Summer is a wonderful time of year. It’s a time when many couples around the country, nay, the world, decide to make the ultimate show of commitment to one another by performing a ritualistic ceremony and joining each other in holy matrimony. More importantly, however, this is the time of year when gamers around the country, nay, the world, decide to show their commitment to one of the most popular franchises of the 21st century by preparing for the annual fall release of the newest installment of Call of Duty.
Part of that preparation over the past few years has been the late summer/early fall release of a beta, giving players a limited sample of what they can expect from the full game as well as a chance to sharpen their teabagging skills before the official launch. After spending two weekends with this year’s beta (PS4 owners received a bonus weekend of access. Take THAT Xbox One and PC players… which I also am.), I figured it was time to preview the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. In the spirit of the wedding season, I also figured it should be done in the context of the old wedding tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue… Because it’s fitting. Is it gimmicky? Sure. Maybe one day I’ll be a good enough writer to not have to rely on such things!
Something Old
My first thought when I began playing the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta was that the game sure felt a lot like a Call of Duty game. More specifically, it felt a lot like Black Ops 3, with the major, glaring difference being that this installment continues the franchise’s movement back to its “boots on the ground” roots while BO3 took place during the franchise’s awkward, teenage jet pack phase. Other than that, though, if you have played any Call of Duty game over the past 6 years or so, you’re not going feel incredibly lost going into this.
Making its return in Black Ops 4 is Call of Duty’s homage to the hero shooter genre. I call it an homage because I don’t think anyone is actually going to confuse Black Ops 4 with Overwatch. Sure, they delve a little deeper into it in this installment than they did in Black Ops 3, but when you really break it down, the heroes are limited to two main abilities, one of which is a “super” ability that most people will only be able to use once a game. Combat preparation is still primarily centered around creating your own classes as well as the ten point system for guns, attachments, perks, and equipment that we’ve all become accustomed to.
Also making their return from Black Ops 3 are many of the heroes themselves, known as Specialists, such as Nomad (my personal favorite as a textbook camper), Ruin (who entertains with foul-mouthed quips), Battery, and Seraph among others. Most of their abilities are different than what they were in Black Ops 3; however, the play styles for each Specialist are very similar. For example, if you enjoyed playing with Ruin because you were a “runner and gunner” type in Black Ops 3, you will most likely find that he fits your play style in Black Ops 4 as well.
Something New
While much of the gameplay and mechanics feel the same as previous installments of the franchise, there were some new things in the beta that bear examining. One of the first things that caught my attention was a piece of equipment called the Acoustic Sensor. When you first look at the perks provided by this, it’s nothing really ground breaking for Call of Duty. One of its abilities makes footsteps louder and the other provides a mini-map indicator when there are enemies nearby. Both of these abilities have been used before such as with Sixth Sense in Black Ops 3. Sixth Sense, however, this ability would take up a perk slot with many other attractive options. With Acoustic Sensor, it seemed pretty obvious right off the bat that this was going to be a necessary piece of equipment if you were going to compete. The mini-map indicators began to make the beta feel a bit like Crucible in Destiny, where everyone knew where everyone else was and people would wait for each other around corners, just looking for their chance to begin pre-firing. The equipment can be countered by using the Dead Silence perk, but with that perk not being available until later on and with other attractive perks sharing the same slot, the Acoustic Sensor could certainly be a game changer in Black Ops 4.
Another major addition that became available this past weekend was the game mode Heist. With Heist, your created classes become obsolete. You start out with $500, a pistol, and your hopes and dreams. The beginning almost feels like a game of Search and Destroy except instead of the objective involving the planting of a bomb, players are instructed to grab a bag of money and take it to an extraction site. Dying is a little more forgiving than it is in S&D since your teammates are given the chance to revive you when you first go down, but once you an enemy wastes you or your teammates fail to revive you in a timely manner, you’re out for that round. Money is obtained by getting kills and winning rounds. Players then use that money to buy… everything, basically. You use this money to buy perks, guns, equipment, attachments, etc… And the more kills you get and rounds you win, the more money you get in the classic Call of Duty “rich get richer” style that Bernie Sanders probably hates. All in all, I found the mode to be extremely fun and challenging. I look forward to seeing what they keep and what they discard when the full version releases.
Something Borrowed
Not included in the beta from the past two weekends was the game mode known as Blackout. Blackout is expected to be the franchise’s foray into wildly popular battle royale game mode, most commonly associated with titles such as Fortnite and Player Unknown’s Battleground. People can call the decision to add in a battle royale mode derivative or opportunistic, but this is just the way the cookie crumbles in competitive multiplayer gaming. How many first person shooters don’t include a variation of the mode that Call of Duty calls Domination and Destiny calls Control? Also, the Call of Duty game mode Search and Destroy is obviously directly influenced by longtime PC favorite Counter Strike. Plenty of games, including the Battlefield games, also include a version of it. Because of the astronomical success of the aforementioned games Fortnite and Player Unknown’s Battleground, we are probably going to see most competitive multiplayer games from now until the end of time feature a battle royale mode. As a huge fan of this game mode, I very much welcome this. I think it will be extremely interesting to see what kind of spin Treyarch puts on it. We have yet to see a true competitive first person shooter explore this. After the Blackout beta drops in September, we will all be able to make a much more informed assessment about this game mode.
Something Blue
I am inclined to say “my balls” after being teased with only two weekends of this very fun beta; however, the Blackout beta is forthcoming in September. After that, it’s just a hop, skip, and jump until October 12, the release date for the full game. For something that is truly blue, we need look no further than fans of the Call of Duty campaign. For those like me who have never really paid a lot of attention to the campaign, Treyarch deciding to put all of their eggs in the multiplayer basket is a welcome change. There are plenty of people, though, who have voiced their displeasure at this change. I have decided to look at this from an optimistic perspective, though. It looks like multiplayer is once again going to be solid and we get to see what a Call of Duty battle royale mode looks like. Let us also not forget that Treyarch is the originator of the beloved Zombies mode. Now that they are putting more time and resources into it instead of a campaign, we could very well see something pretty special.
Keep checking out Digital Chumps for more on this as we get closer to the release date.
