Staff – October 9, 2018 at 10:57 AM
Nearly eight years after the release of the original, Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 serves as a love letter to the series’ many achievements. It provides players with more ways to play than ever before, pulling familiar gameplay elements from previous entries in the series and adapting them into new storylines, maps, and game modes. Black Ops 4 has something for just about every kind of player, demonstrating once again why Call of Duty has remained such a seminal series in the world of multiplayer FPS games.
Black Op 4’s standout feature is its new Blackout mode, a massive battle royale mode that marks a first for the franchise and is easily the biggest mode the series has ever seen. Longtime fans will recognize a handful of names scattered across the map (“Hydro Dam,” “Nuketown,” “Firing Range”) that are all references to maps featured in previous Black Ops games. Even Black Ops’ famous Zombies make an appearance in the Blackout map, should players choose to venture to areas like “Asylum.”
“Black Ops 4 is a celebration of the entire series and very much has a best of Black Ops vibe,” Treyarch Co-Studio Head Dave Buntings explained. “This game brings together of a lot of classic elements that are both nostalgic and new at the same time, so I think longtime fans and players that are new to the series will find something to be excited about.”
Six of the Specialist classes from Black Ops 3 make a return and join four new ones. All of their backstories and character traits, however, have been overhauled to match their gameplay and function within a team. “We try and represent gameplay archetypes that will be exciting for our fans and work with the various ways players want to play and enjoy our game,” Bunting said. “We began with a philosophy to see what skills a Specialist can have that help the player and how they can help their team in an organic way to really connect all of the players in a match together.
PC players will be delighted to know that Treyarch did their best to optimize the Black Ops 4 experience for PC play. “We took the data learned during numerous events where players were able to play the game — including our Reveal event, E3, and especially the Beta tests on PC, and then balanced the weapons with PC players in mind,” said Jonathan Moses, Treyarch’s senior PC producer.
They also included a plethora of customization options to ensure that PC players can tailor their experience and make the game feel fit for their own preferences. “We know that PC players love their hardware,” Moses said. “We spent a lot of time optimizing and testing on a wide assortment of hardware, using Blizzard’s deep resources, and getting help from Intel.”
These options include smart auto-detection to assist in determining reasonable default settings, support for 4K resolution and widescreen monitors, and the ability to get granular with controls. This means being able to choose whether certain equipment utilizes the “press and hold” method native to consoles or a “toggle” method.
All in all, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 offers both longtime fans and newcomers to the Black Ops series a diverse range of ways to enjoy the game. It pays homage to the things that have made the series such a blast to play in the past while journeying forth into new territory.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be available for PC on 10/12.
