Thoughts On Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout Beta

  If there is one game type that has been beaten to death is Battle Royale.  There are so many iterations of this game, it's hard to imagine a game coming along and doing anything new.  Then a series that I have not been really into for 10 years announced, along with their regular game mode and zombie mode, they were adding a BR.  Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout looked interesting from the snips I was seeing.  Then PS4 started their open beta and I fell in love. 

  The BR I played the most was Fortnite but it started to fade for me.  Never got into PUBG because it was too slow for me and constantly buggy.  What neither of these games seemed to get right was pacing.  There were these long lag times in gameplay where not a lot was happening.  This is something that was drastically cut down in Blackout.   From the drop to the last circle you feel in the game.  Even when moving you feel that your focus is required.  The map size is just right.

  It wasn't a perfect beta.  Then again it was a beta.  I had several drops, there were times I couldn't loot, like when I was on one of the boats on the water.  The sound was a little weird as some enemies seemed right next to me but could be far off and the vertical sound distinction wasn't great.  That was about it for me though. There are a few clips of glitching vehicles but the game didn't feel broken, just needing a little polish.  Nothing that seemed like the game was broken.

  What drew me into the game were the subtle things.  The simple ability to heal while moving just gave the game momentum.  The undercurrent of the river moving you if you idled was small but just showed attention to detail.  On top of that was just a plethora of game customization in the options menu that let you dial in the game in a way that felt natural.  It helped that it all looked good too.

  The sounds of the guns.  The way they play and give feedback when contacting enemies.  The perks, the zombies, the vehicles.  The old Call of Duty maps that were patched together in a way that didn't feel forced.    Everything felt good.  I played for the major part of my weekend and I only wish I had more time.  The devs made promises that they lived up to.  I only wish I could have been in the servers when they upped the player number to 100.