One of 2018’s most-anticipated videogames continues the franchise that produced 2017’s hottest game. Gamers waited impatiently for it to come out—but investors didn’t wait long to act on data about its early sales performance.
We’re talking about Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which Activision Blizzard (ATVI) released Oct. 12. The previous edition was the year’s best-selling title, and this year’s—which includes the Blackout battle royale—is expected to be among this year’s winners.
Early returns are mixed. Investors pulled the shares down 10% this past week on concerns that it wasn’t selling as well as last year’s version. Meanwhile, what do players think? We scoured reviews from across the internet to get a sense of the response.
“The game contains very little that hasn’t been done first by others, but it approaches those features in a way that’s so polished and unique that is doesn’t really matter if they’re particularly original,” Nick Statt wrote at The Verge. “Ops 4 could have been a mismatched jumble of ripped off game elements, but developer Treyarch has instead reinvented the franchise in a way that may have lasting effects on how people play Call of Duty well into the future.”
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• The “Specialist HQ” mode sets the table, explained Nick Plessas for EMG Now.
“Players take on tutorial missions and bot-filled skirmish matches as one of the game’s 10 different Specialist operators,” Plessas wrote. “Earning stars from replaying these skirmishes unlocks cinematics that unravel the secret back story of Black Ops 4. This, at least, gives the Specialist HQ a purpose beyond testing our ability to follow patronizing orders, but there is no doubt that fans of single-player will find it to be a weak substitute.”
• At Ars Technica, Julie Muncy praised the “Blackout” battle royale mode.
“Blackout is, arguably, the first truly AAA take on the battle royale experience—the first made with the budget and complexity expected of major game releases,” she wrote. “Despite that, the differences between the new mode and the existing battle royale competition are quite subtle. Gun handling and movement are fantastic, precise, and fluid, built on top of the core Call of Duty experience that lends a level of polish that other games in the genre often lack.”
• The “Zombies” mode, in which players fight…zombies, offers some opportunity to enjoy a story, according to Game Informer’s Daniel Tack.
“Players lamenting the absence of a campaign may find story-driven solace here, with each immersive and arcade-like scenario delving into the depths of horror and the occult,” Tack wrote. “Secrets abound, but new interactions like banging on gongs to summon challenging champions in the depths under the arena or attempting to swim your way to the submerged rooms of the sinking ship provide interesting fare for all styles.”
• Ford James, at Games Radar, worried that having no campaign mode would turn the game into “a multiplayer carbon copy of the last few franchise installments.”
“But it hasn’t,” he wrote. “Far from it, in fact. Blackout does have a lot of problems…but the whole package is solid. It’s going toe-to-toe with two of the biggest videogames in the world right now: Fortnite and PUBG. While it’s tough to compare it directly to Fortnite, since their styles are worlds apart, Blackout has noticed PUBG’s shortcomings and delivered an experience we haven’t had yet in the battle royale genre.”
• The multiplayer mode is “more tactical than previous entries,” Kallie Plagge wrote at Gamespot.
“The wall-running and thrust-jumping of Black Ops 3 is gone, replaced with weighty, grounded movement, and healing is now manual and on a cool-down timer,” Plagge wrote. “The combination forces you to be more thoughtful about your positioning, since you can’t just jet and dodge enemy fire until your health regenerates—you need to make sure you have adequate cover and time to heal yourself in your immediate vicinity. This encourages a slightly slower, more cautious pace on an individual level, and it’s refreshing to play it smart instead of just fast.”
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• In short: It’s a darn good game, according to Variety’s Luke Winkie, who said players “will be happy to know that the product they’re taking home is carefully crafted and generously presented, but Black Ops IV doesn’t reinvent the wheel.”
“That might sound like a ridiculous demand—most games don’t reinvent the wheel—but Activision knows better than anyone that you can only stay on top if you’re changing the world,” Winkie wrote. “After all, if they don’t, someone else will. While it lacks the reinvention of some of its predecessors, Call of Duty: Black Ops IV is dutifully crafted, meticulously polished, and the best Call of Duty multiplayer outing in years.”
Email David Marino-Nachison at david.marino-nachison@barrons.com. Follow him at @marinonachison and follow Barron’s Next at @barronsnext.
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