This past weekend, Treyarch and Activision opened a private beta for the upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII (I know that the roman numerals aren’t correct, but I swear that’s how it’s written). For the sake of the article, let’s just call it Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. I got a chance to play the beta and see what they have for us in the next Black Ops installment. So, what were my first impressions?
Let me be upfront and be honest about my lack of experience in COD. I have played Modern Warfare in the past but I have always been more of a Battlefield girl. I think BF is more of a challenge with better story lines and better playability. So, I was a bit biased going in and at the same time a blank slate. First impression was that the graphics looked really good. The character models looked really nice and it had more than just support, recon, assault and medic so that was a change for me.
Unlike with other betas, there were several maps and modes to play. Whether you are capturing areas, eliminating the enemy or in a no respawn game, you had several ways to play and try it. The rounds are pretty short, especially team deathmatch. My biggest complaint is the loading times. Maybe it’s due to the beta or maybe that’s just how the Black Ops multiplayer is, but it would seem sometimes it took longer to load than the actual match.
Regardless, because of its fast paced nature, it was hard to get bored and like Pringles, you can’t do just one. I found myself saying, “okay, just ONE more match.” A favorite aspect of these matches was the respawn itself. While I don’t need a replay of how an 11-year-old handed my own ass to me in-game, there is literally no respawn delay which is really nice. You can skip the kill cam and respawn immediately so you can skip off to get owned once again (oh, is that just me?).
The classes were numerous and each class was represented by a single character with a different personality. Sometimes the special weapons and abilities can get a little confusing and the game is so fast paced, I didn’t even get a chance to learn all of the extra controls. If I were to sit in place and try to figure it out, I’d be killed 12 times before I even figured out how to throw an explosive, which I never did get to do.
All in all, my first impressions are pretty indifferent. Sure, there are things I am not a big fan of, but some of those could be the byproduct of the game being in beta. There are other things I like better than my go-to online FPS, Battlefield, but I am still more partial to that style of gameplay. You can still pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and there will be more chances to play in future betas and earn 2x XP. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be available for PS4, Xbox One and Windows on October 12th, so get those pre-orders in.
