Weapon Balancing
Weapon balancing is arguably the most problematic part of Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer right now, much as it’s also the case in Warzone. A lot of this centers around the DMR, a semi-automatic rifle with little to no recoil and enough firepower to drop an enemy in just a few shots. It should be right at the top of the list for a nerf in Cold War’s mid-season update, but it shouldn’t stop there.
The more I’ve played multiplayer, the more it’s become clear that weapon classes don’t really mean anything anymore. In past titles, each weapon class — Assault Rifles, SMGs, LMGs, Shotguns, Tactical Rifles etc. — have felt like they had a distinct purpose in the meta. Strengths and weaknesses that meant one weapon couldn’t just be your go-to for every map and game type. In Cold War, that’s not the case.
The AK74-U — an SMG — is currently running riot. It’s stupidly steady — even more so when equipped with the right weapon attachments — and damage drop-off isn’t aggressive enough to stop you from being able to ping people from a distance with it. Its Assault Rifle sibling, the AK74 is equally problematic, capable of dropping enemies even faster with similarly little recoil. Your mobility with the weapon is a little more sluggish, but it’s not enough to stop it from being one of the best guns regardless of engagement range with an enemy.
Then you’ve got the Diamatti’s. The burst pistol seemingly has no recoil and become almost a necessity to have equipped as your secondary weapon. In fact, some players just use these as their primary weapon, as when equipped with a laser sight and dual-wielded, you can hip fire and drop enemies with a single burst from each.
Treyarch addressed the MP5’s balance issues at the beginning of the game, but nowhere near enough. It’s still got a similar issue to the AK74-U. The developer has to get its head around weapon balancing, nerfing the biggest offenders and making weapon types feel like they mean something again. Given the DMR’s inconsequential nerf in Warzone last week, however, we don’t have a lot of hope.
New Maps
If there’s one thing that’s felt particularly problematic in Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer since its release, it’s the lack of maps. While developer Treyarch has provided maps for standard 6v6 skirmishes, smaller 2v2 or 3v3 battles, and the larger ‘Fireteam’ modes, in doing so, it’s left each group’s selection feeling a little lackluster.
I’ve personally found myself gravitating to the standard 6v6 multiplayer modes, and occasionally diving into the more tactical 3v3 game modes. The problem is, there play these modes in long stints and the lack of map variety really begins to stick out like a sore thumb.
Having three different pools of maps for each of the different game sizes has led to the offerings feeling like they’ve been spread far too thin. For example, at the time of writing, there’s only two Fireteam maps, four Gunfight maps, and 11 6v6 maps.
We already know that Sanitorium is being added as a Fireteam map in the mid-season update, and Dropkick will come to bolster the 6v6 offerings, but we’d love to see a maybe one or two more added to further bolster the map offering across all three different modes, too.
To strengthen the offering further, we’d love to see a bit of additional crossover between the different ‘pools’ of maps, too. Let all hell break loose with 12 players fighting it out on the Gunfight ‘Game Show’ map. 2v2/ 3v3 on Nuketown ’84? Yes, please!
Improved Stability
Whether you’re playing on an Xbox One or PlayStation 4, or one of the next-gen consoles, Black Ops Cold War has a bunch of stability issues.
From problematic framerate issues (yes, even on the PS5 and Series X) at the start of the game that seems to see the gameplay drop down to 30 fps or lower, through to random server issues that make grouping up with friends far more problematic than they should be, the whole experience still feels very rough around the edges.
And that’s without even touching on the ‘Connection Interrupted’ issue that can plague entire games until you back out. And no, it’s not an issue with a single person’s connection. Entire squads of six people have faced this issue in games I’ve been playing.
Given that Cold War has been on-sale for more than two months, these issues are starting to feel a little too problematic and prevalent. These are bugs that should have been ironed out within the first few weeks after launch, and server stability for one of the largest game franchises in the world just doesn’t sit right.
Daily Challenge Fixes
Daily Challenges are a quick and easy way to earn some extra XP to help you level up within a season. At least, they should be. At the time of writing, despite Treyarch claiming they’d resolved some Daily Challenge bugs in last week’s patch, Daily Challenges still seem to be pretty broken.
While Treyarch has admittedly fixed a bug that would prevent new challenges from appearing at the end of each 24-hour period, there are still some issues with daily challenges simply not completing and rewarding players with their hard-earned XP, as shown in the screenshot above.
When a challenge is completed, it should be removed from your three currently equipped, allowing you to replace it with another. Instead, players are left with completed challenges just sitting there, and no matter what you do with them, there appears to be no way to actually get the XP they’re supposed to reward you.
Given all that XP goes towards Battle Pass progression — which has a paid, premium version — not being able to complete these challenges limits player progression. Not so much an issue if you’re on the free Battle Pass, but a little more problematic for those that have spent their hard-earned cash to unlock more collectables through their progression in a season.
This isn’t something that players should have to wait for a mid-season update to fix, but a hotfix as soon as humanly possible.
Skill-Based Matchmaking Improvements
Skill-based matchmaking should be a force of good in multiplayer games. In theory, it helps players find themselves in lobbies with equally skilled players, preventing newcomers from being unfairly pitted against seasoned veterans.
Alas, Black Ops Cold War’s skill-based matchmaking has been an enigma ever since its release. YouTuber’s JGOD, Drift0r, and TheXclusiveAce have done tests to try and figure out exactly how it works, and there’s generally a feeling amongst the community that the system could use a bit of fine-tuning or only enabled in a separate, ranked playlist altogether.
The most skilled players find themselves playing with those at a lower skill level because there simply aren’t enough players at their same level to be matched with. The tests also seemed to highlight that Ping was sacrificed by as much as 50% in order to find players of a similar skill level, while others found that the system will serve you incredibly tough matches, followed by easier ones as a means of retaining a player’s engagement.
Regardless of how the system actually works, one thing is perfectly clear: the skill-based matchmaking system in Black Ops Cold War could definitely do with toning down, especially in instances where it’s hindering a player’s Ping in favor of finding a ‘balanced’ game. It might even go some way to explain the ‘Connection Interrupted’ issues players have been facing.
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