How cold is “Cold War”?

Recently in the last 2 months, Treyarch released its newest Blacks Ops installment, “Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.” Set in the 1980s, the game is based around the mysterious actions of the CIA during that time, throughout the era of espionage, sleeper agents, double agents, and top-secret missions, “Cold War” steps it up by fully embracing that era and incorporating rumors of the CIA’s actions, spicing it up with a possible scenario of the destruction of West Europe.

This installment gives the player more leverage of how the story progresses; a much different experience to how previous “Call Of Duty’s” styled their campaign. It brings back the older style of movement from previous “Black Ops” games, creating an arcade feel.

Josh Campbell, an avid COD player, who kindly provided opinions, said, “So ‘Cold War’ is different from modern warfare,” -the previous game in the franchise, “in that it doesn’t focus as heavily on the realism aspect, movement in the black ops games has always felt more clunky than modern warfare. This game feels like a downgrade, and it may be but I also think this year’s MW set our expectations very high. It looks good in different ways, and although it doesn’t feel as fluid it doesn’t seem any less fun than MW to me.” 

“Modern Warfare” did in fact create high expectations due to the game’s outstanding performance with the story and gameplay. “Black Ops” may not be the successor people wanted, but it’s a fresh new “Black Ops” that actually has a campaign, with both games are known for similar but completely different styles of gameplay, playing around the era extensively and beautifully, including many environments emanating an 80’s vibe. 

COD campaigns can either hit or miss, even if the game is generally hated, the campaign can be universally praised. Cold War’s campaign was successful in my opinion, although generally short, replayability with side missions that can be unlocked through right decision making. 

When asking Campbell about the campaign, he explained that “The actual missions of the campaign are fun, they are as action-packed as usual and just as entertaining. The only issue is the transitions, after each, it sends you back to a menu where you pick the next mission, and that doesn’t really feel as fluid to me.”

Multiplayer is important within the COD series. “Cold War’s” multiplayer plays as normal as previous CODs. Some maps are better than others- those taking place at sea, with the water being a playable area, or an area being Close Quarters Combat or QCQ. With the opposing popular maps are those designed as a three-lane linear map, bland and simple, though easy to navigate- a sniper’s fever dream. 

In response, when asked about multiplayer, Campbell mentioned, “The multiplayer is.. interesting. I feel like people are more the problem. They’re playing it like it’s modern warfare, and that doesn’t work.” When  asked to go into detail he said, “I can’t tell you exactly, it’s just really campy and not fun.”

“Call of Duty: Cold War” was a hit or miss, depending on the person, it has mixed feelings from all players. I say it was a hit, not very solid with all the launch bugs and the constant fixes, but the base game functions very well. The zombie’s storyline continues with opening a new arc in the franchise, after BO4’s twist of an ending. Overall, I give it a 7.7/10, solid gameplay, great campaign and story, but suboptimal launch day, post-launch reactions, and horrible bugs. Over time it will get better, but currently, the state of the game is manageable.