Category: Games

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla takes players to England, Norway and even beyond, but while the world is stunningly rendered both on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, there’s a lot of secrets hiding within the virtual British Isles where most of the game takes place.

Even the names of in-game enemies Eivor takes on offer some hints to some peculiar parts of English history, and may potentially link the world to the future DLC, Wrath of the Druids.

You can check out the full review of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla right here

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In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you can find many different armor sets for Eivor, each of which provide different perks. In the following article, we list all of the different armor sets that you can find in Valhalla, and also let you know which will likely best work for your ideal playstyle. In total, there are nine armor sets in Valhalla. There are technically 10, but one is locked to a specific region of the game, so we’re not going to count that one (we’re also skipping over the armor sets in Valhalla’s in-game store).

Along with the information for where to find every armor set, we’ve listed each one’s unique perks as well. Every armor set comes with two perks. The first is applied provided you have at least two pieces of the armor set equipped, while the second is only applied if you have all five pieces equipped. To get the best out of your armor, it’s worth equipping all five pieces–especially since the second perk in most armor sets is the better of the two. But, this also means you can mix and match to combine the first perk of two different armor sets to further refine your ideal loadout. For more tips, check out GameSpot’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla skills and abilities guide, settlement building and management guide, and hidden quests and secret discoveries guide.

Raven Clan Armor Set

Decent all-around armor set with no clear strengths or weaknesses

Perks:

• Increase Armor the lower your health
• Additional increase to Critical Chance

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The Raven Clan Armor will be the first armor set available for you to complete–you automatically acquire all the pieces just by playing the first few hours of the campaign. It’s also the only armor set that really doesn’t specialize in any way. So it’s not ideal for those looking to focus on one specific playstyle. Instead, its perks are geared towards overall survival and dealing more damage. Which, honestly, is never a bad thing. You could reasonably stick with this armor set for the full campaign and never go looking for anything else. But you’re probably better off transitioning to something else once you start discovering your ideal playstyle.

Huntsman Armor Set

For range-focused builds, with an emphasis on fighting in the open

Perks:

• Increase Ranged Damage when hitting enemies further than 20m away
• Additional increase to Speed

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One of the earliest armor sets you can come across, the Huntsman Armor is scattered across the kingdom of Mercia, with the bracers, pants, and torso located in Grantebridgescire, and the cloak and helmet found in Ledecestrescire.

The Huntsman Armor is one of the two range-focused armor sets, so this is ideal for those looking to exclusively use their bow and nothing else. However, you only get a benefit towards ranged combat with the first perk. So really, the Huntsman Armor is a set that you ideally want to combine with another set in order to get the best out of ranged combat. Your best bet is probably mixing the Huntsman Armor Set with the Draugr Armor Set in order to add the perk of poison damage to your arrows (but you’ll need to buy the Draugr Armor Set from the in-game store). If you do stick with this armor, unlock skills like Arrow Reinforcement, Bow Stun Finisher, and Charged Shot.

Hidden Ones’ Armor Set

For range-focused builds, with an emphasis on stealth

Perks:

• Increase Assassination Damage when crouched and undetected for 10 seconds
• Additional increase to Headshot Damage

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One of the best armor sets in the game, the Hidden Ones’ Armor Set is also one of the hardest to obtain. Each piece is found in a Hidden One Bureau, which are scattered throughout England. But since these bureaus are not marked on your map until you find them, this can be tricky. You want to specifically find the bureaus located in Ledecestrescire, Lunden, Essexe, Jorvik, and Glowecestrescire.

The Hidden Ones’ Armor is, ideally, the armor set you want to have for a ranged build in the endgame. Having the full set gets you that increased headshot damage with a bow regardless of how close you are to your target, allowing bows to excel even while indoors. The Hidden Ones’ Armor is also one of the best for stealth, giving you the option to use the hidden blade if you run out of arrows. Pair this armor set with abilities like Blinding Rush and Piercing Shot, as well as skills like Guided Arrow, Chain Assassination, and Stealth Recon to clear entire encampments without anyone being the wiser.

Magister’s Armor Set

For melee and range hybrid builds, with an emphasis on playing in the dark

Perks:

• Increase Melee Damage at night
• Additional increase to Ranged Damage

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Another early game armor set, the Magister’s Armor is scattered across two different kingdoms: Mercia and East Anglia. You’ll find the bracers, pants, and torso in Oxenefordscire, while the cloak and helmet are found in East Anglia.

This is perhaps the worst armor set in the game–which is a shame because it looks really cool. You only want to find this entire armor set if you’re a completionist. Otherwise, it’s worth skipping. Granted, if you’re not willing to pay for the Berserker Armor in the in-game store, then the Magister’s Armor is likely the first armor set you’ll find that boosts your melee damage. But it only does so at night, so unless you’re willing to constantly meditate to speed through every day so that you’re only playing during nighttime, it’s just not worth it. There are so many better armor sets for people looking to deal more melee damage.

Galloglach Armor Set

For melee-focused builds, with emphasis on defense

Perks:

• Increases Melee Resistance when hitting enemies with finishers
• Additional increase to Melee Damage

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The Galloglach Armor Set is a mid-game armor set located in Mercia and Wessex. You can find the bracers, pants, and torso in Lincolnscire, while the cloak and helmet are in Essexe.

In terms of the armor sets that are geared towards melee combat, the Galloglach Armor is pretty bad. Like the Magister’s Armor, you can skip this set. It’s one noteworthy benefit is tied to finishers, a special animation that doesn’t always occur when killing an enemy. Given how much this armor set depends on chance (or kiting a few enemies away from the overall group to do a finisher on one of them before engaging the main force), it’s just not worth it.

Brigandine Armor Set

For melee-focused builds, with an emphasis on crowd-control

Perks:

• Increase Armor when surrounded by more than 2 enemies
• Additional increase to Melee Damage

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Perhaps the best armor set for players with melee-focused builds and who don’t care for stealth or ranged combat, the Brigandine Armor Set is located in mid-campaign locations: the later areas of Mercia and early areas of Wessex. You can find the bracers, pants, and torso in Cent, while the cloak and helmet are hidden in Sciropescire.

The Brigandine Armor is perfect for players looking to just jump into the fray without the use of assassinations or bows to thin the herd. This makes it great if you want to use two-handed weapons that traditionally have wide swings and can deal with multiple enemies at once. So go ahead and ditch your shield for a two-handed weapon; you’re getting more armor when you’re surrounded anyway. If you really want the added protection of a shield, this armor pairs well with flails as well. Heavy Dual Wield, Parry Damage, Warrior Takedown, and Perfect Attack are all great skills to invest in with this armor set.

Mentor’s Armor Set

For hit-and-run builds

Perks:

• Increases Attack after Critical Hits
• Additional Increase to Speed

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The other armor set that gives you Assassin’s Creed’s trademark beaked hood, the Mentor’s Armor Set is much easier to find than the Hidden Ones’ Armor. However, the Mentor’s Armor is hidden in more endgame locations, with the pieces scattered among both Wessex and Northumbria. The bracers and torso are located in Suthsexe, the cloak and helmet in Snotinghamscire, and pants in Wincestre.

This armor set is for players who like to get in quick, deal some melee damage, and then get out of the fight to surprise attack again. Those who have found and enjoy equipping both Runes of Finesse (increase critical damage chance) and Runes of Perfection (increase critical damage) will love this armor set. Axes, claws, and light bows are geared towards doing critical damage, so this is not the armor set for you if you prefer to use other weapon types. Skills like Backstab, Sprint Attack, and Assassin’s Cantrip are what you want to unlock to get the most out of the Mentor’s Armor.

Thegn’s Armor Set

For critical damage-focused builds

Perks:

• Increase to Critical Chance when parrying
• Additional Increase to Critical Damage

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The pieces to the Thegn’s Armor Set are scattered all over England, so you probably won’t find all of them until later in the game. You can discover the bracers and torso in Eurviscire, the pants in Glowecestrescire, and the cloak and helmet in Wincestre.

This armor set is even more focused on dealing critical damage than the Mentor’s Armor–it’s all about dealing huge amounts of damage as quickly as possible, ending fights with a quick parry and a mighty follow-up. Unlike the light Mentor’s Armor, the Thegn’s Armor’s higher defense and heavier weight make it more ideal for extended fights as opposed to quick, hit-and-run tactics. This is the armor for players who want to dual wield axes and claws, relying exclusively on parrys for defense instead of shields or dodging. Because Eivor is a bit slower with this armor set, having abilities that help with crowd control, like Mark of Death and Man’s Best Friend, are ideal. Unlocking the Damage Parry skill is pretty handy too.

Thor’s Armor Set

For stun damage-focused builds

Perks:

• Increased Speed when stunning an enemy
• Additional increase to Stun

Here it is. The hardest armor set to earn in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The pants, torso, and bracers are held by the three Daughters of Lerion, who are some of the hardest bosses in the game. You’ll find the two weaker ones in Grantebridgescire (Goneril is power level 90 and Regan is power level 110) while the strongest sister is in East Anglia (Cordelia is power level 340). Killing all three gets you their daggers, which allows you to unlock a tomb in East Anglia, where you can find the helmet. And then there’s the cloak–to claim it, you’ll have to track down and kill all 45 members of the Order of Ancients. Trust us, that takes a lot longer than you think.

The effort is worth it though, as Thor’s Armor Set is powerful. It’s ideal for players who like wielding shields or (obviously) hammers, as both are good for dealing stun damage. Rush & Bash is a pretty good ability to have for Thor’s Armor set, and you should also consider unlocking the Battleground Bolt and Sprint Bash skills.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is finally out on Nintendo Switch and has much tougher battles than what you might have faced in the free eShop demo. To help you with some of the challenges that lie ahead, we’ve laid out some useful combat tips to elevate your skills.

We’ve also found some exciting tech that will be extra useful for those who want to get deep into the intricacies of combat. So this will also be a guide containing some advanced tips from our resident Breath of the Wild expert Max Blumenthal, who has a knack for finding new combat tech, and has already pioneered a few Age of Calamity tricks!

If you have any more tips, post them in the comments below. We’re always looking for cool combat techniques to use in Hyrule Warriors, so don’t hesitate to call them out. Otherwise, read our full Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity review.

Use Stasis Correctly

If you’re throwing out Stasis willy-nilly and using its auto-animation, you’ve got to change your ways. While using Stasis to counter a Stasis-weak attack is a good and natural application of the ability, the most powerful part of Stasis is its potential to extend weak point duration and stun enemies for longer. You can capitalize on this by dashing after performing Stasis, allowing you to then freely do another action. While some weak points last a while for you to beat down an opponent, others last for only a second or two, which isn’t enough time to crack it. So use Stasis to extend that time.

This technique is crucial to extending combos, gaining more supermove meter, and restricting an enemy’s ability to fight back. Unfortunately, not every character can attack during Stasis–Daruk, for example, is unable to follow up with an attack. However, for characters who can, this technique is incredibly powerful. It can even be strung into enemy weak points you trigger with Sheikah Slate abilities, allowing you to force your way through an opponent’s weak point at any time.

As a rule, you’ll want to be hitting enemies after triggering this technique as much as possible to maximize your damage output, building towards that inevitable weak point smash. It comes in handy, especially against more formidable enemies who tend to be very tanky in harder difficulties. So do not underestimate this technique in a pinch!

How To Best Use Elemental Rods

Elemental Rods are essential to mastering Age of Calamity’s combat. These powerful magical weapons easily create weak points at any time if you’re having trouble creating an opening yourself, but the type of weak point and size of the blast depends on several things.

For one, it’s important to note that attacking elemental-based enemies with wands of the same element do no damage, so don’t hit an ice enemy with an Ice Rod.

Second, hitting enemies using an element it’s weak against (fire against ice, ice against fire, lightning against enemies soaked in water) automatically triggers a critical weak point. This powerful weak point attack creates a longer-lasting and more fragileweak point gauge.

Lastly, the power and size of the Elemental Rod blast will depend on the terrain you hit. You can see this when hovering your fire rod over grass as opposed to dirt. Using fire on grassy areas, lightning on metal or water, and ice on water will increase the blast range and force a critical weak point on enemies caught in the blast, even to those not ordinarily weak to them. So be sure to always pay attention to your surroundings and take advantage of the terrain you’re on!

Rely On Magnesis Cancel For A Quick Dodge Or Attack Cancel

Most characters aren’t able to use Magnesis if nothing metallic is around. And if there are metallic items around, you’ll perform a regular Magnesis attack, which is pretty underwhelming for most characters. So, you might be thinking: “Well, that’s weak, so what’s the point?”

But in actuality, Magnesis is arguably one of the more powerful techniques in the game because you can use it to cancel almost any action you do. It also gives you complete invincibility without using resources.

You can perform a Magnesis Cancel by pressing the R and B buttons when there are no metallic items within range. If a regular dodge isn’t quick enough to get you out of harm’s way, you can use Magnesis Cancel to more quickly dodge attacks or cancel out longer attack animations.

You’ll want to keep in mind that the effectiveness of Magnesis Cancel varies from character to character, as some, like Zelda, are unable to do this technique at all. In contrast, others like Impa can spam it quickly over and over. But when the situation is right, Magnesis Cancel can be very clutch. Some attacks, such as a Guardian’s lasers, have a blast hitbox that’s hard to dodge and can’t be parried with other characters, so keep this in your repertoire when up against deadly foes!

Impa is Broken (So Use Her!)

Usually, we’re not particularly eager to promote easy wins, but it’s hard to ignore when a character like Impa is 100% SSS tier on the tier list. She can perform near-endless combos on single enemies and crowds while stunning everyone around her. Her meter-gain is also incredibly fast when fighting against groups, which allows you to perform your special quite often.

In the future, it’s possible that other characters may have hidden potential that will place them as high on the tier list as Impa, but she’s currently pretty dominant. And with abilities unlocked in the endgame, she becomes even more of an absolute monster. If you’re having a hard time with this game, you can lean on this Sheikah pain train to carry you through a rough mission.

Menu Slowdown Can Help Practice Parrying or Dodging

This technique can help in a pinch if you’re having a rough time parrying or dodging. By alternating the Sheikah Slate and Elemental Rod menus, you can put yourself in a perpetual state of slowdown, giving you a much more accurate window to dodge and parry attacks. Some enemy attacks have strange animations that are challenging to time a parry or dodge against, so if you need a second to watch for the counter-attack tell, you can use this little trick to help nail the timing.

Other Assorted Tips

As coined by Max, the Urbosa Float Cancel is a secret combat trick that can be executed while airborne and attacking. By tapping your ZR charge, your attack count will be reset, allowing you to continue attacking in the air. This flying Urbosa trick will continue to headshot most enemies while being out of their range and still doing damage. It’s possible to get hit by high attacks, but this technique typically dodges most ground attacks while continually dishing out damage from above.

Max has also found a unique technique for Revali, which he’s named Rune Sliding. By doing your C4 combo (Y-button x4 + X-button) in the air and timing a Sheikah Slate ability perfectly, you can slide along the ground at breakneck speeds. Depending on your rune of choice, some slides last longer than others, but whichever one you choose, the utility changes with your swift movement, and during the length of the animation, you are entirely invincible. This technique can be handy for approaching pesky ranged enemies or running away from a fight.

If you need a visual aid to better understand how these techniques are performed, watch the video version of this guide, which is embedded above.

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Black Panther 2 is reportedly set to begin shooting in Atlanta in July 2021, after being temporarily sidelined after the tragic and unexpected death of actor Chadwick Boseman, according to sources that spoke with The Hollywood Reporter. The movie was originally scheduled to begin filming in March before the delays.

In addition to the new production date, Narcos: Mexico star Tenoch Huerta is said to be joining the film as an unidentified antagonist. He will star alongside returning cast members from the first Black Panther, including Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, and Angela Bassett.

THR’s sources also implied that Wright’s character, Shuri, the younger sister of T’Challa, could potentially see a much larger role in the upcoming film. This would be consistent with Shuri’s trajectory in the comics, where she has taken over the Black Panther mantle in her brother’s stead several times.

There are no updates to offer about recasting the role of T’Challa, but Marvel Studios executive producer Victoria Alonso has already confirmed that there are no plans to digitally recreate or otherwise manufacture a VFX version of Chadwick Boseman to use in the film. “There is only one Chadwick, and he is no longer with us,” Alonso said.

While 2020 may have heralded a full-stop for Marvel Studios productions and represented the first year since 2009 where the company released no movies, 2021 is shaping up to look like a very busy year. The first of the much-delayed Disney+ MCU TV shows, WandaVision, will be hitting the platform on January 15, while Black Widow will finally hit theaters on May 7 after being pushed back for a full year.

Black Panther 2 is scheduled for release in 2022.

In The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 4, Mando (Pedro Pascal) and The Child aka Baby Yoda return to Nevarro and are reunited with their friends Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) for a new side quest. Mando teams up with Greef and Cara to take down an Imperial base, while The Child goes to school and steals macarons. We also learn that the remaining Imperial forces and especially Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) are after The Child to use his Midi-cholrian filled blood for some nefarious purpose involving experimentation.

As usual, the episode was also filled with many Star Wars Easter eggs and references. Among them are a hidden tribute to IG-11, a returning character from Chapter 1, a hologram of Dr. Pershing, scout troopers on speeder bikes, and cliffhanger involving Dark Troopers!

As with any annual game franchise, it’s hard not to compare Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War to last year’s Modern Warfare. On the campaign side, Cold War does much better than last year’s outing, showing that Call of Duty fares far better when it errs on the side of fantasy. This is true within Cold War’s campaign, where the inclusion of Ronald Reagan is a bizarre fit for an otherwise larger-than-life story about espionage and brainwashing, and it’s true when comparing its story to that of last year’s self-serious Modern Warfare.

In Zombies, Cold War has a far more successful co-op mode than Modern Warfare’s Spec Ops, though it’s still in need of some balance tweaks. Multiplayer, however, is where Cold War struggles; it falls flat overall, and that’s especially apparent in Warzone’s shadow.

Campaign

Like any Call of Duty campaign, Cold War is theatrical. From the ’80s-themed montage that opens the campaign to a Vietnam flashback set to Steppenwolf–along with plenty of explosions, helicopter crashes, and slo-mo shootouts–Cold War’s campaign is as action-movie as you’d expect. It largely works with the inherent over-the-top nature of a Black Ops story, and although some bits can be kind of goofy, it’s both easy and fun to buy into the spy drama and massive gunfights in equal measure.

That’s partially thanks to good comedic timing in the dialogue, which helps prevent most scenes from coming across as too self-serious. You’re also given plenty of choice throughout the campaign, including optional side missions, whether to kill or capture particular antagonists, and various dialogue options that range from lawful good to cheeky to loose cannon. While most decisions don’t materially affect the overall story, I had fun playing around with them and going back to previous levels to try the more chaotic options, like throwing an enemy spy off a building instead of capturing him.

Most levels give you multiple options in terms of your approach to combat, too, and some even account for blunders on your part. For example, an early mission tasks you with assassinating a target before he boards a plane and gets away. You’ll screw up the assassination regardless, but the first time I did it, I was too slow and didn’t even get a shot off before he began to escape; the second time, I did it “correctly” and shot at him, but the shot ended up hitting someone else and the target began to escape anyway. Even though the scene proceeds the same way no matter what, the illusion of flexibility, at least, makes Cold War’s campaign dynamic and exciting–it often feels like you’re just barely getting away with whatever hijinks you’re trying to pull.

Simple stealth mechanics add to this feeling. Most missions have at least some stealth, which means staying out of sight, relying on silent takedowns, and then hiding a body before someone can find it. In some instances I felt like I got away with more than I realistically should have, especially when noisily stabbing someone right behind someone else. But there are a few missions that create satisfying tension, as if you could be caught doing your spy business at any moment if you aren’t quick and careful.

The level design is par for the course for Call of Duty, with clear objectives and bombastic set-pieces. Hidden intel and the occasional optional objective mix it up a bit and encourage you to explore places like a well-realized East Berlin or a clever and creative Soviet training facility. One level, however, really stands out as a showcase for both stealth and freedom of choice, giving you free rein inside a KGB building and multiple options for completing your objective. I spent more time in this mission than in any of the others, exploring all the possibilities and sneaking into restricted areas just to see what was behind each door.

You have plenty of opportunities to go loud, of course, and the shooting is as tight as ever. I’ll never get tired of the satisfying thump that confirms a kill, whether I’m using a sniper rifle or an attack helicopter’s minigun. Weapons are responsive and distinct from each other, and on PS5, the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers further differentiate one weapon from the next–I’ll get to that a bit later on.

Cold War largely avoids specific real-life events in its missions and overall story–at least to my knowledge–and instead uses the backdrop of the Cold War and the Iran hostage crisis to establish a sense of place and a main conflict (though the CIA is no stranger to illegal and questionable operations like those in Cold War’s missions). One bizarre intrusion of real life comes in the form of Ronald Reagan, who only appears in a brief scene at the beginning and via a few voice lines toward the end of the game. While the recreation of his likeness and manner of speech is undeniably striking–a technical feat to be sure–he comes across as a weirdly benign grandpa in a room full of rough-talking, chain-smoking badasses discussing illegal military operations. It has very little to do with Reagan’s real-life foreign or military policy, and he himself really has no impact on the trajectory of Cold War’s story. He might as well have been any generic president in any American political drama, and his appearance sticks out as an attempt to force “realism” into an otherwise fantastical story.

It’s overall a fun action-movie story that absolutely delivers on the quintessential Black Ops twists and turns, but it ultimately walks back its more interesting and relevant questions.

Cold War’s biggest miss, in terms of story, is giving the United States very little grief for its imagined ills. Without going into too much detail, the US is ultimately responsible for the main (and completely fictional) issue at the center of the game’s campaign, all due to an absolutely bonkers anti-Soviet strategy gone awry. The protagonists’ main concern is that the US will be blamed for how the Soviets use this to their advantage, rather than that the US is indeed guilty of a major foreign policy blunder and human rights violation in the first place. There are moments in one of the two major endings where the game flirts with the idea that the US is not blameless, but it’s ostensibly the bad ending; completing its objectives made me feel guilty, which ultimately solidified my suspicion that the US was meant to be the good guys all along and that the ends justified the questionable means.

It’s clear that a core theme of Cold War’s story is that things are more complicated than just good or evil, and the ways in which this sequel plays off the original Black Ops underscore that. But like many Call of Duty stories, it only gestures at a greater point and stops short of making it. It’s overall a fun action-movie story that absolutely delivers on the quintessential Black Ops twists and turns, but it ultimately walks back its more interesting and relevant questions–though I was completely invested in the story for the entire duration.

Multiplayer

As with any Call of Duty game, the standard suite of 6v6 multiplayer modes is here. There’s not much to say about the modes themselves that hasn’t been said before; they’re the bread and butter of the multiplayer CoD experience, and most of them work well.

There’s a relatively small group of maps available currently, with more already announced. The Cold War setting allows for a lot of variety from one map to the next, which helps the limited slate feel richer; a highlight in terms of aesthetic are Miami’s neon-soaked streets. Each core 6v6 map balances close-quarters spaces with long-range sightlines, and in my experience, they mostly translate well from one mode to the next.

Combined Arms is Cold War’s answer to Modern Warfare’s Ground War, and it’s my favorite of the multiplayer modes. The 12v12, objective-based mode incorporates vehicles at a manageable scale–you get boats on Armada, motorcycles on Cartel, and snowmobiles and tanks on Crossroads. Armada is the standout map, with several ships connected by ziplines. To get around, you can take the ziplines, swim, or commandeer a speedboat or larger turreted vessel. This provides a lot of dimension to the map; you can attract the attention of the opposing team with a loud vehicle but get to the objective faster, or you can dive underwater to avoid detection and sneak up on the deck of a ship at the cost of speed.

The other two Combined Arms maps aren’t quite as exciting, though. While the boats and ziplines of Armada give you an efficient way of navigating a water-based map, Cartel has tighter spaces and a lot of bumpy ground, so its motorcycles don’t serve much of a purpose besides alerting everyone to your position. The tanks on Crossroads are good for causing explosions, but you can be just as effective, if not more so, on foot.

Conversely, Cartel and Crossroads work just fine as 6v6 maps without their vehicles, whereas Armada is missing a lot of its charm without its boats. And while the maps are altered for the smaller player count, Armada still feels too big–it’s much harder to get in a firefight without objectives to funnel you toward your opponents.

Cold War is missing key mechanics that Modern Warfare and Warzone have, which leaves multiplayer at odds with the Warzone ecosystem.

Fireteam: Dirty Bomb, another new mode, suffers under the weight of its large player count. The 40-player mode isn’t battle royale, but it borrows ideas from battle royale games, including dropping out of a plane into a free-for-all against other teams of four. However, it lacks the stakes that make battle royale exciting. You can respawn over and over again after a short cooldown, and the objectives are scattered around the map–which means it’s never quite clear which one you should be moving toward and where other teams might be moving in relation to you. It’s easy to get flanked by multiple teams because you can’t be sure where they’re likely to come from, and because the maps are a bit too small for the number of players, you get into frustrating scuffles often.

Across the multiplayer modes, Cold War feels a bit clumsier than Modern Warfare and, by extension, Warzone. It’s missing key mechanics that Modern Warfare and Warzone have, including mounting weapons and switching a weapon’s fire rate, which leaves Cold War at odds with the Warzone ecosystem. Of course, Cold War and Modern Warfare are different sub-series, so it’s not fair to expect them to be identical. But the two systems are different enough that it’s noticeable, especially in the movement and gunplay. It’s not that one is better than the other, but it’s a jarring adjustment to switch to Warzone–after all, Warzone is still an active part of Call of Duty and is even launchable from the Cold War menu.

Using The DualSense

On PS5, Cold War utilizes the DualSense controller’s various features, including nuanced haptic feedback and the much-touted adaptive triggers. When you’re low on health, you can feel your heartbeat in your hands as it thumps in your ears and flashes red on the screen. When switching weapons, you can feel the difference in ADS speed through the left trigger’s level of resistance; you can feel the difference in fire rate depending on how snappy (or not) the right trigger is, and the intensity of the vibration changes depending on the firepower and recoil you’re working with.

I’ve experimented with a variety of weapons as well as the same weapon with different attachments. Different weapons definitely feel distinct, but it’s hard to tell what effect, if any, an attachment like a stock has on the trigger feel of a gun (though you’ll still get the gameplay benefits of attachments, like faster reload speed, so it’s not a huge deal). The most practical application I’ve found for the DualSense’s feedback is in Zombies, where I tend to switch weapons much more frequently than in multiplayer. It’s immediately apparent whether you’re using your assault rifle or your LMG, for example, and in practice this helped me keep my eye on the enemies rather than double-checking my weapon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

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Generally, this trigger feedback has also informed which weapons I’ve been favoring. The MP5, even after its nerf, has a satisfying snappiness in the right trigger that I really like; the AK-74u feels a bit heftier but is easy to aim and shoot for the power it gets you. The DualSense and the adaptive triggers specifically aren’t a make-or-break feature, but they add dimension to already strong gunplay.

While the feedback is engaging, though, it might not necessarily improve your Call of Duty game. Some guns, like long-range ones, require far more pressure to aim down sights than a standard assault rifle, which made my left pointer finger sore after a few hours of matches. That might sound kind of silly, but over time, having to put a lot of pressure on a trigger adds up, and I found myself switching to the much more forgiving AK-47 to offset this. Haptic feedback, too, could potentially interfere with your aim, though personally, I’m here to have a good time rather than nail a lot of headshots. If you prefer a more traditional controller feel, you can disable the features entirely in the game’s settings.

Zombies

I’ve always liked Zombies, but this is the first time in a while that I’ve felt like I actually learned and improved after each run. A big part of that is the map design–Die Maschine is just the right size, with enough room that everyone can kite their own crowd of zombies but small enough that it doesn’t take ages to learn the map basics. It only took a handful of runs to figure out which doors to unlock and when, how to get the power on, and how to unlock the Pack-a-Punch machine; once we found a rhythm for the opening rounds, we could just focus on getting better and surviving longer.

However, while the learning curve is manageable, the difficulty curve could use some tweaks. It ramps up rapidly after round 10, as base weapons start to get less and less effective. On top of upgrading weapons at the Pack-a-Punch machine using points, you also have to upgrade their damage tier separately using salvage, which drops from zombies at random. Salvage is very rare compared to points, so you’ll end up packing a weapon twice before round 20 but unable to upgrade its damage tier to match. Your ability to do damage can stall out as a result.

The inclusion of damage tiers on top of the traditional Pack-a-Punch makes upgrading a weapon a bit more convoluted than it really needs to be. Salvage is also used to upgrade your armor and craft equipment like grenades, meaning you often have to decide between upgrading a weapon or something else. It’s a mechanic that’s really in need of balancing–even with a weapon attachment that’s supposed to increase the rate of salvage drops, I still struggle to get enough to do everything I need to do.

There are also radioactive bosses that join the normal zombie horde every few rounds, which exacerbates this issue. These bosses are really spongy, they eat a lot of bullets, and they survive between rounds. By round 20, we end up spending a good amount of our points at ammo crates just to keep up. Because packing a weapon the final time costs a whopping 30,000 points, it’s difficult to save up enough points to get the final upgrade, let alone survive long enough without the damage boost you’ll get from it. It’s even harder once the game throws three of them at you at once.

The bosses themselves challenge you to coordinate with your team, though, and we found some success by kiting a lone zombie around the map while we dealt with the bosses. Delaying the start of a new round this way isn’t a new strategy for Zombies, of course, but it’s still satisfying to execute, especially while dodging radioactive projectiles and trading off runs to the ammo crates. It’s just that the boss rounds occur too close together to give you and your team room to breathe.

Die Maschine is just the right size, with enough room that everyone can kite their own crowd of zombies but small enough that it doesn’t take ages to learn the map basics.

The biggest issue plaguing Zombies at the moment, though, is a bevy of server and matchmaking hiccups. I spend 10-15 minutes just troubleshooting matchmaking before my team and I can actually start playing, and it’s not uncommon for one person to randomly error out right as the run is starting. I’ve experienced this both when utilizing cross-play and when playing with only PS5 players. We’ve also had both PS5 and Xbox Series X players experience hard crashes that completely shut off their systems. Technical issues like these are forgivable in the grand scheme, considering Cold War is cross-gen on top of allowing cross-play and launched in the middle of a pandemic. Still, it’s worth noting that there are still a lot of issues to be ironed out.

It’s reasonable to expect updates to Cold War at a steady clip. Weapons will be tweaked, issues will be patched, and gameplay will be balanced. Zombies has a strong foundation and may very well be improved further by potential updates, but the gap between multiplayer and the Warzone ecosystem is too wide to be bridged by small tweaks. Zombies is a good co-op time overall, but multiplayer falls flat, leaving the strong campaign to do most of the heavy lifting.

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