Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has made it so that MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn even plays a CoD game. Read here how Jürgen managed to make Mother Russia cry first, but in the end, Comrade Lenin was proud of him.
Somehow, the Call of Duty series almost completely passed me by, and only the mobile version CoD Mobile excited me. When Cold War was released, I became curious.
If the mobile version was already so fun, then it must be even better on PC with proper controls, right? Plus, the 80s setting with more old-fashioned weapons appealed to me more than the modern setting of Modern Warfare.
So I got a key for the PC version and after an almost endlessly long download (137 gigabytes!), I could finally get started yesterday afternoon.
Mother Russia is crying now!
This is how the first round went: My first round multiplayer in Cold War is a resounding defeat! This is mainly due to the class I chose. I simply click on the top class, Stealth Ops or something. It comes with a rifle that looks quite decent. Plus, I embody a nasty-looking Cuban guerrilla as an operator. The action can begin!
Then it starts, and my Soviet task force rushes through a barren heath in a buggy. The screen says “East Berlin,” but you can’t see anything of the city.
Why is there a plane lying around here? For this, we will soon enter a warehouse where a replica of Air Force One is located. What the hell are the Soviets planning? And why is the German flag on the cargo containers in the colors black, red, and gold?
But I don’t have much time to explore the map because I need to eliminate the opposing team.
So I run ahead, see an opponent running out of cover, aim, shoot … and get taken out in a hail of gunfire from a submachine gun!
The game then repeats itself several times. I see an opponent, aim, get off a few shots, but the enemy shoots faster and packs a bigger punch.
That’s why you should think carefully about your class: I come to the conclusion: My class is probably crap! The clunky assault rifle is absolutely the wrong weapon for the fast-paced close-quarters battles. But at least my opponents are not bots. I can tell by the fact that someone is constantly babbling in Russian in the voice chat. I need to somehow turn that off before the next round.
The round, however, cannot be saved. I barely manage one or two kills. And those only if I get lucky and an opponent runs directly into my fire or I manage to catch someone from behind.
The match is coming to an end, and over the radio, the operations leader comes through with a reproachful “You have disappointed Mother Russia.” Yes, I did, Mother Russia is crying now because I chose the wrong class. But I won’t let that go!
Yippee-ki-yay, piggybacks!
This is how it continued: Despite the resounding defeat with what felt like 100 deaths and 3 kills, I want to keep playing. In the next map, it’s about freeing a Soviet submarine, and we fight on ships. This time I have the recently unlocked standard class with the M16 and can score well on the larger areas on the decks.
At a distance, I take out a number of opponents. When I go under deck, I have a shotgun as a secondary weapon, with which I take down three opponents in a row. I get my first scorestreak! It’s just a shabby recon plane, but I earned it myself, and it feels great to use the first streak and give my team an advantage!
Submachine guns are the best: After this round turned out much better, I immediately play another match. This time we’re back in Berlin, but I now have a submachine gun! Yippee-ki-yay. Piggybacks!
Like John McClane from the movie Die Hard, I’m already making a significant impact with the starter submachine gun and can finally contribute meaningfully to the match. After the round, I reach level 4 and build my own class. And since I know that the MP5 is supposed to be quite strong, I take the German wonder weapon as my primary firearm.
Showdown with Lenin
This was my last round: With my new, custom class, I play one last round. It’s in Moscow, and this time it’s “everyone against everyone.” Only kills count, and right at the start of the game, I take the lead because I hide in a small nook and get three opponents running right in front of my gun one after the other. A quick burst of fire and the enemy is gone. This happens three times until I have to reload, and the fourth enemy finally gets me.
For the rest of the game time, I run around like crazy and engage in wild fights around a monument to Lenin and streets filled with socialist propaganda art. The MP5 serves me faithfully and lives up to its reputation as an OP weapon. The nerf from November 19th is really justified!
Thanks to the MP5 and its strong stats, I can hold my own among the best players of the round and have a good number of kills in the end. Mother Russia was proud of me again!
CoD is more fun than I thought
After the botched first round, I actually wanted to quit and prefer to spend time with my child. Rarely have I been beaten up so hard in a game like this.
But fortunately, I stuck with it, and the following rounds brought much more fun and successes. Therefore, I will continue with CoD Cold War, unlock more weapons first, and maybe test the zombie mode.
And the campaign is said to be very good as well. So, CoD Cold War will likely accompany me for some time.
Jürgen Horn
Editor at MeinMMO
However, my good opinion of the multiplayer mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is not shared by all fans of the series. On Metacritic, the latest installment of Call of Duty only gets a score of 78 points. The multiplayer mode is said to be responsible for this, seen by some fans as a step back compared to its predecessor Modern Warfare.
