Over the years, Call of Duty has gotten quicker. Compare the latest Black Ops and Modern Warfare entries to those of more than a decade ago, and you’ll find that movement is faster, health is lower, and maps are generally smaller, leading to an increased pace across the board. If you want to be any good at the game and top the leaderboards, getting your head around sliding, wall jumping, and the infamous “slide canceling” is almost mandatory.
This evolution of Call of Duty’s gameplay makes sense. It means players like me — in their 30s, grew up with the slower-paced titles, don’t have as much time to spend playing anymore — are slowly pushed to the wayside. Meanwhile, the younger generation is constantly engaged because there’s rarely a long wait before there’s another enemy to shoot at. If those players tried the older games, they’d probably consider them far too slow for their tastes.
Fellow washed Call of Duty players, I have good news: the latest Black Ops 7 playlist brings us back to those glory days. At the start of season 4, Treyarch introduced the Black Ops Classic playlist, which is described in-game as “a classic boots-on-the-ground Black Ops multiplayer experience.”
What that means is that omnimovement is disabled, so players cannot slide or wall jump, and sprinting is limited. Only four iconic modes are included — Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and Kill Confirmed. Also, the maps available are almost exclusively remasters or remakes of older maps in the series, such as Firing Range, Raid, and Summit. Overclocks and combat specialties are disabled, as are numerous perks, scorestreaks, equipment, and more that you wouldn’t find in the earlier games.
The result is a throwback to the golden days. Dropshotting is viable once again, play is more strategic and slower-paced, and there are fewer methods of dying that you need to worry about. It isn’t going to be for everyone — Call of Duty still has an enormous audience that prefers the way the game plays in the modern era. But this playlist caters to those who have otherwise felt disenchanted with the series.
Black Ops 7 tackles map design in a way Call of Duty hasn’t seen for a long time
The three-lane philosophy makes a big return
That seems to be the consensus among players too, with plenty of social media posts raving about the new playlist. Reddit user Comfortable-Joke7123 says it’s the “most fun” they’ve had playing Call of Duty in the best part of a decade. Majora1988 wants it to become permanent; XENODonladtwo agrees and claims that “Treyarch cooked with this mode.” Bakester34 describes it as “exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
This mode comes amid rumors claiming that both Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are being remastered for modern consoles. New listings for the two games recently appeared in PlayStation’s database, according to X user PlayStation Game Size. Whether these will include campaign, multiplayer, zombies, or any combination of the three modes is still to be revealed, as is an official announcement. There were theories they could be revealed during June’s Nintendo Direct, but now that showcase has been and gone without any sign of them, we’re still awaiting confirmation.
For now, the Black Ops Classic playlist will do the job very nicely indeed, because it’s an absolute blast to play. These kids ain’t gonna know what’s hit ’em.
