MPAA Rating: M for Mature

Production Company: Treyarch, Activision

Our Rating: B

This year’s installment in the “Call of Duty” franchise has been heavily anticipated since the game’s first leaks. Activision’s pre launch easter eggs and teaser’s brought the hype and hope of a very diverse game with high amounts of quality content. However, as the game was launched several days ago, were these expectations truly met?

“Call of Duty: Cold War” is split into three parts: Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies. The campaign is a story-mode which purpose is to try to stop the plans of a Russian operative as you are taken through a variety of missions. Multiplayer is a classic mode of the series, involving online players who are pinned against each other to get the maximum amount of eliminations and points. Zombies has also been a prevalent mode in the franchise, with its objective primarily to survive the waves of zombies that the player is faced with. These modes have been implemented in new ways within “Cold War”, with mixed results.

“In my opinion, multiplayer is really good, although skill based match-making sort of ruins the experience a bit. Even though it is dry on content at launch, the hope is that Season 1 will provide a lot of good content”, sophomore Bryan Guillen said.

The campaign puts you in the boots of CIA agents known as Black Ops, who abide by their own rules while working in the shadows. The group’s mission is to take down a Soviet covert operative that is planning to destroy the Western world in the year 1984. The campaign itself is one of the more unique in “Call of Duty” history, as its approach is quite unconventional. It varies from the status quo of the series, as it does not always encourage running into a crowd of enemies with your weapon. The variety of the missions from sneaking around a KGB facility to blowing up a plane, the campaign keeps you entertained through every mission. The end of the campaign even contains alternate endings based on your decisions in-game. All these factors add to an appealing experience that will leave the player satisfied.

On the other hand, the multiplayer mode is not that straightforward when it comes to quality. “Cold War”’s main point of contention starts with the maps. At launch, “Call of Duty: Cold War” had about 8 maps. In comparison to the 14 that usually are launched with the game, the amount was a bit of a disappointment. In addition to that, the majority of the maps were already within the beta last month, leaving some yearning for more original content. The maps themselves are argued upon as their designs leave some loving or hating them. Another point of discourse is the feature of skill-based matchmaking. This feature puts the player in lobbies based on their performance within the game, meaning those who play well will be placed to play against other good players. This may seem fair, as to keep the balance of the game. However, it ends up leaving those who play well to have to work hard every game just to perform decently. This does not allow players to relax when playing, somewhat lowering the amount of fun induced.

The last mode within the game is Zombies. Zombies as a whole has either been a hit or miss in terms of success. However, this iteration of it has brought new life to this beloved mode. Its improved movement, fresh mechanics and overall fun factor has kept this mode quite popular within “Call of Duty: Cold War”.

Overall, “Call of Duty” offers fresh, new experiences and mechanics while trying to adhere to the nostalgia of prior games. Treyarch’s latter approach leads to their partial detriment, mostly within Multiplayer, as its lack of content and contentious features leave players yearning for more. With that said, as more content is released within the coming months, the true state of the game will be revealed as to where it stands in this notorious franchise. Currently, the game is good, but it leaves space for improvement, especially within its most popular mode, multiplayer.