Call Of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War

Luke Kemp has some hot takes on the cold war

- Luke Kemp

FORMAT PS4 ETA 13 NOV PUB ACTIVISION DEV TREYARCH (ONLINE)

A soothingly familiar constant in a year of uncertainty, the annual Call Of Duty is almost upon us. While code arrived too late for a full review this issue, the pre-release beta sessions gave us a good idea of what to expect from Treyarch’s latest pull of the online trigger (Raven Software is handling the campaign). It’s clear the company is determined to distance itself from 2019’s Modern Warfare – with mixed results.

Unless something changes drastically between the open beta testing and the final code, Cold War doesn’t reach out far from Modern Warfare’s shadow. The graphics are a surprising step backwards, and little touches that MW players have grown accustomed to are thrown out of the bulletproof window. No longer can you get a brief burst of speed by double-clicking I3. Nor can you trigger a needlessly, amusingly brutal finishing move by sneaking up behind an enemy and holding R3. What does Treyarch have against clicking triggers?