Unless you flat out don’t care, Call of Duty revealed gameplay of it’s newest entry Black Ops 4, on May 17th, 2018. Lord Vonderhaar, as he’s named himself on Twitter, is here to our rescue…. or is he? Well, I’ll let you be the judge first, then I’ll chime in at the end.

Multiplayer

Let’s talk about this because this is quite the spectacle.

Reports were coming out weeks before the reveal that Black Ops 4 would be vastly different including an Overwatch style of play (good or bad you be the judge). Safe to say they pretty much nailed that after the reveal.

Here are a few notable things that stood out to me from the trailer, and some other info I’ve picked up from the Inter-webs;

• Your health has been raised to 150 with armor that can bring it up to 200, but the tradeoff is it no longer regenerates. You must heal yourself with a stim pack.
• Specialists have returned, with a few of them returning from Black Ops 3
• The setting is the time period between Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 3 which makes sense seeing how some of the Specialists are returning
• There is a draft style of choosing Specialists before each match (think Overwatch hero selection/ Rainbow 6 Siege Operator selection). Therefore there will be more diversity among teams when it comes to Specialists
• There is no advanced movement, but there is a grappling hook
• MP is now 5v5
• Pick 10 is back
• No longer will the amount of kills be shown on the leaderboard. Instead, eliminations will be shown. The way eliminations work is confusing to explain honestly, but think Overwatch where if a teammate and myself both kill the same dude we both get credit for the kill.
• Play of the game is back… Yuck. Maybe it’ll actually work this time.

“Blackout” aka Battle Royale

You thought it was over? Ha! It only gets deeper amigos.

Call of Duty is hopping on the Battle Royale craze, and it looks like they’re trying to make this as good as they can. Here’s what they’ve said;

• The map is said to 1500 times bigger than Nuketown (what does that even mean?)
• Vehicles are included
• Weapons and characters from the Black Ops universe will be included as well

Details are kind of scarce at the moment, but at least we know it’s there.

Zombies

What’s a C.O.D game without Zombies am I right? Polygon has a good article describing some of the changes that have been announced. Three maps will be included at launch with one of the three maps taking place on the Titanic, IX which is in a gladiatorial arena, and Blood of the Dead which is set in a prison.

Singleplayer

Not this year amigos. Treyarch has axed Singleplayer from this year’s iteration. I read that they were including solo missions that can help you practice with the Specialists, and also give you some background on said characters.

What do I think about it?

I can’t help but admit that it looks like Black Ops 3 and Overwatch had a love child. I’ve seen a lot of people say it looks like Black Ops 2, which is flat out blasphemy.

I think Call of Duty has been in a downward spiral since after the release of Black Ops 2 six years ago. The yearly releases combined with the stale albeit solid gameplay has caused for massive fan fatigue (this is me trying to use big words to sound smart bear with me). Jumping into the future setting was an awful idea, and unfortunately it seems like we can’t shake it even after last year’s iteration, World War 2. Not to mention when they realize they need to reinvigorate the franchise, they look to other games and take what they’re doing i.e. Titanfall for inspiration of the future setting.

In my opinion, if this game doesn’t go over well, this could be the final nail in the coffin. Will it really be the final nail in the coffin? No, but this could finally make the masses open up their eyes. I’ve loved Treyarch’s iterations better because they’ve been better balanced in my opinion, but this Overwatch style isn’t something I can dig. Regardless, I’m gonna try it because I’m too nice and always give C.O.D the benefit of the doubt. I just feel like C.O.D always does something opposite of what the fans want. Honestly, if Treyarch just remastered Black Ops 2, as in gave it a graphical update, added some guns, zombies maps etc, I’d accept that as a new entry in the series.

Axing Singleplayer has drawn a mixed reaction. In my opinion, it doesn’t bother me. As I’ve gotten older, campaign has been an after thought for me, especially since C.O.D has never been known for it’s campaign strength. Zombies has also lost it’s shine since they’ve progressively made it more and more complex ruining the fun. I’m fine with turning on the power to be able to access the mystery box and Pack-a-Punch. I’m not fine with having to feed my hamster,then feed it to Cthulhu, who will then give me the keys to a car that will allow me to power up said random box. Make it simple like it used to be. Adding a Battle Royale was expected. How will they implement it? I honestly don’t know, but just think of all the microtransactions Blackout will have… Makes me nauseous just thinking about it. Supposedly, there may be free DLC content, but how far or what content it includes is to be seen.

Yay, nay or hell nah? Let me know what ya’ll think in the comments below.