Today Activision officially showed off Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The upcoming sequel premiered in Warzone during a dedicated playlist called ‘Know Your History’. Here’s everything we know about the next Call of Duty.
Black Ops Cold War live reveal
The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War live reveal wasn’t like anything we’ve seen before in the franchise. Instead of ‘just’ publishing a trailer and/or some information, Activision and Treyarch opted for an additional in-game reveal. Waiting times pushed the reveal back by over 10 minutes. But it was worth the wait.
We jumped into Warzone and were tasked to kill enemies, gather intel, go to a few locations in Verdansk, where we finally ‘met’ Black Ops veteran Woods who gave us an SKS. The Soviet era rifle, nicknamed Bay of Pigs (after the military blunder during the Cuba crisis), is a reference to the Cold War. Maybe even a reference to (part of) the storyline? After that, we had to quickly get to the stadium as literally dozens of bombers were flying overhead.
Finally, the reveal trailer played and showed us the huge scope of the upcoming game.
Setting
Direct sequel
Fans of the franchise shall be delighted to hear that Black Ops Cold War is a direct sequel to the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. Although it’s a direct sequel, the story doesn’t pick up right where we left it back in 2010. Black Ops Cold War takes place in the early 1980’s, while the original game in the sub-franchise ended in 1968. So less CCR, more synthesizers and beat machines.
Campaign
The initial teaser trailer already alluded to the upcoming setting. Of course, Black Ops Cold War takes place during the cold war. We now know some of the locations coming to the singleplayer campaign.
Players will come face-to-face with historical figures and hard truths, as they battle around the globe through iconic locales like East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey, Soviet KGB headquarters and more.
As for ‘historical figures’, at one point you’re sitting across a table from president Reagan. More familiar faces included veterans Alex Mason (protagonist of the first game), Frank Woods and Jason Hudson. We’ll be controlling another character though. The trailer also shows armed conflict in Vietnam, battles in the streets of Berlin, and what looks like a huge, square, Soviet megastructure.
While there may be some truth sprinkled throughout the game, the latter location gives away that Treyarch has taken some artistic liberties with history. East Berlin, Turkey and Soviet Russia never saw any large-scale armed conflict. Given that the Call of Duty franchise is all about things that go ‘bang’, it’s clear we’re coming along for a thrilling, mostly fictional ride.
Zombies
As with all Black Ops-games, Cold War will feature an in-depth Zombie mode. The pre-purchase page reads:
Uncover dark Cold War experiments that unleash a new Zombie threat to take on in frightening and intense co-operative gameplay with friends.
Beta and release date
Before the launch later this year, Black Ops Cold War will get a beta. By pre-purchasing the game, players get access to the Beta sometime this year. As of yet, the date of the beta is still unknown, but we do know it’s going to last a minimum of 2 days.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will release on November 13th for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It would also be right around the launch date of the next generation of consoles. The trailer is actually captured on the PlayStation 5. But with the unknown release date of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, we’ll have to wait for confirmation of the next-gen release date.
Stay tuned, as the multiplayer will be revealed September 9th! Catch it on Game Enthusiast or via our bustling Facebook page.
Image credit: Treyarch