Call of Duty Black Ops 4 came out on October 12, 2018 and I’ve waited 6 months to write this review hence to give it the benefit out the doubt. At first I was not going to buy and support this game because Treyarch decided to remove the single player campaign. I don’t like buying these types of games because a few years down the line they become a sitting brick once the multiplayer dies out. Just take a look at Call of Duty 2 and 3 on the Xbox 360; the servers are still up and running but good luck trying to find a multiplayer game. At least they had a campaign which gives it something you can go back and play for nostalgia purposes. The only other game I’ve bought which did not include a campaign is Star Wars Battlefront on the Xbox One. I end up buying it because it was on sale at the end of August 2017 for 7 bucks which is a massive discount compared to its original price of 40$ and the fact it was the complete edition with all the maps. It was more of a curiosity thing because I’ve heard that the ambiance in the 40 players multiplayer is amazing if you have a surround sound. Since I’ve just upgraded my surround system I wanted to know what it felt and sounds like. It was a simplistic first person shooter which I had some fun for a while.
Anyways back to Black Ops 4. After reading raving reviews upon its release and watching live streams of other players playing it, I decided that maybe I should give it a try but still I wanted to stand by my standards. So after The Game Awards which took place back in December 6 2018, Black Ops 4 went on sale. I end up buying the Digital Deluxe version of the game which includes the season pass and 2400 points.
My first weeks with the game were amazing. The character movement control, gun feels and aiming, sound effects, HDR-10 graphic and the new Blackout Mode were all a 10 out of 10. Blackout is simply a Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PubG) killer hence I like it even more than Fortnite. During that period I had so much fun that I totally did not care that there was no campaign. And to comfort myself there are some offline Specialists Missions which did include some cut scenes and a Zombie Mode which I can play solo so the game won’t be a total sitting brick in a few years.
But afterwards reality started settling in as new DLC multiplayer maps were released. The maps were just plain generic and uninspired with a 3 lanes layout making them all feel the same. As a matter of fact, the best maps of the game are the ones from the previous Black Ops games which includes Nuketown, Firing Range, Summit, Jungle, Slums and WMD. Elevation, Frequency, Morocco and Gridlock are some of the better maps but Casino is big and generic and Madagascar is just plain terrible because it is a big map which I spend most of my time running around to find an enemy to kill. On the other hand I thought Artifact was a fantastic map. Nonetheless every time I am in the multiplayer lobby, I always have my fingers crossed that I would get to play some of the original maps. This is the first Call of Duty that this ever happened. None of the new maps are memorable but they are not 100% terrible either (beside Madagascar).
I know many players have different opinions but this is the deal; when I log in online to play Call of Duty I want to rack some kills and have an amazing ambiance experience just like Black Ops 1, Black Ops 2 and Modern Warfare 1, 2 and 3. I don’t play Call of Duty to have a Battlefield 4 experience which I spend most of my time running around on foot covering a vast area. In other words I like small maps because things happen quickly and more often. Why do you think Nuketown is so popular? Not to forget the Shipment map from Modern Warfare 4!!!!!
Now DLC 4 is still to come so hopefully it will include more of the classic maps that we all loved and hopefully the newer maps will be inspired from the designs of the classic maps. But as it stands the game is a 6 out of 10 for me!!!!
