2024 video game
2024 video game
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a 2024 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch 🍉 and Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the sixth installment in the Black Ops sub-series and the seventeenth 🍉 installment in the overall Call of Duty series, serving as a direct narrative continuation of 2010's Call of Duty: Black 🍉 Ops.[3] The game was released on November 13, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series 🍉 X/S.
Black Ops Cold War is set during the early-to-mid 1980s of the Cold War, beginning 13 years after the events 🍉 of Black Ops. Its story centers around a pursuit of the alleged Soviet spy Perseus, whose stated goal is to 🍉 subvert the United States and tilt the balance of power toward the Soviet Union. The game's multiplayer introduced new game 🍉 modes as well as new map dynamics and elements, carrying over some design choices introduced in 2024's Modern Warfare.[3] For 🍉 the Zombies mode, Treyarch introduced several changes to the mode's core gameplay and the new "Dark Aether" storyline, which acts 🍉 as a sequel to the "Aether" storyline that ran from 2008's World at War to 2024's Black Ops 4.
The game 🍉 was originally developed by Raven and Sledgehammer Games and was not intended to be an entry in the Black Ops 🍉 sub-series. However, the development suffered from disagreements among the two teams, resulting in Activision placing Treyarch in charge of the 🍉 game's development in 2024, with Raven acting as a co-developer to them. Marketing for the game began in August 2024 🍉 and was done in different forms, including certain Call of Duty content creators receiving slide projectors, puzzles made to be 🍉 solved online by fans, and a website showcasing historical Cold War events. A public multiplayer beta for the game was 🍉 also made live in October.
Upon release, Black Ops Cold War received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its campaign 🍉 and selection of multiplayer game modes, while criticizing its technical issues and lack of innovation. It became the best-selling title 🍉 of 2024 in the United States. A sequel, reported to be set during the Gulf War, is expected to be 🍉 released in late 2024.
Gameplay [ edit ]
Campaign [ edit ]
Black Ops Cold War's campaign allows players to assume a custom 🍉 character, codenamed "Bell", with the ability to choose their intelligence agency, skin tone, nationality, and gender; as well as different 🍉 personality traits that provide in-game perks.[4] For the first time since 2012's Black Ops II, the campaign features multiple endings, 🍉 dependent on player choice throughout the campaign.[5]
Multiplayer [ edit ]
Multiplayer features new and returning game modes, as well as maps 🍉 that accommodate both the traditional 6v6 format, as well as larger 12v12 combat. The game also introduced a new game 🍉 mode named "Fireteam", which can support up to 40 players.[6] The Create-a-Class system from Modern Warfare returns, with two major 🍉 differences: field upgrades are implemented as part of class loadouts, and each class has a wildcard choice out of four 🍉 possible ones: Gunfighter (allows up to 8 primary weapon attachments), Perk Greed (allows 2 perks from each perk type for 🍉 a total of 6 usable perks), Danger Close (double grenade equipment), or Lawbreaker (allows mixing and matching any weapon/perk type 🍉 in any slot).[3] Like Modern Warfare, Cold War also support cross-platform play and cross-platform progression.[3] Following an update, the progression 🍉 system for multiplayer is integrated with Call of Duty: Warzone, allowing for a unified level system across Cold War, Warzone 🍉 and Modern Warfare. In addition, Operator characters and weapons from Cold War are also added to Warzone to be used 🍉 alongside Modern Warfare Operators and weapons, though the multiplayer modes remain separated and do not share Operators and weapons.[7]
Zombies [ 🍉 edit ]
Zombies features a new storyline titled "Dark Aether" which expands on the original Aether story, concluded in Black Ops 🍉 4, while also staying true to the main narrative of the campaign. Instead of playing as predefined characters, players can 🍉 take on the role of Operator characters from Multiplayer, as part of a CIA response team codenamed "Requiem". Progression from 🍉 Multiplayer is shared with Zombies, as players are able to use any weapon to start a Zombies match, alongside Gunsmith, 🍉 scorestreaks and field upgrades, in addition to returning mechanics such as wallbuys, the Mystery Box, Pack-a-Punch and past fan-favorite Perks. 🍉 For the first time in Zombies, players can opt to "exfil" the map, which will put them in a difficult 🍉 wave with increased enemy spawn that they must survive before they can escape. Collectible intels are also scattered around the 🍉 playable maps, allowing players to keep track of and unfold the main story as they progress.[8] A skill upgrade system 🍉 is featured in the game, allowing players to enhance weapons, perks, ammo mods and field upgrades with Aetherium Crystals, a 🍉 currency acquired from reaching round milestones. A new game mode, Onslaught, was introduced exclusively to PlayStation players until November 1, 🍉 2024. In this mode, which are played within Multiplayer maps, up to 2 players defend areas grounded off by the 🍉 Dark Aether orb, which must be powered by zombie kills. Sufficient kills will move the orb to new positions, forcing 🍉 the players to move or die outside of the orb's protection zone.[9] The Season Two update introduces "Outbreak", a large-scale 🍉 mode where players fight off zombie hordes and complete objectives in an open-world area, composed of locations featured in the 🍉 larger Multiplayer modes.
Plot [ edit ]
Characters and settings [ edit ]
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's campaign is set 🍉 during the Cold War in the early 1980s. It follows Green Beret turned CIA SAD/SOG officer Russell Adler (Bruce Thomas) 🍉 and his mission to stop an international espionage threat known as Perseus (William Salyers) in 1981. The story is inspired 🍉 by actual events. Featured locations include the Netherlands, Turkey, West and East Berlin, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. 🍉 Adler is supported by returning Black Ops characters Alex Mason (Chris Payne Gilbert), Frank Woods (Damon Victor Allen) and Jason 🍉 Hudson (Piotr Michael), alongside fellow former MACV-SOG operative Lawrence Sims (Reggie Watkins), Mossad fixer Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay (Damon Dayoub), and 🍉 MI6 intelligence officer Helen Park (Lily Cowles), with additional support from KGB Head of Security and undercover agent Dimitri Belikov 🍉 (Mark Ivanir) and the CIA Deputy Strategist Emerson Black (Creed Bratton). Players take on the role of "Bell", a mysterious 🍉 operative who assists Adler and his team in finding Perseus for the majority of the campaign; Mason and Belikov are 🍉 also playable in certain segments. Perseus' inner circle consists of Iranian terrorists Arash Kadivar (Navid Negahban) and Qasim Javadi (Farshad 🍉 Farahat), Russian mafia boss Anton Volkov (Rafael Petardi), rogue KGB Agent Major Vadim Rudnik, and ex-CIA officer Robert Aldrich. The 🍉 campaign also features a brief appearance by Imran Zakhaev (Dan Donohue), father of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare antagonist Victor 🍉 Zakhaev, and Colonel Lev Kravchenko (Andrew Divoff), a former nemesis of Mason and Woods whom they last encountered in Laos 🍉 in 1968, as well as appearances from the historical figures Ronald Reagan (Jeff Bergman), Mikhail Gorbachev (David Agranov), Alexander Haig 🍉 (Jason Culp) and James Baker (Casey Campbell).
The multiplayer mode's seasonal story takes place from late 1983 to 1984, and follows 🍉 Adler on a new mission to investigate the resurgence of Perseus and his agents, led by Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin (Chris 🍉 Parson), who seeks vengeance on Adler for personal reasons. Stitch's followers and fellow Perseus operatives include Laotian warlord Kapano "Naga" 🍉 Vang (Greg Chun), ex-NIS operative Freya "Wraith" Helvig, ex-MI6 agent Roman "Knight" Gray (Mark Sheppard), mercenary Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza (Gabe 🍉 Kunda), ex-yakuza Kaori "Kitsune" Tanaka (Erika Ishii), and ex-Spanish Army demolitions expert Benito "Fuze" Ortega. Several NATO allies appear throughout 🍉 the seasons assisting Adler and the CIA in fighting Stitch's forces, including: DGSE operative Zeyna Ossou (Mara Junot), SRT Marine 🍉 Wyatt "Bulldozer" Jones (Jeff Schine), Delta Force sniper Terrell Wolf (Zeke Alton), guerrilla fighter Karla Rivas (Krizia Bajos), Unit 777 🍉 officer Jabari Salah (Ayman Samman), and CIA SAD/SOG operative Colton "Stryker" Greenfield (Christian Rummel). Captain Carver Butcher (Ron Bottitta), founder 🍉 of Task Force Vanguard and a protagonist of the Call of Duty: Vanguard multiplayer seasonal story, makes an appearance in 🍉 the final Cold War multiplayer season.
The Dark Aether story in Zombies mode takes place from late 1983 to 1985, and 🍉 continues several narrative elements from its predecessor, the Aether story. The central protagonists of the story are Requiem, a classified 🍉 CIA task force dedicated to studying and eradicating the global rising undead threat. Players take on the role of a 🍉 four-person Strike Team, taking orders from CIA officer Grigori Weaver (Gene Farber), who coordinates Requiem's various operations. Other Requiem members 🍉 include: Major Mackenzie Carver (Keston John), Head of Containment and Security Division; Doctor Elizabeth Grey (Amy Pemberton), Head of Unnatural 🍉 Sciences; Doctor Oskar Strauss (Thure Riefenstein), Head of Energy Research; "Raptor One" (Derek Phillips), a pilot who is tasked with 🍉 extracting the strike team from outbreak zones upon completion of their missions; and the enigmatic Director who monitors the strike 🍉 team's activities. Opposing Requiem is Omega Group, a Soviet Union-backed organization lead by Colonel Kravchenko, who is largely responsible for 🍉 the new undead outbreak threat. Through the course of the story, Requiem agents come into contact with Kravchenko and other 🍉 Omega operatives, including: Doctor William Peck (Zeke Alton), an American scientist who betrayed the United States government to defect to 🍉 Omega; Doctor Aleksandra Valentina (Sadie Alexandru), Lead Scientist in Psychotronics Research, whose secret identity is Angelika Vogel, daughter of Nazi 🍉 scientist Ulrich Vogel (Michael Gough); Doctor Hugo Jager, Research Lead of Necro-Analytics department; and Commander Gorev (Zeke Alton), Kravchenko's right-hand 🍉 man. Assisting Requiem in their battle against Omega Group and the undead are Samantha Maxis (Julie Nathanson), a former BND 🍉 operative and acquaintance of Weaver with a mysterious past; and Sergei Ravenov (Andrew Morgado), an Omega Group soldier who lost 🍉 faith in the organization's mission and acts as Maxis' mole. Both Requiem and Omega also regularly establish contact with Kazimir 🍉 Zykov (Andrew Morgado), a Soviet engineer who is trapped in the Dark Aether dimension and wishes to escape with either 🍉 group's help.
Synopsis [ edit ]
Campaign [ edit ]
In January 1981, CIA SAD/SOG operatives Russell Adler, Alex Mason, and Frank Woods 🍉 are sent to target Qasim Javadi and Arash Kadivar for their roles in the Iran hostage crisis. With intelligence gained 🍉 from interrogating Qasim, the team tracks Arash to Turkey, where the three witness him executing everyone in the vehicle he 🍉 arrived in. Arash boasts that Perseus was the one responsible for organizing the hostage crisis before being executed. US President 🍉 Ronald Reagan authorizes a black operation team to neutralize Perseus after being briefed of his threat by Jason Hudson and 🍉 Adler.
Adler's team consists of CIA operative Lawrence Sims, American born Mossad operative Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay, and MI6 intelligence officer Helen 🍉 Park, with Mason and Woods providing tactical support. The final member of the team is an agent known only by 🍉 the codename "Bell", who served with Adler and Sims in MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War. The team starts by asking 🍉 Bell to recall Operation Fracture Jaw in 1968, where Adler believes he, Bell, and Sims first encountered Perseus. Afterwards, the 🍉 team proceeds to East Berlin to apprehend/kill Anton Volkov, a Russian mafia boss with ties to Perseus.
Following an infiltration into 🍉 a secret Spetsnaz training facility by Bell and Woods, the team discovers that Perseus had infiltrated Operation Greenlight, a top 🍉 secret American program that secretly planted neutron bombs in every major European city to deny their use to the Soviets 🍉 in the event of an invasion. Mason and Woods are deployed to Mount Yamantau in the Ural Mountains, where they 🍉 infiltrate Nikita Dragovich's destroyed base in hopes of retrieving his list of sleeper agents.[c] However, the team finds out that 🍉 Perseus has wiped the data from the Yamantau base's mainframe, leaving their only option to infiltrate KGB Headquarters to retrieve 🍉 the list. Enlisting the help of one of their KGB double agent allies, Dimitri Belikov, they manage to get Adler 🍉 and Bell inside the Lubyanka Building. The team learns that an Operation Greenlight scientist is one of the sleeper agents 🍉 and has fled to Cuba. Hoping to catch Perseus there, the team launches a raid. They learn that Perseus has 🍉 managed to steal the detonation codes for every Operation Greenlight bomb, meaning he can devastate Europe and lay the blame 🍉 on the United States. The team comes under heavy fire and Lazar and Park are injured in the process, leaving 🍉 Bell only enough time to save one of them.
After rescuing Bell, Adler continues to press them by provoking their memories 🍉 of Vietnam once more. At this point, Bell's true identity is revealed as an agent of Perseus, having been shot 🍉 by Arash in Turkey out of jealousy. Bell was found by Adler and was brainwashed using Project MKUltra into believing 🍉 they were his comrade. With Bell's memory returned, Adler interrogates them on the location of Perseus' headquarters. Bell can then 🍉 either choose to remain loyal to Perseus and lie to Adler, or choose to betray Perseus and reveal his location.
In 🍉 the non-canonical endings where Bell chooses to stay loyal to Perseus, they lie by telling Adler to head to the 🍉 Duga radar array, where the team will be too far away to stop Perseus from activating the nukes. If Bell 🍉 has established contact with the Soviet Army beforehand, they will lure the team into a trap and kill them with 🍉 the help of Perseus and the Soviet Army before they activate the nukes. If Bell refuses to kill the team, 🍉 Bell is executed by Adler but the nukes will still go off. Europe is devastated by the explosions and public 🍉 opinion of the United States plummets. The CIA is forced to erase the existence of Adler and his team in 🍉 an effort to cover up the United States' involvement in Operation Greenlight. Perseus boasts that his agents in Europe will 🍉 take advantage of the chaos to infiltrate every European government and turn them towards the Soviet Union, while his agents 🍉 in the United States will continue to undermine the country.
In the canonical ending where Bell decides to betray Perseus and 🍉 help the CIA, they along with the team assault Perseus' headquarters in the Solovetsky Islands and destroy the transmitters needed 🍉 to send the detonation signal. With the failure of Operation Greenlight, Perseus goes into hiding, though Adler swears to continue 🍉 pursuing him and dismantle his spy network. Later, Adler takes Bell out for a private conversation, assuring them that their 🍉 choice to turn against Perseus was of their own free will and that they are a hero. Adler then admits 🍉 that Bell must be eliminated as a loose end and both draw their guns, with the scene fading to black 🍉 as gunshots are heard.
Two years after Operation Greenlight's failure, a Perseus cell infiltrates the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and successfully hijacks 🍉 a nuclear ICBM during military exercise Able Archer 83. Operators from NATO and Warsaw Pact countries are deployed to various 🍉 hot zones, where Perseus activities are sighted. On January 20, 1984, a Perseus cell, led by Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin, raids 🍉 a CIA safe house in West Berlin in order to gain intel on Adler. Stitch, who was in charge of 🍉 Nova-6 production on Rebirth Island, vowed vengeance on Adler, who captured and tortured him during the CIA's assault on the 🍉 island in 1968. Stitch leaves behind a message to taunt Adler that leads him to a mall in New Jersey. 🍉 At the mall, Adler's team runs into an ambush by Stitch, who has also set up a cache of Nova-6. 🍉 The team attempts to escape, but Adler is ultimately captured and taken away by Stitch and his men.
Three months later, 🍉 Woods leads a squad to Laos where Adler was last sighted, only to learn that he has been transported to 🍉 Verdansk. Hudson authorizes a search and rescue operation to retrieve Adler. On June 2, 1984, two Perseus operatives, Freya "Wraith" 🍉 Helvig and Roman "Knight" Gray, infiltrate the Yamantau secret military base and retrieve data related to Dragovich's numbers program, which 🍉 Stitch plans to use in order to create more sleeper agents across the nation. They then detonate the base, intending 🍉 to shift the blame toward the U.S. and spark another war. Eight days later, Woods manages to locate Adler in 🍉 Verdansk and rescue him.
Some times later, Stitch orders Perseus operative Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza to assault Jumpseat Satellite Ground Station in 🍉 South Africa. The station's surviving specialist is forced to obey Stitch's order as he de-orbits two CIA satellites, which end 🍉 up crashing in Verdansk and Algeria, respectively. Following his recovery, Adler immediately leads a squad to investigate the satellite crash 🍉 in Algeria. As they approach the crash site, Adler recklessly charges in and eliminates Perseus agents, while secretly recovering a 🍉 data recorder from the satellite debris. A month later, Woods leads a response team, accompanied by Colton "Stryker" Greenfield, to 🍉 the ECHELON Listening Station in Teufelsburg, where they attempt to apprehend Perseus operative Kaori "Kitsune" Tanaka. Kitsune, who has just 🍉 finished uploading the numbers protocol, activates the sequence, turning the response team against Woods and Stryker, who narrowly escape death. 🍉 Afterwards, Hudson meets with Woods in private and reveals an inconsistency in Adler's statement about the data recorder from the 🍉 Algeria satellite crash site, as well as his recent unmonitored activities in Verdansk. Recognizing that Adler may have been compromised 🍉 due to the numbers program, Hudson orders Woods to contact Mason for help.
On August 2, 1984, Stitch and Perseus operative 🍉 Benito "Fuze" Ortega attempt to defuse several explosive charges planted all across Verdansk by Adler. Meanwhile, Adler is put through 🍉 extensive torture by Mason and Hudson in order to break his programming. Mason succeeds in deprogramming Adler, while Stitch's team 🍉 fails to stop most of the charges from detonating. Woods, Adler, Mason and Hudson are deployed at a heavily destroyed 🍉 Verdansk to confront Stitch for the final time. They eventually find Stitch in the woods, where Adler learns that he 🍉 had taken over the mantle of Perseus, while the previous one passed away from cancer in 1983. Having finished his 🍉 work, Stitch willingly surrenders his life, while taunting Adler of his actions. A gunshot is heard as the scene cuts 🍉 to black.
A few days after, Adler, Mason, Woods and Hudson investigate an underground Nazi bunker in the ruins of Verdansk, 🍉 where they meet Captain Carver Butcher, a retired Special Operations Executive agent and founder of Task Force Vanguard. Butcher begins 🍉 telling Adler and the others of his mission in leading various special operations task forces to hunt down remnants of 🍉 the Nazi empire in the Pacific.[d]
Zombies [ edit ]
In 1983, CIA Special Officer Grigori Weaver is contacted by an acquaintance, 🍉 former BND operative Samantha Maxis,[e] who provides him with secret KGB intelligence. Weaver learns from Maxis that during World War 🍉 II, the Nazis attempted an experiment in a secret bunker in Morasko, Poland where they managed to reanimate dead soldiers 🍉 into zombies. Afterwards, the bunker was discovered and sealed by the Soviet Union, only to be recently uncovered by Omega 🍉 Group, a KGB-Spetsnaz joint research team working in favor of the Soviet Union. As a result, several Dark Aether anomalies 🍉 begin to appear around the world, unleashing zombies in their wake. A classified task force codenamed Requiem is assembled to 🍉 combat the global undead threats as well as conduct research into the anomalies for technological advancement.
In November 1983, Requiem deploys 🍉 a strike team to the bunker in Morasko, dubbed Projekt Endstation, where they discover a rift that acts as a 🍉 gateway to the Dark Aether dimension, responsible for other global dimensional breaches. Upon further investigation, the strike team uncovers a 🍉 device in the facility called Der Wechsler, which can restore a zombie's brain functionality. The strike team uses it on 🍉 one of the roaming zombies in the facility, who was a former Omega Group member named Orlov. In turn, he 🍉 agrees to help the team close the dimensional rift. Orlov successfully seals the rift, destroying Endstation and sacrificing himself in 🍉 the process, while allowing the strike team to escape.
Following Endstation's destruction, Maxis investigates further into Omega Group's activities, and travels 🍉 to Outpost 25, located in A Sầu Valley, Vietnam, but is captured by Omega forces and thrown into the Dark 🍉 Aether dimension. In June 1984, the Requiem strike team arrives at Outpost 25, and makes contact with Captain Sergei Ravenov, 🍉 Maxis' mole within Omega. Ravenov guides the strike team through the undead-infested facility, while also dealing with Doctor William Peck, 🍉 an American scientist who defected to Omega. After learning from Peck of Maxis' current situation, the strike team attempts to 🍉 open a portal and stabilize it long enough for Maxis to escape the dimension. They eventually succeed and exfiltrate with 🍉 Maxis, while Ravenov elects to remain undercover as Omega continues their operations in the Ural Mountains. Following Requiem's success, Omega's 🍉 leaders, Colonel Lev Kravchenko and Doctor Aleksandra Valentina, travel to Outpost 25 to confront Peck about his failure.
In an effort 🍉 to catch up to Omega Group's progress, Requiem launches Operation Threshold, a large-scale mission across the Ural Mountains where the 🍉 largest outbreak zones have been identified. Over the next several months, Requiem operators are deployed in multiple Ural regions in 🍉 order to eliminate undead targets, capture specimen and commence further research on the mysterious Aetherium element. Meanwhile, Maxis is quarantined 🍉 under isolation due to her time spent inside the Dark Aether dimension. In November 1984, Maxis secretly contacts the Requiem 🍉 strike team during their mission, requesting them to meet with Ravenov. At the missile silo in Ruka, Ravenov reveals that 🍉 Peck has been using Aetherium crystals to supercharge nuclear warheads, which would allow Omega Group to create new outbreak zones 🍉 wherever they choose. Not wishing to let either side possess the warheads, Maxis instructs Ravenov and the strike team to 🍉 work together and direct the warheads toward the Pacific Ocean where they can be safely dumped. After clearing out a 🍉 massive zombie horde guarding the silo, the strike team succeeds in deploying the warheads and manages to exfil.
Afterwards, Ravenov contacts 🍉 Weaver via Maxis' secret radio channel, and requests Requiem's help in extracting several Omega scientists who wish to defect from 🍉 the group. Though angry at Ravenov and Maxis' secrecy, Weaver agrees to help him carry out the operation. Some times 🍉 later, the strike team receives intel from Ravenov that he has lost contact with the scientists. The team is sent 🍉 to the State Sanatorium U-23 to investigate a crash site and help extract the scientists; however, they were all murdered 🍉 by Doctor Hugo Jager, an Omega scientist who was secretly a mole planted by Kravchenko to root out the defectors. 🍉 The strike team attempts to exfil, but is captured by Kravchenko and Omega forces.
Amidst the operations at the Ural Mountains, 🍉 both Requiem and Omega come into contact with Kazimir Zykov, a Soviet engineer who was originally sent to the Endstation 🍉 bunker in 1945 to shut it down, and has been trapped inside the Dark Aether since then. Zykov, who wishes 🍉 to escape the dimension, has attempted to reach out to the real world, giving both Requiem and Omega warnings of 🍉 a mysterious entity commanding the undead forces from within. Meanwhile, Valentina continues to further her own agenda: to open a 🍉 gateway to the Dark Aether in hopes of freeing her father, who seemingly has been communicating with her from the 🍉 other side since her childhood. Omega Group eventually deduces Valentina's real identity as the daughter of Ulrich Vogel, a Nazi 🍉 scientist who previously lead Projekt Endstation.
Two months after the strike team's capture, an outbreak occurs in East Berlin, where Valentina 🍉 was last sighted. Having learned of her true allegiance, Kravchenko decides to deploy the Requiem strike team at the Berlin 🍉 site to stop her, while overseeing their mission. Upon arriving in Berlin, Kravchenko and the strike team learn that Valentina 🍉 has been mutated with Dark Aether energy by the Forsaken, the entity mentioned by Zykov, who was also masquerading as 🍉 Vogel to trick Valentina into doing his bidding. The strike team reaches an abandoned CIA safehouse and reactivates Klaus, a 🍉 combat robot customized with an artificial intelligence module created by the Director of Requiem. With Omega Group's instructions, the team 🍉 constructs a miniature Aetherium warhead using components left onsite by the CIA. Valentina attempts to stop them, but is ultimately 🍉 defeated, and her energy is used to refine the Aetherium for the warhead. As the Forsaken taunts Requiem of his 🍉 imminent arrival, Klaus carries the warhead through the portal to complete the mission. Kravchenko attempts to betray the strike team 🍉 at the last minute, but Maxis, using her Dark Aether power, manages to open a portal, allowing the team to 🍉 return home safely. Meanwhile, the Director monitors Maxis, and sends a group memo to an unknown recipient, noting her growing 🍉 power as a concern toward Project Janus.
As Operation Threshold expands into the North Atlantic Sea and Algeria, the Director continues 🍉 to pressure Maxis in isolation, coercing her into using her powers. Meanwhile, Omega Group authorizes a new operation to free 🍉 Zykov from the Dark Aether, intending to use this opportunity to take down the Forsaken with their own warheads. Requiem, 🍉 after receiving intel on Omega's new operation from Ravenov, also intends to free Zykov by their own means. On June 🍉 4, 1985, the Requiem strike team is deployed to an Omega test site in Ukraine, where Kravchenko and Peck are 🍉 conducting the final steps to open a Dark Aether gateway. They succeed in freeing Zykov, only to learn that he 🍉 was the Forsaken all along. As Kravchenko and Peck attempt to escape the facility, Maxis and the strike team make 🍉 their final stand against the Forsaken. Eventually, Maxis sacrifices herself by plunging into a Dark Aether portal, weakening the Forsaken 🍉 enough for him to be captured by Omega's containment chamber. With the Forsaken defeated, all global outbreak zones are collapsed, 🍉 and the undead threat is contained. The Director - revealed to be Edward "Eddie" Richtofen - orders Requiem to be 🍉 shut down, and its department leads apprehended alongside the strike team, while the Forsaken's chamber is delivered to an unknown 🍉 location. Five years later, Peck travels to Japan and charters a boat to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, claiming 🍉 that he is looking for "some old friends".
Development [ edit ]
On May 18, 2024, Kotaku reported that the game was 🍉 in upheaval as developers Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software had increasing tensions between the studios. Two sources described the game 🍉 as a "mess".[10] In response, Activision assigned Treyarch to lead development alongside Raven. This led to a shorter development period 🍉 compared to previous entries as well as the two studios having different responsibilities, with Raven Software leading the development of 🍉 the single-player campaign.[11]
On August 4, 2024, Activision in their Q2 earnings call confirmed that a new Call of Duty title 🍉 was planned to be released in 2024 and that Treyarch and Raven were developing the game.[12] It is the first 🍉 Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare 3 to be co-developed by two studios, as well as the first time 🍉 Raven Software is a main developer, as in previous games they assisted on the multiplayer and extra features.[12] Activision president 🍉 Rob Kostich confirmed during the Q2 earnings call that Black Ops Cold War will be "tightly connected" to Call of 🍉 Duty: Modern Warfare (2024) and Call of Duty: Warzone.[13]
Raven Software's Dan Vondrak said on the idea of multiple endings, "when 🍉 we started creating the story, we had multiple endings in mind right away. And that really helped ... But we 🍉 knew right away that we wanted to do that. I absolutely loved the idea that we could [have a] little 🍉 bit of homage to Black Ops 2 by having these [multiple endings]."[14]
Marketing [ edit ]
Announcements and marketing relating to a 🍉 Call of Duty game have traditionally been around April or May prior to the game's fall release.[15][16] However, Activision began 🍉 teasing the game with an alternate reality game (ARG) in August 2024. Various YouTubers prevalent to the Call of Duty 🍉 community on YouTube were shipped crates. Once authorized to open on August 10, 2024, they were greeted by a slide 🍉 projector, 10 different slides per crate, and a manifest.[17] Starting on August 14, 2024, the game was marketed, after initial 🍉 ciphers solved, by enticing fans to solve ciphers and puzzles on pawntakespawn.[18] The website allowed fans to watch VHS tapes 🍉 containing news segments and footage that pertained to the corresponding year(s) throughout the Cold War.[19] Throughout the VHS tapes, at 🍉 random intervals, two-digit nixie tube combinations appeared, required to solve ciphers, in addition to one set of coordinates per VHS 🍉 tape that led to a location in Warzone.[20]
On August 19, 2024, once all ciphers were solved, the teaser trailer was 🍉 revealed.[21] The teaser trailer contains segments of a 1984 interview with former Soviet PGU KGB informant and defector Yuri Bezmenov 🍉 discussing active measures, taken from a 1984 interview with conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin.[22] The worldwide reveal was on August 🍉 26, 2024.[23][24]
Starting on September 22, 2024, another alternate reality game (ARG) on pawntakespawn, teasing the Zombies mode, began when various 🍉 Call of Duty YouTubers such as NoahJ456 and MrDalekJD were sent crates with 1980s technology and ciphers to solve.[25][26] The 🍉 official reveal for Zombies was on September 30.[27]
Pre-orders of all Black Ops Cold War editions grant early access to the 🍉 open-access beta,[f] a weapons pack, and a Frank Woods operator pack in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of 🍉 Duty: Warzone. The Ultimate Edition grants access to three additional cosmetic skin packs, plus access to the Battle Pass of 🍉 the current Season for Black Ops Cold War (dependent on time of purchase). The Cross-gen Bundle and Ultimate Edition grant 🍉 console players two versions of the game for use on the current console generation (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) and 🍉 the next generation (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X) upon availability.[28]
Controversies [ edit ]
CBR reported that 🍉 the teaser trailer had been banned in China due to a one-second depiction of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.[29][30] An 🍉 edited teaser was released worldwide instead.[31][32] PC Gamer's Andy Chalk wrote: "There's also no mistaking the irony of active censorship 🍉 in a promo trailer for a game whose tagline is, literally, 'Know your history'."[33]
An editorial by Ian Walker in Kotaku 🍉 accused Call of Duty of legitimating the views of Bezmenov when it included footage of his interview with Griffin in 🍉 its August trailer. Among the complaints he had was that Bezmenov's views acted as a magnet for far-right conspiracy theories 🍉 and personalities, that Activision presented Bezmenov's interview without the proper context and that Bezmenov himself held views that Walker argued 🍉 were on the far right.[24]
Post-launch content [ edit ]
All downloadable content (DLC) maps for the game, both for multiplayer and 🍉 Zombies, were completely free. As with Modern Warfare, the game features post-launch microtransactions via the battle pass system and cosmetic 🍉 bundles available via the in-game store.[34][35]
In May 2024, for the mid-season update of Season 3, Activision and Treyarch announced a 🍉 collaboration event, titled "'80s Action Heroes", featuring the addition of John Rambo and John McClane as playable characters, as well 🍉 as new limited-time game modes inspired by the Rambo franchise and the Die Hard film series. Rambo and McClane's appearances 🍉 are based on Rambo: First Blood Part II and Die Hard, respectively, with their voice lines adapted directly from the 🍉 films.[36]
In September 2024, Activision and Rebellion Developments announced a collaboration, bringing the character Judge Dredd of the 2000 AD comic 🍉 book series into Cold War as a cosmetic outfit for the operator Ingo Beck. The Judge Dredd bundle was released 🍉 September 14, 2024.[37]
In October 2024, Activision and Treyarch announced The Haunting seasonal event as part of its sixth season content 🍉 update, which would feature game modes and purchasable cosmetic items based on several horror movie franchises. Ahead of the event's 🍉 release, details were leaked about some of the items, including a Ghostface operator character based on the Scream franchise, as 🍉 well as a Frank the Bunny outfit based on the character from Donnie Darko.[38]
Reception [ edit ]
Call of Duty: Black 🍉 Ops Cold War received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[39][40][41][42]
Game Informer gave the game a 8.75/10 🍉 rating, praising the campaign and saying: "If Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War excels at anything, it's options. This 🍉 isn't uncommon for a Call of Duty title, but with a vast array of game modes for myriad player profiles 🍉 and a fun campaign that retains a summer-blockbuster feel while getting weird and wild, the ride is a good one."[43]
During 🍉 the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Black Ops Cold War for "Online Game 🍉 of the Year".[49]
Sales [ edit ]
The PlayStation 4 version sold 84,475 physical copies within its first week on sale in 🍉 Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country. The PlayStation 5 version was the nineteenth 🍉 bestselling retail game in Japan throughout the same week, with 6,045 copies being sold.[50] In December 2024, it was confirmed 🍉 that the game had sold 5.7 million digital units.[51] Within its first six weeks of release, the game earnedR$678 million.[52] 🍉 The NPD Group named it the best selling game of 2024 and also ranked it as the twentieth bestselling video 🍉 game in the United States by lifetime dollar sales by the end of 2024.[53][54]
Sequel [ edit ]
On November 12, 2024, 🍉 Windows Central reported that a sequel to Black Ops Cold War was in development under the code name "Cerberus" with 🍉 a scheduled release in 2024. The sequel is reported to take place in the Gulf War, with a story focused 🍉 on the Central Intelligence Agency.[55][56]
Notes [ edit ]
