Ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War release date, developer Treyarch dropped a massive reveal of the game’s multiplayer offering. The reveal show saw members of the development team go through every element of multiplayer before unleashing dozens of streamers and pro players on the game’s servers.
On Twitch alone, streams of the multiplayer reveal and gameplay peaked at over 700,000 viewers. From this event, and from our experience with the game now it’s out in the wild, we’ve rounded up all the maps, modes, weapons, perks, and more into one handy spot for you.
There are plenty of aspects you’ll recognize from both the previous game, Modern Warfare, and from Black Ops games of old. So here’s a complete rundown of everything you need to know about Black Ops Cold War multiplayer.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer gameplay
Thanks to Treyarch and Activision letting dozens of streamers, YouTubers, and pro players loose on Black Ops Cold War’s alpha, there’s loads of multiplayer gameplay footage out there right now.
Some key aspects that were highlighted about the multiplayer modes’ gameplay is that sliding is back, weapon mounting from Modern Warfare has been scrapped, and all players have 150 health points with gradual auto-healing.
You can see the full official reveal below, but check out YouTube videos or Twitch VODs from creators like Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff or pro players like Seth ‘Scump’ Abner to see how they feel about it.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War weapons
Here are all the Black Ops Cold War weapons you can wield in multiplayer modes:
Assault Rifles
- XM4
- Krig 6
- AK-47
- QBZ-83
- FFAR 1
- Groza
- FARA 83
- C58
- EM2
- Grav
- Vargo 52
SMGs
- MP5
- AK-74u
- Milano
- KSP 45
- Bullfrog
- MAC-10
- LC10
- PPSh-41
- Nail Gun
- OTs 9
- TEC-9
- LAPA
- UGR
LMGs
- RPD
- Stoner 63
- MG 82
- M60
Tactical rifles
- M16
- Type 63
- AUG
- DMR 14
- CARV.2
Sniper rifles
- LW3-Tundra
- Pelington 703
- M82
- ZRG 20mm
Pistols
- 1911
- Diamatti
- Magnum
- AMP63
- Marshal
Shotguns
- Gallo SA12
- Hauer 77
- Streetsweeper
- 410 Ironhide
Launchers
- Cigma 2
- RPG-7
Melee
- Knife
- Sledgehammer
- Wakizashi
- E-Tool
- Machete
- Baseball Bat
- Mace
- Cane
- Sai
- Battle Axe
- Hammer and Sickle
- Scythe
It’s also worth noting that in Black Ops Cold War, shotguns are classed as secondary weapons alongside pistols, melees, and rocket launchers, not primary weapons.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War create-a-class
Black Ops Cold War’s new create-a-class system provides players the most creative freedom ever to customize their loadouts. It is a solely slot-based system, with Treyarch doing away with the ‘pick ten’ format it used in Black Ops 4.
This means your guns can be stuffed to the brim with attachments in gunsmith and you don’t have to take a hit in the perks or equipment departments. Wildcards also return, which grant you more weapon attachments, perks, or equipment.
Field Upgrades also continue on from Modern Warfare, but with a radically different lineup.
You can also modify your classes during a game – again, a carry-over from Modern Warfare.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War gunsmith
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has a similar gunsmith system to that found in its predecessor, Modern Warfare. As standard, you can customize each weapon with up to five attachments to set it up how you want.
There is also a wildcard (more on those in a bit) that will let you increase the amount of attachments on a weapon from five to eight. That means that every one of a weapon’s eight attachment points can be filled with a performance enhancing add-on.
Those attachment points are similar to those in Modern Warfare but some have slightly different names. The eight attachment types in Black Ops Cold War are:
- Optic
- Muzzle
- Barrel
- Underbarrel
- Body
- Stock
- Magazine
- Handle
Black Ops Cold War has well over 50 attachments in total for its weapons.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War perks
Black Ops Cold War has plenty of perks for you to choose from, including the expected CoD staples like Cold Blooded and Scavenger, to renamed perks from older games like Ninja and Quartermaster.
As is the norm in Call of Duty games, there are three categories of perks and you can only choose one from each – unless you pick up certain wildcards, which can either grant you an extra perk from each category or allow you to pick any three from any category.
These are the Black Ops Cold War perks:
Perk 1
- Flak Jacket
- Engineer
- Tactical Mask
- Paranoia
- Forward Intel
Perk 2
- Scavenger
- Tracker
- Quartermaster
- Assassin
- Gearhead
Perk 3
- Cold Blooded
- Ninja
- Ghost
- Gung-Ho
- Spycraft
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War wildcards
Wildcards return with Black Ops Cold War, and there are four to choose from.
These do everything from running two primary weapons, filling every single slot on your gun with attachments, and hoarding a shedload of perks.
Here are the four Black Ops Cold War wildcards:
- Perk Greed (Equip three extra perks)
- Gunfighter (Equip eight attachments to primary weapon)
- Law Breaker (Equip any weapon in any slot and take any three perks)
- Danger Close (Equip two lethal and tactical equipment and start with max ammo)
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Field Equipment
Alongside the usual tactical and lethal equipment, you can wield an item of Field Equipment in Black Ops Cold War.
There are seven items of Field Equipment for you to chose from, and these are solely time-earned rather than score-earned like streaks.
Your Black Ops Cold War Field Equipment choices are:
- Proximity Mine
- SAM Turret
- Jammer
- Field Mic
- Trophy System
- Assault Pack
- Gas Mine
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War scorestreaks
One of the most shocking announcements made during the Black Ops Cold War multiplayer reveal was regarding scorestreaks.
While fans are happy to see a return to score-earned streaks rather than kill-earned streaks in Modern Warfare, the news that your scorestreak points would not reset when you died set off some alarm bells.
The concerns were that the game would be constantly spammed with streaks and that it would not incentivize going on massive kill streaks.
However, while points do roll over after death, measures were made to balance streaks. First of all, the amount of points needed for the heavy-hitting streaks is very high. Second, streaks will have a cooldown, so you can’t continuously spam the low-score ones like RC-XDs and UAVs. And finally, to reward those popping off, there will be a multiplier to your score depending on how many kills you’ve racked up without dying.
In practice, this new scorestreaks system actually worked quite well and was not as overpowered or spammy as many had feared.
Here are the Black Ops Cold War scorestreaks:
- Combat Bow (500 points)
- RC-XD (800 points)
- Spy Plane [UAV] (1,000 points)
- Counter Spy Plane (1,200 points)
- Armor (1,600 points)
- Sentry Turret (1,800 points)
- Care Package (2,000 points)
- Napalm (2,500 points)
- Air Patrol (2,700 points)
- Artillery (3,000 points)
- Cruise Missile (3,500 points)
- War Machine (4,000 points)
- Attack Chopper (5,000 points)
- HARP (6,000 points)
- VTOL (7,000 points)
- Chopper Gunner (8,000 points)
- Gunship (10,000 points)
As is the norm, you can pick any three of these scorestreaks before a game.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer modes
For Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, staple multiplayer modes like Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint are all in the game, along with some new additions, several larger-scale multiplayer modes, and a returning mode that will get fans of competitive CoD drooling.
Here is a selection of notable Black Ops Cold War multiplayer modes:
- Team Deathmatch
- Kill Confirmed
- Domination
- Hardpoint
- Control
- Search and Destroy
- VIP Escort
- Combined Arms Domination (12v12)
- Fireteam
After being left out of Modern Warfare and, as a result, the 2020 Call of Duty League season, Control makes a triumphant return. The game mode was a hit with competitive players and was sorely missed in the esports scene after creating some great moments in the Black Ops 4 season.
VIP Escort is Treyarch’s take on the ‘Save the President’ challenges the community often set themselves to spice up multiplayer, and is a brand-new mode to Cold War. This sees your team attempt to extract or take out a VIP, who is equipped only with a pistol, a smoke grenade, and a spy plane scorestreak.
Then there are the larger-scale game modes. Combined Arms sees regular modes expanded to have larger teams scrapping over objectives – and it throws vehicles into the mix.
Then there’s Fireteam modes. These modes see teams of four compete for narrative-driven objectives on larger maps.
So that’s our comprehensive run down on Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer gameplay. Treyarch has certainly borrowed plenty from Modern Warfare, but made plenty of new innovations too.