Activision surprised everyone when they announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 won’t have a single player campaign. Instead, it would focus on three ways of playing — competitive multiplayer, zombies and a battle royale mode called Blackout. Considering the fact that the campaigns of previous two games were great, I was looking forward to the yearly dosage of intense gunfights and set-pieces. But after spending time with the game, the lack of a campaign does not devalue Black Ops 4 as the quality of three main pillars makes it worth the asking price.
The most interesting new addition is Blackout and it feels extremely similar to PUBG. You can pick up different levels of armour, weapon attachments and med kits along with a general selection of weapons and consumables, including an RC-XD, as you make preparations to survive. You can also travel in land, sea and air vehicles. If you have played other games in this genre, Blackout is easily the most polished of them all. Its more responsive and fluid, and as a result more fun to play. In the current state of the genre, Call of Duty isn’t required to innovate at all. All it needed to do was offer a battle royale game without any overly convoluted building mechanics or any jank; and it delivers on that promise.
Multiplayer is incredibly fast paced even though it follows the same concept of boots on the ground that started with WWII. As always, the mechanics are perfect for twitch and run ’n gun shooters. I noticed that the time to kill was a lot longer than previous games. It was a pleasant surprise, and it actually feels perfect right now. Black Ops 4 does not have automatic health recharge, instead all players have a heal ability on L1. While I didn’t find it to dramatically change my playing strategy, it did have an impact on my decision making in between or during fights. Specialists from Black Ops III make a return, and they have added a few more to grant players more abilities to choose from.
Zombies comes with a few maps, each with its own storyline and secrets. There is a new perk system, which changes the game for the worse, but zombies remains as complex as it has been in the last few years. The map design itself is great, as are the different enemy types you get to face. For newcomers, they have added a mode called Rush, which is essentially zombies without all of the puzzle solving or any complicated mechanics. It is designed as a pick up and play zombies experience.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ships without a campaign, but its more exciting than any other game in the series on this generation of consoles. Each mode feels complete and satisfactory in its own way, but more importantly, no other game presents all of them in a single package, where all of the modes have been made of such high quality.
