Mike Honcho

*Potential Campaign Spoiler Warning* First of all, I’m unable to rate this game in the Microsoft Store—go figure. Secondly, I have some issues with the campaign itself. Is the storyline historically accurate? No, especially with the playable character’s gender options. Would one be able to get passed that? Sure. But why make the villain so unimportant in the game? You hardly ever see the villain in the game, save for an alternate-ending and a few cutscenes here and there. Your fellow CIA colleagues (and affiliates) in the campaign are attempting to stop a Russian terrorist by the name of Perseus, who allegedly has ties within the KGB. The US is unsure of how to handle the situation, so CIA Agent Hudson allows Agent Adler to form a team which includes the playable character code named “Bell”. Bell apparently has the skills necessary to tracking and stopping Perseus, but we never see him and we never really see how much of a credible threat he is. His connections are almost an easy breeze to track and capture/neutralize, and it seems as if there is nothing at stake, despite the opposite being true. Dragovich in the original COD: Black Ops campaign captures Alex Mason and reveals that the man he killed was a double and not the real Fidel Castro, and Mason is sent to a work camp to be brainwashed by Dragovich, Kravchenko and Steiner to be sent back into the US to assassinate President John F. Kennedy—and that’s all established within the first few missions! There’s plenty at stake! In Black Ops Cold War on the other hand, it seems as if you’ll get everything you’ll need to stop Perseus and the stakes never seem high at all. Only one operative dies in the canonized ending, and you never even feel close to them because they’re not around Bell as often as Adler. You never feel bad that one of them dies, and you don’t really feel much of anything for any of the characters except for Frank Woods and Alex Mason from the original series; they’re barely in the story! Thirdly, the multiplayer is very lacking. The maps either seem too open or they make you feel claustrophobic. The “tactical rifle” class of weapons seem too overpowered, and when there are a bunch of people who feel the need to camp in secure positions around the map because of the flaws in the maps, it really makes you feel like you’d rather hop onto another first-person shooter. Lastly, Zombies. I don’t really have much of an issue with the Zombies mode as of me writing this (Dec. 2020), but Activision needs to get on top of the bugs and glitches in the game. Personally I’m an achievement hunter, and whenever I have the time to play I feel like putting myself through a wide variety of different challenges as opposed to just using the weapons that work best all the time. But when my challenges aren’t properly tracked and I make a few attempts to get the challenge trackers moving up only to see no progress, it gets frustrating. Essentially, I paid $70 for a Zombies mode with a lackluster campaign and a decent-at-best multiplayer mode. The multiplayer and the Zombies modes both have time to change, but as of now I would not recommend anyone buy this. If anything, I would wait for any deals for this game at half-price or less. If I’m going to pay for a game where one-third of the game is playable and somewhat entertaining, I’m not going to want to pay more than $20 for it.