The Call of Duty franchise and Battlefield franchise have been fighting for fan attention for a long time, as each game offers a unique perspective and experience when it comes to digital warfare. With the recent glimpse at Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer mode, fans are starting to a blur in the stylistic divide of the two war franchises.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been a tight lip secret that only recently has debuted. With only a glimpse at the multiplayer potential within the game, fans noticed a very large desert map, and further information confirmed that the map would be a massive battlefield hosting large groups of players in a Ground War-style confrontation.
For some fans, this idea seems exciting as it gives long open field potential along with a capture the zone mechanic, but other fans noticed the similarity of the upcoming map and a large desert battleground from the Battlefield series. As the maps get bigger, the explosions get louder, and the player count rises fans are starting to see a blur in multiplayer features between Battlefield and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Call of Duty always attracted Multiplayer fans with its close-knit maps, challenging battles, and evolving playlists. The gun selections matched with the fast-paced gameplay created an environment where players relied on fast reflexes and general object awareness, as fans charged headfirst into battle wielding everything from snipers to shotguns as they fought for varying objectives. It is this fast-paced, arcade environment that attracted fans and developed into the modern Call of Duty community.
Battlefield offered fans a different pitch. With vehicles, objectives, and built-in squads, players were expected to coordinate on each mission to achieve their objective. Different classes allowed for players to assume battlefield roles while the vehicles helped determine transportation, countermeasures, and in some case, breach methods. The large scale maps and massive war experience were meant to be drawn out into longer game modes, as a match could go on for hours, and fans expected that from the game itself.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare exploring the varying possibilities found in Ground War, it is slowly drifting into a style of game that has been exclusive to Battlefield. Long matches, vehicle combat, and massive maps all combine into a single experience that is blatantly not Call of Duty.
Although the Call of Duty campaign has taken ample advantage of vehicles, the Multiplayer has only ever offered a limited view. Most non-campaign vehicle interactions were reserved for killstreaks or scorestreaks earned within the match, yet with the introduction of Ground War, players saw vehicle spawns for the first time in Call of Duty history.
The addition of vehicles to a traditional “boots on the ground” style game shifted the multiplayer in an interesting way. Although the emphasis was still on the close-knit battles featured in other Multiplayer modes, the vehicles made open terrain deadly and siege points more efficient.
With larger maps, transportation becomes an in-game necessity, as to get to points across the map, players need some level of speed that does not inherently come in a Call of Duty setting. It feels like a natural transition, but when players examine the end result of game modes like Ground War, they are left with an early version of the Battlefield formula. It all starts with the addition of vehicles and the need for a much larger battleground.
The core dividing factor between Call of Duty and Battlefield is the size of each match. Ground War’s debut in Modern Warfare blurred this line, and it appears that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will continue this evolution. At some point during the developmental process, Treyarch is going to be forced to shift the expansive vision of Ground War in its title.
If Ground War continues to evolve as expected, then fans will see the evolution drift closer into a Battlefield state. It seems that Infinity Ward is drawing the line at aerial combat, but Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War trailer shows a multiplayer mode where players in a helicopter are gunning down retreating soldiers. Although the Helicopter could easily be a killstreak, there is a fraction of the Call of Duty community who believe it’s not.
Massive maps and vehicle combat are only the start of the problem, as blurred lines threaten players with the possibility of losing values that are inherent to the Call of Duty franchise. There is a divide between Call of Duty and Battlefield fans that see these blurred lines as losses of the charm on both sides. Although they are dramatically different development and publishing teams, the games are playing with the same tools every year.
The eventual merging of the two concepts is not inherently bad, as Call of Duty fans would benefit from a larger field of battle. While Battlefield has always edged on the side of realism, Call of Duty continues to promote a more arcade and fast-paced style of play. This fast-paced small-map environment is where Call of Duty prospers by not locking players into hour-long games.
Battlefield also stands to lose in this muddling of concepts as the game already struggles to compete with Call of Duty. Battlefield continues to outshine Call of Duty every so often due to its values of a realistic battleground, but as Call of Duty edges closer to large scale combat and realism, Battlefield is automatically set to lose what it has already fought so hard to gain. This is especially true after recent installments of the franchise.
On a player side, a merge in concept between Battlefield and Call of Duty would be brilliant. The large scale confrontations mixed with close fast-paced battles would create a unique game environment that fans would love for years. As Call of Duty continues to move forward with innovation and deliberate scaling of its match sizes, players must be the word of caution to prevent the developers from losing what makes each game inherently unique.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to release on November 13 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox One X.
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