It’s Bravo 7 time and Treyarch brings us another COD in time for the spooky season. I played the Beta and while I rejoice for the spooky season BO7 brings a bit too much ghosts from the past for my liking…
“It’s nOt DoNe YeT”
I understand that I’ll have to thread lightly not to anger the COD fanbase with this preview and I’ll try to remain as objective as I can. I played nearly every COD and I look forward to every yearly release but I can’t help but feel like the inspiration and creativity is starting to become lackluster with every new iteration. I know it’s still a Beta and a lot can change but there are some core mechanics that won’t be overhauled when the game launches soon. The omni-movement has been upgraded with the jump, vault and all-new wall jumps and yes, everyone is still looking like they are kung fu fighting. Albeit funny it should enable you with more movement and flanking options but in reality you’re either blocked from gaining altitude because of level design choices such as pipes and millions of air-con units on top of ledges, or even worse, they are placed near pitfalls and a misclick or bad timing will result in your operator falling into the depths of hell. You’re also limited in movement and aiming while doing so resulting in becoming the ideal target for the opposing side. While wearing certain weapons you gain absolutely no advantage in using the wall jumps.
The new arsenal on top of the fan favorite loadouts are nice and the Beta gives you a good glance at all the unlocks you’ll have once the game launches. So you can plan ahead and already start to invest in the things you like within the gunsmith menu. The real question is if this will be another round of pay to win with blueprints in the store being way more powerful than the unlockables for non paying players that actually put the hours into the game itself. One thing is certain, a lot of over the top skin-partnerships have been cancelled already before release. I wonder how long it’ll take to see immersion breaking skins again though. But I will give it a chance and hopefully the devs can find creative skins and partnerships without breaking the COD world building feeling we actually want.
COD already has a MARVEL-like intro when you boot it up and that feeling you get when you see those popular characters right there is enough to show that they already have great stuff to expand. Build upon this core world and add skins of actual in-world characters we love (or hate). This is something I hope to see when the game launches.
Shiny but shallow?
Now is it all bad? Of course not. Visually the game is crisp and character models look great. The animations and rag doll physics look sharp in high paced and explosive situations. The gun models and equipment animations are still okay but I feel like they are flat against the environments. You can’t deny that the Battlefield series has more immersive and better looking physics. Call Of Duty offers way smaller maps for its core gameplay than Battlefield so I guess they could actually implement more “destruction”. I feel like my grenades explode into a “sprite” and leave no real damage apart from glass panels… It’s a run and gun series but visually it hasn’t really innovated visually since the bump up with the “Cold War” installment. I’m still waiting for a bigger improvement even though it looks crisp I don’t see any difference with the previous 2 installments in the series. Sound wise the game is still boasting good tunes from the lobby straight into the game and winning screens. The weapon sounds are good but still miss that realistic bullet drop and war soundscape other series already offer.
Another thing I miss is a connection to the game’s semi-futuristic theme. I’m missing some soul and I realize it might be too early to speak about this as the story has yet to unfold in the full game but the level designs look soulless to me. They all look fancy and polished and shiny but I don’t feel as someone works there or people actually interacted with the level before we come to play soldiers there… It looks like all the levels in the Beta were just “made” but no one lives or works in these places. There’s no coffee mugs or no jackets hanging in the corridors. No calendars in the offices. It’s all a bit empty still. I do like the moving objective on the map “Imprint”. That adds a bit of dynamic and forces to change tactics every few seconds. I want to see more of these things that make the maps more interesting if they remain “soulless”.
Conclusion: Hardcore is the better game within the main Beta.
Now we can’t talk about COD without addressing the skill based matchmaking. Some people claim it makes the game worse and others adore the new SBMM. I guess this is still a bit too early to hold against Treyarch as I’m sure it all stands or falls with actual player count when the full game releases. I also believe this is an aspect that can easily be patched or modified when the need rises to do so. Another thing I hope can be patched or reworked is the Gravemaker. I haven’t been able to get to it myself but I’ve seen many clips where this really breaks the game and to me, it feels overpowered to say the least. Especially since a lot of matches were already plagued by cheaters exploiting the game on top of the occasional lag the Beta had. Now apart from the core moshpit matchmaking I noticed I really enjoyed the HARDCORE mode most. The time to kill is way better and feels more realistic to me. It’s less run and gun and feels more like the tactical shooter it wants to portray. Now again, in this mode there is no one using the wall jumps whatsoever; (you’ll get shot if you even try) So again, how different is the game really compared to previous installments on hardcore?
“Zombies” is fun and I can’t wait to try it out in the full game with a good crew. I also noticed that this first map is so much better at “worldbuilding” than the rest of the levels that aren’t from the Zombies’ game mode. You actually believe that people lived there and were changed into hordes of semi-living creatures. The lighting is great and the map feels like a good spooky world with the correct atmosphere. This was my biggest flaw with the game mode in the previous version. It was huge but felt empty and shallow. Now it’s the other way around. Zombies alone is not enough though to carry the franchise in BO7 when it fully releases. I hope we can still get a good treat when it launches and it’s not just the same trick all over again.
