call of duty cold war multiplayer review

In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, it's 1981 and tensions between the United States and Russia are at a boiling point. While Cold War is an unusual entry in many regards, it delivers the same bombastic, action-movie fun series diehards know well - and it's not better for it. The stakes felt higher than ever.īut for all its attempts at something new, including flirting with psychological horror, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War succumbs to the franchise's history of limited expectations. It's a contradictory picture, but for the first time in Call of Duty, I felt truly like myself as I was dropped into its version of an adult spy thriller. After an honest assessment, I chose my profile: I am 'Calm Under Pressure' (pain flinch reduced by 90 percent) with 'Aggressive Behavior' (50 percent boost to reload speed). I'm willing to expose myself and soak as much damage as possible, all so I can get one perfect aim for a clean headshot. Since I first came into the series with Call of Duty 2 in 2005, I've played like a tank with a sniper's aim.

But the way it's contextualized in Black Ops Cold War made it tough to resist thinking about how I've navigated the last 15 years on the digital battlefield. In reality, it's a mere mathematical bonus to things like bullet damage, health percentage, sprint duration, and more. Players choose two from a list of 14 attributes - 'Paranoid,' 'Fearless,' 'Methodical,' etc. Most importantly, you're asked to fill out a psychological profile. At launch, 'Classified' was implicitly non-binary, but after online criticism, the developers made both 'Non-Binary' and 'Classified' available. No longer must you play square-jawed Marines with names like 'Alex' or 'Ghost.' You can be you, to a degree.Īvailable on all the major platforms excluding Nintendo Switch, the latest installment of Activision's military-shooter powerhouse affords players a full name (you are referred to as 'Bell,' a foreshadow of the big plot twist), skin color, and pronouns. In the newest game in the Call of Duty series - and fifth in the Black Ops sub-series - Black Ops Cold War indulges in its title period like a John Frankenheimer movie as it introduces a new feature: a custom protagonist for the single-player story. I immediately knew something was different about Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Call of duty cold war multiplayer review