Among the longest-running and well-known series that in some way made the history of our beloved videogame media, one of the most important is undoubtedly that of Call of Duty, a brand that over the course of entire generations has managed to bewitch millions and millions of players around the world, sometimes with incredibly successful chapters, in other cases less so. Especially starting from the time of Ghost - but we could also go back to Modern Warfare 3 - in fact, a certain general discontent among the fans began to be perceived in the air, a succession of criticisms and controversies that became more and more pressing with each new chapter, at least until when Activision did not decide to dig up the epic from the hat Modern Warfare through a reboot that last year managed to convince a large slice of the fanbase. Well, with the ball passed into the hands of Treyarch the coup was tried again, this time, however, taking up the plot of Black Ops and giving shape to a new narrative formula conceived as a link between Call of Duty Black Ops (2010) and Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (2012). With expectations skyrocketing, we turned on our shiny PlayStation 5 to launch into the new adventure of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, and now, after hours and hours spent in the company of the latest Activision creature, we are finally ready to give you our final response.
Save the world in style
As mentioned above, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is a sequel to the first Black Ops, catapulting us into the mid-80s, when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union raged all over the world, between espionage missions, terror in the streets and that scent of an imminent nuclear war potentially capable of decimating mankind. It will be precisely in this context that Bell, our digital alter ego will make his appearance - whose sex we can choose not only, but also the psychological and character profile, with consequent passive bonuses useful during the game - who will find himself having to help the government of the United States of America to avoid the proverbial destruction of the civilized world, all in the company of several characters well known to fans, among which Alex Mason and good old Woods stand out. Wanting to say a few words just for the characters, they all seemed to us well characterized and able to be appreciated for their peculiarities, with curtains and jokes that more than worthily outline their mood.
As easily imaginable, the adventure comes with it all the features that made the saga's single-player campaigns famous, including no holds barred shootings, vehicle chases and Hollywood scenes where the spectacular will be the master. Fortunately, what can be seen from the first moments in-game is an excellent differentiation of the various vicissitudes that we will be facing, which will lead us to experience intense clashes flanked by appreciable stealth missions where to move in the shadows. One second before we will be aboard a helicopter to dispense fire and flames, the next we will have to snip with millimeter precision any unfortunate who comes before us, and then again here we are disguised as Russian soldiers, careful to avoid unwanted glances, all often without solution. of continuity or pauses of any kind. The variety of situations is undoubtedly commendable and helps to make every moment of your game memorable, just a pity that this - once again, as per tradition - is anything but long-lived, with the credits that will make their appearance later. just over five hours.
In order to offer a little more substance to the events, the Treyarch guys have well thought of leaving greater decision-making freedom to the player, who can often make important choices that will have subsequent implications in the narrative intertwining, with endings multiples reachable according to our decisions. Furthermore, the developers have not even disdained the realization of some secondary missions which, although not particularly articulated or complex, offer some more content that certainly does not hurt. Too bad only for that palpable sense of déjà vu that will reappear several times as we play and for an artificial intelligence that seems to have remained anchored to the Ps3 / 360 generation. Ultimately, the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War single-player campaign is exactly what we would have expected, a short but intense succession of shoot-outs and scripted phases where the action "Made in Hollywood" will send your adrenaline sky high; few frills, few dead moments, but only so many massacres and the right amount of variety to season everything.
In company, everything is more fun
As usual for each chapter of the Activision home franchise, also in this case the real beating heart of the production continues to be represented by all those Multiplayer which make up a good 80% of the overall experience. More specifically, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War offers three different options for entertaining in the company of some other player around the world: Multiplayer, Warzone and Zombie. Speaking of multiplayer, it goes without saying that all fans of the brand will immediately feel at home. The various methods present within the production are as varied as they are well-run, capable of attracting the attention of different segments of users and designed to meet everyone's tastes. Team Deathmatch, Free for All, Kill Confirmed, Domination and much more, after a few minutes in-game you feel immediately at home, also thanks to that progression system that has for years become an integral part of the COD experience, there where whatever you do during the matches will help you gain experience with which to level up and unlock new weapons, gadgets and abilities with which to customize your character, all in order to create the best possible set for your tastes.
In this rich cauldron there are also interesting returns such as the Combined Arms - where you will have to move in huge maps conquering specific control points to acquire points, all being able to make use of air and land vehicles - or, again, new additions such as VIP Escort and , mostly, Dirty Bomb. This latest addition in particular proved to be a winner, showing itself in a form that while taking up elements from other modes (the similarities with Warzone are evident) manages to show its own charisma, undoubtedly one of the most intriguing and tasty options of this new package in Call of Duty sauce. Speaking instead of Warzone, it is now clear that this battle-royale mode has become in effect an important component within the franchise that we will be reviewing even with the arrival of future chapters of the brand. At present there is actually very little to say, Warzone is exactly all that we were able to discover last year without particular changes, to the point that the whole mode remains firmly in the hands of Infinity Ward, who will continue to take care of it too. in the future. Since its official presentation, Activision has indeed clarified immediately how the arrival of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War was not going to upset the Warzone experience in any way, which would have been limited rather to a general enrichment through a whole series of updates that would have expanded this modality from month to month. For the moment, in short, Warzone has remained practically unchanged from what it was in the past; all the fans will continue to appreciate it while the detractors will have no particular reason to offer it a second chance.
Any good self-respecting multiplayer experience must however rest on resistant columns, and those of this Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War are sufficiently solid, although some cracks have not been missing. The variety of maps available at the moment does not in fact scream a miracle and, although future free updates with new environments have already been confirmed, have just 11 maps at launch it is rather mortifying. Not all of them seemed particularly successful in terms of level design, a succession of ups and downs that made us turn up our noses a lot. The servers, on the other hand, never showed the slightest failure and every game went smoothly and quietly, even in the most excited situations. We also confirm the presence of the so-called “Skill-based Matchmaking”, a tool through which the players with whom you will clash will be chosen according to your skill in the field; in a nutshell, the more skilled you are, the more you'll have to sweat each game. Honorable mention also for what concerns the balance, with generally well balanced weapons - even if we expect changes for some guns that at present appear exaggeratedly lethal - and a sufficiently generous time to kill, often and willingly capable of giving a precious opportunity for those who will be able to gamble with cunning but essentially useless for novice novices.
A Call of Duty overrun by the undead
For many years now, the epic of Call of Duty boasts the popular mode in its ecosystem zombie, which allows players - alone or with some friends in tow - to charge into articulated maps where they can hand down hungry zombies eager only to tear us to pieces. As it was easily imaginable, everything was also revived with Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, albeit with some interesting differences by means of which the developers were able to shuffle the cards on the table. What is immediately denoted is in fact the choice made by the development team, which after years of treating the Zombie mode as an experience unrelated to the classic multiplayer, this time they have decided to tie everything into a single ecosystem that takes into account of all the progress you will make while playing. So here is that the experience, weapons, gadgets and abilities gained in the classic multiplayer will be carried over to Zombie and, at the same time, playing in Zombie mode you will continue to level up by unlocking new equipment that you can then use in the most classic online matches. For the occasion, the guys from Treyarch have in fact wanted to leave the players with the arduous decision of the setup with which to launch themselves to the massacre against the undead, also eliminating some mechanics that have been well-tried for years - such as the presence of specific weapons obtainable only in particular sections of the map - to make room for some new solution designed to refresh an offer that was beginning to feel stale.
The final result looks so undoubtedly galvanizing and fresh, without abandoning that mood of the modality made up of intricate explorable environments, environmental puzzles and endless hordes of brain-eaters ready to cut our skin. Small mention also for the mode Spec Ops, now in its third iteration but still capable of entertaining a lot, a certainly welcome addition that enriches the already excellent offer of this new chapter of the brand even more.
Therefore, only at this point we want to deal with another particularly important element within the franchise and that we have deliberately neglected until now, the gunplay more naked and raw. Any Call of Duty fan is well aware of how the right feeling with the firearm held in the game can make the difference between a successful chapter and another that turned out to be nothing short of failure. In particular, however, this year everything takes on even more importance thanks to the arrival of the new consoles and PlayStation 5 in general, which through its Dualsense aims to offer feedback never experienced before. Under the most classic profile of experience, we can confirm without hesitation that the feeling of every single weapon present appears to be taken care of in every detail, a painstaking attention that offers a different experience depending on the weapon you are holding.
This feeling, however, is becoming even stronger when the PS5 Dualsense is held, characterized by that haptic feedback so much talked about that, at least in this case, it does its dirty job. Depending on the weapon held, in fact, the triggers for firing and aiming will become more or less hard, so as to return - at a distance, this is obvious - the sense of heaviness that characterizes that weapon. Therefore, to use a heavy machine gun you will have to push hard on the triggers, while a gun will require a much less "violent" pressure. The effect is certainly alienating at first, but after a little bit of habit everything flows smoothly and naturally, a peculiarity that, without upsetting the gameplay, somehow enriches it in a way that we absolutely would not have expected. From a distinctly technical point of view, the arrival of the Next-Gen has undoubtedly allowed the software house to offer graphic peaks capable of leaving you breathless, although in part it is possible to notice that cross-gen nature that characterizes many of today's productions. However, the work stands at quite high levels, including convincing animations, an excellent polygonal count of the characters, quality textures and excellent plays of light and shadows, although there are some edges to be smoothed here and there. Not least the audio sector was obviously revealed, characterized by a pressing soundtrack and a dubbing in other high-level languages.
