This was the most disappointing CoD Treyarch has put out.
Usually i go by the run down of Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies but this has No Campaign, Went though so much development hell including a 2v2 competitive mode with One team taking out the enemy and one protecting it, And a more cinematic version of what we got, and what we got is "Specialists HQ", A glorified tutorial mode for the multiplayer specialists that you've come to know and love (or hate) from BO3. Except more "tactical" (Expect that to be the theme throughout this review because its sure the theme of the entire game. But I digress.)
The Story- Ok, the "Thesis" of Specialists HQ is seeing the backstories of the specialists you'd play within BO3 and 4, Some returning from 3 and Some new but revitalized certain streaks/abilities from last time. I'll delve deep into their abilities in a bit, But the real Lore, fucking story thing was Mason's granddaughter Savannah in 2040's being the worlds first trillionaire in the BO universe, using the money to form the specialists to change the world. Only to have a severed relationship with her sister Jessica, with a Mission gone awry disfiguring her. and having a really bonkers plot of reviving the dead characters we knew and love (no, not that kind of way, but we'll get to that eventually.) via "Project Blackout". This includes Woods, Their Granddad Alex, Viktor Reznov and get this, Raúl Menendez. Yes. The commie revolutionist bastard you killed in BO2, is not only revived but also somehow running the show within this program and has conflict with Jessica. Who in turn warns the specialists about Savannah tying up loose ends and offing all of them. Its as stupid as it sounds. Now, if you noticed the title "Project Blackout", You'd assume that the story would continue within the blackout battle royale mode. Which you'd be correct on that assumption, Only to realize this was PRE-Warzone 1.0 where they tried to follow up the story within the live service model. But nope. All you have is loose ends, Audio logs detailing savannahs conflict with menendez and uh weird as fuck relationship basically with her granduncle woods, and a cliffhanger ending suggesting woods brainwashing mason and setting up plans in the verrukt asylum and the specialists planning their plot against savannah. I shit you not, that was the whole gist of the plot. and if you think this is all sloppy and not as concise as my previous CoD reviews, I'd understand because its EXACTLY how its executed. As a Makeshift Prequel to BO3, It failed and even manage to put a bittersweet ending given how its implied BO3s MP is all a simulation. and As a sequel to BO2, (and By extent BO1/WAW) its horrid. It basically spits in the face of those who were invested into the history of these characters and has a resolution of reviving the dead, again, not in a zombie like fashion, unsolved because after this, the series goes back to the era of BO1 with Cold War being set in the 1980s.
Now, How does the gameplay of Multiplayer and Blackout fair since those are basically the main throughline of this game?
Multiplayer is more "Tactical", Replacing your usual tactical/lethal grenades with a specialist ability and a Health stim. You heard me correctly. No health regen in this shit. Which would make the gunfights more intense and one of the few things i'd give credit for this game. That and the gunplay is a lot more weightier than any CoD before, Not as weighty as the overhauled gunplay in MW19-the current MWII, but More weighty than any of the previous black ops games, OG modern warfares, WWII games and Standalone titles like AW, Ghosts and Infinite warfare. Like there's more recoil kick, more impact with the sound effects. (as long as you don't put on the optional "death effects") And in the create a class you can even have perks that include having 2 secondary weapons called "underkill", polar opposite of "Overkills" 2 primaries, and the other being Operator mods within the weapons that can change a weapon with minor or major changes. Like you can dual wield the saug 9mms and ballistic knives, have a belt-fed mag on an smg with the cordite, a bayonet on the Vapr-XKG, and an LMG called Hades having a horizontal grip replacing ADS like the chainsaw from ghosts or the Finn from MW19. Gear alongside the health stim, would be including a acoustic sensor that make people appear on the mini map via directional ping, Body armor, COMSEC which allows you to earn scorestreaks 20-25% quicker and an equipment charge that allows you to recharge your equipment faster.
As for the abilities, You have a lethal/tactical side powerup and an "ultimate" powerup. this consists of Specialists:
- "Ruin" with the power slam, a battering ram-shaped device that'll kill off enemies around ya and have a grappling hook and traverse the map like you're batman (so much for the boots on the ground marketing gimmick.)
- "Prophet" with the electric sniper that shoots electric bolts that incapacitates the enemies into a "downed" state and a seeker bot that stuns enemies for an easy kill
- "Battery" with a war machine grenade launcher and a semtex grenade that spawns mini grenades when detonated
- "Seraph" rocking a revolver hand cannon that hits like a truck and a respawn beacon
- "Nomad" sending in an attack dog and trip mines you can place anywhere
- "Firebreak" wielding a flamethrower and a nuclear core that incinerates those around you and can kill you if you overheat it
- "Spectre" who has a katana and smoke grenades
- "Reaper" whos got a Detached double barrel turret and a scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Recon" rocking NVGs that has vision pulse, detecting enemy outlines to the entire team, and a radar that functions similar to reapers scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Crash" who can heal/boost everyones health with his touchscreen tablet, and an ammo pack that can replenish others ammo and gives bonus score with kills
- "Zero" who is a hacker and have emp grenades and can hack enemy equipment and scorestreaks
- "Torque" who has barbed wire and the guardian killstreak from BO2 but bigger and provides larger cover, to incentivize camping
- "Ajax" who has a 9bang flashbang and a Riot shield/machine pistol hybrid that you can stick the pistol into and shoot while the shields up and block (most) bullets
and - "Outrider" who has a explosive bow and recon drones
Now this sounds all gimmicky and shit for a cod game, more so than the predecessor (or successor chronologically) Black ops 3, Why is that? Its because thanks to the development of this heaping pile, it was originally inspired by the likes of Overwatch and R6 siege in particular. Scorestreaks weren't even in the game and Advanced movement was gonna be prevalent. and the scorestreaks was gonna be certain specialists ultimate/ability, like ajax with the riot squad, nomad with the RCXD, torque with the sentry, etc. and suddenly the comparisons made a whole lot more sense. and the maps are certainly designed for more mobile movement than "boots on the ground". So now we have a scenario of its CRACKED for a boots on the ground cod but its slow for a "futuristic" one. Even the perks and pick 10 system that return, Weren't even planning to return iirc. Its a cataclysmic disaster that wind up having the MP revamped from something that was dated and chasing a lot of trends, to now something a bit more half-assed but "traditional cod", chasing hero shooter/"tactical" trends and will be forgotten.
Same with the Blackout mode, Which unfortunately is a shame because as a "10 year anniversary for treyarch cods since WAW" type of deal its a fun celebration with Campaign, MP and Zombies POIs on a huge ass map, especially for CoDs standards at the time. and you can feel the struggle of the dated engine being from forked from idtech3. Yes its reusing THAT engine to create a 100 (well 88 standard) player battle royale. Those who aren't familiar with the mode, its the survival of the fittest between all players on a huge map having to scavenge weapons (and their attachments), health kits, armor, backpacks for more room, etc. and be the last man or group standing. How blackout does things differently is that it also has the MP perks that can be activated for a short period of time like dead silence to make your footsteps quieter. and quest items to unlock your favorite zombies, MP and Campaign characters. Oh yea that's also another selling point, You can play as basically almost all notable characters in the Blops series in this. Excluding the presidents, Mobsters from MOTD, Celebs from COTD (except Danny trejo, he can be played as), the Shadows of Evil crew, the crew from Dead of the night- Yea basically all the celebrities they couldn't get. But other than that, You can play as the OG zombies crew from WAW-BO1, the Tranzit crew from BO2, the "Primis" crew from BO2 Origins-BO4, The newly introduced "Chaos" Crew unfortunately only in BO4, Even the cosmic silverback from Dead Ops Arcade 1 & 2. Along with the aforementioned specialists and Campaign characters. And have the "Dangerous Cloud" closing in make you see the sleeper agent numbers and certain POIs be Zombies maps like Call of the dead, Tranzit, Verruckt, Buried having actual zombies spawn in and MP maps like Hijack, Nuketown, Firing Range. And even have a Separate Map that is Alcatraz. The entirety of it. Like I've said, its almost like a celebration of the whole BO series than it is an actual game with its own sense of identity. As fun as it is running matches and getting very few wins, specifically back on my PS4, Its not really worth having to sacrifice the campaign for it.
and Finally, Zombies. Arguably, the only damn redeeming thing about this game, and even that has its faults. Lets start positive, Custom Mutations allows you to play and customize however you want to play zombies, what round you wanna start with, how many downs you wanna have, how much health the zombies have, etc.
Having that and multiple modes like Classic, and new modes: Rush and Gauntlet does offer replayability, specifically gauntlet more than rush. Rush is a simple mode of having to gain the most amount of points among the players win, Gauntlet on the other hand has all these challenges you have to do each round, and if you fail 3 times you lose. Can put on all the attachments on most weapons just like in MP. And It has 8 maps total, 4 on launch (without dlc its 3 maps) and they all provide vastly different experiences between 2 storylines: 4 being on Our continuing "Aether" Storyline and the other 4 being on the Newly formed but unfortunately cut off short "Chaos" Storyline.
And here's where the underwhelming rants begin. Starting off, Said maps were 4 original maps and 4 "reimagined"/remasters. Now if you been following along on the troubled development and insinuations toward the chaos storyline being cut short, You can guess which storylines were the 4 original maps and which one had the remasters. and it wasn't supposed to be that way originally. it was supposed to be more maps upon the chaos storyline and i assume a "year 2" of aether maps. But seeing BO4 wasn't doing so good and Activision plucked treyarch's manpower to complete cold war after a falling out with Raven Software and Sledgehammer, On top of so many other factors like the black ops pass, and massive budget cuts and outsourcing, Both got the short end of the stick. Chaos Story consists of a new adventure of a woman named scarlett rhodes looking for her father with her ragtag of companions after a cult has kidnapped him and the artifacts begin a trial to test the worthiness of people who are inside the circle. Which also causes anomalies like the deformed mystery box made of people or turning people into zombies, catalysts that turn into bosses, and so on. You play with Scarletts crew consisting of her, Diego, Shaw and Bruno on most of the Chaos maps except Dead of the night. That being a prequel consisting of Tywin lannister or Charles Dance from GOT fame, Kiefer Sutherland from 24 and also previously was in CoD as Roebuck from WAW. Brian Blessed who was in Star Wars, Tarzan, and Flash Gordon, and Finally Helena Bonham Carter, Who if you watched Tim burton movies, You'd know exactly who she is.
Regardless, That had a storyline dealing with greek mythology and a lot of crazy ass shit including zombie tigers, a boss called the "blightfather" who is this 3 legged creature that can spawn brutally tearing out of someones body, same with variant zombies like the shrieker and fire zombies similar to the one in BO1's Shangri-la, One powering up and increasing zombies health, and finally one spewing poison, Gladiators that throws axes and blades at you or just lunge towards you and slices at you, Nosferatu, Werewolves, Stokers who were crew ship members who attack you with a big ass shovel, Skeletons, and Six armed Giants. All in 4 Maps, Voyage of despair being on the titanic, IX being an Hallucinogenic gladiator arena, Dead of the night being in a mansion in a party gone wrong and finally Ancient Evil set in an underground delphi, greece. Basically everything the zombies team and Jason Blundell by extension wanted to do without the restrictions of being on the Aether storyline. I mentioned him because halfway through the lifecycle when he starting to part ways with Treyarch, You can see why it got shelved, It was the one that was the most advertised, the one the most budget put towards, including CGId/In game cutscenes, the one that actually makes sense with the modern mechanics of BO4, the one thats basically his baby, and when he dipped and the budget was cut, it was over with the chaos storyline. Shame too because it actually had something going for it, just a shame that its also coincided with the aether storyline with long awaited remasters that didn't make it with Black Ops 3's Zombies Chronicles DLC. That being Blood of the Dead (Mob of the dead remaster), Classified ("Five" Remaster but with the OG "Ultimus" zombies crew), Alpha Omega (a Reimagining/expansion of Nuketown zombies with the underground section from blackout, with both "Ultimus"/"Primis" crews playable) and finally Tag Der Toten (Call of the Dead with the Tranzit Crew).
Mechanics consist of very, very strange changes with the perk system, Instead of looking for the perks and buy all of em on the map or at least the useful ones, You're now forced to choose 4 perks of 18 perks in the main menu. Like ive said before, only chaos benefits from this system and only one map of the 4, and that was IX where the statues are literally erected (hehe) up in 4 different directions. The rest either are confusing as shit to find within the maps or easy to find because of the map layout (if you played Five or Mob, the perk machines are in the exact same spots excluding one being in a few new areas they've added.) Its restrictive response to BO3's Perkaholic which can let you get every single perk on the map, but then also have that as a "elixir" but instead of every single perk, its the 4 perks you have plus 4 random extra ones. As for the "elixirs" they are basically like gobblegums from BO3 but a lot less useful and more situational, can do a variety of things like spawn power ups or teleport you to a random location amongst many other things. and i've never bothered with talisman aka the "extra" starting power, like starting a game with another life or even starting it with an LMG. Thing is, they're only activated once per game and those are often a bitch to get in the laboratory which requires nebulium plasma, a currency earned in zombies.
Why is this change happened? According to Treyarch, they wanted to get rid of "Crutch" Perks like Juggernog or Speed Cola or Double Tap, You know, the 3 of the Original 4 Perk a Colas that was in the mode ever since the very beginning? Only to get OP perks like Winters Wail, Getting hit freezing zombies around you or Death Wish that can let you off with 1 HP instead of going down for a short period of time. On top of those, thanks to criticism and backlash, they wind up adding in 200HP (4 hits like Jug) on start up on normal, Speed cola when you buy all 4 of your perks, and double tap if you pack a punch 4 times to get the full damage. Right i forgot, You need to needlessly pack a punch 4 times to get the full amount of damage when it was a one and done before. (or 2 and done in BO3)
Then there's the specialists, Yup in zombies there are specialists but unlike BO3 where you have to find the parts or do steps to earn it, you just spawn in with it and just charge it up during the game. This is a huge get out of jail free card that even i just find abusing more than id like. The Chaos side has: - Viper and Dragon, a Shotgun and sword combo that can be upgraded into explosive rounds and can make an AOE attack distracting and killing zombies in its wake
- Scepter of RA, a steady beam burning zombies and can revive teammates and can create a bubble to slow down and damage enemies
- Hammer of Valhalla, just swinging around a big ass hammer and shooting and summoning a shit ton of lightning like you're mighty Thor towards the enemies akin to the wunderwaffle
-Chakrams of Vengeance, Which is self-explanatory, one can be thrown and the others for melee and can activate a shield that can kill and damage those around you temporarily
and for the Aether Storyline:
-Hellfire, a Flamethrower that can summon fire tornadoes
-Overkill, a death machine minigun with grenade launcher that can turn into a nuke
-Path of Sorrows, Takeo's katana that can slide through zombies like butter and provides camouflage
And -Ragnarok Dg-5, Similar to its BO3 counterpart, can slam down and killing zombies in its path similar to the gravity slam and can click together to shock zombies near you and finally can turn into a huge tornado that can electrocutes and snares enemies and slam em to the ground.
All of this winds up becoming theoretically the easiest zombies, only being harder than cold war which can be a complete snoozefest that can easily hit into round 50 if you know what you're doing. But they manage to "balance" in a damn PVE mode that many aren't really complaining too hard about. It changed but also half-asses their change by going back and adding in shit that everyone came to expect in the first place.
That sums up BO4 succinctly, Change for the sake of it, and Ruins what made the first 3 Black Ops games (and WAW if you wanna count that as well) so fun and interesting to just this. A "Tactical" Multiplayer that was supposed to be originally an Overwatch clone, A Battle Royale Mode which is now overlooked by its newer Free 2 Play counterpart Warzone (which now is overlooked by its newer, newer counterpart, formerly known as WZ 2.0 and is gonna be soon shutting down its servers) and finally A zombies mode that not only screws up what made good before and also screws itself on what could've been. Its worse than BO2 in terms of overambition and cut content and promises, At least BO2 HAD A CAMPAIGN AND A SENSE OF IDENTITY (Zombies is a little split in the middle in terms of identity like here) and that's also a consequence of having no campaign, No setting a unique tone between all 3 modes intertwined. Not like Modern Warfare (Both OG and Reboots) or WAW or Black Ops 1-3 and So on. Black Ops 4 is a game that the more i think on it, the worst it gets and its painful to think about the missed potential in the zombies and "specialists HQ" mode, or just no potential within multiplayer being botched or stolen all the resources and potential and put it in Blackout, only for that shine getting stolen, merely a year later.
Usually i go by the run down of Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies but this has No Campaign, Went though so much development hell including a 2v2 competitive mode with One team taking out the enemy and one protecting it, And a more cinematic version of what we got, and what we got is "Specialists HQ", A glorified tutorial mode for the multiplayer specialists that you've come to know and love (or hate) from BO3. Except more "tactical" (Expect that to be the theme throughout this review because its sure the theme of the entire game. But I digress.)
The Story- Ok, the "Thesis" of Specialists HQ is seeing the backstories of the specialists you'd play within BO3 and 4, Some returning from 3 and Some new but revitalized certain streaks/abilities from last time. I'll delve deep into their abilities in a bit, But the real Lore, fucking story thing was Mason's granddaughter Savannah in 2040's being the worlds first trillionaire in the BO universe, using the money to form the specialists to change the world. Only to have a severed relationship with her sister Jessica, with a Mission gone awry disfiguring her. and having a really bonkers plot of reviving the dead characters we knew and love (no, not that kind of way, but we'll get to that eventually.) via "Project Blackout". This includes Woods, Their Granddad Alex, Viktor Reznov and get this, Raúl Menendez. Yes. The commie revolutionist bastard you killed in BO2, is not only revived but also somehow running the show within this program and has conflict with Jessica. Who in turn warns the specialists about Savannah tying up loose ends and offing all of them. Its as stupid as it sounds. Now, if you noticed the title "Project Blackout", You'd assume that the story would continue within the blackout battle royale mode. Which you'd be correct on that assumption, Only to realize this was PRE-Warzone 1.0 where they tried to follow up the story within the live service model. But nope. All you have is loose ends, Audio logs detailing savannahs conflict with menendez and uh weird as fuck relationship basically with her granduncle woods, and a cliffhanger ending suggesting woods brainwashing mason and setting up plans in the verrukt asylum and the specialists planning their plot against savannah. I shit you not, that was the whole gist of the plot. and if you think this is all sloppy and not as concise as my previous CoD reviews, I'd understand because its EXACTLY how its executed. As a Makeshift Prequel to BO3, It failed and even manage to put a bittersweet ending given how its implied BO3s MP is all a simulation. and As a sequel to BO2, (and By extent BO1/WAW) its horrid. It basically spits in the face of those who were invested into the history of these characters and has a resolution of reviving the dead, again, not in a zombie like fashion, unsolved because after this, the series goes back to the era of BO1 with Cold War being set in the 1980s.
Now, How does the gameplay of Multiplayer and Blackout fair since those are basically the main throughline of this game?
Multiplayer is more "Tactical", Replacing your usual tactical/lethal grenades with a specialist ability and a Health stim. You heard me correctly. No health regen in this shit. Which would make the gunfights more intense and one of the few things i'd give credit for this game. That and the gunplay is a lot more weightier than any CoD before, Not as weighty as the overhauled gunplay in MW19-the current MWII, but More weighty than any of the previous black ops games, OG modern warfares, WWII games and Standalone titles like AW, Ghosts and Infinite warfare. Like there's more recoil kick, more impact with the sound effects. (as long as you don't put on the optional "death effects") And in the create a class you can even have perks that include having 2 secondary weapons called "underkill", polar opposite of "Overkills" 2 primaries, and the other being Operator mods within the weapons that can change a weapon with minor or major changes. Like you can dual wield the saug 9mms and ballistic knives, have a belt-fed mag on an smg with the cordite, a bayonet on the Vapr-XKG, and an LMG called Hades having a horizontal grip replacing ADS like the chainsaw from ghosts or the Finn from MW19. Gear alongside the health stim, would be including a acoustic sensor that make people appear on the mini map via directional ping, Body armor, COMSEC which allows you to earn scorestreaks 20-25% quicker and an equipment charge that allows you to recharge your equipment faster.
As for the abilities, You have a lethal/tactical side powerup and an "ultimate" powerup. this consists of Specialists:
- "Ruin" with the power slam, a battering ram-shaped device that'll kill off enemies around ya and have a grappling hook and traverse the map like you're batman (so much for the boots on the ground marketing gimmick.)
- "Prophet" with the electric sniper that shoots electric bolts that incapacitates the enemies into a "downed" state and a seeker bot that stuns enemies for an easy kill
- "Battery" with a war machine grenade launcher and a semtex grenade that spawns mini grenades when detonated
- "Seraph" rocking a revolver hand cannon that hits like a truck and a respawn beacon
- "Nomad" sending in an attack dog and trip mines you can place anywhere
- "Firebreak" wielding a flamethrower and a nuclear core that incinerates those around you and can kill you if you overheat it
- "Spectre" who has a katana and smoke grenades
- "Reaper" whos got a Detached double barrel turret and a scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Recon" rocking NVGs that has vision pulse, detecting enemy outlines to the entire team, and a radar that functions similar to reapers scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Crash" who can heal/boost everyones health with his touchscreen tablet, and an ammo pack that can replenish others ammo and gives bonus score with kills
- "Zero" who is a hacker and have emp grenades and can hack enemy equipment and scorestreaks
- "Torque" who has barbed wire and the guardian killstreak from BO2 but bigger and provides larger cover, to incentivize camping
- "Ajax" who has a 9bang flashbang and a Riot shield/machine pistol hybrid that you can stick the pistol into and shoot while the shields up and block (most) bullets
and - "Outrider" who has a explosive bow and recon drones
Now this sounds all gimmicky and shit for a cod game, more so than the predecessor (or successor chronologically) Black ops 3, Why is that? Its because thanks to the development of this heaping pile, it was originally inspired by the likes of Overwatch and R6 siege in particular. Scorestreaks weren't even in the game and Advanced movement was gonna be prevalent. and the scorestreaks was gonna be certain specialists ultimate/ability, like ajax with the riot squad, nomad with the RCXD, torque with the sentry, etc. and suddenly the comparisons made a whole lot more sense. and the maps are certainly designed for more mobile movement than "boots on the ground". So now we have a scenario of its CRACKED for a boots on the ground cod but its slow for a "futuristic" one. Even the perks and pick 10 system that return, Weren't even planning to return iirc. Its a cataclysmic disaster that wind up having the MP revamped from something that was dated and chasing a lot of trends, to now something a bit more half-assed but "traditional cod", chasing hero shooter/"tactical" trends and will be forgotten.
Same with the Blackout mode, Which unfortunately is a shame because as a "10 year anniversary for treyarch cods since WAW" type of deal its a fun celebration with Campaign, MP and Zombies POIs on a huge ass map, especially for CoDs standards at the time. and you can feel the struggle of the dated engine being from forked from idtech3. Yes its reusing THAT engine to create a 100 (well 88 standard) player battle royale. Those who aren't familiar with the mode, its the survival of the fittest between all players on a huge map having to scavenge weapons (and their attachments), health kits, armor, backpacks for more room, etc. and be the last man or group standing. How blackout does things differently is that it also has the MP perks that can be activated for a short period of time like dead silence to make your footsteps quieter. and quest items to unlock your favorite zombies, MP and Campaign characters. Oh yea that's also another selling point, You can play as basically almost all notable characters in the Blops series in this. Excluding the presidents, Mobsters from MOTD, Celebs from COTD (except Danny trejo, he can be played as), the Shadows of Evil crew, the crew from Dead of the night- Yea basically all the celebrities they couldn't get. But other than that, You can play as the OG zombies crew from WAW-BO1, the Tranzit crew from BO2, the "Primis" crew from BO2 Origins-BO4, The newly introduced "Chaos" Crew unfortunately only in BO4, Even the cosmic silverback from Dead Ops Arcade 1 & 2. Along with the aforementioned specialists and Campaign characters. And have the "Dangerous Cloud" closing in make you see the sleeper agent numbers and certain POIs be Zombies maps like Call of the dead, Tranzit, Verruckt, Buried having actual zombies spawn in and MP maps like Hijack, Nuketown, Firing Range. And even have a Separate Map that is Alcatraz. The entirety of it. Like I've said, its almost like a celebration of the whole BO series than it is an actual game with its own sense of identity. As fun as it is running matches and getting very few wins, specifically back on my PS4, Its not really worth having to sacrifice the campaign for it.
and Finally, Zombies. Arguably, the only damn redeeming thing about this game, and even that has its faults. Lets start positive, Custom Mutations allows you to play and customize however you want to play zombies, what round you wanna start with, how many downs you wanna have, how much health the zombies have, etc.
Having that and multiple modes like Classic, and new modes: Rush and Gauntlet does offer replayability, specifically gauntlet more than rush. Rush is a simple mode of having to gain the most amount of points among the players win, Gauntlet on the other hand has all these challenges you have to do each round, and if you fail 3 times you lose. Can put on all the attachments on most weapons just like in MP. And It has 8 maps total, 4 on launch (without dlc its 3 maps) and they all provide vastly different experiences between 2 storylines: 4 being on Our continuing "Aether" Storyline and the other 4 being on the Newly formed but unfortunately cut off short "Chaos" Storyline.
And here's where the underwhelming rants begin. Starting off, Said maps were 4 original maps and 4 "reimagined"/remasters. Now if you been following along on the troubled development and insinuations toward the chaos storyline being cut short, You can guess which storylines were the 4 original maps and which one had the remasters. and it wasn't supposed to be that way originally. it was supposed to be more maps upon the chaos storyline and i assume a "year 2" of aether maps. But seeing BO4 wasn't doing so good and Activision plucked treyarch's manpower to complete cold war after a falling out with Raven Software and Sledgehammer, On top of so many other factors like the black ops pass, and massive budget cuts and outsourcing, Both got the short end of the stick. Chaos Story consists of a new adventure of a woman named scarlett rhodes looking for her father with her ragtag of companions after a cult has kidnapped him and the artifacts begin a trial to test the worthiness of people who are inside the circle. Which also causes anomalies like the deformed mystery box made of people or turning people into zombies, catalysts that turn into bosses, and so on. You play with Scarletts crew consisting of her, Diego, Shaw and Bruno on most of the Chaos maps except Dead of the night. That being a prequel consisting of Tywin lannister or Charles Dance from GOT fame, Kiefer Sutherland from 24 and also previously was in CoD as Roebuck from WAW. Brian Blessed who was in Star Wars, Tarzan, and Flash Gordon, and Finally Helena Bonham Carter, Who if you watched Tim burton movies, You'd know exactly who she is.
Regardless, That had a storyline dealing with greek mythology and a lot of crazy ass shit including zombie tigers, a boss called the "blightfather" who is this 3 legged creature that can spawn brutally tearing out of someones body, same with variant zombies like the shrieker and fire zombies similar to the one in BO1's Shangri-la, One powering up and increasing zombies health, and finally one spewing poison, Gladiators that throws axes and blades at you or just lunge towards you and slices at you, Nosferatu, Werewolves, Stokers who were crew ship members who attack you with a big ass shovel, Skeletons, and Six armed Giants. All in 4 Maps, Voyage of despair being on the titanic, IX being an Hallucinogenic gladiator arena, Dead of the night being in a mansion in a party gone wrong and finally Ancient Evil set in an underground delphi, greece. Basically everything the zombies team and Jason Blundell by extension wanted to do without the restrictions of being on the Aether storyline. I mentioned him because halfway through the lifecycle when he starting to part ways with Treyarch, You can see why it got shelved, It was the one that was the most advertised, the one the most budget put towards, including CGId/In game cutscenes, the one that actually makes sense with the modern mechanics of BO4, the one thats basically his baby, and when he dipped and the budget was cut, it was over with the chaos storyline. Shame too because it actually had something going for it, just a shame that its also coincided with the aether storyline with long awaited remasters that didn't make it with Black Ops 3's Zombies Chronicles DLC. That being Blood of the Dead (Mob of the dead remaster), Classified ("Five" Remaster but with the OG "Ultimus" zombies crew), Alpha Omega (a Reimagining/expansion of Nuketown zombies with the underground section from blackout, with both "Ultimus"/"Primis" crews playable) and finally Tag Der Toten (Call of the Dead with the Tranzit Crew).
Mechanics consist of very, very strange changes with the perk system, Instead of looking for the perks and buy all of em on the map or at least the useful ones, You're now forced to choose 4 perks of 18 perks in the main menu. Like ive said before, only chaos benefits from this system and only one map of the 4, and that was IX where the statues are literally erected (hehe) up in 4 different directions. The rest either are confusing as shit to find within the maps or easy to find because of the map layout (if you played Five or Mob, the perk machines are in the exact same spots excluding one being in a few new areas they've added.) Its restrictive response to BO3's Perkaholic which can let you get every single perk on the map, but then also have that as a "elixir" but instead of every single perk, its the 4 perks you have plus 4 random extra ones. As for the "elixirs" they are basically like gobblegums from BO3 but a lot less useful and more situational, can do a variety of things like spawn power ups or teleport you to a random location amongst many other things. and i've never bothered with talisman aka the "extra" starting power, like starting a game with another life or even starting it with an LMG. Thing is, they're only activated once per game and those are often a bitch to get in the laboratory which requires nebulium plasma, a currency earned in zombies.
Why is this change happened? According to Treyarch, they wanted to get rid of "Crutch" Perks like Juggernog or Speed Cola or Double Tap, You know, the 3 of the Original 4 Perk a Colas that was in the mode ever since the very beginning? Only to get OP perks like Winters Wail, Getting hit freezing zombies around you or Death Wish that can let you off with 1 HP instead of going down for a short period of time. On top of those, thanks to criticism and backlash, they wind up adding in 200HP (4 hits like Jug) on start up on normal, Speed cola when you buy all 4 of your perks, and double tap if you pack a punch 4 times to get the full damage. Right i forgot, You need to needlessly pack a punch 4 times to get the full amount of damage when it was a one and done before. (or 2 and done in BO3)
Then there's the specialists, Yup in zombies there are specialists but unlike BO3 where you have to find the parts or do steps to earn it, you just spawn in with it and just charge it up during the game. This is a huge get out of jail free card that even i just find abusing more than id like. The Chaos side has: - Viper and Dragon, a Shotgun and sword combo that can be upgraded into explosive rounds and can make an AOE attack distracting and killing zombies in its wake
- Scepter of RA, a steady beam burning zombies and can revive teammates and can create a bubble to slow down and damage enemies
- Hammer of Valhalla, just swinging around a big ass hammer and shooting and summoning a shit ton of lightning like you're mighty Thor towards the enemies akin to the wunderwaffle
-Chakrams of Vengeance, Which is self-explanatory, one can be thrown and the others for melee and can activate a shield that can kill and damage those around you temporarily
and for the Aether Storyline:
-Hellfire, a Flamethrower that can summon fire tornadoes
-Overkill, a death machine minigun with grenade launcher that can turn into a nuke
-Path of Sorrows, Takeo's katana that can slide through zombies like butter and provides camouflage
And -Ragnarok Dg-5, Similar to its BO3 counterpart, can slam down and killing zombies in its path similar to the gravity slam and can click together to shock zombies near you and finally can turn into a huge tornado that can electrocutes and snares enemies and slam em to the ground.
All of this winds up becoming theoretically the easiest zombies, only being harder than cold war which can be a complete snoozefest that can easily hit into round 50 if you know what you're doing. But they manage to "balance" in a damn PVE mode that many aren't really complaining too hard about. It changed but also half-asses their change by going back and adding in shit that everyone came to expect in the first place.
That sums up BO4 succinctly, Change for the sake of it, and Ruins what made the first 3 Black Ops games (and WAW if you wanna count that as well) so fun and interesting to just this. A "Tactical" Multiplayer that was supposed to be originally an Overwatch clone, A Battle Royale Mode which is now overlooked by its newer Free 2 Play counterpart Warzone (which now is overlooked by its newer, newer counterpart, formerly known as WZ 2.0 and is gonna be soon shutting down its servers) and finally A zombies mode that not only screws up what made good before and also screws itself on what could've been. Its worse than BO2 in terms of overambition and cut content and promises, At least BO2 HAD A CAMPAIGN AND A SENSE OF IDENTITY (Zombies is a little split in the middle in terms of identity like here) and that's also a consequence of having no campaign, No setting a unique tone between all 3 modes intertwined. Not like Modern Warfare (Both OG and Reboots) or WAW or Black Ops 1-3 and So on. Black Ops 4 is a game that the more i think on it, the worst it gets and its painful to think about the missed potential in the zombies and "specialists HQ" mode, or just no potential within multiplayer being botched or stolen all the resources and potential and put it in Blackout, only for that shine getting stolen, merely a year later.