Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 developers, Treyarch, have been criticized by fans after they released a skin with almost identical features to another, and giving it a different name.
Like almost every other multiplayer game on the market right now, players are able to make their character unique in Black Ops 4, by purchasing or earning various skins that alter the clothing their in-game soldier wears.
However, fans were left disgruntled after finding that Treyarch had released another variant for the Battery specialist, noticing it was extraordinarily similar to another skin.
The rare outfits – Fall and Classic – both feature a similar design, with very few differences despite being released as standalone cosmetic outfits.
In case you can’t see, there are some very minor differences: there is hints of green in the Fall outfit which isn’t seen on the Classic variant, as well as the scissors on the character’s leg changing color.
Other than that, the skins appear to be exactly the same – prompting fans to vent their frustrations at Treyarch’s lazy cosmetics, and some suggesting that it is a deliberate ploy to fill up the ‘loot’ pool for supply drops.
Players on Reddit were quick to mock the design, claiming to have won a “spot the difference” challenge for highlighting the subtle differences between the two items, as well as joking that someone had forgot to “pay the designers”.
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Treyarch were criticized for their laziness, and some players were forced to check whether they already owned the outfit due to its similarity.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a Call of Duty developer has been blasted for releasing similar items with different names either.
In 2017’s WWII, Sledgehammer Games were called out for releasing multiple emotes in supply drops with 100% identical animations, but with a new name for each, filling up the supply drops with duplicate emotes.
Whether these skins are intentionally the same or simply an oversight on Treyarch’s part, fans are right to be upset, given how long it currently takes to earn a supply drop, or ‘reserve’ as they are called in-game.
Some estimates suggest it takes over an of playtime to earn a supply drop, and players are only given one item in the drop, rather than three as in all previous Call of Duty games.