Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 – Specialized

In the continuity of the Black Ops sub-series, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 benefits from its past and is limited by it. Its three main modes – multiplayer, Zombies and the new battle mode Royal Blackout – inspire previous games and take advantage of them. The multiplayer mode has a lot of success in its mix of old and new, while zombies are fighting more against dated elements. Blackout, however, achieved an excellent balance by implementing a clever spin of Call of Duty on an entirely new genre in the series.

Although Black Ops 4 does not have a traditional one-player campaign, it does offer a set of character-driven tutorials. Called HQ Specialist, it presents you one by one each of the 10 multiplayer specialists, making you discover their unique abilities and a multiplayer training match. There is a beautiful story and cinematics (and bloody) that chained each mission, but the goal is to get acquainted with the new Specialist mechanics, who are well worth the three hours that it takes, because some of these mechanisms also appear in Blackout. A mission incorporates even a bit of general Zombie training, an unexpected but welcome touch that helps to make the modes largely separate a little more coherent.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer mode is the simplest of modes, and Black Ops 4 tries to be more tactical than previous entries. Black Ops 3 wall racing and thrust jumps are gone, replaced by a heavy, anchored movement, and the healing is now manual and over a cooldown. The combination requires you to pay more attention to your positioning, as you can not simply eject and dodge enemy fire until your health regenerates. You need to make sure you have the coverage and time to look after yourself in your immediate neighborhood. This encourages a slightly slower and more cautious pace at the individual level, and it's refreshing to play smart instead of just going fast. But the kill time is still low and the re-entry time almost instantaneous, ensuring that matches do not stagnate.

The more tactical feel extends to the specialists, who rely on those introduced in Black Ops 3. Each has a unique weapon and equipment with a specific combat objective, such as the zone control or the damage inflicted. Each specialist weapon is linked to a longer recovery time and functions as an overpowering attack (or a defensive capability, in some cases), while its equipment ranges from special grenade to disconnecting mines and others. equipment with a clear strategic purpose. This includes roles other than offensive roles – there's even a pseudo-healer specialist, Crash – and it's a change that gives more variety to the multiplayer mode.

However, some specialists and strategies are more useful in some types of games than others. Zone control is best for goal-based modes such as Domination, for example, and much less effective in the more dispersed Team Deathmatch. In general, your choice of specialist and the composition of your team will not matter in any mode if you are not qualified in shooting and basic positioning, even if you play a more defensive role or support. This means that you can play selfishly while remaining victorious, which suits those of us who often line up alone and prefer not to risk trying to communicate with strangers. But it can also make it less rewarding to play support-oriented specialists if you are not working as a team, because your efforts are in vain if your teammates do not exploit them. However, the balance is surprisingly good overall, allowing you to be as tactical as you like or able to be and enjoy the game anyway.

The card design also facilitates this flexibility. Each map contains ideal areas for different specialists, such as blind angles where Nomad's travel mines can surprise enemies or high ceilings where Recon can shoot and hide his Dart sensor that reveals enemies on your radar. But the long, narrow, three-lane structure on which each map is built also provides a solid foundation for more traditional shooting, with long lines of visibility for snipers and tactical guns and restricted spaces for automatic weapons. at short range.

The strategies of the specialists are better presented in the new Control, a goal-based mode in which each team, an attacker and a defender, share 25 lives. You win by exhausting all the lives of the enemy team or by getting or keeping control of both goals. A defensive specialist like Torque, who owns Razor Wire ideally placed under windows and a Barricade "weapon" for extra coverage, is a great option if you're trying to maintain a goal, for example. On the other hand, an offensive specialist can eliminate the opposing team.

Zombies

The Black Ops 4 Zombies are as wide as they are deep, with two different scenarios on three cards (or four if you have the Black Ops pass included in the special editions of the game). The first two, IX and Voyage of Despair, are part of the all-new Chaos story, while Blood of the Dead and Classified complete the selection of cards that will make up the new story of Aether. All follow the familiar Zombies formula – fight the undead waves, save money for better guns and areas, and reveal secrets and wacky puzzles along the way – but each one has its own quirks that it takes time and effort to discover them.

The Chaos cards are aesthetically sound, with a rich level design and clever puzzles, draining water that has infiltrated the depths of the Titanic so you do not drown while searching for other secrets, for example. As in previous maps of Zombies, it is very entertaining to understand how the map works while trying not to die. In addition, IX and Voyage of Despair have complex arrangements that lend themselves to thorough and eventful exploration. Travel is a personal favorite, with narrow and scary corridors and possibly drowned zombies that have water gushing from their heads.

On Aether's side, Blood of the Dead is based on Black Ops 2's Mob of the Dead group, while Classified is a new Black Ops & Five imagery. Although they are well known, there are still surprises to entertain returning players – some puzzles do not unlock what you expect from them, for example. However, the crew of Ultimus has not aged well, even though each of them is stereotyped to the extreme. The jokes do not happen anymore, especially Takeo's excessive Japanese accent, which replaces L whenever possible. In Blood of the Dead, it's distracting, but in Classified, the phrases about the emperor and sushi are simply shocking. You will also hear these same lines every time you start a new series, which does not help.

In addition to the already considerable amount of Zombies content, Black Ops 4 introduces a new mode of fighting the undead, Rush. It's a much faster version of zombies where you do not have to think or solve puzzles; you're right here to kill them at the horde. There is no money, so you do not need to save money to buy a weapon or unlock a door. Instead, you are told which area will have the next wave of Rush and you will be directed from room to room as you go. It's too intense to be a tutorial, but it's a great way to get acquainted with the map, test the weapons and plan the next steps to follow if you're stuck in classic mode.

Blackout

The third and most exciting of the three main sections of Black Ops 4 is of course Blackout. As in other Royal Battle games, taking Call of Duty puts 100 players on a card with the goal of being the last person or team available and a collapsed death circle requires you to stay over in closer. Call of Duty is nothing like what Call of Duty did before. Slight modifications of its mechanisms, such as the addition of projectiles releasable on some weapons, allow him to adapt to a very different style of play.

Brilliantly, the experience in multiplayer mode and zombies profits you in Blackout. The benefits and specialized equipment can be looted during a match, and knowing how to use them and countering them can give you an edge. There are also areas infested with zombies that offer powerful loot at the risk of attracting human players to your position, and this PvE twist in particular makes Blackout stand out from those of PUBG. A successful game of Blackout can last more than 20 minutes. Therefore, if you are impatient or more used to Call of Duty's shorter multiplayer formats, looking for zombies and causing a ruckus in the middle of a match is a great way to see more action.

The card itself is also distinctly called Call of Duty, with references to previous games, including the fan favorite, Nuketown. The vibrant and varied design allows each region to distinguish itself from the others, which facilitates navigation throughout the map. This facilitates the strategic movement and positioning necessary to succeed; It is easy to rotate if many other people are nearby, for example if you know where you are compared to the best loot area.

The combination of Call of Duty-specific mechanisms and PUBG-style health, booty and shooting systems is well executed, with improvements in the quality of life of the user interface. You can notably equip the weapon attachments quickly without entering your menu. The twists are also balanced, and Specialist equipment in particular does not make things unfair. As in multiplayer, you can ignore everything you do not want to disturb and survival ultimately depends on your situational awareness, your skill with various weapons and a little luck with the looting and the circle. This gives the impression that the win is won and, therefore, extremely rewarding – Blackout definitely captures the tense and fragile excitement that makes the Royal Battle such a popular genre.

Black Ops 4 does not lack content and its three main modes are substantial. The multiplayer mode introduces more tactical mechanisms without forcing you into them, which helps to achieve a good balance. Zombies have to explore many deep and secret cards, although their previous characters do not hold and distract. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in a totally new direction, exploiting multiplayer aspects and Zombies for a Battle Royale version. Of course, there is no single solo campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what exists, Black Ops 4 does not need it.