Everything You Need To Know About Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
August 26, 2020
|ROCCAT
After sharing a teaser trailer earlier in August, Activision has finally pulled back the curtain on Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War with a full reveal. While Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War will still offer up much in the way of a traditional Call of Duty experience, Activision showcased some notable wrinkles in the gameplay that could make for a rather fresh take.
SETTING
Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War will have players traipsing across the world during the final years of the Cold War, which puts a 1980s focus on the timeline. Expect to visit multiple locations throughout North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe as you take part in this operation, which plays out as a direct sequel to the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. The debut gameplay feature revealed missions that take place in the Ukraine, Moscow, and Laos, and there’s sure to be many others announced moving forward.
STORY
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will once again blend the worlds of Call of Duty and real-life to tell a compelling story filled with all-out action, subterfuge, and intrigue. As the campaign revolves around the Cold War, you’ll be meeting with key figures from that era, including President Ronald Regan. He’ll be dishing out orders as you work to unwind a massive government conspiracy, fueled by a mysterious figure known as Perseus. This character is actually inspired by a real-life spy that is thought to be a major player in Cold War dealings, but his existence was never 100% confirmed. As you try to find out just who Perseus is and what he’s up to, you’ll come across other classic Call of Duty characters like Mason, Woods, Hudson, and more.
CHANGING THE GAME
There’s no doubt Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will get your adrenaline pumping via a campaign filled with insane set-pieces and intense firefights, but developers Treyarch and Raven Software are digging down deep to include some never-before-seen features this time around. Instead of just churning out another by-the-numbers Call of Duty experience, Black Ops Cold War is running headfirst into innovation.
This time around, the game’s story mode will allow for some open-ended gameplay. Instead of blindly following a checklist of objectives, some stages will present you with multiple choices. Do you want to tackle the main objective or head off the beaten path for a side-mission? Depending on what you choose, you could end up unlocking alternate missions that you wouldn’t otherwise find if you stick to the mainline story.
Along with that, the player choice will actually matter in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Some missions will allow you multiple ways to complete them, leaving the decision up to you. You don’t have to go in guns blazing every time, as you’ll have some stealth tactics at your disposal. Don a costume and sneak past some low-level guards, steal items while the enemy isn’t looking, and even poison adversaries to take them out silently. Combine those features with multiple dialog options to smooth over situations, and you’ll have a litany of choices to bring you to one of the game’s multiple endings.
You’ll get to do all this by playing as a character of your own design. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War allows you to create a custom character with numerous options. Pick your skin color, gender, name, and codename, and even a psychological profile to explain how you operate. These customization options actually matter as the profile you end up picking will unlock character perks that you get to use on your missions. Every profile opens up different perks, which in turn, could allow for all-new ways to handle a mission.
This time around, the game’s story mode will allow for some open-ended gameplay. Instead of blindly following a checklist of objectives, some stages will present you with multiple choices. Do you want to tackle the main objective or head off the beaten path for a side-mission? Depending on what you choose, you could end up unlocking alternate missions that you wouldn’t otherwise find if you stick to the mainline story.
Along with that, the player choice will actually matter in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Some missions will allow you multiple ways to complete them, leaving the decision up to you. You don’t have to go in guns blazing every time, as you’ll have some stealth tactics at your disposal. Don a costume and sneak past some low-level guards, steal items while the enemy isn’t looking, and even poison adversaries to take them out silently. Combine those features with multiple dialog options to smooth over situations, and you’ll have a litany of choices to bring you to one of the game’s multiple endings.
You’ll get to do all this by playing as a character of your own design. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War allows you to create a custom character with numerous options. Pick your skin color, gender, name, and codename, and even a psychological profile to explain how you operate. These customization options actually matter as the profile you end up picking will unlock character perks that you get to use on your missions. Every profile opens up different perks, which in turn, could allow for all-new ways to handle a mission.
PREPARE FOR LAUNCH
Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to get our hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Activision confirmed that the game will hit Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 13th, 2020. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is also coming to next-gen as well. As Sony and Microsoft haven’t revealed specific release dates for their consoles yet, Activision stated that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will release on those platforms during Holiday 2020.
