The alpha for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War for PlayStation 4 was released last weekend and was met with a ton of criticism. A couple of things that received some praise were the map design and sound effects. What exactly is worth praising? That's what we go over here.
PS4 ownerswere able to try out the alpha version of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer over the weekend. The new Call of Duty release will launch on November 13 and will go through a beta phase before Xbox and PC gamers can test the multiplayer feature.
As for the Black Ops Cold War alpha, we already covered the negative reactions in a separate article. Here we'll focus on the other side of the coin. Let's see what we should look forward to from the alpha!
A Return to the Three-lane Map Design
Fans of the series are pleased about the return to the tried and true principle of three-way map construction. The maps are more or less symmetrically structured and offer players two main paths to the right and left of the map and one in the middle. This structure makes it easier to find your way around new maps and promotes faster gameplay. In Modern Warfare, the maps were often asymmetrical and offered so many opportunities for camping, as more defensive actions were rewarded.The variety of the maps was also emphasized. The maps are located in very different environments (Miami, Moscow, a desert, ships, snow etc.) and are also very different in color. Compared to Modern Warfare's map design that offered less variety. In Modern Warfare, almost all maps were relatively dark and did not offer much variety, especially with regards to the setting.
Sound Design and Making Sights Seem Real
Many players, including the well-known YouTuber Drift0r, praised the audio effects in Black Ops Cold War. Due to the good sound effects, it is possible to estimate the direction and the distance from which the opponent is coming by the sound of footsteps. This rings true even if you are in the middle of a shootout. As we wrote in our article about the points of criticism, this is at the expense of the weapon sounds, which are much quieter and not as authentic as in Modern Warfare.
Map Voting Is Back
We can vote on the next map in the lobby again. In Modern Warfare this feature did not exist because the developers feared that unpopular maps would not be played at all. In Black Ops Cold War we now have the possibility to choose between two maps that will be suggested for the next match. Of course, this can lead to certain maps being played less, but we don't see a problem with that as long as it doesn't result in only two maps being played. This should be avoided by offering only two maps at a time.
No More Doors
Unlike Modern Warfare, where every building had doors that could be opened and closed, Black Ops Cold War has no doors at all. This makes for faster gameplay because there are fewer possibilities to hide. You can look directly into every accessible building and save time. We were never particularly bothered by doors, but the majority of the players are happy that there will be none.
No Weapon Support
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare introduced the possibility of supporting weapons on boxes, walls, etc. to minimize recoil. However, in this state, one could only look around in a very limited area in front of him and had to break off the support in order to be able to move again. Many players complained that this feature would encourage camping. Black Ops Cold War will no longer have this feature, which in turn promotes faster gameplay and encourages players to keep moving.
The Miami Springboard Works
We end with an Easter Egg. On the Miami map there is a pool with a springboard and, believe it or not, the springboard actually works. If you jump on the board, it will catapult you into the air. You can see it in action here:
All in all, we can say that players are generally fond of the gameplay and Treyarch has done some things right. There are legitimate points of criticism that need to be worked on, but you should always keep in mind that the alpha build of Black Ops Cold War is already several months old, so we assume many of the negative points will be taken care of in the beta release.
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