Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Year: 2020
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
BBFC: 18
Published: 23/11/23
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
BBFC: 18
Published: 23/11/23
Having a yearly release for a major gaming franchise is bound to cause some headaches and it’s honestly a surprise that even with multiple different studios allowing for a multi-year development cycle that Call of Duty manages to release every year without fail. But in 2020 that seemed like it might not be the case. In 2019 it was revealed that the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise would be helmed by Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, though due to creative differences between the studios, Sledgehammer was taken off the project to get their title ready for a 2021 release, and Treyarch were drafted in at the final hour to turn a Call of Duty campaign over in just a year. It’s a surprise then that Black Ops Cold War even exists because the last Treyarch Call of Duty game didn’t have a campaign mode at all, that being Black Ops IIII (yes, that’s still a really dumb name).
When twelve months to put together a campaign doesn’t seem bad enough, the world was of course hit with the COVID-19 pandemic which meant that for the first time in franchise history the entirety of Call of Duty’s development would happen remotely. Black Ops Cold War was the first Call of Duty in years I picked up shortly after release because I was desperate to play some multiplayer with friends during the multiple UK lockdowns.
But I never touched the single-player, until now. So, what do I think of Treyarch’s hastily scrambled together Cold War thriller? Well…maybe it would have been best left on ice for another year.
Set shortly after the events of the original Call of Duty Black Ops, Cold War sees Mason, Woods, and Hudson back for another mission to save the world. When searching for a Soviet spy named Perseus, the trio learn of his intentions to launch a nuclear attack on the west. Teaming up with CIA officer Russell Adler, operative Lawrence Sims, Moussad ‘fixer’ Elezar Azoulay, MI6 officer Helen Park, and a mysterious old friend of Adler’s known only as Bell.
Taking control of Bell, you must follow the breadcrumbs to uncover Perseus’ plan and stop him from executing it.
When twelve months to put together a campaign doesn’t seem bad enough, the world was of course hit with the COVID-19 pandemic which meant that for the first time in franchise history the entirety of Call of Duty’s development would happen remotely. Black Ops Cold War was the first Call of Duty in years I picked up shortly after release because I was desperate to play some multiplayer with friends during the multiple UK lockdowns.
But I never touched the single-player, until now. So, what do I think of Treyarch’s hastily scrambled together Cold War thriller? Well…maybe it would have been best left on ice for another year.
Set shortly after the events of the original Call of Duty Black Ops, Cold War sees Mason, Woods, and Hudson back for another mission to save the world. When searching for a Soviet spy named Perseus, the trio learn of his intentions to launch a nuclear attack on the west. Teaming up with CIA officer Russell Adler, operative Lawrence Sims, Moussad ‘fixer’ Elezar Azoulay, MI6 officer Helen Park, and a mysterious old friend of Adler’s known only as Bell.
Taking control of Bell, you must follow the breadcrumbs to uncover Perseus’ plan and stop him from executing it.
Black Ops Cold War’s campaign is woefully short. Without exactly rushing through it I managed to breeze through in a little over four hours. Considering the short development window, it’s hardly unsurprising that it’s that short. But it also means that the story is rather dull.
Without spoiling too much, it’s basically a repeat of the original Black Ops story. There’s a nuclear weapons crisis, your character learns surprising things about themselves along the way, and it’s all part of the plan because you’re a black ops agent, off the record, and completely invisible other than to those in your team.
The difference is that when you were playing as Mason and undergoing interrogations to uncover your past, it was gripping because he was an actual character. Bell is a customisable character that doesn’t have a voice actor, a character model, or a proper name. You don’t get to have revelations as the character, because the character can’t react to anything. You’re just told everything, usually by Adler, because he’s the only character that actually does anything in this game, and it’s all so horrendously boring.
Cold War does bring back the multiple-choice element of Black Ops II, albeit in a slightly different way. Where in Black Ops II you could choose one of two outcomes for a mission based on equipment or route choices, here in Cold War you can influence the ending of the game itself through choices. Most of these are dialogue based, but there are also a few optional missions which are accessed by collecting intel, and then cracking the code that they provide. This is by far the best part of Cold War, and it’s a shame that it’s relegated to side missions because this would have been really great to double down on.
The endings are quite significantly different as well, which would normally give you an incentive to go back and replay the game to get a different one, it’s just a shame that the story isn’t interesting enough to play through twice.
Like Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War is tightly linked to the free to play Warzone. Similarly, to how Modern Warfare’s Special Ops missions continued the story of the campaign, Warzone continues the story of Cold War. But just like Modern Warfare 2019, that story is pretty much impossible to experience now because with each new update that story has been progressively locked away. Having researched what it was about, it doesn’t really provide anything worth knowing. But the game does try to tie its story into Modern Warfare 2019, setting the Black Ops franchise up to share the same universe which I don’t really think works.
Without spoiling too much, it’s basically a repeat of the original Black Ops story. There’s a nuclear weapons crisis, your character learns surprising things about themselves along the way, and it’s all part of the plan because you’re a black ops agent, off the record, and completely invisible other than to those in your team.
The difference is that when you were playing as Mason and undergoing interrogations to uncover your past, it was gripping because he was an actual character. Bell is a customisable character that doesn’t have a voice actor, a character model, or a proper name. You don’t get to have revelations as the character, because the character can’t react to anything. You’re just told everything, usually by Adler, because he’s the only character that actually does anything in this game, and it’s all so horrendously boring.
Cold War does bring back the multiple-choice element of Black Ops II, albeit in a slightly different way. Where in Black Ops II you could choose one of two outcomes for a mission based on equipment or route choices, here in Cold War you can influence the ending of the game itself through choices. Most of these are dialogue based, but there are also a few optional missions which are accessed by collecting intel, and then cracking the code that they provide. This is by far the best part of Cold War, and it’s a shame that it’s relegated to side missions because this would have been really great to double down on.
The endings are quite significantly different as well, which would normally give you an incentive to go back and replay the game to get a different one, it’s just a shame that the story isn’t interesting enough to play through twice.
Like Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops Cold War is tightly linked to the free to play Warzone. Similarly, to how Modern Warfare’s Special Ops missions continued the story of the campaign, Warzone continues the story of Cold War. But just like Modern Warfare 2019, that story is pretty much impossible to experience now because with each new update that story has been progressively locked away. Having researched what it was about, it doesn’t really provide anything worth knowing. But the game does try to tie its story into Modern Warfare 2019, setting the Black Ops franchise up to share the same universe which I don’t really think works.
The gameplay is all just lifted from Call of Duty WWII, and it feels extremely stale. It doesn’t feel as slow and powerful as Modern Warafare’s gameplay did, but it’s not as floaty as the Call of Duty titles pre-WWII. The game’s best levels are more open ended and often see you engaging in espionage to learn new information or discover where you need to go next. But this is an exact copy and paste of what WWII introduced with nothing new added onto it.
Visually the game is a bit of a step back from Modern Warfare, mainly because it’s still using the Black Ops III engine. It can look nice in the right circumstances, but the lighting is nowhere near as advanced, and the environments look comparatively small and sparse. The idea behind the engine that Infinity Ward developed for Modern Warfare was that it was going to be used in all Call of Duty games going forward, but with the tight turnaround on Cold War that got pushed out in favour of familiar tools.
The game does sound great though, just as good as Modern Warfare in many regards with explosions giving a nice deep boom, and guns sounding just as realistic.
The multiplayer feels cut from the cloth of Modern Warfare 2019, employing many of the same game modes, and progression systems from that title. I spent a lot of time playing Cold War multiplayer during lockdown and I have to say it is a lot of fun. Because it’s slightly speedier than Modern Warfare 2019 matches move at a faster pace, but it’s a far cry from the twitch-fest Black Ops III and IIII. It’s a nice middle ground and whilst I do prefer Modern Warfare 2019 overall, Cold War’s multiplayer might actually entice me back more than Modern Warfare’s.
Visually the game is a bit of a step back from Modern Warfare, mainly because it’s still using the Black Ops III engine. It can look nice in the right circumstances, but the lighting is nowhere near as advanced, and the environments look comparatively small and sparse. The idea behind the engine that Infinity Ward developed for Modern Warfare was that it was going to be used in all Call of Duty games going forward, but with the tight turnaround on Cold War that got pushed out in favour of familiar tools.
The game does sound great though, just as good as Modern Warfare in many regards with explosions giving a nice deep boom, and guns sounding just as realistic.
The multiplayer feels cut from the cloth of Modern Warfare 2019, employing many of the same game modes, and progression systems from that title. I spent a lot of time playing Cold War multiplayer during lockdown and I have to say it is a lot of fun. Because it’s slightly speedier than Modern Warfare 2019 matches move at a faster pace, but it’s a far cry from the twitch-fest Black Ops III and IIII. It’s a nice middle ground and whilst I do prefer Modern Warfare 2019 overall, Cold War’s multiplayer might actually entice me back more than Modern Warfare’s.
I did also play my fair share of Zombies with friends during the lockdown, and I hated every moment of it. Much like the trend for Call of Duty Zombies, it just gets bigger and more complicated each and every time. If you’re a regular reader you should know by now that I’m just not into this gamemode, and Cold War does little to convince me otherwise.
However, the return of Dead Ops Arcade is welcome. I find this so much more enjoyable than the standard Zombies mode because it’s just constantly funnelling you forward down a linear pathway that gets progressively more difficult. There is also an ending to it, so it’s something you can conquer with enough skill, patience, and teamwork which is something I definitely appreciate.
Black Ops Cold War is not one of the better Call of Duty titles. I understand that it was created under difficult conditions with a very short time scale under which to complete it. However, I honestly think taking a year off would have been a better choice than pushing out a short, dull, and honestly kind of half-arsed campaign.
I do enjoy the multiplayer in this title a lot, and I spent many long days and nights with friends on this title which I haven’t done since the days of Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. I was also pleasantly surprised by Dead Ops Arcade, despite the traditional Zombies mode still failing to capture my interest.
On the whole, I’d give it a miss. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a decent amount of fun to be had with Cold War under the right conditions.
However, the return of Dead Ops Arcade is welcome. I find this so much more enjoyable than the standard Zombies mode because it’s just constantly funnelling you forward down a linear pathway that gets progressively more difficult. There is also an ending to it, so it’s something you can conquer with enough skill, patience, and teamwork which is something I definitely appreciate.
Black Ops Cold War is not one of the better Call of Duty titles. I understand that it was created under difficult conditions with a very short time scale under which to complete it. However, I honestly think taking a year off would have been a better choice than pushing out a short, dull, and honestly kind of half-arsed campaign.
I do enjoy the multiplayer in this title a lot, and I spent many long days and nights with friends on this title which I haven’t done since the days of Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. I was also pleasantly surprised by Dead Ops Arcade, despite the traditional Zombies mode still failing to capture my interest.
On the whole, I’d give it a miss. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a decent amount of fun to be had with Cold War under the right conditions.