Every year a new Call of Duty arrives
That always invites comparisons with the previous entry. In this case, it is almost impossible not to compare Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with Modern Warfare (2019). When looking at the campaign, Cold War actually performs better than its predecessor. The game works best when it leans into the exaggerated, cinematic style that the Black Ops series is known for.
That approach shows up throughout the campaign. The story mixes large-scale spy drama with themes like brainwashing and secret intelligence operations. Because of this tone, the brief appearance of Ronald Reagan feels strange. He is placed into a story that is otherwise exaggerated and dramatic. The moment almost feels like an attempt to add realism to something that is clearly meant to be larger than life. When compared with the more serious tone of Modern Warfare’s story, Cold War’s campaign ends up feeling more entertaining and more suited to the series.
The co-operative Zombies mode is also stronger than Modern Warfare’s Spec Ops mode. It works well as a team experience, though some balance issues still exist. Where the game struggles the most is in multiplayer, which feels weaker overall. The problem becomes even more noticeable when compared to the popularity and scale of Warzone.
Campaign
Like most Call of Duty campaigns, Cold War’s story is highly cinematic. The opening immediately sets the tone with a montage styled around the 1980s. The campaign quickly moves into a flashback set in Vietnam, accompanied by music from Steppenwolf, and from there the game delivers exactly what players expect: explosions, helicopters crashing, dramatic slow-motion gunfights, and constant action.
This style fits perfectly with the Black Ops series. The story often embraces its exaggerated elements, and although some scenes can feel a bit silly, the overall experience makes it easy to accept the mix of spy drama and intense combat.
One reason the story works is the dialogue. Characters often include small bits of humor or sarcastic timing, which prevents the story from becoming too serious. The campaign also introduces several moments where the player can make decisions. These include optional side missions, choices about whether to capture or kill certain enemies, and dialogue options that range from cautious and professional to reckless and aggressive.
Most of these decisions do not significantly change the overall storyline. Even so, experimenting with them can be entertaining. It is possible to replay earlier missions and try different choices, such as pushing an enemy agent off a building instead of arresting him.
Missions
The missions themselves also allow different approaches to combat. Some even react slightly when the player makes mistakes. Early in the campaign, for example, you are ordered to assassinate a target before he can board an airplane. No matter what happens, the attempt ultimately fails. The first time I played, I was too slow and never managed to fire a shot before the target escaped. During another attempt I fired on time, but accidentally hit someone else and the target still escaped. The outcome remains the same, but moments like this create the feeling that your actions matter. The campaign often feels like you are barely managing to pull off risky operations.
Stealth mechanics help support this feeling. Many missions include sections where you must avoid detection, eliminate enemies quietly, and hide bodies before anyone discovers them. Occasionally the stealth system feels a bit forgiving. At times I managed to quietly eliminate someone standing only a few feet from another guard without being noticed. However, some missions still manage to create genuine tension, especially when you are sneaking through restricted areas where being caught could easily ruin the mission.
Design
The level design follows the traditional Call of Duty style. Missions have clear objectives and dramatic set pieces that push the story forward. There are also collectible pieces of intelligence and occasional optional objectives scattered throughout levels. These encourage exploration in locations such as East Berlin or a Soviet training complex.
One particular mission stands out above the rest. It takes place inside a KGB building and gives the player far more freedom than usual. Instead of following a strict path, you can move around the building and choose multiple ways to complete your objective. I ended up spending more time in this mission than any other, exploring the building and sneaking into restricted areas just to see what was hidden behind each door.
Of course, stealth is only part of the experience. The campaign also includes plenty of loud action. The gunplay remains one of the strongest elements of Call of Duty. Landing a shot that produces the familiar heavy sound confirming a kill still feels satisfying whether you are using a sniper rifle or firing the minigun from an attack helicopter. Each weapon feels responsive and distinct.
On the PlayStation 5, the DualSense controller adds extra detail to the shooting mechanics through its adaptive triggers, which will be discussed later.
For the most part, the story avoids recreating specific real-world historical events. Instead, it uses the Cold War period and events like the Iran hostage crisis simply as background to establish the setting and central conflict. The CIA’s involvement in questionable operations is referenced, which fits the espionage theme.
Ronald Reagan
However, Ronald Reagan appears briefly at the start of the campaign and later through several voice lines. Technically, the recreation of his appearance and voice is impressive. Still, the moment feels awkward. In a room full of hardened intelligence agents discussing covert military operations, Reagan appears almost like a friendly grandfather figure. The scene does not really connect to his actual policies or influence the story in any meaningful way. The same scene could have featured any fictional president and the narrative would not change.
Despite this odd moment, the campaign is still enjoyable. It delivers the dramatic twists that the Black Ops series is known for. However, the story introduces some interesting political and moral ideas but never fully explores them.
One of the main narrative issues is how the United States is portrayed. Without revealing too many spoilers, the central conflict of the campaign originates from a disastrous anti-Soviet strategy created by the United States. Instead of focusing on the consequences of that mistake, the characters are mostly concerned about being blamed for it.
Two tribes
In one of the two main endings, the story briefly suggests that the United States may not be entirely innocent. However, that outcome is treated as the “bad” ending. Completing it left me feeling guilty, which made it seem as though the story still expects the player to see the United States as the heroes whose questionable actions were justified.
The overall theme of the campaign seems to suggest that the Cold War was morally complicated and not simply a battle between good and evil. The game hints at that idea several times, especially when referencing events from the original Black Ops story. Unfortunately, it never fully commits to exploring that complexity. Even so, the campaign remains engaging from start to finish and keeps the player invested in the story.
Multiplayer
Cold War includes the familiar set of multiplayer modes that have been part of Call of Duty for years. Traditional 6-versus-6 matches are still the core of the experience. These modes are the foundation of Call of Duty multiplayer, and they continue to function as expected.
At launch, the number of maps is relatively small, although additional maps have already been announced. The Cold War setting allows each map to look quite different from the others. One of the most visually striking examples is Miami, where neon lights and night-time streets create a memorable atmosphere.
Each standard map mixes tight indoor areas with longer open sightlines. In most cases, these maps work well across multiple game modes.
A larger mode called Combined Arms acts as Cold War’s equivalent to Modern Warfare’s Ground War. This 12-versus-12 mode focuses on objectives and includes vehicles, but on a smaller scale. Players can use boats on the Armada map, motorcycles on Cartel, and snowmobiles along with tanks on Crossroads.
Game maps
Armada is easily the most interesting of these maps. It features several large ships connected by zip lines. Players can travel between them using those lines, by swimming through the water, or by using boats. This creates several strategic options. Driving a loud vehicle lets you reach objectives quickly but reveals your position, while swimming underwater allows you to sneak up on enemies at the cost of speed.
The other Combined Arms maps are less impressive. Cartel includes motorcycles, but the map’s tight spaces and uneven terrain make them less useful. On Crossroads, tanks can cause chaos, but players on foot are often just as effective.
Interestingly, Cartel and Crossroads actually function well as regular 6-versus-6 maps without vehicles. Armada, however, loses much of its identity when the boats are removed. Even though the map is adjusted for fewer players, it still feels too large without the larger mode’s objectives guiding players toward each other.
Cold War’s multiplayer also feels somewhat clumsy compared with Modern Warfare and Warzone. Some mechanics that players may expect are missing, such as the ability to mount weapons on surfaces or switch a gun’s firing mode. Because Warzone remains an active part of the Call of Duty ecosystem—and can even be launched directly from Cold War’s menu—the differences between the systems become noticeable. Switching between the two games can feel strange because the movement and gunplay behave differently.
DualSense Features on PS5
The PlayStation 5 version of Call of Duty: Cold War makes strong use of the DualSense controller. The controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers create physical sensations that match what is happening in the game.
When the player’s health is low, the controller vibrates in rhythm with the character’s heartbeat. The resistance of the left trigger changes depending on how quickly a weapon aims down sights. The right trigger also behaves differently depending on the weapon’s firing rate and power. Stronger guns produce heavier vibrations to represent recoil.
Testing different weapons makes these differences clear. Each weapon feels distinct through the triggers, although it is harder to notice changes caused by attachments such as stocks. The gameplay advantages of attachments still work normally, like improving reload speed.
The most practical use of these features appears in Zombies mode, where weapons are swapped frequently. The controller feedback makes it immediately obvious which weapon you are holding without needing to look at the HUD.
These trigger effects also influenced which weapons I preferred using. The MP5, even after its balance nerf, feels quick and responsive through the trigger. The AK-74u feels heavier but remains easy to control while offering strong damage.
Although these features add immersion, they do not necessarily improve performance. Some weapons require significant pressure on the trigger to aim down sights. After several hours of playing, this caused noticeable finger fatigue. Because of that, I sometimes switched to the AK-47, which felt easier to use. Strong vibration could also affect accuracy slightly. Players who prefer a more traditional controller experience can disable these features entirely in the game’s settings.
Zombies
Zombies has always been a popular part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, but Cold War’s version feels particularly rewarding. For the first time in a while, it felt like I genuinely improved with each attempt.
A major reason for this is the design of the map Die Maschine. The map is large enough that each player can run around with their own group of zombies but small enough that learning the layout does not take long. After only a few runs, it becomes easy to remember which doors to unlock, when to activate the power, and how to access the Pack-a-Punch machine.
Once these basics are understood, the focus shifts to improving strategies and surviving longer.
However, the difficulty scaling could use some adjustments. After round 10, enemies become much stronger while basic weapons start losing effectiveness. Upgrading weapons now involves two systems. First, you can upgrade them using Pack-a-Punch with points earned from kills. Second, you must increase their damage tier using salvage, which randomly drops from zombies.
Salvage appears far less frequently than points. As a result, players might upgrade a weapon through Pack-a-Punch twice before round 20 but still lack the salvage needed to increase its damage tier. When that happens, weapon damage stops improving and players struggle to keep up.
This extra layer of upgrades also makes the system more complicated than necessary. Salvage is required not only for weapon tiers but also for improving armor and crafting equipment like grenades. Players constantly have to choose where to spend it.
Boss
Another challenge appears in the form of radioactive boss enemies that periodically join the normal zombie waves. These bosses absorb large amounts of damage and often survive between rounds. By round 20, teams may spend large numbers of points just refilling ammunition to keep fighting them.
Fully upgrading a weapon through Pack-a-Punch costs 30,000 points, which makes it difficult to reach the final upgrade while also surviving the increasingly difficult rounds. The challenge becomes even greater when the game spawns multiple bosses at once.
Despite this difficulty, the boss fights encourage teamwork. One strategy that worked for my group involved leaving a single zombie alive and running it around the map while the team focused on eliminating the bosses. This technique delays the start of the next round, giving players time to manage resources. It is not a new strategy in Zombies, but it still feels satisfying when executed successfully.
The real issue is that boss encounters occur too frequently, leaving little time for players to recover.
Another major problem affecting Zombies is technical stability. Matchmaking often takes 10 to 15 minutes before a game can even begin. Sometimes a player disconnects right as the match starts. These issues occur both with cross-play enabled and when playing only with PS5 users. In some cases, players on both PS5 and Xbox Series X experienced crashes severe enough to shut down their consoles.
Considering that Cold War launched across multiple console generations while supporting cross-play—and did so during the global pandemic—technical issues are somewhat understandable. However, they are still significant enough to mention.
Conclusion
Future updates will likely improve Cold War over time. Weapons will be balanced, bugs will be fixed, and new content will be added. Zombies already has a strong foundation and could become even better with adjustments.
However, the difference between Cold War’s multiplayer and the Warzone ecosystem is much harder to solve. Zombies provides an enjoyable cooperative experience, but the weaker multiplayer modes prevent the game from reaching its full potential.
In the end, the campaign ends up carrying much of the game’s overall quality.
Score: 7 / 10
The Good
- The campaign embraces the exaggerated Black Ops style and feels like a spy action movie.
- Dialogue choices and mission decisions add variety even if they do not heavily change the story.
- The Armada map in Combined Arms is one of the most creative multiplayer maps.
- The Zombies map Die Maschine is well designed and easy to learn.
- On PS5, the DualSense adaptive triggers add extra detail to the weapon handling.
The Bad
- The story introduces interesting themes but never fully explores them.
- Fireteam: Dirty Bomb struggles to work well with 40 players and confusing objectives.
- Multiplayer mechanics differ noticeably from Warzone, making the transition between the two awkward.
- Zombies becomes too difficult too quickly compared to how fast players can upgrade their equipment.
