Recent reviews by JDst4r

If you're reading this you are either a fan of Call of Duty who wants to read about how good this game is or you hate Call of Duty and you want to see someone trash this game. Luckily for you I am able to do both.

This game is inherently flawed and mindlessly addicting. This game is somehow the worst game I've ever played and the most fun I can have on a computer(using both hands).

I think its important to establish my history with Call of Duty because I believe as a loser on the internet writing a review for a game, you should know about my bias nature to this series. Feel free to skip this section if you don't care and are here for me nitpicking the game.

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I'm 31 years old (which in gamer years makes me 1000 I'm led to believe). I started playing COD with MW2 on the Xbox 360. I played a ton of MW2 and every game up until Ghost which is where I fell off what with having a job and all that. I have very fond memories of getting on with my friends after work and playing until 3am. Call of Duty meant a lot to me during those years and this was the first entry to be released since I transitioned from a console player to PC master race.

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I played MW(2019) to get up to speed and this story does a good job picking up on where it left off. I don't want to spoil the story but I feel sometimes its convoluted but basing it against any other Call of Duty story it holds my attention.

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This campaign did something I REALLY love in FPS campaigns, It gave me a reason to replay it by giving me multiple missions with multiple ways to accomplish the task. Obviously you've got your "Move up, shoot, move up, shoot" missions and your "use this AC130 to liquify the white dots" mission but besides that you've got a few "hey instead of shooty shooty you can use stealth" missions and the dialog options between Ghost and Roach are amazing. But at the end of the day its still a COD campaign and you'll likely only play it when the multiplayer servers are down or you're getting ♥♥♥♥ on.

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This game has made most of its modes all tie together and I'm really digging it. The spec ops can be used to level up guns (we'll get there) and unlock some skins. It gives the spec ops missions some purpose and it looks like they're going to be adding additional missions but the 3 at launch and the 4th that dropped with season 1 are a fun distraction and give me a change to yell at my best friend for agroing the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ juggernaut!

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I cannot in good faith give a review for this mode. I've played it and I'm awful, If you love BR games you are either a fan of this or not and no steam review will change your mind.

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I don't play Tarkov, but I've watched enough hours on twitch to be able to say this isn't a fair comparison. Its Warzone with more of an emphasis on looting and evacuating. The mode is fun and I've had a good time trying to get away with some nice loot before Sweats McTryhard shows up with his golden gun that fires in a laser to ruin your day. I wish the game allowed me to bank some of the most useful items, like I manage to find two gas masks and when I exit the lobby there like "Hey you've got another mask, and now its XP" no, I wanted to keep my extra mask for when I get killed next game and don't want to spend 5 minutes searching for another.

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At the time of this review I've put in 80 hours I'm currently level 145 and I can honestly say I've had a lot of fun. COD has dialed in its annoying formula to perfection. By the time the after action report finishes I'm already in another lobby. It's got its ups and its got its downs so I'm going to try to bullet point my short opinions/gripes below;
* The unlocking system is confusing sometimes, but it gives people a reason to use different guns.
* ALL the guns are overpowered, so by this standard none of the guns are overpowered.
* The movement is removed, I'm honestly SO glad for this yet I'm still running into slide canceling and people who hop around every corner. The amount of times I can be ADS ready to fire and someone jump spins around the corner and takes no hit to their accuracy and beams me is irritating.
* The riot shield turtle people are the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ worse. "Hey lets add a shield on someones back that has no movement penalty and protects them from bullets."

I could go on and on but I'm already 2 pages in so I'll update with more gripes as I think of them.

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Al Bagra Fortess - It's pretty good, great in domination

Breenbergh hotel - See above review.

Crown Raceway - See above review.

El Asilo - "Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe ****."

Embassy - Very fun map could have been a MW3 map back in the day.

Farm 18 - During the beta this map was exciting and fun, now Its "I JUST SPAWNED!?! HOW DID HE SNIPE ME!"

Mercado Las Almas - This is a terrific map.

Senta Sena Border Crossing - I love this map for domination and nothing more, who thought that lets make an entire map of exploding cars would be a good idea.

Taraq - The worst map I've played since DOWNTURN from MW3, If you're into destroyed buildings and camping then this is the map for you.

Valderas Museum - Removed.

Zarqwa HydroElectric - The devs implemented swimming and damn it they're going to use it. Still sometimes I enjoy this map especially swimming to the enemy spawn and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ them up.

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I’m not a sweat, tryhard, or any other pejorative used to describe a gamer who lives breathes and eats COD, I’m a grown ass man with a 40 hour workweek. That being said, I tend to do alright at this game I maintain a solid 1.0 K/D… that is until I have three good games in a row and suddenly I’m in a lobby filled with nothing but gold guns and COD league skins. Every one of them is using the latest meta weapon he saw another youtuber tout as “THE GREATEST GUN SETUP 420 XL!”. I go from fair engagements where I have a 50/50 chance to fighting against frog hopping, dew chugging, min-maxing sweats who have 1000 hours in this game and suddenly my team which normally can be depended on to provide additional support turn into people who think that this is Minecraft. COD tried to remedy this by adding the league but no pub-stomper in their right mind would be caught dead attempting to play against another pub-stomper. I’m all for these guys being put against each other but all I’m saying is, I don’t see it being applied fairly. I’m constantly dropped into matches with more killstreaks than players, meanwhile the score is 150 to 13 and I’m expected to do what? I didn’t know this was a roll playing game and I’m playing the roll of a third world nation against nukes.

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Look, I understand if you hate COD and everything it stands for but if you enjoy a fast paced shooter with people calling you slurs for killing them then COD is your game. I applaud this entry for adding a bunch of new ideas and bringing back some old.


*updated: 12/11/2022 added thoughts on SBMM

This game is a conundrum.

This game cannot decide if it wants to be a battlefield, apex, or a call of duty. Rather than doing one thing perfectly it does all these things poorly.

The bugs that have placated the launch have all but been squashed and rather than revealing a rough gem you're left with a mess.

The Story:
None to speak of there is some folklore hidden within the text of some player-cards but other than that you're guess is as good as mine. I'm not going to study a wiki to get details about a game that doesn't care enough about its own story to create a story-mode.

The Game-play loop: 6/10
This is a multiplayer focused experience with classic modes conquest and rush and new modes being sprinkled in. The Friday night battlefield modes are inventive and kinda fun. The only drawback is if you want to see some favorites like Team deathmatch you're sadly mistaken. Its not all bad, when the game gets over its identity crisis and starts to feel like a battlefield game its worth it.

The Heroes: 5/10
The most important part of a class based shooter is the heroes each one unique and contributing to a common goal. No longer 4 classes there is several heroes to choose from. Each hero is equipped with one unique weapon and one passive ability, some are really good but others serve a purpose so niche that you're likely to never select them.

The Gunplay: 4/10
This is where my gripes really ramp up, this game has major balancing issues and hasn't addressed them yet. Patch after patch balance after balance and yet I'm still killed by the same 4 guns. Seriously play this game until you reach level 27 unlock the SFAR and then you've unlocked the last gun you'll ever need. Need a up-close SMG type gun? SFAR. Need to hid middle range targets with needlepoint accuracy? SFAR. Need more distance perhaps a designated marksmen rifle range? SFAR. Need to hit someone far away like sniper rifle range, then brother I've got the gun for you SFAR!

The Movement: 5/10
Battlefield has never had smooth movement, and in a dilapidated wasteland with boxes and debris littering the ground I half expect that but still this game manages to make something as simple as mounting a parking block and throwing a grenade become a challenge. Here is a fun example: say you're carrying a long range rifle that isn't the SFAR and you are indoors so you switch to your pistol for close range engagements. While running in the building you see your teammate needs ammo and as the ammo guy you do your due diligence and switch to an ammo bag and drop some. Just then someone bursts into the room with their SFAR with 30 x 173mm rounds and a drum-mag attached, so you quickly swap back to your weapon and rather than returning to your pistol the game ops to return to the sniper-rifle, why? because F you that's why.

The Store: 5/10
Oh what would EA be without microtransactions? A game they have the audacity to charge 100$ for still makes you pay 5$ for a trinket for the side of your gun so everybody can see how elite you are. I give credit to the game that at least lets you earn some items through gameplay but after 50 hours you'll be lucky enough to afford a playercard that reads "I've wasted my life and all I got was this playercard"

Connection: 5/10
When it works it works when it doesn't prepare to get shot by bullets fired a week ago.

Overall: 6.5/10
Its not the unplayable mess that the game's initial reception leads it to be the problem is that the devs don't take the time to balance and fix the game. In addition the game has a massive identity crisis and no amount of patches is going to fix that. The game constantly reminds you of good battlefield games like BC2, 1942, and BF3 but that only serves as a reminder for how much this game falls short of the games that made battlefield the household name it is today.


*Edit1: I changed from a 5 to a 6.5. User @Bansalt did raise a good point that the original release game was closer to a 3/10 and this is a much more stable and playable build and that should be commended.

**Edit 2:
johnny sins Oct 25 @ 7:18pm
"bro u have 80h on this game how can u have a negative review"

(I want to say this isn't an attack on Mr sins and I welcome critical discussion like this)
I have to say that having an negative opinion and several hours played aren't mutually exclusive. Honestly I wish some of my favorite reviewers would do more than play through a vertical slice on easy mode and claim the game is a 7/10. I've worked at my same job for 8 years and I could just as easily list my complaints with it.
Finally, the steam rating system is bianary; "do you recommend or do you not recommend" and given the game in its current state I cannot whole heartedly say "I recommend" and given my pedantic and petty gripes above you can see why I feel the way I do. (ps. Mr Sins I'm quite a fan of your side work 😂)

***Edit 3:***
realmadridfool Nov 2 @ 10:42am
Damn youre getting ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on in these comments. Gonna copy paste my comment into another rage edit??

Yes. :)

It is a absolute getting murdered simulator. In my 5 hours I've been able to help the community level up though my sheer lack of a will to live. Game is fun btw!

I'm not a Middle-Earth fan; (I know strange right?) but I am a fan of fun gameplay and this game has it in spades. Highly recommend!

Honestly I played this game a lot longer on the xbox 360 and loved it. When I built my PC I was so excited to play the game in its truest form will all the DLC and I gotta say it was worth it. If you've got a good team with you it makes you feel invincible.

Really fun game, Well worth the price the couch co-op is awesome and runs well on a laptop. I couldn't recommend this game enough!

This game is stupid fun. Dino-Riding, Rocket-Launching, enemy-gibbing FUN!

This game is proof that a simple mechanic done well makes an excellent game.