With the new playlist “Barebones”, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 brings back the classic multiplayer experience. Fans are celebrating the new mode.
Since when is this mode available? On March 26, Black Ops 4 received update 1.16. Since then, “Barebones” has been playable in traditional multiplayer on PS4 – as a Moshpit playlist with Team Deathmatch and Domination in both regular and Hardcore formats.
The PC and Xbox One will follow a week later. Currently, this mode is set to be active for a limited time only.
What defines this mode? Barebones symbolizes the realization of a long and significant wish of many fans for a classic “Call of Duty” experience in multiplayer.
This mode completely forgoes specialists as well as their special weapons and specific equipment – a change that many fans had desired. Specialists can still be played, but they are essentially just character skins.
Moreover, there are no agent mods for weapons, limited equipment (for example, no acoustic sensor or armor, Stimshot healing is still done manually), and equipment can only be used once per life. Thus, players are mostly reliant on their weapons and their standard equipment like grenades or Molotov cocktails.
Barebones transforms the regular multiplayer into a classic and more grounded form without much frills, where it primarily depends on skill with weapons and map knowledge – similar to the popular Modern Warfare series or Black Ops 1.
What do fans think of this new mode? After PS4 players have spent a few days in Barebones, the overall sentiment on Reddit or YouTube is quite clear. Fans love this minimalist multiplayer experience. Many PC and Xbox players are eager to finally dive into this new playlist.
Many fans emphasize that this mode is the best thing that could happen to Black Ops 4. This is exactly the fresh change the game needed. Many players, who have never really warmed up to the specialist concept or had grown tired of the multiplayer in its previous form, report that they are rediscovering the game with Barebones.
Some even say they have never had so much fun in the multiplayer of the current series installment like now. More and more voices are calling for the Barebones playlist to be permanently integrated into the multiplayer part of Black Ops 4. Numerous representatives of “Call of Duty” fame on YouTube also praise the new mode for its classic style.
Criticisms, with a few exceptions, are basically just minor issues, such as the cooldown of the healing function being a bit too long for some (as there is no auto-heal), the Fog of War on the mini-map, or too few objective-oriented modes aside from Domination.
What do you think of Barebones? Have you already been able to test the new mode? What are your experiences?
