For whatever reason, the Activision gods decided that Warzone should continue to run on the engine used by Modern Warfare (2019), so players are essentially Modern Warfare but with Cold War weapons. With the release of Season One content update for Cold War, the Warzone game mode was updated with a new Cold War -themed map. The best way to describe Black Ops Cold War is that it’s a Call of Duty game But far from being a criticism of last-gen consoles, I think it’s a reflection of the state of this game.

But I think that does reveal the limitations of this game: you only get to experience it at its best on next-gen. In my defence, when I did share my impressions of the Cold War Alpha, it was only available on the PlayStation 4, where the game did look drab. The power of the next-generation consoles (and modern PCs) has squeezed the very last ounce of tech out of the engine. Treyarch and Raven Software have proven that an old dog can do new tricks when given the right gear. The support for ray tracing to render shadows and increased fidelity photogrammetry rendered in native 4K literally shows the battlefields of Call of Duty in a new light. Playing the full game on the new PlayStation 5, Cold War really does look beautiful. While these limitations persist, I confess that I may have been too harsh on Cold War. In short, Cold War is the same old Call of Duty we have been used to since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and the Infinity Ward engine. This means that the game is severely limited in animations, bullet physics, lighting, and sound. I called it a huge step back for the franchise, since Treyarch did not use the redesigned Modern Warfare engine in the development of Cold War. A few months ago, I wrote an article about my experience with the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer Alpha and Beta.

Call of duty black ops cold war review