Black Ops 4 battle royale could be great - but Call of Duty is no longer the trendsetter
After two hours of hands-on time with the new Call of Duty - the inevitable Black Ops 4 from developer Treyarch - I think there's a lot to love about the game, even if it's all overshadowed by the promise of Blackout, the battle royale mode.
First up, what I like. I like the uniqueness of the specialists, such as Ruin, a "rusher" character who can zip across the battlefield with his grapple gun, and Ajax, a "breacher" character who can summon a defensive shield with a built in machine pistol. I like how devastating their super abilities can be. Recon's Vision Pulse reveals enemies in the surrounding area not just for the player controlling Recon, but everyone on the team. Crash can heal, boost max health and remove wounds for the player and up to four targeted allies. It even works through walls.
I like the new mode, Control, which is a combination of the superb Hardpoint and Search and Destroy modes from past Call of Duty games, with limited lives spread across each team. Here, teamplay is perhaps more important than in other modes, and the specialists' powers really come into play. While defending one of the two control points, I was able to contribute greatly to my team's success by popping my ultimate - sorry, my special ability - to fend off attackers. Ajax's Ballistic Shield really comes in handy here, as does Torque's Barricade. Conversely, while pushing a control point, popping something like Firebreak's Purifier, which gives him a devastating flamethrower, can make the difference. On one occasion, one of my teammates, playing as tactician Seraph, used her Tac-Deploy to secure our victory. She threw out a beacon that meant we were able to re-deploy pretty much right on top of the control point, rather than farther away. It meant we could keep pushing, relentlessly, for the win. Certainly, Black Ops 4 is a more tactical game than Black Ops 3 - perhaps, even, than any Call of Duty game.
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