Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was born in agony. Initially, the studio was responsible for the project Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games, who managed to quarrel, and as a result, all key employees left the latter altogether. The shooter was urgently transferred to the rescue Treyarch, prematurely terminated support Black ops 4…
The single player Cold War campaign is also the first project in many years for Raven Software, on which she worked on her own. After the failure Singularity the team was downgraded to auxiliary, responsible for helping other developers Call of duty… But over the past couple of years, the situation has changed: the studio was noted for a strong remaster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and performed well with Warzone…
And with Cold War it was decided to reconsider the view of the series. And this can be seen in the end result. The new shooter was clearly not planned to become a part of the Black Ops series, because the “ravens” turned out to be a spy thriller.
The story starts in the first weeks of 1981. The inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan has taken place, but the geopolitical situation is unstable. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, radicals managed to hijack several aircraft in the West. The American leadership suspected of involvement in the events of Perseus – a mysterious Soviet agent who is credited with stealing data to create nuclear weapons.
In order to eliminate the Soviet spy network, the Reagan administration creates a new international special squad under the command of CIA officer Russell Adler. Additionally, the team was strengthened by the well-known trinity: Hudson, Woods and Mason.
In the course of the passage we will have to get into the shoes of three characters: Mason, a KGB officer Belikov and an agent from Adler’s team named Bell. Cold War is the first installment in the series to integrate RPG elements – a major innovation from Raven.
Bell has no voice, and at the start we have to choose skin color, backstory, gender (yes, the character will be addressed by “they”) and … passive perks. This allows you to tweak the gameplay. You can increase health, reduce incoming damage, damage from grenades, and so on.
From this follows the next innovation – the dialog selection screen. We can communicate with characters, and in some places it is optional, but you can get additional information on the world. And the solutions are not just for show. Some of them will commemorate the heroes later. Others will determine what set of endings you get.
Yes, Cold War became the second Call of Duty after Black ops 2 with non-linear storytelling. Unfortunately, not everything worked out perfectly. Due to the shortened development time and rework, the storyline campaign turned out to be criminally short, and replayability does not really save the situation. Yes, it is full of memorable moments, multiple endings and even side missions. However, some of the tasks will have to be completed not for Bell, but for other characters who do not have their own perks.
The above additional tasks are generally bewildering. On the one hand, the developers presented puzzles. Collectibles in the game for the first time do not cause a yawn, because at the level we have to collect not just some suitcases for a tick, but games for arcade machines Activision and valuable intelligence that must then be decrypted in order to eliminate the enemy’s spy network. On the other hand, there are only two missions, and you have to play them for Mason. Moreover, the second mission is a race on the Crossroads multiplayer map, from which we can conclude that it was shoved at the very last moment.
