Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 vs Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is an FPS game from Raven Software (2018) while Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is an FPS game from Treyarch (2023).
Quick answer: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has the higher Metacritic, 82 to 76.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
What each one is
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is filed under FPS. In contrast, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War under FPS.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a 2018 first-person shooter game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the fifteenth installment of the Call of Duty series and the fifth entry in the Black Ops sub-series, following Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015). The game was released on October 12, 2018, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Black Ops Cold War, the direct sequel to Call of Duty®: Black Ops, will drop fans into the depths of the Cold War’s volatile geopolitical battle of the early 1980s.
Story, characters and reception
Plot
Characters and settings The Multiplayer and Blackout modes take place in the 2040s, and are centered around the Specialists, a group of global elite soldiers hired by researcher Savannah Mason-Meyer ( Evangeline Lilly ), granddaughter of Alex Mason ( Sam Worthington ). The initial Specialist roster includes: infantryman Donnie "Ruin" Walsh (Christian Rummel), demolitions expert Erin "Battery" Baker (Morla Gorrondona), Medical Sergeant Jarrah "Crash"… (Wikipedia)
Characters
The Multiplayer and Blackout modes take place in the 2040s, and are centered around the Specialists, a group of global elite soldiers hired by researcher Savannah Mason-Meyer ( Evangeline Lilly ), granddaughter of Alex Mason ( Sam Worthington ). The initial Specialist roster includes: infantryman Donnie "Ruin" Walsh (Christian Rummel), demolitions expert Erin "Battery" Baker (Morla Gorrondona), Medical Sergeant Jarrah "Crash" Bazley ( Mark Coles Smith ),… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Pre-release Upon rumors emerging that Black Ops 4 would not have a single-player campaign mode, reactions from the Call of Duty community were negative. The official confirmation by Treyarch of the absence of a campaign led to many fans expressing their disappointment. In response to the criticism, Dan Bunting, studio co-head at Treyarch, stated in an interview with Eurogamer that "We are delivering so much more of what players spend most of their time… (Wikipedia)
Plot
Campaign In January 1981, CIA operatives Russell Adler ( Bruce Thomas ), Alex Mason ( Chris Payne Gilbert ), and Frank Woods (Damon Victor Allen) are sent to Amsterdam to target Qasim Javadi (Farshad Farahat) and Arash Kadivar ( Navid Negahban ) for their roles in the Iran hostage crisis . With intelligence gained from interrogating Qasim, the trio tracks Arash to an airfield in Turkey, where they witness him executing everyone in the vehicle he arrived… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Critical reception Reception Black Ops Cold War received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic , which calculated a weighted average rating of 76/100 across all platforms, based on 42 reviews for the PlayStation 5 version, 31 reviews for the Windows version, and 21 reviews for the Xbox Series X/S version. OpenCritic determined that 61% of critics recommended the game. The single-player campaign received a… (Wikipedia)
At a glance
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | |
|---|---|---|
| GamingPickz Score | — | 7.0/10 |
| Steam rating | — | Very Positive (80%, 23,046) |
| Critic aggregate | 82/100 | 76/100 |
| Price | Unknown | $59.99 |
| Install size | — | 175 GB |
| Steam Deck | Untested | unsupported |
| Released | 2018 | 2023 |
| Developer | Raven Software | Treyarch |
Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 vs Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, point by point
Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.
Genre and premise
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4FPS gameCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold WarFPS gameWhat each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.
How it plays
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4No descriptive tagsCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold WarFPS, Action, ZombiesThe tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.
Reception
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ✓Metacritic 82Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold WarMetacritic 76Metacritic's critic aggregate, from the game's Wikipedia reception where it was never on Steam.
Content and scale
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4—Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War23,046 reviews · 10 add-ons · 175 GBReach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.
Price
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4UnknownCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War$59.99Read live from Steam and subject to change.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.
Which to pick, by what you want
- The better reviewed of the two: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (Metacritic 82)
Where they differ
SingleplayerFPSMultiplayerActionZombiesCold War
Tags players apply to one game and not the other.
Difficulty and who each is for
By the tags players apply, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.
System requirements, side by side
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum GPU | — | NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 |
| Minimum CPU | — | Intel® Core™ i3-4340 |
| Minimum RAM | — | 8 GB |
| Install size | — | 175 GB |
Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 · Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Accessibility features
Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and 1 for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. A declaration is a floor, not a review.
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Common questions
How different are Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in scope?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 lists little scope data. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has drawn 23,046 Steam reviews, ships 10 add-ons and installs in 175 GB.
Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War better?
Neither carries enough reviews for us to score it reliably, so we do not call a winner. The table above shows what each does have.
Which is cheaper, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War?
One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.
Should I get Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has the higher Metacritic, 82 to 76. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.
Do you rank one above the other for a fee?
No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.
Related comparisons
All comparisonsHow we compare, and what we will not do
The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.