Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Alpha: A Final Look

The Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Alpha will end tonight and kick-start the wait for the final version of the game to hit the stores this November. The alpha build of the game unveiled a lot about the game, from the Easter Eggs to the much talked about SBMM feature in the game’s multiplayer.

Here is a compilation of the impression the new CoD title has made on the community.

Further reading:?Call of Duty Pros Take a Dig At Cold War SBMM

The upcoming sniper nerf in Call of Duty BOCW

For starters, the incredibly buffed up snipers are something a large section of the community seems to have enjoyed. However, devs have confirmed that they will most definitely ‘balance’ the sniping mechanics in the game. They have said that they deliberately buffed the snipers in the alpha version to evaluate their performance.

Here is what Tony Flame, game designer, has to say about the sniper issue.

It seems like many players are not really keen on the idea, and for good reason. The sniping experience in Call of Duty BOCW is quite satisfying and stable, with fast ADS speeds. Moreover, the sniping mechanics allow players, who usually play assault or heavy, to take over a long-range role.

This is something that Pamaj, the popular streamer from FaZe, agreed with.

However, it remains to be seen exactly how much devs nerf the snipers. After all, the community’s feedback will form the basis of the upcoming changes in the game.

The looming SBMM horror in Black Ops Cold War

Speaking of changes, a lot of players want the studio to remove the SBMM in the final version of the game. The skill-based matchmaking issue is something that the community has been complaining of since Modern Warfare.

SBMM takes a player level and not rank into account, and so it increases the chances of casual players encountering sweats. SBMM makes sense in ranked and competitive gameplay but can be a buzzkill in the pub match lobby.

A lot of pros, including Scump, of Chicago Huntsmen, have expressed their displeasure with this. In fact, a large section of the community wants Treyarch to take the feature out. Who knows, maybe the devs will comply with this.

https://twitter.com/_TomHenderson_/status/1307267199858548736

The Alpha unveiled some interesting Easter Eggs connected to the zombie mode

Zombie modes have been an integral part of the franchise, straight from the classic Call of Duty: World at War (Nacht der Untoten, anyone?). It is expected that the zombie mode will feature some iconic locations from various CoD zombie maps over the years. In fact, the multiplayer reveal trailer even showed the staircase from the classic map Nacht der Untoten.

Furthermore, one of the Easter Eggs, in the Moscow map, suggests that the zombie storyline of Black Ops Cold War is set in the Aether arc. If players wander into the apartment and glance at the wooden drawers along the wall, they will spot a Matryoshka doll that resembles the iconic character. Richtofen is central to the Aether arc of the CoD Zombies storyline, thus suggesting that the zombie storyline of this installment might be set in the said arc as well.

In conclusion, as far as the alpha is concerned, the game has succeeded in meeting a majority of the expectations. Of course, the game requires a few tweaks here and there as the feedback suggests, but with those out of the way, it seems that Black Ops Cold War Alpha can become one of the most impressive titles of the series.