Continuing the wild rumors and speculation surrounding Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the latest intel hints that the game’s multiplayer could be like Blizzard’s Overwatch.
Released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One back in 2016, Overwatch was a colorful shooter that assigned gamers into two teams of six to pick from an eclectic roster of 20 characters. With a variety of different defend or attack missions and an emphasis on working together, Overwatch was a great multiplayer experience; however, are fans about to see this style of gaming replicated for Black Ops 4?
According to Charlie Intel, Activision’s next Call of Duty game is leaning heavily on Overwatch’s mechanics, further teasing that Black Ops 4 is doing away with its single-player campaign altogether:
Alongside the rumors that single-player was scrapped because it simply wouldn’t have been ready in time for Black Ops 4’s October release, the report emphasizes that multiplayer wasn’t in much better shape either. Whatever developers Treyarch are up to, the source says they are incredibly “concerned” for Black Ops 4.
“New Multiplayer information has been confirmed by more than one source so I can now talk about that more publicly. As of two days ago Multiplayer was in the worst state you have ever seen a Call of Duty multiplayer mode. Sources who have play-tested the mode claim that it is less like a call of duty mode and more like a Call of Duty Overwatch or a Call of Duty Lawbreakers. The Lawbreakers reference is incredibly apt considering what he told me next. Remember how I said the game was simultaneously boots on the ground and advanced movement? Well I can elaborate on that a little more too. The game was going to take the “hero” or “specialist” system from Black Ops 3 and take it to the next level. Perks were basically removed completely, and had instead been morphed into a strange kind of Kill Streak. Normal Killstreaks as we know them, for example harrier jets or chopper gunners, didn’t in fact exist in this version of Black Ops 4. Instead you got highly powerful perks. One of which was a Movement Alteration. It literally changed your movement from Boots on The Ground to something very strongly resembling Black Ops 3’s advanced movement systems."
That being said, Overwatch received universal acclaim when it launched, so there are certainly worse games out there for Black Ops 4 to be based on. If the whole Overwatch idea is implemented into the game, it means that the character’s backstory will have to be developed in-game like Blizzard did through animated shorts. It is interesting to note the reference to LawBreakers, which was something of a gaming disaster last year as the number of players began to dramatically tumble. Let’s hope Black Ops 4 can do a little better with the Call of Duty name helping take it to glory.
Alongside more zombies and a Fortnite/PUBG battle royale mode, Black Ops 4 is quickly moving on from its story mode debacle to focus entirely on the franchise’s multiplayer action. The leak says that tweaking Black Ops 3’s “specialist” and “hero” system has also fallen flat, meaning that the recent playtest hasn’t exactly inspired confidence in Black Ops 4. While it is too late to go back to the drawing board, the leak suggests that Treyarch is backpedaling a lot of these mechanics to make sure Black Ops 4 can stand out against the rest of 2018’s big offerings and compete with the likes of Battlefield 5.
Ultimately, Activision and Treyarch aren’t confirming (or denying) any of these rumors, meaning that players will have to wait a little longer to really know what is going on. Either way, it sounds like the longest-running Call of Duty subfranchise is ready to cast off the assumptions of its predecessors and completely reinvent Black Ops for 2018. With the official Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 community reveal event coming on May 17, it’s nearly time for Activision to take aim and hopefully blow the competition out of the water.
More: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 – Everything You Need to Know
Source: Charlie Intel
