The new Friv2Online game is set between the events of Black Ops and Black Ops II in the alternate year of 1981, against the backdrop of strained relations between the U.S. and the USSR, when several dozen American citizens are taken hostage on the territory of Iran.
The American leadership assigns a group of trusted agents to stop the actions of criminals, and the players are sent to Amsterdam to eliminate one of the alleged leaders of the terrorist group, Qasim Javadi.
Next on the blacklist is his accomplice, Arash Kadivar, after whose capture the operatives learn that both attackers were acting in the interests of the mysterious Soviet spy Perseus, who is conducting clandestine activities to undermine the position of the United States in world public opinion.
To locate and stop Perseus, President Ronald Reagan forms a squad led by CIA Special Branch Officer Russell Adler, who has already had to deal with Perseus' activities in Vietnam. Players will have to follow the antagonist's tangled trail throughout the campaign.
The charismatic Adler, who looks a lot like Robert Redford from Spy Games, will be one of the main characters in Cold War. His team will include the inseparable Frank Woods and Alex Mason, as well as his battle buddy Sims, former Mossad agent Azoulay and Helen Park from MI6. Jason Hudson will oversee communications with HQ, but will not be directly involved in operations.
Another actor will be Russell's mentee - a newcomer with the call sign Bell. According to legend, he met Adler and Sims during the Vietnam War, where he proved himself in real combat situations and showed an ability to decipher and cryptography.
Bell becomes sort of the player's avatar in this installment of the franchise. You'll be able to choose his gender, skin color, and customize his psych profile - select two personality traits that translate into passive perks like increased damage or reload speed. My Bell was paranoid and suspicious of everyone, so he would draw his weapon twice as fast as usual.
The Cold War storyline can be considered one of the best of the last decade, which includes a dozen Call of Duty games, including four Treyarch projects. It was campaigns like this one, and not the currently popular multiplayer, that made me deeply attached to the series many years ago.
The look of the friv game, as always, poses on the crest of advanced graphical solutions, to which was added support for ray tracing and HDR, increasing the already magnificent, generous in detail picture. The characters are almost indistinguishable from real people due to their expressive facial expressions, vivid body language, stunning meticulousness in facial detailing and lighting.
The lights of Berlin at night, the snowy ridges of the Taymir, Viet Cong in conical hats made of palm leaves, utopian symbols of communism - whatever area you are thrown into, the setting and the spirit of the era will be conveyed very pedantically. Except that the Soviet territories, including architecture, are served in the friv game with American cranberry sauce, which is also not without a certain charm.
But it's not so much about Cold War's attractive shell as it is about its diverse content. The inner world of the game, where the player is involved with increased intensity, forced to react quickly to the ever-changing scenery and adapt to new mechanics.
The trademark formula of the game-makers, when even the most hardened gamer, like a sleeper agent, suddenly comes to his senses and plunges headlong into what is happening as if the whole story is happening specifically to him and for a very long time. Here it is a real business card of the series, which is not dusty in the shadow of Call of Duty network reality, but is being improved and continues to please with high quality of performance.
In between missions you return to the safe house headquarters of the squad, where you can follow the behavior of the heroes in a quiet environment or communicate with them personally. This maneuver doesn't affect the friv game dynamics at all, but it reveals the characters' personalities. Especially if you are observant, studying their behavioral patterns.
There is a board of clues, with an old photograph of Perseus pinned in the center. Players can review each operation, gain additional information from the evidence collected, and complete two optional side quests related to the Russian spy's underlings.
Before the squad proceeds to eliminate them, you, as a coder, are tasked with identifying all members of the network of criminal organizations. You will have to look for clues during the main tasks, looking carefully around. No difficulties will not arise if the players take the missions responsibly.
It should be understood that the final scenes of the friv game and the denouement will depend on your decisions. And prepare yourself morally to the fact that Call of Duty will play on your feelings again, shuffle the masks of evil and virtue and test your readiness to follow the call of duty against all odds.
To the disadvantages of the campaign can be attributed its short duration, as well as extremely short sidequests. And if the new mechanics with the ability to turn the enemy into a "human shield" works perfectly and spectacularly, the stealth, with which several missions and achievements will be connected, is still crooked and enemies manage to notice you even through walls.
All other aspects of the single-player friv game, up to the highly professional Russian dubbing, are brought to a premium level of quality, which is something the multiplayer can't boast of yet, which we'll talk about in the next section.
Not so long ago we wrote previews about the network component of Cold War, which millions of players got acquainted with during console and PC tests. There are not many significant changes in the standard modes. Among them is the ability to finally customize the field of view on any of the available platforms. Let me remind you that the battles take place on servers common for PC and console owners.
The multiplayer has a storyline with an intro, according to which Perseus operatives still managed to reach the unfortunate "red button" and provoke an armed conflict between the military-political blocs OVD and NATO.
The current games playlist still offers a protracted 30 to 40-player standoff in Dirty Bomb mode, the 24-player point-capture multiplayer Assault and Excellence, and Bodyguard, in which players try to protect an important person from the enemy team.
A quick playthrough will allow you to break into one of the standard modes, which include the same old "Bodyguard" and "Excellence," classic "Team Battle," a battle to hold the "Stronghold," "Control" areas, "Kill Confirmed" with body token collection, as well as an "Every Man for Himself" desmatch and a team-based "Find and Destroy" with no revival option. Some stages have a hardcore version with high damage multipliers.
There are still eight levels, some of which you have the opportunity to visit as part of the story campaign. The most notable ones are Miami, with very beautiful night scenery, and Naval Armada. For the most part, the gameplay is very brisk and with a minimum of running around, which is generally why we love it.
For long series of kills and victories over tough players are awarded points, with which fighters can activate one of three selected improvements. For example, to call an air strike, order an attack helicopter, supplies, set up a firing point or get a tactical bow at your disposal - the options are selected in the personalization menu.
In addition, the performers' inventory includes one primary weapon, one secondary weapon, tactical and combat throwing projectiles, and field modifications. These include contact and gas mines, a field microphone to track nearby enemies, a jamming generator, and so on.
Player progression is kept on two pillars: account pumping and pumping a particular weapon. Developing the first reveals most elements of the arsenal, gives access to a choice of three passive perks, and later - to the classic system of "Jokers". The second will allow you to personalize the firearm at the gunsmith, installing up to five modifications on it.
By default, the network friv game already features several classes with predefined kits, but players can create their own and customize their components to their liking, as well as choose "skins" for guns and skins for agents. Each faction has seven of them, only three are unlocked at the beginning, you can get the rest of the performers by completing certain tasks.
Another significant event for Cold War multiplayer was the return of "Zombie Mode". It too was not spoiled by the storyline, which involves Agent Gregory Weaver and Nazi experiments of World War II.
Here the rules of the game change a bit and a group of operatives will have to act together in the endless activity "Deadman's Fun" and two modes DIE MASCHINE, which will take place in an abandoned German base.
The general principle is to survive the waves of undead growing in intensity, while improving the equipment on the workbenches for the resources obtained during the friv game. To summarize the outing and earn even more points, players can request an evacuation at the end of Round 10 or every fifth round thereafter.
Field modifications in Zombie Mode come in the form of ultimatum abilities such as freeze, energy mine, etheric veil, ring of fire and healing aura, as well as drink dispensers that give a permanent and powerful passive bonus, and gun upgrades with new effects.
Performers earn currency by killing zombies, which they spend on advancing through the location, buying consumables, armor, new weapons and their upgrades. The gameplay is diversified by dynamic events and ferocious bosses, which are best to kill together.
The most valuable reward for strenuous raids are aetherium crystals, which are necessary to improve all kinds of field modifications. Thanks to the multi-stage progression system and quite challenging gameplay, "Zombie Mode" turned out to be very replayable.
There's not much to add about the Warzone battle royal. It still pleases with the highest dynamics and shares the weapon and account level upgrades with the rest of the activities. All modes are united by the challenge system, which offers additional rewards for achieved goals.
I would like to criticize "Zombie Mode" and the standard "Network Game" for the frequent problems with the sync. More than once I had to kill players by shooting somewhere past their bodies, and I was repeatedly bitten by a zombie, which on the contrary - could not hit, even though I shot from several meters and for sure.
In addition, the game often breaks the connection, from time to time spoils the mood by transferring servers right during the session and sometimes suspends the system with critical interface errors. In the latter case it will either continue working after about thirty seconds, or it will completely hang and you will have to restart it.
In the review I forgot to mention one more important fact - Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is perfectly optimized and very easily adapts to weaker systems thanks to the generous menu settings.
For me this friv game unexpectedly acquired the status of the main shooter of 2020, and not only because of the great story campaign, but also because of the multiplayer, which may be in some ways inferior to the previous CoD, but subjectively seems to me more friendly.
Thanks to Treyarch's work, I disappeared from this world again and came back only with the closing credits, thrown into reality by a storm of contradictory, but generally positive emotions. In my opinion, CoD: Black Ops Cold War is another valuable gift for fans not only of this particular sub-series, but of the franchise as a whole.