Black Ops 4 Multiplayer Preview: Call of Duty How You Remember It

When Activision and Treyarch revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to the world, they did so by making sure to note all of the things that players actually liked about the series are definitely in the game; and that the things they hated are now gone. Thrust jumping? Gone. Wall running? Gone. The game does still take place in a not-too-distant-future, but it doesn’t feel like a game bound by the laws of futurism anymore. We went hands on with Black Ops 4 multiplayer at the reveal event yesterday and these are our first impressions.

First, this is how you remember Call of Duty. There is a smoothness to the gameplay mechanics and the way play unfolds that feels simple, and just right. No overblown mechanics that you have to keep in mind while playing, it’s as simple as spawning, running out, and engaging the enemy. What makes this exciting is it’s the type of gameplay that has kept the franchise relevant and a fan-favorite but now thrown into the slick and crisp environments of the all-new game.

There is one big change to how the game plays and that’s the way specialists are crafted for team game types. Taking a page out of Overwatch’s playbook (though not quite as extreme), Treyarch wants players to think about their specialists in terms of what they can bring to their squad and how they can lift each other up to overcome the fight. Naturally, those of us playing it first weren’t quite ready for that mechanic, but it did show the disparity between some of the more powerful specialists who can carry an elimination-focused team over the ones that are working more along the lines of team strategy. Firebreak can bust into a room and start irradiating the ground, eliminating countless enemies, while Seraph is instead trying to plant a good spawn point near the objective. Once players can figure out how to make all these combos work together though, they’ll be unstoppable.

The final point that stood out to me as something of note about the game are the guns themselves. No longer does it feel like we’re playing with weaponry from a sci-fi novel, instead the guns feel and act like real guns. There’s also the change made to gun modifications, wherein attachments added to the guns are more specialized and note simply part of that entire line of weapons. Some Assault Rifles can have quick draw and suppressors, while others can have extended mags and optic sights. Finding the right combo of gun attachments will be the big search of the game, but the good news is there isn’t just one method that will make you the big bad on the battlefield, there are hundreds.

Call of Duty: Black OPs 4 injects all the things you like about your memories of COD multiplayer while also moving into new and exciting areas. Is the game easier for people not used to the fast-paced run and gun of the series? Absolutely not, you still have to have situational awareness at all times and know that one wrong step can send your head off and with a primary focus on multiplayer and co-operative gaming, the series is finally starting to cater to the aspects of itself that fans have been focusing on anyway. Even from a skeptic of the series like myself, it’s something to keep an eye on.