Blackout Impressions of Call of Duty: The Best Battle of Anyone Who Hates a Building

By James Duggan

I love Call of Duty: Blackout for the same reason that I liked the PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds when it first came out. Blackout travels directly to my favorite part of Battle Royales – using what I've found for an all-or-nothing skirmish with an equally desperate opponent – with the least amount of B.S. in the way. The combination of an intuitive and fluid FPS gameplay, creative but remarkably practical microphones, and the lowest barrier to compete in a Royal Battle leaves me in no doubt that Blackout will be on the ball in October. My experience has not been totally problem-free, and I'm worried about the fact that Call of Duty's annualized release rate can make it easier to keep track of the frequency and longevity of the post-launch support I'm expecting. kind. But I would be lying if I said that my time with Blackout was anything but the best Battle Royale experience I've ever had.

I was immediately struck by the smooth, silky transition between free fall, skydiving and landing. Not surprisingly, most of the experience follows in terms of fluidity and polishing. Blackout also offers a significantly wider suite of mobility options than its MilSim counterparts. You can shoot by catching or wading, heal by sprinting, shoot under water and even collect ammo on the fly without filling a valuable inventory space. Some of these quality of life changes might be seen as a step in a more relaxed direction, but frankly, who already loved to die outside the area because you could not heal and run at the same time. The overwhelming emotion of victory and the debilitating disgust of self that accompanies defeat are still visceral, and that's why I'm here.

Call of Duty: Blackout is also a loot concept. I never imagined that I would be happy to take something so impractical as an R / C car in a Battle Royale game, but here it is, it's really effective! By the time the beta was over, I had fallen in love with the Grapple Gun, the 9-Bang and the Sensor Dart, as well as some temporary benefits like Awareness (which boosts the sound of the footsteps) that I'm having. had initially canceled. . The weapons are diverse and interesting. The basic table of assault rifles garbage is still there, but there is so much more than that. The gold tinted weapons, such as "Titan Operator" scattered on the map, are already equipped with a full set of attachments. Then there are nods for the Black Ops Zombies like the Ray Gun, the MP40, and a brand new Zweihänder that appears in zombie infested areas and is randomly designated by a column of pale blue light. And of course, airdrops are more appealing than ever thanks to the promise of winning armaments like the War Machine grenade launcher.

The end result is a map littered with attractive variables that each offer unique gameplay possibilities. The card itself is a kind of biggest hit of the Black Ops series. Iconic environments such as Nuketown, Array and Estates (previously called Raid) bring an unprecedented level of design fidelity to the overall map offerings. Although this was not always the case, I loved it when the last circle stopped on one of these places, as it turned the game into a sudden death match on a proven Black map. Ops.

Blackout will undoubtedly interest players who want a gun (not another mechanic) to take center stage in their Battle Royale experience. And in that sense, the reactive, Callus Duty-like "hitscan" feeling is intact at close distances, despite the fact that Blackout uses a projectile-based damage calculation system, with a ball drop and time course. Although hindsight is supposed to be predictable, I could not discern a coherent pattern on weapons like Rampart 17 or Spitfire, and overall, the decline was more random, though less pronounced than in PUBG. The time needed to kill varies greatly on a number of factors, but for the most part, it feels good. Nerfed or not, the controversial armor of level three certainly brings a sense of protection (especially when it is associated with the max trauma kit), but at no time has it proved to be a PC Games advantage. The fact is that the armor is usually good for at least two direct fights and so is finished. Plus, the armor is readable before starting the fight.

I've experienced many breakdowns during my career with the beta version of Blackout, which were doubly frustrating due to the lack of reconnection features. The ability to join a game in progress is, in my case, mandatory especially when I play with friends, which turned out to be a chore. Repeatedly, I've just given up trying to connect to a friend's lobby after exhausting all possible options, including relaunching the game. These issues could reasonably be attributed to the beta state of the game , but some problems also seem to be inherent to the game.

Despite the success of the varied card items and loot, I found that Call of Duty: Blackout had done well to randomize vehicle and zombie gear. The landing at Nuketown is often turned into a predictable loop of looting in the underground part, by searching for a boat or helicopter on the north side of the island, and then crossing the bridge to the ### 39 to the area that was inevitably on the other side. Similarly, zombies have almost always bred themselves to Asylum, the cemetery and the restaurant to the west of Array. Although I love the risk dynamics and the reward of fighting aloud to fight zombies or the "burning father," I would like them to be less predictable. And all these problems are compounded by the fact that you can reach almost anywhere on the map through an immediate deployment of wingsuit, regardless of where the "bus" type helicopter appears. The helicopter must be faster or the range of wings must be reduced to mix the possible landing places.

The genre Battle Royale embodies the games as a service. I find it hard to think of a title that received more post-launch support than Fortnite. And in this sense, the conventionally monetized and annualized publication rate of Call of Duty is a concern. To his credit, the Blackout beta has been corrected constantly and the changes have been significant. For example, the maximum number of players has been increased to 100, and a monster called "Blight Father" has been added, but patching to that state is a given. Will Blackout receive patches in two years? What about five years? Will the Blackout population be cut in half when releasing a new Call of Duty Battle Royale? These things deserve to be taken into consideration if you plan to invest your time and money in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and the inevitable cosmetics associated with Blackout.

But whatever the future, Blackout, as we know it, is worth being played. My connectivity problems and concerns became a distant thought as soon as I immersed myself in the brilliant and beloved loop of looting, fighting and survival, which is better in Blackout than anywhere else. Whether you're a Battle Royale fan or just an occasional shooter fan who wants to try something new, Call of Duty: Blackout is the best Battle Royale ever … unless you like the build.