Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is the newest addition in the Call of Duty franchise with a bit of a twist. There’s no single player story line. Well, not as such. There is, but its really in the form of cutscenes and tutorial missions to introduce the new operatives. You can however expect the same game modes the multiplayer side of the game. Oh and get in, Zombies has returned!

But the new jewel if you will, and something that’s catching quite a trend thanks to a little something called Fortnite is Black Ops 4’s new battle-royale, Blackout. The premise is pretty much the same as all other battle-royale titles out there. After a 30 second in a lobby, you’re dropped out of a plane, to land in an area of a map you choose. From here, you collect weapons, armour, gun attachments and perks to fight enemies and become last man standing. This can be done as as solo combatant or in teams of up to four.

Along the way you can also find various ‘perks’ that give you an on-field advantage such as silent footsteps, receiving notifications that an enemy is near you or holding your breath for longer with sniper rifles. Call of Duty have even included grappling hooks so you can fling yourself towards certain locations or use it to climb the side of buildings.

There are many ways to play this game type but the most popular is the way of the casual gamer; hiding away from everyone until there are only a few people left and then show their faces right at the end to get those minimal kills.. But a win is a win I suppose, and that way’s much safer than having to blast your way through the game from beginning to end.

You learn very quickly that playing this game type knowing it’s mainly based on luck, and with the mindset that you won’t kill everyone and won’t win every game you will enjoy it a whole lot more. There are some bugs that are still being fixed, but the game has proved itself to be a lot more enjoyable than Fortnite, which I just feel is Minecraft with guns, and is also a lot more polished than the likes of previous battle-royale favourite PUBG.

If a casual game is what you’re looking for that you can pick up and put down and don’t have to worry about a stupid ranking system ruining your gameplay then Blackops 4 Blackout will be the best for you.

The second, and other popular game modes thrown into the limelight by various high-level streamers is Zombies. Zombies has returned in all its glory and it definitely doesn’t disappoint this time. It feels very familiar to older Black Ops games, with powerups and potions that give you buffs while playing, but at the same time keeps things fresh.

Set in what looks like a Roman Colosseum, your objective is to fend of as many waves of zombies as possible. There are even boss-type rounds to contend with like zombie tigers and some bigger enemies that are tougher to kill and do way more damage. Once you start unlocking doors, you then find yourself in a maze. It’s quite a ride, and will take great memory to remember which routes to take and where guns and powerups are. To this day I still can’t find the toy box without scrambling around the map.

And lastly is your standard multiplayer modes like team death match, search and destroy as well as a couple of new games modes like Heist which sees two teams battling over the extraction of a bag of money. What’s different here though, are the fact that your builds now are in the form of specialists.

There’s no surprise that Black Ops 4 has taken a lot of inspiration from games that are already successful. Think of Specialists like characters in Overwatch or your Operatives in Rainbow Six: Siege. They have a set amount of powerups and additional equipment, each with unique abilities. One has a shield, another has an attack dog and so on. Killstreaks still remain though which cause devastating effects to your team if caught out.

Which brings me onto my last point which is this Call of Duty game is pretty violent, in a way that I’ve not seen with previous titles. Bodies explode if hit with a killstreak missile, arms get shot off, and the cutscenes are something to grimace at, at times. Like when one of the female characters caught a bullet to the side of the head, making her jaw flop around her face like a raw piece of steak. That was a little shocking to say the least. But war will never be pretty, and it’s definitely shown here.

Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is, and will continue to be one of the best modern-day shooters to play. Sure they’ve dropped their usually intense single-player campaign in favour of a multiplayer experience, but that’s not a bad thing at all. Everything feels very polished and is refreshing following on from the ropey World War II game last year. The inclusion of battle-royale is a great way of bringing it into a AAA title, and Zombies is just as fun as ever. If you’re into your multiplayer shooters, then this one definitely cannot be missed. This time round, Black Ops 4 is being sold through the Battle.net software from Activision Blizzard.