Every new Call of Duty game comes with new surprises that we have yet to see in the series. This is especially true with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. It is very different from its immediate predecessor, Modern Warfare 2019, partially due to it being by a different creator of course. Not only have we seen new features appear in the game, but old features have been brought back as well. While mostly small, they can actually greatly affect the gameplay experience, and make it feel like the games are not even related at times. While playing, it can be important to keep these nuances in mind, as they can help you get more kills and die less if used properly in many cases. So without further ado, here are seven small yet noticeable differences between Cold War and Modern Warfare.
1: The Score Streak System
Every Call of Duty has had roughly the same score streak system since Call of Duty: 4. You earn as many kills or points as you can on one life, and if you reach a high enough score or kill count, you can earn a streak. When you die, all the kills or score that you have acquired in the previous life goes away and you start over at zero points or kills. This system has remained roughly the same since it was introduced to us 14 years ago, all the way through Modern Warfare. Treyarch decided to try something new with Cold War though.
Now, instead of your progress being reset upon your death, you keep your progress all the way until you earn your streaks. Now, individual kills count less towards your streaks, and it can take way longer to get them, with one not having to get a long kill streak just to earn their highest score streak. However, you do get rewarded more score towards your score streak for kills when on a streak than for kills when not on a streak. So while going on a streak is not needed to earn a score streak, it is highly recommended. Along with this, streak cool downs were added in order to make sure people were not able to spam low streaks. This system and its implications can be a little confusing to understand at first, so if you want to find out more about it, click here.
2: New Perks
Perks remain mostly the same between COD games. For example, scavenger, the perk that allows you to replenish ammo off dead enemies bodies, has been in pretty much every single game in the franchise. That doesn’t mean that they don’t change though. Multiple old perks have been brought back in Cold War, as well as a completely new one being added in.
The new perk that was added in was called forward intel. It works by not only expanding the mini-map area, but it also shows where enemies are spawning. While this may not seem useful at first, it is very powerful in objective game modes such as hardpoint, so that you can predict which side enemies will be coming from.
Along with adding forward intel, they brought back multiple perks as well. Assassin is a good example of this. It is a perk which has not been in the game since MW3, and is useful because it allows players to receive more points towards their score streaks by killing players who are on a score streak. This is just one of many perks brought back from old games.
3: Fixed Mini-Map
If there was one thing that was frustrating about MW, it was the mini-map. In almost every COD game, when a player shoots an weapon without a suppressor, they appear as a little red dot on the mini-map. Infinity Ward forgot this feature apparently. This caused the mini-map to not be nearly as useful, since it was missing out on one of its most important features, in core game modes at least. Along with this, ghost allowed you to not be detectable on by a UAV at all times, making it super overpowered. Activision fixed both of these issues, making it so that enemies appear on the mini-map when firing, and ghost only works when sprinting, greatly helping core game modes.
4: Assists Count as Kills
While this feature is not new in the COD series, it is an unusual one and certainly is different from MW. In most COD games, when you hit someone without killing them, and your teammate shoots them and kills them before they heal from your shots, you would earn an assist and get partial score. For example, in MW, a kill would earn you 100 points, but an assist would earn you 50 or 25 depending on how much health you took off them. In Cold War though, there is no such thing as assists. When you hit someone and then your teammate finishes them off, rather than the word, “Assist,” appearing on the screen, it simply says you earned a kill, with it giving you the same amount of points as a kill. The only difference is that you cannot earn the streak bonus for these, “Kills.” While this does not make a huge difference in terms of gameplay, you will almost certainly notice it when looking at your K/D.
5: Halftime in Domination
Once again, this may not be new to the Call of Duty series, but it is something different from Modern Warfare which does affect gameplay. In the game mode domination, which is where two teams compete to hold the three flags to gain point, a half time has been added which occurs when the winning team reaches to the 100 point mark. At half time, the flags all reset back to neutral and the teams swap spawns. Though this may not seem like a big deal, this little break in action can actually change how the game turns out a lot. On some maps, such as Nuketown and Checkmate, the B flag is incredibly difficult to capture due to it being either easy to camp by, or vulnerable to explosives. Without the halftime, the team who captures it first will almost certainly win due to it being easy to hold. However the addition of the half time makes it become much more competitive.
Along with making it more competitive, this also helps prevent one team from implementing a spawn trap. Spawn traps are where one team keeps the other team pinned down in their spawn, covering all lines of sight, making it incredibly difficult for the other team to move without getting killed. Allowing for a spawn swap to happen in the middle of every game greatly helps to reduce this problem, as not only will the opposing team have to rebuild their trap, they will also have to do it from a different side.
6: No Riot Shield
A staple in almost every Call of Duty game, the riot shield is currently not available in Black Ops Cold War. Arguably the most hated item in the entire franchise, many will not be sad to see it go. For as long as it has been in the game, players constantly complain about the players who use riot shields, often sporting it on their back so they do not get killed or using it to turtle into a corner. Modern Warfare was no different, with players who were grinding for Damascus always equipping it. No other weapon sparks more anger by those who are killed by it, and no player is more satisfying to kill than the one using the riot shield. Modern Warfare players will get a breath of fresh air when they get to play a game without having to worry about facing it. If you want to see the true extent of the hatred towards riot shields, check out this tweet.
7: Shotguns as Secondaries
Having shotguns as a secondary weapon is not an uncommon class setup. In fact, even in COD games where shotguns are considered primary weapons, many people will still use overkill to have a shotgun as a secondary. This is not needed though, as in Cold War, shotguns are automatically considered secondary weapons. This may seem insignificant, but it is very important to people who enjoy running a sniper with a shotgun secondary. Shotguns are convenient to switch to because they have. a very fast time to kill, especially when you have already damaged someone. Now, people who like to run classes like this no longer have to waste a perk just to get it. Expect to be seeing a more of players using shotguns in buildings.
We hope that this short list helped you to better understand the game, and will allow you not only to play better, but also to enjoy the game more. If you want to learn more, check out our other articles about all of the Call of Duty games.
