Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

 Xbox Series X
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 756 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 270 out of 756
  2. Mixed: 71 out of 756
  3. Negative: 415 out of 756
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  1. lliammn
    Dec 7, 2020
    8
    The multiplayer is very flawed but I feel it will be fixed in time. The zombies mode is a good time killer but it's also great to try and take seriously. The campaign is one of the best Call of Duty campaign's I have ever played the twist is amazing and the graphics were incredible even on last gen systems. The cutscenes were a laggy mess however
  2. Chris0nF1re
    Dec 7, 2020
    3
    Absolutely broken. Terrible animations and awful frame rate. Game makes me feel nauseous when I play it. Tones of glitches. I’d stay away and only buy the game if on sale for £10/15

    Campaign was okay but forgettable.
  3. Cdr1978
    Dec 5, 2020
    9
    Great game its great to see call of duty boots on the ground way better then that black ops 2 & 3 was ok
  4. GCArmor
    Dec 5, 2020
    0
    Overall I just wan`t to say this game is 0/100. I just can´t recommend this to other people. I have to say I was never so disapointed with game before and the biggest problem with this statement is just, I wasn´t expecting anything from this game, but still got just dissapointed in just every aspect of the Game.

    The Campaign is nothing special not even 20€ worth (1/3of the game). I    Overall I just wan`t to say this game is 0/100. I just can´t recommend this to other people. I have to say I was never so disapointed with game before and the biggest problem with this statement is just, I wasn´t expecting anything from this game, but still got just dissapointed in just every aspect of the Game.

    The Campaign is nothing special not even 20€ worth (1/3of the game).
    I made extra a Account to write this review.

    Zombies is good but until state 05.12.2020 just not worth it, just no quantity at all.

    And now the Multiplayer, now this...this is something it is just so broken and **** There is nothing good about. Matchmaking is just too competitive and everyone is just using the same weapons it is just boring...the best part of it all is, if you can play it...most of the time it just chashes and lags nonstop.

    To sum it up, spent the money on something that is more worth it and this is litteraly anything else.    … Expand
  5. Orion590
    Dec 5, 2020
    2
    Game keeps crashing xbox one console. Gameplay is choppy. Far inferior to modern warfare
  6. Marco2020
    Dec 5, 2020
    3
    Too many boring cinematics in single - not much to play , some levels ok, some very redundant with same old algotyrhms and very linear action. Not Very Bad - but overall mediocre - i played on series X and graphics is so so - flat texture are very common. Console hang out from time to time, the whole system was crashing several times.
  7. PepperoniMac
    Dec 4, 2020
    0
    Do not buy until they fix the game for the Xbox series x. Rarely can I finish a team death match game without the game crashing. Unplayable.
  8. bilthebuket
    Dec 4, 2020
    0
    I have never hated a call of duty game quite like this one. The zombies is so ridiculously easy it might as well be a toddler's game. This game is the most rng based, no skill, kid-oriented game ever. I was so excited that a new black ops game was coming out, and it featured one of the best things about MW: gunsmith. But boy oh boy was I disappointed. Let's start with multiplayer.I have never hated a call of duty game quite like this one. The zombies is so ridiculously easy it might as well be a toddler's game. This game is the most rng based, no skill, kid-oriented game ever. I was so excited that a new black ops game was coming out, and it featured one of the best things about MW: gunsmith. But boy oh boy was I disappointed. Let's start with multiplayer.

    Starting with create a class, I have never seen customization that was so unnecessary like this. Gunsmith is not gunsmith. 95% of the attachments don't have an significant tradeoffs, which is the main point of gunsmith. Every single attachment adds little and doesn't take away anything, so what's the point? It MW, if you wanted to quickscope, you could dedicate all 5 attachments on your sniper to aim down sight speed. In black ops cold war, there's 1 attachment that helps aim down sight speed, and it only helps 5%. I personally love quickscoping, and this game is insulting. Just ask faze jev. The only reason to ever pick a sniper is if you want to be a hardscoping **** in search and destroy. If you want to quickscope, load up the wall hacks because your gonna have to pre aim a second in advance, without even knowing the person is there. Or you could use the Pellington, which is less consistent that the mk2 at 5,000 meters away. All of this ties back to Treyarch making this game for toddlers, because you don't have to put any thought into your attachments, and you don't have to worry about quickscopers, who would normally **** of little timmy. Now let's talk about time to kill and skill based matchmaking. If you don't want to sweat your **** balls off every single match, you better either play with your **** friend or pick a different game. It's so **** strong that you'll have 3 straight 0.5 k/d ratio games, then one game with a 3.0 k/d, then its back to 0.5. And this is even worse with time to kill. Call of duty typically has fast time to kill, with the exception of black ops 4. The problem with how long the time to kill is that if you engage more than one person at once, you're **** dead. In old games, you could react fast, laser one, take cover, and kill the other. But in this game, especially with how slow aim down sight speed is, you'll just **** die. Because of this, if you're not camping, you're not getting kills. Guess what's easier than playing run and gun: camping. Stop catering to **** nine year olds Treyarch. So what we have now is a multiplayer where customization means nothing, you can't quickscope, if you play well the game punishes you, and if you don't camp your not getting kills. Fun, right?

    Now lets talk about zombies. Me personally, I have played black ops one, black ops two, black ops 3, world war 2, and black ops cold war. Typically in tryarch zombies, if you go down in co-op, the only way to get back up is if your teammates complete the round or revive you. Either way, you lose all of your perks. If you bleed out completely and have to wait for the round to end, you'll lose your weapons as well. In solo, the only way to be revived is through quick revive, with some exceptions, but mostly only quick revive. Well in black ops cold war, you're pretty much invisible. So basically what your gonna do is spawn in with the knife, which can one shot zombies un packed unit around 14. Fair, right? Then your gonna get the gallo off the wall for 1200 points which is pretty much a wonder weapon. Off the wall. For 1200 points. If you play about 5 games you'll have enough atherium crystals to max out aether shroud, jug, and quick rievive. With these things maxed out you pretty much take 5 bottles of steroids. 250 health and aether shroud is the ultimate save me item. With tier 3 aether shroud you are teleported forward and aren't targeted by zombies for 10 seconds. So basically if you get cornered, you're fine. It has cool down yes, so you could argue if you get corened twice, you die right? Nope. Get yourself a chopper gunner with some salvage, which you'll be bathing in by round 15. Zombies won't target you while you use it, so another save me item. Not to mention you get to **** blast zombies with a beast in the sky. Ok, so if you use both, your dead right? Wrong again. Go buy yourself a self revive, which cost the same salvage you'll be rolling in by round 15. So if you go down, you can revive yourself. But you lose your perks right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. You lose 1. Only 1. And you can use this setup in co op as well, so basically there's infinite high rounds. And once you get to round 20, which isn't hard, getting the ray gun and die gun becomes incredibly easy. So basically any old noob can go in and become invisible, get infinite high rounds, and they won't even break sweat. They better release some maps that make it a whole lot harder, because its not fun when the game hands you everything on a silver platter.

    So all in all, black ops cod war takes the skill out of call of duty.    … Expand
  9. animaczech
    Dec 4, 2020
    1
    Really bad performance of the game. On specific maps even without the rate tracing there is a huge FPS drop. Game is unstable it crashes a lot. And it’s the only game which somehow make my xbox crashed completely.
    There is a lack of the game content and maps. Campaign is really short, graphics are worse than modern warfare. :( I am disappointed!
  10. Alexmar28
    Dec 4, 2020
    2
    BMM kill the multiplayer, the experience is realmente bad, zombies and campaing are good
  11. Rumble1984
    Dec 4, 2020
    2
    Performance so bad!!!
    It dont run on a i5 3450 16 gb ram and a AMD Fury. Modern Warfare runs very good without frame dropping!
    Cold War runs under full hd and still frame drops! unplayable! normaly i want my Money back! and go back to Modern Warfare.
    Fix the hard performance problems...and ban the hackers on the server.
    Also your "balancing" matchmaking is ****
  12. Gravityrideryt
    Dec 3, 2020
    0
    RIP Cod, very bad game! Remove SBM! My first cod was mw2. This game is dead. Only family fathers and camper
  13. alexc321
    Dec 3, 2020
    8
    Most fun I’ve had in years on COD. Seriously underrated but the bugs on Xbox must be fixed.
  14. Kyaal
    Dec 3, 2020
    1
    1 simply for the zombies effort, well done to the zombies team. Campaign is forgettable. Don't get me started with multiplayer... Me and my friends decided it's arguably the worst COD ever made. Treyarch/infinity ward and others should have given this year a miss instead of releasing a game that plays and feels like a pre alpha
  15. zDieKumpelblxse
    Dec 3, 2020
    0
    Don’t like the multiplayer sbmm is **** and there a literally 2 maps... they releasing a another unfinished game... the zombie mode is playable tho but i am tired after 2 or 3 games... at this point I would hop on the mp Lobbys but nah
  16. StepSisteR
    Dec 2, 2020
    5
    Its nice a lot But i Cant Play with SBMM on, cant they Make an on/Off lever for ist in Game
  17. NobleWarHamster
    Dec 2, 2020
    1
    Campaign was fun, but blasted through it within a few hours, after the campaign, what you are left with is multiplayer and zombies. Which feels like an incomplete game. Weapon choices seem few and far between unlike some of their more recent titles, and the only Weapons you’ll be using anyways are the MP5 and Mauer shotgun. Multiplayer plays laggy and and the map layout feels rushed. AllCampaign was fun, but blasted through it within a few hours, after the campaign, what you are left with is multiplayer and zombies. Which feels like an incomplete game. Weapon choices seem few and far between unlike some of their more recent titles, and the only Weapons you’ll be using anyways are the MP5 and Mauer shotgun. Multiplayer plays laggy and and the map layout feels rushed. All in all, it’s still fun to play, but they know we’re going to give them our money regardless, so I feel like they just ran out of **** in this one.… Expand
  18. Juliantkill
    Dec 2, 2020
    2
    Really bad game, to much bugs, I only like campaign, terrorific multiplayer and crashed my Xbox Series X
  19. Aaronbruh209
    Dec 2, 2020
    1
    Most unfinished game I’ve ever played. Split screen doesn’t work, frame rate stutters even on series x, crashes system often and still no patch after almost a month after release. On top of all that, the gameplay movement/aiming just feels sluggish. Best way I can describe it is it feels like I’m playing on a screen with a crazy high response time
  20. OverSized
    Dec 2, 2020
    4
    The campaign needed more refining before it came out It feels sloppy in some places overall the best mission that the game added was the KGB mission in my opinion at least The zombies is one of the only saving graces but it does have its problems indeed from recycled content and the worst part of the game is the multiplayer as it's recycled content The graphics in some rare cases are goodThe campaign needed more refining before it came out It feels sloppy in some places overall the best mission that the game added was the KGB mission in my opinion at least The zombies is one of the only saving graces but it does have its problems indeed from recycled content and the worst part of the game is the multiplayer as it's recycled content The graphics in some rare cases are good but other times in all the maps seems like it's the lacking modern warfare was much more refined in design campaign audio graphics It could have been good but it missed the mark by mile What I paid the full 60 no I would wait for a deal so you don't waste your money as well And it's current stance I don't think there's anything that they can do to quiet overhaul the game enough to get it recuperating I give it maybe seven or eight months before I will probably collapse on itself if it doesn't try to change but there's so much inconsistencies there constantly going on that it's hard to say It doesn't help the activation pressure them giving them half of the time that they were allotted to make the game in the first place… Expand
  21. BurstingScore
    Dec 2, 2020
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The worst call of duty ever! A lot of bugs and lags! Raytracing is bugged! Cheaters in multiplayer from day 1! Lack of maps and weapons in multiplayer! Bad guns gameplay!… Expand
  22. Birdman35867
    Dec 1, 2020
    0
    This entire game is an abortion. They should be ashamed of themselves. Activision should feel disgusted to have to share Warzone with any part of this disfigured game.
  23. HunterVisible
    Dec 1, 2020
    0
    Just crashes the consol complete waste of money. Will not play it until they fix it
  24. otislive356
    Dec 1, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Fix your game! I shouldn't have to worry about my console shutting or possibly worse. This was a known problem in Modern Warfare when it released and should've been avoided in this one!… Expand
  25. Peppersoldier
    Dec 1, 2020
    6
    I still can’t decide if this game was just overhyped along with having high expectations or just a bad game. The campaign is the best feature in this game but zombies in multiplayer is the downfall. Zombies just gets old and repetitive and doesn’t feel the same. Yet again, SBM (skill-based matchmaking) is a thing and the graphics and movement of the player have downgraded tremendously fromI still can’t decide if this game was just overhyped along with having high expectations or just a bad game. The campaign is the best feature in this game but zombies in multiplayer is the downfall. Zombies just gets old and repetitive and doesn’t feel the same. Yet again, SBM (skill-based matchmaking) is a thing and the graphics and movement of the player have downgraded tremendously from MW 2019.… Expand
  26. nroberts5603
    Nov 30, 2020
    2
    Quite frankly, this is the worst Call of Duty I’ve purchased in some time. I haven’t gotten to try the campaign yet for fear of crashing my Series X. As for the multiplayer...yikes. There’s a severely limited map selection and regardless of which map you’re on, you spend the majority of your time getting obliterated as soon as you spawn. I don’t know how their matchmaking algorithm works,Quite frankly, this is the worst Call of Duty I’ve purchased in some time. I haven’t gotten to try the campaign yet for fear of crashing my Series X. As for the multiplayer...yikes. There’s a severely limited map selection and regardless of which map you’re on, you spend the majority of your time getting obliterated as soon as you spawn. I don’t know how their matchmaking algorithm works, but it continuously creates blowouts. I wish I could say it had gorgeous, next-gen graphics, but I have to turn off ray tracing to have ANY chance of it not crashing my system. Overall, this game feels like a beta (did I mention it’ll crash your system?) and is a horribly disappointing product. There have been bad launches in the past that turned out ok, so I hope that’s what happens. Until then, this game is nothing but a regretful purchase.… Expand
  27. yassir5505
    Nov 30, 2020
    10
    Great Zombies and Campaign very innovative and great era, graphics were incredible
  28. Seattleboos7743
    Nov 30, 2020
    1
    This is trash. If it had double the launch maps for multiplayer it would be just alright. I cant play now because it causes my xbox to shut off. F this trash. Theres so many problems that shouldnt be there with an AAA title at all. The campaign is fun but I miss some of the dialogue because the game doesn't load properly. It lags like youtube and pauses than struggles to catch up and I'mThis is trash. If it had double the launch maps for multiplayer it would be just alright. I cant play now because it causes my xbox to shut off. F this trash. Theres so many problems that shouldnt be there with an AAA title at all. The campaign is fun but I miss some of the dialogue because the game doesn't load properly. It lags like youtube and pauses than struggles to catch up and I'm just playimg the campaign. Just trash. Please dont waste your money… Expand
  29. abdullahsabbir
    Nov 30, 2020
    3
    I am not a veteran CoD player. My first CoD where I actively played MP was MW2019. While it was not perfect, the SBMM in that game wasn't as strong as it is in BOCW. I'm a very casual player, I played about 125 Hours of MP in MW2019 and my K/D ratio is 1.01. Here in BOCW, I have to sweat in every single game and my K/D ratio rarely touches 1. Some people will probably tell me to just getI am not a veteran CoD player. My first CoD where I actively played MP was MW2019. While it was not perfect, the SBMM in that game wasn't as strong as it is in BOCW. I'm a very casual player, I played about 125 Hours of MP in MW2019 and my K/D ratio is 1.01. Here in BOCW, I have to sweat in every single game and my K/D ratio rarely touches 1. Some people will probably tell me to just get good, but you know what? I don't want to. I play games to relax at the end of the day and this game is not relaxing or fun. I'm giving this a 3 just because the campaign and the zombie mode are okay.… Expand
  30. Alfalfa
    Nov 30, 2020
    1
    I gave 1! Horrible game. Couldn’t finish single campaign because game was crushing every 5 minutes, I thought there’s something wrong with my next gen console but it was this game. Overall horrible experience! 70€? Joke. Dont buy.
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Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best Xbox Series X Game of 2020
2
#2 Most Discussed Xbox Series X Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. WellPlayed
    Feb 11, 2021
    70
    The beating heart of the Call of Duty experience in terms of multiplayer feels like a solid return to the classic formula, but abundant technical issues make this a worrying stumble into a new generation.
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  2. Game Over Online
    Dec 1, 2020
    70
    Overall, despite some performance issues, I rather enjoyed the mercenaries, spies and private eyes campaign that is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. I’d like to see the development team get a chance to really flesh out a longer campaign in this style, but you know…the call of duty.
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  3. M3
    Nov 30, 2020
    60
    With an entertaining campaign, great online opportunities and panic-stricken zombie slaughter, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is an impressive package. Still, we can not help but feel disappointed. The best parts of the campaign could have been developed much more and the online modes feel well stripped down. Cold War still impresses, but with more development time, it could have been so much more than "this year's Call of Duty game".
    Read full review
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