Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War celebrates its release on November 13 and is the 17th premium title of CoD. MeinMMO has put together some info here so you won’t jump into the cold water completely when the new first-person shooter launches.
With the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the latest CoD generation takes a step back in time and revolves around fast-paced and action-packed battles during the Cold War era. Unlike in Modern Warfare, you won’t be able to put your enemies under pressure with the latest drone technology, but will be limited to 80s war equipment.
However, Call of Duty was once considered a World War shooter and knows how to program a fast shooter that offers many tactical options without the latest technical gadgets, rewarding players for their strong aiming and calculated flanking maneuvers.
To prepare you for what to expect, MeinMMO has compiled 6 things that particularly highlight the differences between the old and new CoD, the multiplayer content at launch, and the changes compared to the beta phase.
When does Cold War start? The full “Cold War” release with all multiplayer features starts for us at 6 AM on Friday, November 13. Soldiers who get into the game earlier can access much, but there are still some restrictions until the full release. For example, they cannot completely finish the zombie map.
Day-One Patch
If you purchased the new Black Ops digitally, you can preload Cold War on all platforms, and the Day-One patch will already be applied for you. Reports suggest the first patch of Cold War is:
- approximately 15 GB (PlayStation)
However, if you purchased a physical version and are retrieving the data from a Blu-Ray, you will definitely need to download the patch before you can really get started. So far, there’s no information from developer Treyarch on whether there will be another patch right at launch.
Adjustments Movement, Weapon Handling & TTK to CoD MW
The CoD from 2019, Modern Warfare, will likely be remembered as the Warzone CoD. In terms of movement and features, the title took many different paths than previous CoDs. Therefore, it often faced accusations of catering to beginners and “casual players”. Due to the supposed beginner-friendliness, Warzone is more accessible to the larger player base that was able to build the big Free2Play battle royale.
With Cold War, some of these developments have been rolled back, and the new Black Ops again resembles a CoD on the PS3 – aside from the technical progress. In terms of graphics and performance, it is a fully-fledged next-gen title.
However, with movement and weapon handling, Cold War moves away from its predecessor Modern Warfare again and resembles more the gameplay of earlier CoDs. The guns feel a bit “arcady”, just like the movement.
Everything goes a bit more towards video game and hasn’t necessarily become more realistic. Fans of realistic approaches may find less enjoyment in Cold War than in CoD MW. However, for fans of hardcore shooter action, the CoD series has often not been the right choice.
This also applies to the time-to-kill (TTK). The TTK is again significantly higher than in CoD MW (around 200 ms) and is approximately at the level of Black Ops 4 (over 300 ms). However, unlike BO4, Cold War comes with a strong multiplier for headshots. With headshots, Cold War is back at the level of Modern Warfare. Another feature that favors more advanced players.
In summary, CoD MW takes a more realistic approach with high beginner-friendliness, while Cold War returns to earlier CoD mechanics and appeals to advanced players. However, it also adds its own developments to movement:
- You can swim in Cold War
- There is a sprint take-off, allowing you to run faster at the start of a sprint, which then tapers off
- There are more running speeds available, giving you more control over your step noise
What Cold War keeps from Modern Warfare
The last point does not mean that Cold War couldn’t learn from CoD MW as well. There are some features that CoD 2020 takes from its predecessor and even improves:
- Executions / Finishing Move
- Large 40vs40 mode
- Gunsmith
Executions: The finishing moves from CoD MW remain in the game with Cold War. You can sneak up on an opponent from behind and eliminate them with a cool animation. You can also send downed enemies into respawn with the execution.
40vs40 mode: Modern Warfare introduced a “Battlefield” mode in the CoD franchise, which offered large maps and many vehicles. In “Ground War”, you fight for flags on a mega-map with previously unimaginable team sizes for a CoD. Cold War will also have a mega mode, called “Fireteam” here. So far, only the “Dirty Bomb” mode is known, which even features some Warzone mechanics like armor plates, revives, and loot boxes. More modes may be added later.
Gunsmith: With Cold War, you can also attach mods to your weapons and enter battle with countless combinations. The feature has been further expanded, allowing you to see even the smallest detail of changes to weapon stats.
What Cold War does differently than Modern Warfare
The important changes compared to CoD MW are, however, more extensive:
- Ping system in multiplayer
- Prestige system
- Scorestreaks
- Loadout composition
- More colors
Ping system: Cold War will offer a ping system in multiplayer. This means you can mark your targets and draw attention to enemies, give commands, or simply annoy your teammates.
Prestige system: The new CoD offers a completely revamped prestige system, which we explain in detail here. You can earn and keep a limited number of prestige ranks per season, but can ascend 1,200 levels, which reset to 0 with each season.
Scorestreaks: Cold War also takes its own path here. You now unlock your previous killstreaks based on your score, i.e., your points. They no longer reset upon death, and you accumulate them throughout the match. However, to unlock the right heavy hitters, you still need killstreaks to accumulate the points. A preview and explanation of the scorestreaks can be found here.
Create-a-Class: The loadout system works a bit differently than in CoD MW, but doesn’t completely depart from the old approaches, as it still needs to align with Warzone. You should be able to assemble your loadouts for Battle Royale via CoD MW or Cold War, and the weapons from Cold War will likely all come to Warzone.
The biggest adjustment here is the wildcards. These are particularly strong perks that alter certain conditions for your loadout. For example, the Overkill perk, which allows you to carry 2 primary weapons, is now such a wildcard and no longer a normal perk. Another wildcard allows you to attach more mods to your weapons, letting you fill all 8 mod slots.
More colorful: Whether maps, camos, and probably also operator skins – Cold War will bring more colors back into the game. Modern Warfare was quite conservative in this respect, although by the end of its life cycle a few crazier things came to the shooter, overall CoD MW was significantly gloomier in graphic style than the previous Black Ops 4, which introduced rainbow-affine unicorn weapons into the game. However, how far this will go in Cold War remains to be seen.
Multiplayer Content at Release
At launch, Cold War offers a total of 10 maps set in locations around the world. Some are specifically designed for standard matches (6vs6), while others are adjusted versions of larger maps, which actually belong to game modes that also allow more players:
- Miami, Moscow, Satellite, Garrison, Checkmate (pure 6vs6 maps)
- Cartel, Crossroads, Armada (12vs12, 6vs6)
- Alpine, Ruka (40vs40)
Thus, 8 maps are available for the normal multiplayer modes in 6vs6 style at launch. The first new map has already been announced: Nuketown ’84 comes on November 24. At GameStar, you can view the maps in detail.
New content will come after that, as with CoD MW, over seasons. Cold War will receive regular new and free content until the expected release of CoD 21 (leaks are again talking about a Modern Warfare). The season system starts with the first season on December 10 and will bring new maps and modes.
As for modes, Cold War will offer a few usual suspects at release, but also a few new ones right away:
- Team Deathmatch – Normal & Hardcore
- Kill Confirmed – Normal & Hardcore
- Search & Destroy – Normal & Hardcore
- Domination – Normal & Hardcore
- Free-for-All – Normal & Hardcore
- Hardpoint – Normal
- Control – Normal
- VIP Escort – Normal
- Combined Arms: Domination
- Combined Arms: Assault
- Fireteam: Dirty Bomb
Here you can find an overview of the modes with explanations. Here as well, Cold War wants to bring new modes over time and will continuously expand its portfolio with seasons and playlist updates.
Also interesting for multiplayer fans: The zombie mode. Here comes a PvE co-op mode where you fight against zombies, time, and tricky puzzles. At launch, one map will be available, and more will be added over time. For a deeper insight into the crazy zombie frenzy, check out our special on it.
Most Important Changes After Beta
To conclude the list, MeinMMO presents a few adjustments compared to the beta phase that faced some criticisms. Treyarch has included extensive patch notes in the big blog “The Road to Launch”, and we summarize the most important adjustments:
- Weapon levels go from 40 to 55 – More attachments for all guns
- Military ranks (0 – 55) come into play and unlock standard equipment
- Prestige system is introduced (Pre-season with 3 prestige levels)
- More weapons, perks, scorestreaks
- Challenges will be unlocked
- Better audio and more audio options
- Comprehensive improvements to the Fireteam mode
- Ping system expansion (allows you to mark C4, for example)
- Expansion of the arsenal to 29 weapons
- Adjustments to all weapon classes based on feedback and data from the beta
- Overhaul of aim assist
- Bullet direction has been adjusted. In the beta, it oriented itself to the actual position of the weapon and now pays more attention to your line of sight at scope level
- Slide – Shorter and slower sliding, plus you can now shoot faster out of a sprint than a slide
- The cheaper scorestreaks are harder to obtain (streak spam from the beta reduced)
- Point earnings for high killstreaks have been increased
- General overhaul of the required points / cooldowns for scorestreaks
- General overhaul of the spawn system
- Adjustments of some perks, field upgrades, and equipment
- Executions, weapon inspection, theater support are coming into the game
- Skins can be fully unlocked and used
- Comprehensive overhaul in the area of audio (footsteps, map audio, weapons, etc.)
If you want to take a look at the English release notes yourself, you can find them here on a Treyarch website.
In addition to the new Call of Duty, CoD wants to impress with the continued development of the battle royale Warzone and brings new content inspired by the Cold War setting. The first new Warzone map is supposed to be a historically significant location from that time. A killstreak and a mission resembling Cold War can already be found in the game. Here you can learn more about the integration of Warzone and Cold War.
However, CoD 2020 may also suffer under Warzone’s success. Learn more about this in our MeinMMO podcast: Is Warzone a threat to Call of Duty: Cold War?
It remains to be seen whether Cold War can keep up with the great success of Modern Warfare & Warzone. Many players are skeptical and are pondering whether the new CoD is truly necessary this year. Also considering that the progression systems of the 3 CoDs are being merged and that CoD MW remains relevant. MeinMMO author Sven Galitzki feels the same way. He has never been so uncertain about purchasing a CoD as before Cold War.
