“Call of Duty Black Ops 4” was released on Friday, Oct. 12 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. This will become the fourth installment in the Black Ops saga with all four being developed by Treyarch and published by Activision.
The hype around the perineal series has been focused around the newest game mode craze. This being the battle royale element that has been taking over the gaming industry the last few years.
The newest game mode will be joining the usual multiplayer and the immensely popular zombies as the three available game modes. Some longtime fans have expressed concern with Treyarch’s decision to drop the single player game mode for the first time in the franchise’s 15-year run.
With the backlash, David Vonderhaar, who is a game designer director, has addressed the concerns. Vonderhaar expressed that, “The most important aspect of game development is being able to adapt,” when speaking with Gamespot on why the well known game mode was removed.
Including the battle royale element into the newest release was initially perceived as an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of similar battle royale games, such as “Fortnite” and “PUBG,” but has since gained traction due to the extended beta testing as well as the rumors of cross platform gameplay.
One of the major components to Fortnite’s success in the battle royale game mode was the ability to play with others no matter the platform. Treyarch implementing this concept should allow a very successful rebound for the Call of Duty franchise.
Previous editions such as “Ghosts,” “Advanced Warfare” and “Infinite Warfare,” haven’t fared too well overall as compared to some of the earlier entries such as “Modern Warfare 2 (MW2)” and “Black Ops 2 (BO2).”
One of the major drawbacks that critics have pointed out have been developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games’ insistence on constantly pushing the franchise further into the future.
Both of these game developers have received a lot of disinterest when given entries to develop. While Treyarch, on the other hand, tends to fare better while also building up hype whenever they get the nod.
From personal experience playing various entries in the franchise, Treyarch tends to stay on base with their theme and the succession of the saga overtime, while the other companies tend to try to do too much too soon.
Another component to the revamped Call of Duty that also has positives would be the stream ability that battle royale centered games bring.
Fortnite was able to garner such a following not just on individuals playing the games, but also those who choose to watch internet personalities play the games live on streaming services, such as Twitch and YouTube. With this in mind, this entry should be able to pick up where it seemingly left off with Black Ops 2.
Treyarch has seemingly hit a home run on this one, even though it has only been out for about a week. Not only did they seem to really listen to their audience and make changes and upgrades accordingly, but they also didn’t fall into the same trap as other Call of Duty development companies have done. Instead of adding futuristic and complicated elements they stuck to their guns and kept the game simple, fun to watch and enjoyable to play.
Time will only tell how this game will fare overall when compared to others in the same category, but knowing the franchises past and their ability to adapt with the changing trends in the gaming industry, I have trust that they put out a very good game.
Justin Pokorski
Graphic Designer