Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War garnered plenty of positive fan reception after its huge multiplayer reveal a few days back, but one feature has been met with dozens of complaints: scorestreaks. In response, Treyarch game designer Tony Flame recently addressed the criticism and attempted to explain the new system’s inclusion in Black Ops Cold War.
As soon as it was announced that scorestreaks do not reset on death in Black Ops Cold War, fans took to Twitter to make their voices heard. Call of Duty has come under fire in recent years for pandering to unskilled members of the community, with skill-based matchmaking often seen as a way to protect casual players. Allowing weaker players to have access to streaks they could otherwise never obtain sounds unfair to good players on paper, but Flame explains how the team does not think that is the case.
As Flame states, the new scorestreak system “incentivizes a greater range of playstyles” so that those who spend time in Black Ops Cold War’s new vehicles and, more importantly, those who play the objective, can be rewarded. Flame states that low-tier streaks can be achieved simply by playing the objective and going for a win. Higher streaks, on the other hand, require chaining together kills in the same life to build up a huge amount of score and unlock the “juicy high end” streaks that do some real damage.
Flame’s explanation does make sense, as a bad player throwing themselves on a flag in the new 12v12 mode Combined Arms can swing a match in their team’s favor. This way, less-skilled players who try to win get rewarded, but not nearly as much as good players since they will not have access to the high-end streaks. The kill chain system does seem like a nice addition to the game since the streaks supposedly take so much score to earn. Still, not everyone was convinced, as Flame replied to a fan saying that the system rewards bad players.
"I wouldn’t say that at all," said Flame, before stating that internal feedback has shown the team that some players cannot earn streaks even with the new system. Flame then went on to share that the true goal of the new system is to allow “middle-tier players who invest so much time in our game to also participate in the fun.” Flame does have access to more information regarding the system’s strengths and weaknesses than onlookers have, and if it is balanced correctly, the system could work. Fans will find out for themselves if the new scorestreak design is a positive or negative when the Black Ops Cold War beta launches October 8th.
While the scorestreak system is one of the biggest changes in Black Ops Cold War, not everything coming to the game is new. With popular systems like map voting coming back, Call of Duty fans should find plenty to like within the game regardless of whether they love or hate the scorestreak changes.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be available on November 13th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X upgrades will also be available.
