s zombie storyline. I recommend you purchase the game today for the campaign and zombies mode. If you plan on buying it for the multiplayer mode, then I suggest you play Vanguard or wait until next year.