5 Things I’d Like to See in Call of Duty: Black Ops

Treyarch has some big shoes to fill with Call of Duty: Black Ops. It’s predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, garnered mostly positive feedback and set sales records quicker than you could say, “Russian ultra-national terrorists.” There’s always room for improvement, however. As a vocal critic (yet constant player) of Modern Warfare 2, I’ve got a few ideas on improving the formula and delivering a great overall experience.

1) A More Intelligent Respawn System

While not a problem exclusive to the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 2′s respawn system seemed skewed to reward the player that just died. It’s infuriating to be one kill away from a Harrier and have the guy you just killed pop up 5 feet away and drop you. Adding insult to injury, you see him get killed, respawn, and then kill you on his kill-cam.

2) Remove the Painkiller Perk

There’s a fine line between creating an accessible online experience and rewarding poor play with a free kill. The Painkiller deathstreak is Martyrdom on steroids: a free pass for players who think they’re Master Chief to annoy the next unlucky guy they run into. Combined with the spotty respawn system this creates faux-accessibility that gives bad players free kills and outright punishes skilled players with unlucky deaths.

3) Game Type That Disables Killstreak Rewards

It’s great fun dropping precision airstrikes, calling in stealth bombers, and frying the enemy’s electronics with an EMP, but sometimes you just want to see who’s the better team without the overpowered weaponry of killstreak rewards. Adding in a new mode (how about “Real War”?) would allow gamers to experience the tense action of Call of Duty minus the more explosive frills.

4) In-game Explanation on Unlocking Titles and Emblems

While a quick online search will yield the answers you seek, it’d be nice if each locked title and emblem offered an explanation on how to unlock it. Creating custom callsigns is fun; making it easier to expand our options is common sense.

5) Public Beta

Anyone who played MW2 during its first few months of release knows all too well how Infinity Ward and Activision’s decision to not offer a multiplayer beta affected the quality of the game’s online experience. A number of bugs and glitches (many game-breaking) were being abused by unscrupulous gamers, making it an exercise in futility for legit players to find a good match. By the time a patch finally went live, cheaters quickly found a workaround or even worse glitch to exploit. Let gamers find this stuff before they have to pay $60 so when they do it’s as balanced and glitch-free as possible.