Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Reviews
As solid as the package is, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has to be one of the safest series instalments for quite some time. Multiplayer is seriously starting to show its age with tired ideas and even duller gameplay, leaving the campaign to rescue things. Its open-ended approach allows player choice to take prominence while Zombies is just as deep as ever. A passable effort for the start of the PS5 generation, but Activision must buck up its ideas for next year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes you back to the past, not only in setting and theme, but in its gameplay style and more. It all feels so classic. Between multiplayer, Zombies, and the return of a proper (and surprisingly less-linear) campaign, there is plenty of value for the soldier in all of us.
The single-player and campaign modes are actually really great stuff. But like nearly all Call of Duty games, that is the content you'll breeze through within your first week playing if even for just a few hours a day. The bulk of the ride ends up being multiplayer and zombies and that is where the problems really lie. This is a game that I'm sure will eventually get the extra content, balancing, and bugs worked out along a series of patches and end up being much better than it is today. But unfortunately the buggy, laggy, unbalanced, and content-sparse game we get at launch is the only one I was given to review. And the balance of the excellent single-player with below average multiplayer ends up for an average overall experience.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a good game that should be easier to stomach for franchise veterans than Modern Warfare. The campaign is fulfilling, albeit short. The faster-paced multiplayer is also easy enough to jump into and have fun with. It's just a shame that I can't shake that feeling that Treyarch's true vision has been held back by Activision forcing its ideals onto them.
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War continues the trend of adding a ton of bang for your buck. While I don’t participate in some of the modes there is still enough here to keep me interested enough to make it worth my time and money. The campaign is the best I have played in a while. The multiplayer suite has something for everyone, and the zombies mode continues to be a nice diversion. There is something for just about everyone here, and it is a nice showpiece for these new consoles to boot. The series shows no signs of slowing down, and as long as the quality continues to trend upward I am perfectly fine with that.
Treyarch's latest feels like it's only a few quality of life changes away from being the perfect revival of the Black Ops series. It delivers on all three fronts and manages to subtly freshen some of the series' most stale ingredients.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a return to form for the franchise sub-series. While perhaps not as visually splendid as last year's Modern Warfare, it gets the Black Ops series back to boots on the ground, introducing new characters and elements while lending adequate time and attention to series favorites. Treyarch expertly steps in to continue the recent interconnected Call of Duty franchise shift, exploring and evolving the series while still creating a game that not just retains but oozes that signature Treyarch style. Perhaps more than any Call of Duty game before it, I'm more excited than ever to see where it goes in the future.
Call of Duty Black Ops is not the hottest episode in the series. It feels a bit rushed, as its campaign is too short and doesn't rely enough on its fresh ideas. Multiplayer doesn't offer enough maps and we can question weapons balance and netcode. Zombie Mode is probably the most satisfying thing, but we have to be patient, as new content is on its way.
Review in French | Read full review
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War manages to take some interesting steps forward in storytelling for the franchise, but the campaign is still largely a letdown.
Cold War offers the best CoD campaign in years, but not everyone will like the multiplayer mode.
Review in German | Read full review
Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer brings enough new content to the table to offer the user a number of new experiences which quantifies buying the game. Unfortunately, these modes can grow a bit stale after a while. Yes, they are classed as ‘new’ modes but they heavily borrow from modes that have been present in the past. Vehicle warfare does not quite reach the lofty expectations promised. It’s a fun enough experience, but I found myself leaning a lot more towards Zombies rather than the multiplayer mode.
Overall, Zombies mode delivers on all fronts. As I said at the start of the review, the new maps for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies will come, but this current map provides enough entertainment for you to keep coming back and trying again and again to better your score. Currently, I am averaging around 500 zombie kills per match, but I know I could get even higher than that. It’s challenges like that which keep the longevity of this mode going. Whether you are in a squad or going solo, zombies mode is one that you certainly should not overlook.
Overall, the campaign for Black Ops: Cold War is a very enjoyable experience. The story itself has a very well-written narrative with Christopher Nolan’s Inception levels of confusion right up until the final few missions. The length of the campaign and replayability is a big concern for me though. Most gamers will speed through this campaign, never to return to it again upon completion because there is simply nothing worth doing once you are all done. Of course, the Multiplayer and Zombies modes will have an effect on your experience of the game, but you’ll have to wait for a further deepdive of those.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War brings the series back to the start in a much-needed way. Treyarch proves yet again that it is the king of multiplayer, providing exceptional, genre-defining gameplay along with a decent mix of new maps and modes that help with the lack of Zombies content. And Raven Software takes the single player campaign in a different direction that stumbles a bit in execution but lays the foundation for games to come.
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War is exactly what you expect it to be, but there is a massive amount of content on offer here and it's still impressive. Maybe the magic is starting to slip now, but if you've not picked up a Call of Duty recently then grab this one, there's still some fun to be had.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War feels like a backwards step for the franchise. A pretty forgettable campaign and an ok multiplayer, makes it a good, but not great new Call of Duty.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Do not get carried away by the impressions or analysis of each year's shift, not even ours, Call of Duty and by extension Black Ops Cold War, is always a great game. The quality standards with their predecessors already establish an enormous self-demand, from which we can only benefit. I always say it, Call of Duty is a safe purchase every year. For the same price you have a brutal Campaign, one of the best and most addictive multiplayer and bonus, the Zombies mode, ideal for cooperative.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a solid entry in the blockbuster franchise that looks stunning on next-gen consoles. While its campaign fails to deliver on its potential, it still takes you on a thrilling tale of explosive espionage as you uncover the true identity of Perseus. Combine this with an old-school multiplayer component and expanded Zombies mode and you’ve got a shooter experience I can easily recommend.
If it didn’t carry the COD name, it could very well have been labeled as an entirely different game marketed as “from the creators of Black Ops”. Raven and Treyarch have tried something new here, and delivered a refreshing Call of Duty single-player experience — just be aware it’s a smaller scale spy thriller, not an epic open warfare game.
The PlayStation 5 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the best in the bunch. It tells a solid campaign with branching narrative choices, contains some of the best visuals that you’ve seen on a system not called ‘PC’, and it has some good, new faces on the multiplayer scene. Is it all perfect? Not at all, but it’s a good way for Call of Duty to start on the next generation of consoles.