After years and years of Call of Duty being the game that everyone and their mother wants to play, Fortnite's Battle Royale mode is on top, at least popularity wise (Call of Duty is still the best-selling game each year). It's price point of $0, competitive gameplay, and constant updates all combine to make a genuinely great gameplay experience. Because of this, it didn't surprise anyone when Activision (among a myriad of other publishers, to be fair) announced that this year's entry in the long-running franchise, Black Ops 4, would include a Battle Royale mode, titled Blackout.
Unfortunately, we know barely anything about Blackout, even though we are only two months away from release and it's easily the game's most anticipated feature. Because of this, I've made a small list of features I want from the mode, which I think will help it stand among others, if not rise above them.
A Large(r) Player Count
My first request of Blackout should come as absolutely no surprise. Both Fortnite and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, two of the most popular Battle Royale games right now, support 100 players at a time in their matches. While I'm not sure if Black Ops 4 needs to get that high depending on the map size, they need to get close. A few weeks ago, a whole slew of leaked information about Blackout was leaked on Reddit, which claimed that the mode currently supports 50 players but that Treyarch was testing at 64. If this is true, then the developers need to try and pump those numbers up in time for release day because if they launch with anything less than 75, I don't know if they'll be able to grab people's attention. I feel like most players, including myself, are expecting Treyarch to get at least close to Fortnite and PUBG's numbers, so if they don't, then tons of players (including myself) will be incredibly disappointed.
An Absolutely Packed and Massive Map
Once again, with Fortnite and PUBG's map sizes, this request should come as no surprise as well. However, I'm expecting more from Treyarch. In the past, we've learned that the map will be, at least according to David Vonderhaar, "1,500 times bigger than Nuketown," which would put it around the size of Fortnite's map. We also know that the map will include a slew of different parts of previous multiplayer maps in the Black Ops series, including Nuketown itself, Raid, and even the Zombies map Verruckt. Because of these two details, I'm expecting the map to be packed with content. While I don't think Treyarch is lazy in the slightest, I am worried the map may feel a bit empty. Again, I have no proof of this whatsoever, but it would be an absolute shame if it felt like a tedious trek to get from one part of the map to the other.
A Fair COD Points/Microtransaction System
While many players agree and disagree on whether or not COD Points have been a good or bad thing for the Call of Duty series, there's no denying that they have had a crucial role in the past three entries in the series (four if you count Modern Warfare Remastered). They are set to return with Black Ops 4 and, frankly, I'm scared that they might corrupt Blackout. If you want to have them ONLY unlock cosmetic items like outfits and emotes like in Fortnite, then that's fine. But should it take part in anything outside of those types of things, I would frankly be worried. We don't know what kind of weapon or loot system Blackout employs, and I hope that players with COD Points won't have an advantage, as that would completely ruin the game. Once again, I have no evidence to suggest that it will, but my concerns still stand.
As of the time of this writing, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout Beta is set to begin on PlayStation 4 on September 10th, 2018, so we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to get a trailer. That is unless Treyarch decides to entirely drop the beta on us with no preview whatsoever. Regardless of how we learn more about it, I can't wait to get my hands on it in the coming weeks. If you want to pre-order the game on Amazon to secure yourself a beta code, you can do so by clicking here.