Is Black Ops Cold War successful?

• Home
• Game News
• Black Ops Cold War Retains Position As Top-Selling Game In May 2021

Throughout 2021, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War has remained a financial success for Activision, further brightening the Call of Duty brand.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

When I first played the Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War alpha I walked away deflated. The game was nothing like 2019’s Modern Warfare. It felt floaty and the sounds were tinny. Gunplay just felt sort of thin and weak compared to its predecessor.

Why couldn’t Activision let Modern Warfare run for two years? I wondered. We’d get more Modern Warfare content and Treyarch would have more time to polish Cold War. That still might have been the right call, but I’ve gone from critic to superfan over the past five months.

The Cold War beta was better. I was still dubious about it but it was better. The final product was better still, though thin on content and still just very, very different from Modern Warfare, a game that I sunk countless hours into in 2019/2020. I wanted the two to be more alike. I wished that Cold War’s mechanics were more like Modern Warfare’s, and that the engines were the same.

I was wrong. I was dead wrong. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I hope Activision ignores my earlier criticism entirely and let’s Treyarch make its next game exactly how Treyarch wants to make it. I hope they give them the time and resources to release a game that doesn’t feel quite so thin on content at first also.

Black Ops Cold War

Ever since Season 1 launched, Black Ops Cold War has gotten better and better. Each season introduces more content, from new maps to new guns and melee weapons, and the game itself has seen any number of fixes and balancing patches. Now, other than its atrocious split-screen, Black Ops Cold War has (somehow) become my go-to Call Of Duty. I prefer it to Modern Warfare for any number of reasons which I’ll list below:

It’s faster. Not only faster, but more fluid. Going back to Modern Warfare or Warzone just feels clunky and slow after you’ve played a bunch of Cold War. There are times where I feel like I’m flying across a Cold War map. Or perhaps gliding is the better term. When you get the flow down, the movement in this game is just way more fun (if less realistic). There are times when I really just find myself in a zone playing this game.

The music. Modern Warfare has fine music but Black Ops Cold War’s music player means you have lots of high-energy tracks to listen to while you’re in multiplayer. Switching back to Modern Warfare it just feels too quiet. Music + fast, fluid movement is a great combination.

The gunplay. Most of my favorite guns are now Black Ops Cold War guns. The Pelington sniper rifle is a phenomenal gun. Several of the game’s SMGs rank among my favorite, including the AK-74u and the LC-10. I love Cold War’s snappy shotguns and have increasingly been using Tactical Rifles in my loadouts (though not in League, unfortunately, where there are neither Stims (gah!) or Tactical Rifles. The point being, I have found myself enjoying Cold War’s arsenal more than Modern Warfare’s lately. I didn’t expect this to happen.

The info. There’s just a ton of info available in Cold War. Just about every stat you could care to peruse you can find. Even while watching POTG you can see exactly what weapon and attachments were used. It’s an enormously detailed game which is actually quite useful.

The maps. I like a lot of Modern Warfare maps, but I’ve increasingly come to enjoy Cold War’s even more. This is partly due to the “strike” maps that have been introduced. These are smaller versions of larger maps like Armada and Miami that are more contained and fast-paced. My only complaint here remains the lack of Gunfight maps. I love Gunfight more than any other mode and I just really wish we had four or six more Gunfight maps to choose from.

Black Ops Cold War

Other stuff has just improved over time. Operators have gotten better as more skins have been released. The story has continued from the campaign and it’s actually a pretty entertaining narrative, even if it is just a way to move each Warzone season along. I’m still not a huge Zombies fan or a Multi-Team fan, but that’s okay. I’ve always been less keen on the co-op modes and big team modes when it comes to Call Of Duty. That’s more a matter of taste than anything, as I realize Cold War has tons of great Zombies content. I’m more into multiplayer/Gunfight than any of that stuff or Warzone for that matter.

Speaking of Warzone, I’ll have a separate piece up about that. I still don’t think these two games have merged well, largely due to the fact that the mechanics are so different between the two. More on that later.

For now, all I have to say that Black Ops Cold War has just really grown on me. It’s improved a ton but I also think, on some other level, that it “clicked” for me at a certain point. I’ve played a ton of the game with friends and my kids and when we switch back to Modern Warfare I enjoy the game still, but it just feels so slow and clunky by comparison. It’s still a great game. I enjoy the ways it differs from Cold War. But I’ve come to really appreciate what Cold War has to offer and it’s my go-to these days. Go figure.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. 

Also, sign up for my new newsletter diabolical.

Is Black Ops Cold War still popular?

Is Black Ops Cold War worth it?

Is Cold War the most sold Call of Duty?

Is Vanguard or Cold War more popular?