First impressions with the Black Ops 4 Beta

[Carlos]

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with Call of Duty, this past weekend was Black Ops 4's Multiplayer Beta Weekend #1. Getting the beta is a lot harder this year than it's been for a long time. It's probably because of the relationship between retailers and the publishers. [Best Buy just canceled their Gamers Club Unlocked system.] Which affect people who have been pre-ordering. I've pre-ordered from Best Buy for years now. This year's pre-order was so hard, I had to go through many hoops just to get the pre-order done.

Booting up the game is smooth, clean, and colorful. The menu system has been reworked, and is holding some secrets in there. There are 4 selectable boxes, only one is usable which is "Multiplayer." Many people are scratching their heads about these selectable boxes. So far, we know that Multiplayer is in, BlackOut is in, Black Ops Zombies is in, but what's the 4th slot for? That's Treyarch's teasing in full swing. This is Classic Treyarch.

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View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmCLFk2hBwk

Black Ops 4 plays intuitively smooth. I can't stress that enough. It's incredibly smooth. The thing that bothers me though is the weapon menu. I'll get to that in a moment, but the first time you get dropped into a game, you are to select a specialist. Each specialist have their own special ability. My favorite 2 abilities are Trip Mines, and Recon. The distant third is the grenade, splitting grenades three or six ways. The Online connectivity to Call of Duty's servers are really good, except when you connect your YouTube account and "share" broadcast on PS4. (See video below.)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2R8VM_A8qQ

 

[Carlos]

(Cont. / Max Char. Limit.)

This is due to several factors: I am streaming from a very rural Alabama. Some players in the lobby are also forcing connections or just lagging. I don't know which, but there is no excuse for some of the inconsistency in the video. You won't be able to see it in the video, but there are times where I could walk, or do things in the beta normally, but when I meet a particular player, it lags.

The beta didn't allow me to press the "PS" button, or stopping the stream (also in the video embedded above). There are other actions that prevent me from doing things, but I forget. Anyway, the weapon menu system seems to be the last thing you should be looking at, and I don't disagree with that. It seems like Treyarch is placing it conspiciously so that you don't pay attention to it. Customizing it seems a bit confusing but I didn't have enough time with the beta to really understand how it works.

The controls are smooth, but also confusing until you've gotten the hang of it. What I don't like is that the game is "enclosed" to just you and 9 other players. The game is good as it is, but the game has the same problem as every other Call of Duty game. I like arcade gameplay, but expand the maps, expand the player count. Whoever said that the "big" maps for arcade gameplay doesn't work was trying to keep it the way it was, but once you really get into BO4, you will turn your attention to how incredibly small the maps are with no variety.

Many players camp, many players don't move around much. This game was designed for rushers like myself, but the game encourages you to 1v1 with your nemesis. I see a lot of players trying to get revenge on players. 90% of the time, revenge players try to get to YOUR spawn and try to trap you to die to him (spawn trapping), and of those 90% have that bravado attitude. Like "he's a lost cause," "you suck!" or laugh at your expense. The game is designed for team play, but the problem is, there are a lot of assholes in the game. It's true, Treyarch. See for yourself sometime.

I love the innovations in the game, like heating some objects. I like the Radar/UAV, but I don't use it a lot of the time, and for good reason. Sometimes the UAV/Radar is a bit inconsistent to the point of disappearing red dots - he could be there, but then he moved. I do it sometimes to throw players off their game. I even used it against players. Lay traps, and let them come. Thanks Treyarch!

I like control, but I hate the "kill limit." I'd keep playing the game if there was more time, and more opportunity to get kills in. I think that's just me.

 

[Carlos]

Weekend 2 Quick Impressions:

- Small Maps is a hindrance.
- Spawn Trapping is a real thing here (See #1).
- I know they're trying to go for team play, but broken maps and spawns = 5v5 just doesn't work anymore.
- Black Ops 4 is highlighting why people are starting to get away from games that is enclosed and closed off to only 5v5, 6v6, 12v12. These formulas need changing.
- Weapons Menu is weird. Why can't I customize weapons exactly the way I want it? Cordite is my favorite weapon in the game, and I can't customize it because it's not in Create a Class menu.

 

[Carlos]

Weekend 2 is finished. I saw a few glitches in the game. One is not being able to move once I spawned close to a match's end, and the other person was able to shoot and kill me.

I was able to unlock the Cordite by level I think ...33? Either way, I got some sort of understanding of the weapons menu.