The new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has had its worldwide release, and MeinMMO presents the first reactions to this year’s CoD multiplayer mode.
Since when can you play? The new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War opened its digital doors for players around the world at 6 AM (November 13).
Some streamers and content creators, however, were able to get in earlier and have been playing the new Black Ops for a few days, but they couldn’t access the multiplayer servers.
Since 3 PM yesterday afternoon, the servers have been open, and regular players in New Zealand were able to play a bit earlier. Some took advantage of this to play earlier. MeinMMO has therefore taken a look around and gathered impressions from the first hours of Cold War for you.
Players plagued by technical issues
What are the players saying? When Cold War went online for everyone this morning, there were some technical problems. PS4 controllers disconnected, some couldn’t access their weapon blueprints, and the first hour was plagued by server issues:
- @dedmeat69 on Twitter: “On PS4, all controllers disconnected for me and my 4 friends. You have to restart the console.”
Got me waiting 49 days to get in pic.twitter.com/De36kGMchc
— towers (@towers_eu) November 13, 2020
However, the technical problems of the servers do not seem to affect the German/European region. We were able to play right at launch and had no issues connecting to the game or a match. This may be due to the early release. In the USA, servers came online partly still on the evening of November 12, while here at 6 AM, fewer players rushed to the servers.
However, the first hours were accompanied by strong negative feedback. On Twitter, relatively few tweets can be found that speak positively about the release. Veterans know the issues at the launch of a CoD, but that doesn’t make it any better that the servers buckle under the release pressure every year.
Is Warzone a threat to CoD: Cold War?
Listen to the MeinMMO podcast for a discussion about the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Will the integration of Cold War succeed in the successful Warzone?
Many improvements but little new content after beta
What are content creators saying? YouTubers and streamers have been able to access the servers for a bit longer and have been shooting each other with those first bullets. The CoD experts TheXclusiveAce and Drift0r have already published English videos with their first impressions.
This is what TheXclusiveAce says: The YouTuber TheXclusiveAce criticizes on his channel mainly the low number of maps. Cold War only offers 8 multiplayer maps for 6vs6 matches, which he finds too few. Especially since 4 of them were already present in the extensive beta, and 2 are just smaller versions of the 12vs12 maps that also made it into the beta.
He is satisfied with the development since the beta: visibility of enemies, weapon handling, aim assist – many points that bothered him in the beta have shown noticeable improvements. However, he cannot overlook the low content volume at launch and sees this as the biggest issue at release. He states that although CoD MW only offered 6 6vs6 maps, there was sufficient content around it, which he does not feel with Cold War.
This is what Drift0r says: Like Ace, Drift0r had his issues in the beta phase – he had no fun. There were severe server disruptions during matches, which are no longer an issue after release. Drift0r also sees the developments since the test phase as positive, but he also talks about the low content in his English YouTube video.
He refers to the roadmap of Season 1 and the release of CoD MW in 2019. With the seasons, many maps were added, and shortly after release, hardly anyone spoke of Modern Warfare having so few 6vs6 maps as no other CoD before.
What he sees as negative is the performance of the game on PC. Drift0r recently switched to a dual-PC solution and now uses 2 PCs for streaming – one for gaming and one for streaming. However, even with his powerful PC, which is no longer burdened by streaming, he had problems with his framerate.
Especially on the large ocean map “Armada”, his framerates dropped to as low as 40 FPS, although he had expected at least stable 100 FPS. However, it’s worth mentioning that he chose quite high graphics settings and played at 1440p. Here, too, he expects an improvement with the next patches.
Summary of release impressions
- Players are experiencing issues with the servers
- The performance on PC could be better
- The release content leaves much to be desired
- The game has made significant steps in the right direction since the beta
TheXclusiveAce believes that this year at release, you can also recognize the “games-as-a-service” approach of the new CoD generations. The game still feels a bit unpolished for him, just like Modern Warfare did at launch. However, he is optimistic that the state of the game will improve over the next few weeks.
The low content at release could also be somewhat related to the Corona situation, which disrupted many workflows in 2020 and did not spare game developers. However, for players who actively participated in the beta, there are in 6vs6 actually only 2 new maps, which is quite little for a full release.
Personal conclusion: Better than the beta, but only 2 new maps for 6vs6?
Who is speaking? I am Maik Schneider and mainly work for MeinMMO in the shooter and Call of Duty area. I started with CoD 5 (2008) many years ago in multiplayer and have played every part extensively that has done without robotic features – just like Cold War. Particularly last year, Warzone was my favorite, where I spent hundreds of hours hunting for the next victory.
My wish was fulfilled: I had no server problems this morning, and my controller on PS4 didn’t cause any stress either. What bothered me the most were the many players who were already at a higher level and thus managed much better with the new CoD than I did. Shortly after getting up, I could have imagined something nicer.
But I immediately saw the improvement I wished for compared to the beta – better visibility of opponents. This was, in my opinion, one of the biggest issues during the test phase, as one could not directly recognize enemies in motion in dark areas or backgrounds corresponding to the colors of the operators. This was visibly better, although still not optimal.
Overall, after the first matches, I left the game with a positive feeling and look forward to the weekend to grind through the maps and modes. Even if the new content is indeed rather meager compared to the beta and somewhat diminishes my enjoyment.
Maik Schneider
Freelance author at MeinMMO
But Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is not just about the multiplayer. The Zombie mode and the story campaign are also an important part. If you want to know more about the Cold War campaign, check out the GameStar colleagues’ YouTube video. For them, the campaign is different, but damn good.
