I've been playing Black Ops 4 pretty much exclusively since it came out and over the few weeks I've been playing, I've naturally developed my opinion on this iteration of Call of Duty and have thoughts on the things I like and loathe that'd I'd like to share with everyone. Now, I will only be talking about the multiplayer as I don't play zombies and I generally have a distaste for Battle Royale games, though I did give Blackout a go a few times and was surprised to found it to be everything battle royale games appear to be and that is one big, long, boring camp fest and that's if you're able to find a decent gun and defend yourself from the other five people that landed beside you. So yeah, it's better I not talk about Black Out, biased opinion and all that.
So, without further ado here's my current opinion of Black Ops 4!
MAPS:
Map design is not to be underestimated, you won't see a lobby disperse faster than one that's been locked into an awful map selection. My overall feeling on BO4's maps is they're not my favorite the series has ever had. Black Ops 3 set the bar for me in map design, most of BO4's maps actually remind me of WW2's maps, which were universally panned. These maps have the same interweaving paths between the three lanes that causes constant back attacks and terrible spawns. Here's my rundown on all the maps so far:
ARSENAL
An annoyingly popular choice, what I hate most about this map is how much of it is unused. All traffic goes through the lane that has these raised planters, and it's flanked by players using the middle lane. That alone shows how bad this map is designed when the power positions are not even overlooking the central lane, so yeah, half used map.
CONTRABAND
Another map I don't like, it's a bit of a mess. The spawns are absolutely huge and are easy to get spawn trapped in. The positioning of water on this map feels more of an obstruction that an opportunity and why are the two ladders that get you onto the bridge in the central lane opposite to each other, one needs to be positioned closer to the ruins for improved flanking opportunities.
FIRING RANGE
A map I hated in Black Ops 1, though admittedly I really didn't get on with BO1's multiplayer. But in BO4, it's actually a really fun map and works very well. Spawns are well balanced and this map seems to flip more often than others. It's a fun and slightly frantic map.
FREQUENCY
I don't tend to see this map a lot, which is a shame as it reminds me of the layout of many BO3 maps which means it's good. It's well designed, all the lanes see use and just flows so well. There's an absence of interweaving pathways between the lanes which means it isn't as annoyingly chaotic as some of the other new maps.
GRIDLOCK
Much like frequency, it's another BO3 like map and it's great. My favourite map in the whole batch, probably because I always do well on it which always helps bias an opinion. It's another map that sees fairly even usage between the two flanking lanes, but everyone gravitates into that central lane regardless and there's two great power points to defend that grant the map structure.
HACIENDA
Another map I do not like at all, I think this a Black Ops 2 remake though I may be mistaken. (I barely played BO2...) It's all over the place, the spawn points are massive. As soon as you pop out there's so many angles to consider, so if you happen to get spawn trapped, you're unequivocally screwed. Also, because the central lane is multilayered, the flanking routes don't see a lot of attention.
ICE BREAKER
I'm on the fence with this map, it's great for being such a departure from most maps. The central lane is the least used with both flanking lanes being the primary traffic areas. One side is more favorable to long shots, the other has some handy cover but does have a few long sight lines.
It's not symmetrical in the slightest, even the spawn points are kinked so movement to power points is slightly unbalanced. But overall I enjoy this map.
JUNGLE
I quite frankly hate this map, I hate everything about it. It's a huge mess, the only power point is the the village and it encourages camping in the worst possible way. I never enjoy this map, in fact I groan and moan when I see it, and if it gets re-voted back, I normally back out of a lobby. Which sounds petty, but I really hate this map.
MILITIA
Looks interesting, but it's another large map that's a bit of a mess. I couldn't really discernibly tell you that it has three lanes. The most popular place of play is at the church which has a biased spawn nearby, the central area is a mess of houses and trenches and the rest of map is seldom used by anybody. I really don't know what they were thinking when they made this map.
MOROCCO
This is another map I'm on the fence on, sometimes it plays really nice and other times it's a grind, normally if everyone gets holed up atop the ramp from the spawn. There is an S bend that gets heavily camped, if it's well defended you can maintain an eye on all main traffic routes from one end of the map to the other. The ramp side spawn is unbalanced, it's pretty easy to spawn trap.
PAYLOAD
I'm probably becoming less and less popular as I go on, but again it's a map I don't like. Just doesn't flow nicely, it's large but in a bad way. The flanking lanes are so lopsided, one side (the cliff) is just a single lane until you get right across and then you're pretty much on top of a spawn location and as for the other flanking lane, it's a polar opposite with two heights and multiple rooms. Rarely do I see people use this route.
SEASIDE
Another BO3 inspired map, but I'm not especially keen on this one, it has the three dedicated lanes and is fairly long. The flank routes are neat but not linear and the central lane sees very little traffic on average. It's hard to lockdown a power position because the flow of the map is always encouraging spawn flipping.
SLUMS
I used to hate this in BO2, but surprisingly I've been warming up to it in BO4. The lanes are unbalanced though, the flank route through the building is biased to the high path side, it has two entries and also you can jump over the wall beside the building and flank through the hole in the wall where the low path players have only one entry in.
All three lanes see a lot of use but more or less always in the middle of the map, few of the maps have such a focused width of usage, but this one does.
SUMMIT
Another BO1 map that sees redemption in my eyes, this is really fun in BO4. As usual the most amount of traffic you get on this map is through the second floor of the main building with a bit of flanking on the catwalks beside it. The cliff side lane is criminally underused in BO4, I remember it being fairly popular in BO1 but for some reason it's seldom sees use here.
So, there we have it! my brief and perhaps controversial opinions on the maps for Black Ops 4. But my opinions do not stop here, the specialists have returned to Black Ops 4 and this time their individual abilities are really focused and it's not just some sort of kill all weapon or temporary buff. Originally this game was meant to be more like Overwatch, so each specialist is supposed to fulfill a role of attacker, defender or healer. But apparently that build of the game was not approved and so everything was re-tweaked into the system we have today.
So, what do I think about them?
SPECIALISTS
AJAX
They say you never forget your first love. Well, mine was Ajax. Nobody was using him when the game first launched and I liked the idea of his riot shield. Little did I know at the time that his 9-bang equipment was so ridiculously powerful, it's pretty overpowered actually and truly disorienting. The shield is good, the full auto pistol has terrible accuracy which seems deserved for the role. 9-bang should be nerfed a bit, but that's about it.
BATTERY
A firm favourite from BO3, she is still a worthy specialist in BO4. Her cluster grenade is powerful and the cluster grenades that are released are great for pushing attackers back. Her grenade launcher is tons of fun and very powerful, but does require some skill to use. You earn all her abilities surprisingly fast compared to other specialists, she could probably use a nerf to the charge rate for her war machine.
CRASH
Crash is the proclaimed medic of BO4, which is a joke when the average time to kill is 300 milliseconds. Regardless, Crash does try. The assualt pack is more useful than the Tak 5, an extra 50 HP doesn't seem to go particular far but the extra score from the assault packs really helps your team and you get your higher streaks faster. I see a lot of high tier players using Crash for this trait. Tak 5 needs some sort of buff to be somewhat useful though.
FIREBREAK
One of my favourite specialists, his reactor core equipment is devastating if used right and recharges fairly quickly. The purifier on the other hand, is pathetic. It takes ages for Firebreak to raise the flamethrower and even longer for the jet stream to reach max range. It isn't even an instant kill, it normally requires at least two hit markers to kill. I would have preferred Firebreak to be have a self destruct ability, that'd would have been more fun and functional.
NOMAD
My new favourite, I've fallen foul of Nomad's dog and mesh mines time and time again and if you can't beat them, join them as the saying goes. The mines are very powerful and work best if they have a laser point between them. Cautious players will easily spot poorly placed ones or you can protect yourself with engineer.
The K9 unit is ridiculously powerful and probably could do with a nerf to HP. It instantly kills anyone it sets upon though you can take it out with guns somewhat easily if you get on top of it with teams mates, but compared to other specialists weapons the K9 unit causes a lot of chaos.
PROPHET
I'm surprised people use Prophet, the seeker is terrible. It's enemy tracking is all over the place, you can't follow it to an enemy because it changes it's targets so flippantly. His Tempest on the other hand is pretty awesome, it downs anyone it hits with a very fast projectile and will chain onto other enemies. A second shot is required to kill, but it has a good rate of fire. It's fine as it is but the seeker needs a buff desperately.
RECON
Another favourite of the higher tier players, the sensor dart is a decent enough piece of equipment. Needs to be fired in heavy traffic area or capture points. Plenty of people seem to fire them in all manner of odd and useless places. His vision pulse has the longest charge up time of any specialist weapon and for good reason, it's a wall hack for the entire team that lasts a fairly long time. It does need a nerf and that nerf is that only Recon can see through walls. You can even take away the pulse effect, just bring it in line with Outrider's vision pulse from BO3.
RUIN
Everyone likes using this guy but I don't rate him particularly high. The grapple gun may get you from A to B quicker than sprinting but not by enormous amounts and leaves you really vulnerable. It does recharge very quickly but that's pretty much the only positive.
Ruin has a special weapon? It's called the Grav Slam? I'm being sarcastic of course, despite having a generous recharge rate I almost never ever see this in action. Maybe I'm just lucky. It does have pretty impressive range but it's very underused.
SERAPH
Another top tier choice, the tac-deploy can be fairly powerful in the right hands, especially for spawn trapping or just generally giving the team and strong foothold on a power point. Her annihilator weapon is a high skill weapon, it is one shot kill but compared to other specialist weapons it's a bit underwhelming. She needs a buff somewhere I think to make her appealing to more players but what that is I'm not sure, perhaps make it harder to spot and or destroy the tac-deploy?
TORQUE
Obviously in the older build of BO4, Torque was to be one of the tank characters. All of his abilities are about restricting enemy movements. As such he sort of sticks out a bit in comparison to the other specialists. His abilities do not directly kill enemies and there're so visually large that it's hard not to spot them. They definitely work better in smaller maps but on the larger maps, Torques a complete waste of a specialist.
It's hard to buff or nerf him, what he does is so unique and niche so it's better that he's left as is.
Some people love the specialists and the versatility of their abilities and other people hate the fact that they are very powerful and can easily ruin anyone's streak. But that's sort of the point of them though, I would be interested to see how the game plays in a no specialist abilities playlist.
It is a pain to have your run ruined by a lucky war machine shell or to lose that objective capture because you got stuck in a reactor core field and so forth, but that's the game.
PERKS
This is probably the first Call of Duty I've played in a long time where the perks didn't feel exceptionally defining. There's really only a few I find genuinely helpful, the perks overall are definitely under powered this time around and that's most likely to prevent a single player beefing up a specialist to some ungodly potential that breaks the game. So, what are my top choices?
MUST HAVES - ENGINEER, GUNG-HO AND GHOST
With all the specialist equipment and UAV's to contend with, Engineer gives you the edge when it comes to detecting them. With Engineer you'll never wander blindly into Nomad's mesh mines and you'll blast sensor darts away with ruthless glee and also you can actually see where in the hell a UAV is on Jungle, which is really helpful.
Gung-Ho is just, amazing, if like me you run around like an idiot too much. The reduced recovery from sprint is a big help and it's allowed me to keep the edge over many an opponent.
Lastly is Ghost, I was actually torn between Ghost and Deadly Silence, but considering how many UAVs are in the air at any one time and how nobody ever has the launcher equipped, Ghost is pretty necessary when it comes to staying off the radar.
MUST HAVE NOTS - FLACK JACKET, SKULKER AND TEAM LINK
What is the point of flack jacket in this game? Mesh mine, one shot. Cluster grenade, one shot. War machine, one shot-in fact any explosive that hits you, one shot! If you want some form of protection from explosives then just equip body armour, it works much better.
Skulker may have only one useful purpose and that's probably search and destroy which I never play because it bores me to tears. I cannot ever, really see a purpose to skulker apart from when people found out they could glitch out the game with it, but that's fortunately been patched.
Team Link, maybe great for some people. For me, not especially. I don't stare at my minimap for too long for this to be of use, I'd rather just look for red dots as the enemy starts shooting and I find most of the time I just get into a flow with a map and I'm able to predict enemy movements fairly well, so yeah, not much use to me.
WEAPONS
The gunplay in BO4 is exceptionally tight, consistent recoil patterns award familiarity and the handling of the weapons and the feedback is pretty much perfect. There are some questionable choices though, such as four sniper rifles, three of them bolt action. Yet there are only two shotguns and three light machine guns. You can tell Treyarch love their quick scoping community with the plethora of choice and to keep the quick scoping pure there is the new tactical rifles section which are basically guns that sit between assault rifle and sniper rifle. For a game that has generally small to medium maps there's certainly a lot of long range weapons available. Having said all this it's probably to give variety to Blackout and they've just pushed them into multiplayer to fill out the roster.
Anywho, here are some opinions:
FAVOURITE GUN - VAPR
I didn't actually like this gun when I first used it, it's grossly under powered against other assault rifles and the mobility boost isn't anything to write home about. But when I got used to the gun and aided with a silencer and high caliper, it's high rate of fire and easily managed recoil make it a devastating weapon. Not to be underestimated.
WORST GUN - VKM
What I hoped would be a fine successor to the Gorgon is actually a really out of place gun. Slow fire rate, wild spread and three to four shot kill potential means it's outclassed by any other gun that works best at close, medium or long range. It doesn't get FMJ but at least high caliber is the first attachment you unlock but cruelly the rapid fire attachment is the last one you'll get.
KILLED MOST BY - ICR
The default assault rifle is also one of the most popular. So few people seem interested in experimentation, but this is a pretty decent all round gun. Even without high caliber it does good damage against chest and head and the fire rate is nothing to sniff at with an easy recoil pattern. It's weakest element is the pathetic choice of attachments you have for it. Regardless, I've seen far too many kill feeds with this gun in question aimed squarely at my head.
SCORESTREAKS
The staple mechanic of any Call of Duty game, the scorestreaks (or killstreaks if you're a veteran), has been the series mainstay and is as much revered as it is despised. There's no better reward for being good at something that being granted extra power. Because lets be honest, when you're already at twelve kills and zero deaths you could really use that attack chopper right?
Love it or loathe it, we have to deal and play with it. I am disappointed that there aren't any returning scorestreak from BO3 (other than Treyarch's recurring scorestreaks), I would have preferred to see the RAPS return rather than the strike team. And why has the Mantis replaced the Cerberus?
FAVOURITE STREAK - GUNSHIP
I've had a surprising amount of these pop out of my care packages (I don't live long enough to rack up that kind of streak!), being the highest streak you can obtain, you expect it to be powerful and mighty and oh, it is. I'm sure a patch will reduce it's appearance in the crates soon enough but for now the amazing power you have in the gunship is fantastic.
WORST STREAK - DART
Is this supposed to be useful? It costs fractionally more that the RC-XD but is pathetic. Remote detonation blast radius is both tiny and weak, you have to smash directly into someone to kill them which is easier said than done with it's twitchy handling. The RC-XD walks all over this as far as scorestreaks go.
MOST ANNOYING STREAK - ATTACH CHOPPER
The scorestreaks are buffed this time around after all the criticism from IW and WW2. The higher streaks are not easily countered by one man and his rocket launcher anymore. The attack chopper takes three rockets to take out, and you have to do it fast before it can release flares again and that's before it melts you once your cold bloodied perk disappears after five seconds. Also, targeting the attack chopper is fiddly, you have to focus on it's centre rather than any piece of it and it can be very precise. It also flails about the sky erratically making lock-ons even harder and lastly you have to contend with all the overhead obstructions; towers, ramps and tree tops all get in your way. But most of all, most of all! The worst thing about this streak is virtually no one on your team will help you shoot it out the sky. So the damn thing more often than not gets to melt your team netting whoever summoned it huge swafts of score! So yes, this is the streak I find most annoying, if you can't already tell.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you've stuck around for this long then I commend you, I didn't realise when I first started this how long I'd end up writing for but it appears my opinionated self has surprised even me!
So one of the things that's really confused me about the pick ten system is BO4 is every specialist has their own unique piece of equipment, very effective and powerful equipment which also doesn't cost you a pick ten slot. But if you want to, you can equip some classic equipment which includes the trophy system, frag grenade, concussion grenade and a couple others. Unlike previous entries, these classic items of equipment still work on a cool down like the specialist equipment but cost a pick 10 point and are also, literally pointless. Hands down, worthless. I tried out the frag grenade for a bit and yeah, Battery's cluster nade is ten times better. Actually kills people and has a good blast radius. Don't know what happened here but yeah, it's ridiculous.
That about wraps up my opinions on Black Ops 4, in case you're wondering how long it took for me to formulate these opinions; the game informs me I have spent 22 hours, 5 minutes and 25 seconds playing multiplayer. I've only just completed my first prestige so I feel like I've given the game in it's launch state a very good going at and that my opinions are structured and valid. I don't feel like I'm just a raging noob who needs to "git gud" as they say these days.
Hope you guys found this launch version review of the multiplayer constructive or at the least entertaining. Black Ops 4 is a good game, it's annoyingly addictive, it's not perfect but the groundwork is there so lets just hope that as the major patches come it gets even better and that the DLC maps won't follow the trend some of Black Ops 4 more questionable maps have done.
Have a good day everybody.
It is a pain to have your run ruined by a lucky war machine shell or to lose that objective capture because you got stuck in a reactor core field and so forth, but that's the game.
PERKS
This is probably the first Call of Duty I've played in a long time where the perks didn't feel exceptionally defining. There's really only a few I find genuinely helpful, the perks overall are definitely under powered this time around and that's most likely to prevent a single player beefing up a specialist to some ungodly potential that breaks the game. So, what are my top choices?
MUST HAVES - ENGINEER, GUNG-HO AND GHOST
With all the specialist equipment and UAV's to contend with, Engineer gives you the edge when it comes to detecting them. With Engineer you'll never wander blindly into Nomad's mesh mines and you'll blast sensor darts away with ruthless glee and also you can actually see where in the hell a UAV is on Jungle, which is really helpful.
Gung-Ho is just, amazing, if like me you run around like an idiot too much. The reduced recovery from sprint is a big help and it's allowed me to keep the edge over many an opponent.
Lastly is Ghost, I was actually torn between Ghost and Deadly Silence, but considering how many UAVs are in the air at any one time and how nobody ever has the launcher equipped, Ghost is pretty necessary when it comes to staying off the radar.
MUST HAVE NOTS - FLACK JACKET, SKULKER AND TEAM LINK
What is the point of flack jacket in this game? Mesh mine, one shot. Cluster grenade, one shot. War machine, one shot-in fact any explosive that hits you, one shot! If you want some form of protection from explosives then just equip body armour, it works much better.
Skulker may have only one useful purpose and that's probably search and destroy which I never play because it bores me to tears. I cannot ever, really see a purpose to skulker apart from when people found out they could glitch out the game with it, but that's fortunately been patched.
Team Link, maybe great for some people. For me, not especially. I don't stare at my minimap for too long for this to be of use, I'd rather just look for red dots as the enemy starts shooting and I find most of the time I just get into a flow with a map and I'm able to predict enemy movements fairly well, so yeah, not much use to me.
WEAPONS
The gunplay in BO4 is exceptionally tight, consistent recoil patterns award familiarity and the handling of the weapons and the feedback is pretty much perfect. There are some questionable choices though, such as four sniper rifles, three of them bolt action. Yet there are only two shotguns and three light machine guns. You can tell Treyarch love their quick scoping community with the plethora of choice and to keep the quick scoping pure there is the new tactical rifles section which are basically guns that sit between assault rifle and sniper rifle. For a game that has generally small to medium maps there's certainly a lot of long range weapons available. Having said all this it's probably to give variety to Blackout and they've just pushed them into multiplayer to fill out the roster.
Anywho, here are some opinions:
FAVOURITE GUN - VAPR
I didn't actually like this gun when I first used it, it's grossly under powered against other assault rifles and the mobility boost isn't anything to write home about. But when I got used to the gun and aided with a silencer and high caliper, it's high rate of fire and easily managed recoil make it a devastating weapon. Not to be underestimated.
WORST GUN - VKM
What I hoped would be a fine successor to the Gorgon is actually a really out of place gun. Slow fire rate, wild spread and three to four shot kill potential means it's outclassed by any other gun that works best at close, medium or long range. It doesn't get FMJ but at least high caliber is the first attachment you unlock but cruelly the rapid fire attachment is the last one you'll get.
KILLED MOST BY - ICR
The default assault rifle is also one of the most popular. So few people seem interested in experimentation, but this is a pretty decent all round gun. Even without high caliber it does good damage against chest and head and the fire rate is nothing to sniff at with an easy recoil pattern. It's weakest element is the pathetic choice of attachments you have for it. Regardless, I've seen far too many kill feeds with this gun in question aimed squarely at my head.
SCORESTREAKS
The staple mechanic of any Call of Duty game, the scorestreaks (or killstreaks if you're a veteran), has been the series mainstay and is as much revered as it is despised. There's no better reward for being good at something that being granted extra power. Because lets be honest, when you're already at twelve kills and zero deaths you could really use that attack chopper right?
Love it or loathe it, we have to deal and play with it. I am disappointed that there aren't any returning scorestreak from BO3 (other than Treyarch's recurring scorestreaks), I would have preferred to see the RAPS return rather than the strike team. And why has the Mantis replaced the Cerberus?
FAVOURITE STREAK - GUNSHIP
I've had a surprising amount of these pop out of my care packages (I don't live long enough to rack up that kind of streak!), being the highest streak you can obtain, you expect it to be powerful and mighty and oh, it is. I'm sure a patch will reduce it's appearance in the crates soon enough but for now the amazing power you have in the gunship is fantastic.
WORST STREAK - DART
Is this supposed to be useful? It costs fractionally more that the RC-XD but is pathetic. Remote detonation blast radius is both tiny and weak, you have to smash directly into someone to kill them which is easier said than done with it's twitchy handling. The RC-XD walks all over this as far as scorestreaks go.
MOST ANNOYING STREAK - ATTACH CHOPPER
The scorestreaks are buffed this time around after all the criticism from IW and WW2. The higher streaks are not easily countered by one man and his rocket launcher anymore. The attack chopper takes three rockets to take out, and you have to do it fast before it can release flares again and that's before it melts you once your cold bloodied perk disappears after five seconds. Also, targeting the attack chopper is fiddly, you have to focus on it's centre rather than any piece of it and it can be very precise. It also flails about the sky erratically making lock-ons even harder and lastly you have to contend with all the overhead obstructions; towers, ramps and tree tops all get in your way. But most of all, most of all! The worst thing about this streak is virtually no one on your team will help you shoot it out the sky. So the damn thing more often than not gets to melt your team netting whoever summoned it huge swafts of score! So yes, this is the streak I find most annoying, if you can't already tell.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you've stuck around for this long then I commend you, I didn't realise when I first started this how long I'd end up writing for but it appears my opinionated self has surprised even me!
So one of the things that's really confused me about the pick ten system is BO4 is every specialist has their own unique piece of equipment, very effective and powerful equipment which also doesn't cost you a pick ten slot. But if you want to, you can equip some classic equipment which includes the trophy system, frag grenade, concussion grenade and a couple others. Unlike previous entries, these classic items of equipment still work on a cool down like the specialist equipment but cost a pick 10 point and are also, literally pointless. Hands down, worthless. I tried out the frag grenade for a bit and yeah, Battery's cluster nade is ten times better. Actually kills people and has a good blast radius. Don't know what happened here but yeah, it's ridiculous.
That about wraps up my opinions on Black Ops 4, in case you're wondering how long it took for me to formulate these opinions; the game informs me I have spent 22 hours, 5 minutes and 25 seconds playing multiplayer. I've only just completed my first prestige so I feel like I've given the game in it's launch state a very good going at and that my opinions are structured and valid. I don't feel like I'm just a raging noob who needs to "git gud" as they say these days.
Hope you guys found this launch version review of the multiplayer constructive or at the least entertaining. Black Ops 4 is a good game, it's annoyingly addictive, it's not perfect but the groundwork is there so lets just hope that as the major patches come it gets even better and that the DLC maps won't follow the trend some of Black Ops 4 more questionable maps have done.
Have a good day everybody.
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