BY BENJAMIN BLAZEVIC / VN STAFF WRITER
It has been a year since the release of a Call of Duty game, which means it’s time for the next yearly entry, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War
Just like the previous one, Cold War has four game modes, including the popular Warzone.
Campaign and Multiplayer are still there, too, but this year instead of Special Ops game mode from Modern Warfare players will get to try the Zombies game mode for which the developers, Treyarch, is known.
Those who have played any of the previous Black Ops campaigns will be used to Treyarch’s strange yet interesting storytelling strategy.
Just like Mason in the original Black Ops, players will be playing as a character who is also trying to solve a mystery using clues and evidence as the story progresses.
Players now can choose dialogue options that have different effects as the story progresses.
Another feature that is new for the Call of Duty series is the ability to customize the background of your character.
The only feature that really impacts gameplay is the one for personality traits, which has a limit of two.
Different traits can provide upgrades such as more health or faster speed boosts.
Besides the personality traits I don’t really see the point of the customization.
It doesn’t help the game feel more immersive or anything like that because you're not really creating your own character. It feels more like you’re creating a name and even then characters will refer to you by your codename, Bell, no matter what you choose.
Other than choices and customization, the game story itself is about as good as Modern Warfare's (which I thought was fun) and it’s worth trying if you’re buying the game at full price.
It might not be winning any awards, but I imagine most will still have a lot of fun giving it a shot since the choices offer an incentive to replay certain missions.
Of course, the main reason people play Call of Duty is the multiplayer.
For those who look forward to the newest Call of Duty every year, this multiplayer will be as enjoyable as the last for you.
However, if you’re waiting for a game that changes a lot of the formula, this aspect won’t appeal to you.
Players can still level their weapons and level up regularly.
The game also brings back the ability to “prestige” once you reach a certain level but changes the formula a bit by resetting your level each time the game gets a new season.
This is done to give the player something else to go for once the previous season is over.
However, some might argue that the older prestige systems were more enjoyable because you never had your rank reset.
The gameplay and formula are similar to Modern Warfare, and it does not do much to change that experience which might be either exciting or boring news depending on what you’re seeking.
Overall, I still had a lot of fun playing with a few of my friends, but I’d be lying if I said it felt much different.
For me, the big selling point of Cold War is the Zombies mode.
It gives you the option to create custom classes with different abilities to help your team successfully survive the large hordes that come for you in later waves.
In Zombies mode, every team starts at wave one. After defeating a certain number of zombies, players progress to the next wave.
In older zombie iterations, the only way to finish a match was to lose by letting the zombies beat you since the waves were unlimited.
In the Cold War version players are given the option to “exfil” in order to escape on a helicopter and finish the match instead of losing.
Zombies also gives players experience for their regular ranks and weapon ranks that are shared between multiplayers and zombies.
This means that if you level a weapon to 20 in Zombies, that weapon will also be level 20 in multiplayer.
The mode provides a fun challenge that becomes more satisfying once you learn how to traverse the map and survive for longer periods of time.
The only real downside to the mode is that there is currently one map, albeit the map has a lot of easter eggs and objectives players can complete for different rewards.
I enjoyed my time in the mode quite a lot and it’s the main mode I play since it’s the newest and the experience is shared.
Regardless, one map is probably not enough to convince someone to spend $60-plus for a game.
But it is likely that Treyarch will add more maps for players within a few months, which might make the game more appealing.
At the time of this review, many Xbox, PlayStation and PC users are reporting that the game occasionally crashes.
It might be wise to wait until an update makes it more stable if you do not already own a copy yourself.
The game can be fun, and I imagine many will have fun playing it, but nobody wants a game that can shut off your device.
Overall, the game plays exactly what you’d expect of a Call of Duty entry, but gameplay wise I feel that the previous entry was more ambitious.
Still, if Call of Duty is a series that you look forward to then you should consider giving the latest a shot once Treyarch sorts out the current glitches.
