Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has been a commercial success, but nonetheless a hardcore contingent have called for the game to be reworked in a number of key areas.
On the surface, Black Ops 4 is a great game. The majority of players have largely positive things to say about the game.
The game performs to the high-level Call of Duty games have set for themselves throughout the years. A brand new battle royale mode in the form of Blackout has only heightened the game further.
However, the majority of players are made up of casual players who don’t appreciate the intricacies of game balancing and are perhaps naive to micro-transactions. The hardcore, competitive players believe Black Ops 4 is currently flawed.
Call of Duty World War 2 was reworked to eliminate these type of issues. This has resulted in a dedicated Call of Duty WW2 community meaning the game has retained a good player base.
Black Ops 4 issues
Although they might not be apparent to some, balancing issues in Black Ops 4 include specialists and gun attachments. There is also the issue of the aforementioned reserve system, although this, of course, doesn’t affect gameplay directly.
Reddit user “BernieThrowaway” highlights these issues.
Zero specialist
Specialists are always controversial – no matter how fair they are some players will always believe they’re unbalanced. However, the argument behind Zero being unbalanced is certainly an easy one to make.
She can steal all of your killstreaks or destroy them. What’s more, is this can be achieved by simply sitting in spawn. When looked at objectively this is overpowered.
Strobe Light operator mod
The strobe light operator mod made a return to Black Ops 4 multiplayer after featuring the Call of Duty Ghosts campaign. Its inclusion was met with anger by most CoD players.
Essentially, when encountering the strobe light it breaks your controls. It is especially deadly on consoles where aim assist is required to counter the imprecise nature of the Playstation or Xbox controller.
High Caliber II
The high caliber II attachment is used on top of the original high caliber. Simply put the result is, for applicable guns, a much reduced time to kill (TTK).
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Unfortunately that reduction in TTK isn’t small but actually reduces it to the point that even when getting the first shot off you can frequently lose gunfights.
It is reminiscent of the perk stopping power which hasn’t been seen in any real capacity since Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.
Time-based specialist weapons and equipment
Another excellent point put forward by BernieThrowaway_ is regarding the nature of specialist weapons and equipment.
Specialists were added to Call of Duty in an attempt to keep the game fresh with more variables. However, those added variables mean the game becomes harder to balance.
Moreover, where the specialist weapons and equipment are time-based, there is no skill involved in obtaining them. Killstreaks change the course of any given match but this is arguably justified as you have to accrue enough points (or kills) to earn them.
The current specialist system means any player can change the course of a game without contributing anything in terms of points.
Reserve system
Finally, the Redditor discusses the reserve system. They suggest cosmetic items don’t offer great value but that this is especially true with CoD Black Ops 4.
The problem is items such as faint paint and stickers are unwanted by most of the Call of Duty community. CoD players know what they’re getting so it remains up to them whether they use them but the lack of value has left a poor taste in a lot of mouths.
The concern is, with the issues that are currently prevalent, that Black Ops 4 won’t maintain any type of real player base when the next CoD game releases (expected to be Modern Warfare 4).
Essentially, the current state of Black Ops 4 minimizes the skill gap between good and bad players. It makes sense to do this to some degree as it encourages a wider range of players to play, however, it leaves the most passionate CoD players frustrated.