This past week, Activision revealed the first official look into Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to a bevy of press, celebrities, and influencers. I had the distinct honor of checking out the game for Digital Chumps, putting roughly 2 hours into PC and PS4 multiplayer. Unfortunately I was unable to capture any of my gameplay session, so this quick impressions article will cover all of the information Activision/Treyarch revealed for Black Ops; on top of what I actually played.
Multiplayer Impressions
So my multiplayer sessions were split into 45-minute segments on both platforms (PC/PS4), where I was able to play through three game modes on three separate maps. All of the modes I played through should be standard affair for Call of Duty fans: a quick round of Domination, followed up by a game of Hardpoint, and finished off with Team Deathmatch.
While the game modes are unsurprising, the specialist system Black Op’s 4 expands upon really reminded me of the system Overwatch introduced all those years ago. Upon a match’s start, each player picks their specific Specialist which would then lock out another player from selecting them. For example, you won’t have a team of Torque’s running around throwing down shields making things difficult for the opposing team. I really felt this sort of system really turns Call of Duty closer towards the pro-scene, as I’d imagine team composition will become more important than ever. Hard to say whether or not casual fans will find random matches welcoming, but time will tell.
Speaking of specialists, there are 10 currently announced. Each have unique abilities that assist the team as a whole one way or another, including healing abilities. That’s right! Call of Duty multiplayer has done away with time-based healing and has delegated it to a specific button (L1 on PS4). Treyarch claims they want to make healing as much of a choice as reloading, so strategists have an extra option as to how they handle firefights. For example, it may be a better option not to heal and play aggressively so that you can take out another player who is stuck in the healing animation. While at first I worried this sort of change would become a hassle, quickly hitting L1 to heal felt fluid and natural. As one would imagine, there is a specific specialist dedicated to healing their team. I’ll reiterate: team composition will matter, for better or worse.
One aspect of the game that was a welcome change was predictive recoil. While it may not seem all that important in the grand scheme of things, it’s vastly important for pro players. Learning a specific gun and it’s recoil pattern will allow players to stay on target easier, and keep things moving. In my two hours, I couldn’t really tell the difference between the recoil in Black Ops 4 and previous entries, but I would assume a player who sinks many more hours into the game will notice a difference.
The Pick 10 system makes a return, and is easily my favorite Call of Duty class-based system ever. All of the weapons we had at our disposal were of standard affair, and we didn’t get a great look at some of the customization options as far as gun-skins are concerned.
As far as the difference between PS4 and PC gameplay, I almost feel as though the PS4 (probably a Pro) version ran better than the PC version. I would assume we played through an Alpha version of the game, so this is all subject to change up to release; the PC actually suffered from some framerate drops in heavy firefights. The PS4 version of the game ran great, and both looked really fantastic in 4K. The game still appears to run in the current Call of Duty engine, so don’t expect a huge graphical jump. But overall, Black Ops 4 seemed to run at a pretty consistent framerate at 4K.
Zombies & Blackout
We unfortunately didn’t get any hands-on time with Zombies, but more surprisingly we didn’t get hands-on time with the new battle royale mode, “Blackout”. There were hundreds of people attending this event, so it was pretty interesting they didn’t take the opportunity to show off the new mode there. Especially since it’s completely replacing the campaign. We have no other information concerning the mode other than the teaser they showed, so I fully expect a larger reveal at or around E3 in June.
Other than that, Black Ops 4 is shaping up to be an interesting entry in the series. Treyarch is taking some bold steps by removing the campaign and replacing it with a battle royale mode. The multiplayer was fun for the two hours I played, but like everyone attending the event, we are much more excited to see what the new mode has in store. Black Ops 4 launches in October, so we’ll all have to wait and see what they have to show between now and then!
