GAMES

PlayStation 5 – Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War

Ending off the year with the brand new Call of Duty is always exciting and with Cold War bringing about a setting we have never seen before, there are many reasonings to be excited. The game widely follows its predecessors, with the majority of new mechanics and features being within the zombie and campaign game modes. This game is by far is one of the smoothest CODs to date with gameplay feeling great. The brand new triggers on the PS5 controller give an entirely new feel to the game with the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers complimenting each other to make the PS5 easily the best console input to play on.

Call Of Duty Black Ops Cold War Modes:

Campaign

Starting with the campaign, Cold War offers just under 10 hours of gameplay for an average gamer as you go under the alias ‘Bell’, an American agent as they try to stop Perseus, a one-man threat to the free world. The gameplay within the campaign is very enjoyable but has considerably more action taking place without a gun than previous instalments. You find yourself sneaking round bases and targets homes very often as the game offers you two options to play out many of the missions; a stealthy hitman/assassin’s creed-esque style of gameplay or the classic well-loved guns blazing approach. This is particularly refreshing and makes this game feel unique to any of the other COD. Another brand new addition is the lock-picking skills which tie in nicely with the more covert theme of Cold War to make you feel like a mix between James bond and Catwoman as you prowl the streets and buildings within the Soviet Union. Furthermore, here is a greater incentive for the completionists out there, with the new edition of the clues map. This allows you to not only recap the story far but also is added to whenever you find clues scattered throughout the missions as they unlock various side missions. I, myself, found this led to replay missions in order to unlock these side missions which do a great job in enriching the story.

The actual story is solid with character development being great as the game gives you the chance to walk around your base between missions, starting up conversations with crew members enhancing overall interest in the characters. We see nods to previous characters including Mason and Woods yet Cold War strikes a good balance, only having them momentarily allowing the new characters to really shine. The lack of new guns and varied troops is slightly disappointing and scenes without stealth gameplay become too same-ey as you get to the end of the game. However, although the story sometimes feels a little slow when compared to previous campaigns, the multi-ending scenes are exceptional. It allows the player to get really dark if they so choose so or get the classic happy ending.

To conclude, Cold war’s campaign is pretty good with game play feeling smooth and a new style of more assassin style game play being really refreshing. Its only downfalls are the slightly slow plot points and the lack of innovation within enemies and guns. Overall, I give the campaign a solid 4/5

Multiplayer 

This year’s multiplayer is very stripped back with many feeling it is a step back for the franchise. However, I enjoyed the decrease, finding the simplifications in game play really enjoyable. The increased hit count before death provides players with more of a chance to shoot back without making kills too difficult to obtain, increasing the game’s attractiveness to new players. However, other than the change in the actual player mechanics, Cold war’s multiplayer is far from perfect. The new addition of VIP mode is not nearly as fun as past game modes and ‘Dirty Bomb’ also falls short of making any large impact. One great feature, however, is the hardcore modes, in which the increased hit count is reverted, feeling like past CODs. Bugs don’t seem to be a massive problem, and game play feels very smooth however this fluidity seems to come at a cost of a reducing in map features. Maps have a lack of personality and at the moment there are only 10 within the game, significantly less than the 14 maps within Modern Warfare yet, of course, there will be updates to this so I may be being too impatient. Additionally, maps seem to be even less user friendly with the smaller maps having issues with enemy visibility. However, one and perhaps the only map that stands out for purely good reasons is Armada. This map is in the middle of the Northern Atlantic Ocean and provides a great experience for players of all skill levels through its advantages for both long-range and short-range weapons and lack of camping spots which are especially prevalent within Cold war. Overall, Cold War is a good shooter but not a great COD. When compared to past maps, the settings just seem empty. The only consolation is the new style of stripped game play. Overall, I give the multiplayer 3.5/5

Zombies 

Although contrary to most COD players, I am not the biggest fan of Zombies as a game mode, however, there is no question about the quality of  Cold War’s zombies. Although there is only one map (the Vietnam setting is only rumoured at the time of writing), it is made up for by the new features added. You can now bring your multiplayer loadout with you to start the waves off and special abilities are as fun as ever to use. Weapons are now assigned rarities as they get stronger, making progression more satisfying and random boxes are found throughout the map adding to the excitement. Zombies still provide a major challenge,  even without the scrabbling around for weapons due to the higher supply of weapons, and perks are still unchanged. There is now an option to leave the map at wave 10 via helicopter giving an option to end the game sooner for a more convenient playing experience. Overall, I feel the zombies’ formula has only gotten better and is the onslaught of thousands of zombies with 3 friends has remained unbeaten this year. I give zombies 5/5.

In conclusion, the campaign is fun and brings a new outlook to the original trigger happy experience through its spy-like game play yet due to the story seeming to be missing something and enemies being boring to fight against, it receives a 4/5. Multiplayer is very fun but the mixture of not up to par new game modes and boring maps lead it to get a 3. Finally, zombies is almost perfect, providing a really great experience for players looking for an onslaught, hence why I gave it a 5/5.

Available for PlayStation 5 19/11/20 (PEGI 18) 4 Stars

Youth #Gottit View:

A must own for all ‘Call of Duty’ fans and with regular game play updates. The combat fun will keep coming and coming and coming. Looks stunning on the PlayStation 5!!!

PlayStation 5 review by Con and Harrison CLICK HERE!!!