Before getting to the review I gotta say something to those who have been spreading lies about this game since its first trailer.
Was it worth it? you have realize how out of proportion that stuff is now.
anyway back to the game.
this game takes place between COD black ops and black ops 2. Though it is technically the 5th black ops game. The game its self is pretty much inline with most Call of Duty games. I cannot speak for multiplayer much since I have only played the campaign and Zombies. So I guess Another review can be done for the multiplayer later.
For reference I bought the game on XBOX one and got the $89 version with all the
DLC.
The Campaign
The story mode starts out strong with you chasing down two Russian spies and very quickly introduces some new features. First of which is a dialog choice system. At certain points it will allow you to choose events or dialog. This is very interesting considering how COD is usually a linear war story. it also has a safe house that acts as a hub between missions, similar to the safe house in Black Ops 3. This helps build context for the next mission and the story. The game is still a bit confusing sometimes, but is clearly experimenting. It even has multiple endings, though this has been done before in limited fashion before. Ultimately it is very by the numbers otherwise. There is the time you get knocked out, the time you crash in a helicopter, turret section from copter, escape in large vehicles and more. All the usual trappings of a COD game right here.
The thing I hate is the story is barely 5 hours long. Completed it in the afternoon. It said there was side quests, but I couldn't tell which were main and which were side. So maybe those side missions add a couple hours or so, who knows. For such a interesting setting and premise it was disappointingly short. But I gotta give them credit. I have never been a big call of duty guy. It was fun for shooting and not thinking. Multiplayer and zombies have always been good. But Always felt confused as to the story mode. But this one like the first Black ops is a story I can mostly follow. It keeps my attention with the conspiracies and fast paced shooting. Especially this one with several stealth sections that really helped the game give the impression your a spy, and not just a terminator. The cutscenes also had weird frame rate drops. It is supposed to be a cross gen title, and Xbox series X is more powerful. But I thought the games were built with less powerful options in mind. It made the cutscenes really janky and less fun to watch. But it seemed like more of a hardware not being up to it, rather than a software issue.
Zombies
The zombies mode I can't say much about. Obviously with the ending from Black Ops 4 zombies, it doesn't follow the usually crass gore stained casts of Primus, Ultimus, and Victus. Instead your are NATO or WARSAW operatives scouting a old Nazi bunker as breaches and zombies pour into reality from another. The mode continues in a similar vein as Black ops 4. Its objectives are less hidden and more obvious. It also has collectable audio logs(the more interesting part to me) that can be viewed outside of the rounds. I personally think this is smarter since any audio like this is downed out by the screaming undead. It also is not unlimited and has a way to win. 20 rounds or if you leave early through a extraction after round ten. Be warned however like left 4 dead once extraction is on its way the game will throw extra zombies at you, and the zone has to be clear for the chopper to land. Get power on and assemble the packapunch machine by round 5 or 6 and you probably will do fine. You go into the other dimension by finding anomalies and activating them. It's not as vague as other zombies modes have been. But still very fun and if you want endless waves there is a mode to do that.
it still supports local zombies coop with 4 people so that's awesome. The down side is if you like easter egg hunting this is not as complex as previous titles. Also it launched with only one map! seriously only one. The only one map annoyed me more than the other stuff. Like come on every other zombies launched with at least 2, if not more. It is a interesting map. but still just one?!
Conclusion
To sum all this up, the game was not worth nearly 100 dollars that was spent. Campaign was just to short, zombies only one map. Clearly a lot went into making the game look nice. but I wish a little bit more could have gone to campaign length. It is a interesting campaign despite this though. Good setting and great usage of actual government operations and history, blending with conspiracy and fiction. Zombies is still there and still fun. But again the game clearly had effort put in but wish some of that was spent making another map as well. Maybe I should be thankful it doesn't have loot box progression in zombies and they thought to experiment in solo play. But still feels like the game got priced really high and just didn't make me feel it was worth the price. it easily places next to Black ops as one in my favorite games in the call of duty franchise. maybe buy the standard edition.
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