First Impression – Call of Duty : Black Ops 4 Beta

Based on the private beta that was held last weekend here are some of the interesting things that have changed.

• Specialist is back and there are 10 in total. Each Specialist has their own Equipment and Ability
• There are no grenades or tactical grenades. It is replaced with equipment
• Equipment has a shorter cooldown and can range between cluster bombs, dart sensors to trip mines
• Specialist Abilities are back and are meant to be like powers which you can use once a match. Abilities will charge slowly over time or by getting kills

• Certain weapons have Operator Mods with will change the weapon behavior. Examples are like increasing the burst fire from 3 shots to 5 shots, rapid fire and many more.
• The operation mods will only be unlocked once you mastered the weapon.
• No more double jumps or boost meter.
• There is no auto health regeneration in Black Ops 4. You have to use a health pack manually to heal. A medic Specialist called Crash can also heal and increase the max health of allies
• You can shoot underwater with any type of gun.
• No character customization was in the beta.

Back to Basics

The initial impression on the game itself is actually pretty impressive. The game feels smoother and the combat felt more tactical. Players who team up and communicate will benefit the most with the new Specialist system. Things like no more double jumping and increased time to kill (TTK) drags the gameplay slower compared to the previous Black Ops 3. The manual healing sounds irritating at first but will soon feel natural after playing a match or two. There is also no more ‘head bobbing’ effect while running which helps people with motion sickness.

One of the issues I noticed is, every weapon has almost no recoil. I could hold down the fire button and my crosshair barely drifts from the original spot.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Private Beta. The only thing I wished they had in the beta was the Battle Royale mode, Blackout. Here is my first match in the private beta.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is planned for release on 12 October 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.