Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer impressions

Open beta testing of the multiplayer part of the upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War started on PS4. Soon it will be joined by PC and Xbox One users. We got access to the beta a couple of days earlier, and we are ready to share our impressions.

In this stage of beta-testing the developers Friv2Online Games Studio gave "feel" very little content - some three modes (they are opened gradually, so by the final testing there will be more) and six maps. Taking into account that in the release version the game will have a campaign, cooperative zombie mode and a lot of competitive entertainment - just nothing. Nevertheless, we can already draw some conclusions.

The first thing you pay attention to is a very fast gameplay pace. This is due to the mobility of characters (they don't run on walls and don't use jetpacks, but they move quite fast), availability of transportation, including fast motorcycles and motorboats, compact maps and very low TTK - higher than in last year's Modern Warfare, but still allowing to send the enemy to the revival point for two or three accurate hits.

The highest dynamics - in the mode "Bodyguard" for 12 participants, where players must escort a VIP to the evacuation point, in which they are trying to prevent the enemy team. The maps here are very small, and skirmishes happen just seconds after you enter the battlefield.

Two of the three most notable maps of the beta are revealed here - Miami and Moscow. The first one reminds the legendary GTA: Vice City - bright neon, 80s style... and a helicopter that shoots operatives running on the streets. I don't want to think that it's piloted by Tommy Versetti.

The second map is a cranberry image of the USSR capital: posters of Lenin, red flags and pompous statues are everywhere. The roads are lined with familiar UAZ trucks and Volgas, with Kalashnikovs in the hands of KGB fighters. It's crowded here and it's not always possible to spot the enemy among the clutter of objects, and players from one sixth of the landmass will not once fall under enemy fire while looking at the ornate interiors of buildings.

The Cartel and Crossroads maps are less interesting: the first one is a typical landscape from drug cartel movies, while the second one, although it sends you to Uzbekistan, turns out to be a very typical snowy location with a frozen lake and military buildings.

In the 24-player Excellence mode, the pace is a bit slower and the maps are more spacious. Armada is the third colorful location: the action takes place on the open sea, on several ships connected by cables, and players need to capture control points, increasing the number of points for their team.

Armada is memorable for a number of reasons: cramped corridors are replaced by spacious decks, shootouts take place on several levels, vertical gameplay is encouraged, and if you want, you can jump into a gunboat and cut circles around the location, shooting everything the onboard cannon can reach.

This mode also features the previously seen Cartel and Crossroads, and they are revealed from a new side. For example, on the first one, because of its intricacy and a large number of paths, the balance of power is constantly jumping - up to the point that teams can switch places, holding control points near the enemy's respawn point. You also have to watch your feet carefully: it's very easy to hide mines in the grass. Crossroads gives you the opportunity to ride a tank or to pokempere somewhere in a secluded corner, hiding behind rocks.

Assault" mode (24 players) is similar to "Excellence" and uses the same maps, but participants capture zones not in a chaotic order, but systematically, one by one, shifting the front line. Here, as in other team modes, teamwork is desirable, and even the language barrier should not be a hindrance - you can always point your partners to a point of interest using the ping system.

The operatives in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are just skins without any special abilities. Therefore, you can take anyone, to your liking; in network matches ripples from clones of Frank Woods, I liked the less conspicuous fighter in balaclava.

Upgrading is tied to creating your own classes with different weapons, gadgets and perks. You stop paying attention to the starting classes as soon as you open a slot for customizing your own. Here you can choose the main and additional "guns", equip the character with grenades and syringes with medicine, set perks (for example, a very useful one, signaling that the enemy is aiming at the fighter with an alarming sound), and also add "Joker" - a bonus, like additional ammunition or a silencer.

You can attach a bunch of modules to weapons: sights, magazines, underbarrel guns, and so on. Access to new content in this category is opened as you grow in levels - in general, a progression system that has become a standard.

In battle, players are waiting for scorstriki: the more kills and special actions (for example, capturing a point), the stronger the scale fills up, allowing you to use special gadgets. Thus, you can call a radio-controlled car filled with explosives, order an artillery strike to a place marked on the map, get a support helicopter and so on.

The series of points do not reset after death, but they accumulate rather slowly - especially in the case of the most powerful gadgets, and after using a move you have to wait for a rollback, during which the points for it are not gained. This makes each scorstrike truly valuable, and prevents players from spamming skills.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War runs stable on the base PS4, and the frame rate doesn't sag, but the fact that (for now) the current generation is a thing of the past is noticeable to the naked eye. The picture is quite "soapy", and increasing the FOV is not recommended by the friv game itself, warning of possible problems.

Obviously, the best shooter will show itself on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X, where there will be 120 fps, and 4K, and ray tracing, and other chips. You can play it on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but as for the younger versions of consoles... it might be worth a wait, especially if you plan to play with cross-platform multiplayer activated.

I found Cold War's multiplayer to be friendlier compared to Modern Warfare's online play, where TTK is lower. It took me at least three matches to get sucked in, play around and stop shamefully dying over and over again, but here I get used to the gameplay in the first fight. The developers promise a lot of content at release, and free updates afterward. Crossplay is already working, but due to the fact that the beta is now running only on PS4, it was not possible to try it out.

Is it worth buying the friv game? You can decide for yourself: from October 8 to October 12 beta testing on PS4 will last, from October 15 to October 16 pre-order owners for PC and Xbox One, as well as everyone on PS4 will be able to play, and from October 17 to October 19 OBT will be held on all platforms. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be released on November 13.