Black Ops 4 was a bumpy journey from the start. With development problems and suspicious marketing tactics, it’s been an overall flop. Following the release of its last operation, ‘Operation Divide’ on September 23, one more topic must be discussed. Did Black Ops 4 really deserve the hate that it received?

Black Ops 4 had features that weren’t received well and there’s no denying it. But the game did have a lot of potential. The gameplay in general was enjoyable at first, but the game was handled poorly post-launch. After a lackluster release in October 2018, Activision began to take extreme measures with Black Ops 4’s microtransaction system. Fans and gamers alike were enraged by the unfair microtransaction system and no change has taken place since. After the Zombies and Multiplayer has mixed reviews at launch, both gamemodes had their budgets cut after launch so more money could go into the Battle Royale.

The effect of the lack of budgeting for the Multiplayer and Zombies mode resulted in a drought of updates. Zombies Factions, which was supposed to be a major system in the Zombies mode was scrapped and replaced by Contracts, a system which is the silver of what Zombies Factions could have been. The Multiplayer mode faced a severe lack of updates and simply became stale. 

The Battle Royale, even with a bigger budget only had two new locations added into the main map within its one year life cycle. Although another map, ‘Alcatraz’ was introduced in April, players still weren’t satisfied. 

In general, Black Ops 4 had a sloppy year. With its development issues and last minute adjustments, it has overall been a mess for both the player base and publishers. With Modern Warfare drawing nearer to its release on Oct. 25, players are getting excited while developers are moving on from Black Ops 4 to future projects. To put it at best, everybody is ready to move on.