Details on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s single player campaign came in thick and fast over the last couple of weeks, but for many, multiplayer is where it’s really at with the annual shooter franchise. Some information on the multiplayer has become available before it was supposed to over the last few days, but now, Activision have done a full-fledged blowout to reveal everything we need to know about Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer component.
For starters, five new maps have been revealed. Armada is set in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, with the US and Soviet forces both searching for a prototype nuclear submarine. Players will “zipline from ship to ship or command gunboats to turn the tide of the fight.” Then there’s Crossroads, set in “a pivotal Afghanistan route deep in Uzbekistan”. Players will find themselves in “a frozen Soviet Wilderness” and “use tanks to blow up enemy positions or snowmobiles to zip behind the enemy and break their lines.”
Miami is set in Miami’s famed South Beach, where players will find amidst the cover of the night to search (or hide) clues about Soviet agent Perseus’ whereabouts. Moscow will see the Spetsnaz and the CIA fighting against each other within a compromised CIA hideout, with the fighting spilling out onto the streets. Finally, there’s Satellite, set “deep in the deserts of Angola” where “a top-secret, American-made reconnaissance satellite known as the KH-9 has been grounded, potentially by Perseus.”
Treyarch says each map is being “designed and based on authentic, real-world sources, as Treyarch’s visual research department visited real-life locations, photo-scanning thousands of physical objects, terrains, environments, and materials.”
Plenty of modes have also been detailed. You can expect modes such as Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy, Domination, and Kill Confirmed to be featured, as well as Black Ops 4’s Control, alongside a host of new modes.
VIP Escort, which has previously been leaked, is a 6v6 mode in which teams have to either protect or subdue a player that’s randomly selected and becomes the VIP. The VIP is protected by their five squadmates, who have to escort them to the extraction point while fending off the opposing squad, who have to neutralize the VIP before they escape. There are no respawns for non-VIP players, while the VIP themselves only get a pistol and a smoke grenade to defend themselves, as well as a UAV for team intel.
The 12v12 mode Combined Arms blends infantry and vehicular action, and is described as “a larger-scale mode where the action is tailored” to whatever map you’re playing on. “Depending on the map, vehicles such as Tanks, Snowmobiles, Attack Helicopters or Wakerunners will amplify and advance the action alongside traditional gunfights, allowing for jaw-dropping moments right in the middle of an intense engagement,” Treyarch writes. “At launch, expect to play multiple Combined Arms Maps across a handful of Combined Arms Modes, including Domination, which places multiple flags around a given map for teams to capture and defend.”
Finally, there’s Fireteam, a 40 player mode that sees up to 10 teams of four players each going up against each other. “The action is centered around not just the operators in the field, but also the environment they battle in,” the developer writes. “The first available Fireteam game type is called Dirty Bomb, which we’ll have more information on as we get closer to launch!”
Treyarch have also revealed some initial gameplay details, such as a focus on boots-on-the-ground combat that is “built upon the familiar feel of Black Ops movement and gunplay.” There is a new weapon sound system, which “brings further understanding of enemy and friendly gunfire, giving players a sense of what is being fired at them and where it came from through three-dimensional and directional sound.”
Meanwhile, the Create-a-Class system has seen some changes, and is now slot-based, with each soldier having slots for primary weapons, secondary weapons, lethal and tactical equipment, a Field Upgrade, and a set of Perks. What exactly are Field Upgrades? They’re described as “in-game items that either help your squad or hinder your enemies, earned solely on time in-game with a cooldown that lasts after death.”
You can also equip Wildcards to your loadouts, which will allow you one of four unique benefits, including granting eight attachments for a primary weapon, being able to carry up to six perks, doubling the number of lethal and tactical equipment you get on spawn, and being able to carry three (instead of one) Perks from any category.
You can also take your primary weapons to the Gunsmith and customize them with up to 54 attachments across eight different attachment points, with each point giving you at least six different options. Scorestreaks also make a return, and come with some noticeable changes, such as keeping your earned score even upon death. That said, if you string together multiple kills before a death, you’ll earn streak score bonuses, which will help you get to the more powerful Scorestreaks much faster. Additionally, Scorestreaks will also have cooldowns, so they can’t be spammed.
Movement has also seen some improvements. Sprint Take-Off automatically gives you an initial burst of speed when you start sprinting, slides now start and end in crouched positions, jumping comes with more natural heights and briefly slows you down when you land, while how much noise you make depends on how fast you’re moving.
You can check out the multiplayer reveal trailer, the full multiplayer reveal stream, and a bunch of new screenshots from the game below.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 13, and will also be coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X.
