Anyone jumping into the Black Ops Cold War alpha this weekend will quickly notice two things: skill-based matchmaking is back, and snipers are ridiculously overpowered. As it turns out, the snipers in Black Ops Cold War were made so strong on purpose.
Treyarch developer Tony Flame, who has already discussed the controversial new scorestreak system of Black Ops Cold War, quickly jumped on the topic of sniper rifle strength when seeing numerous fan complaints pouring in on Twitter. It is not hard for any player to notice how deadly the rifles are when hopping into the alpha given that quickscoping is very easy in the game and the rifles are a one shot kill to any part of the body. Flame stated this was completely intentional on the part of Treyarch.
Snipers were made so powerful to help prepare for the Black Ops Cold War beta October 8th, as the team set them to their peak damage output for live balance testing. As Flame said on his official Twitter account, since the team knew crossplay was not coming to the alpha, they used the build as a testing ground for the next CoD. The Treyarch team “buffed snipers to evaluate their performance in this Alpha specifically,” and it certainly shows.
While the Black Ops Cold War alpha contains a good bit of content, from maps to numerous customization options, it is very clearly an early build of the game. Using it as a testing ground to prepare for the updated beta version of the game makes sense, a notice from the team ahead of time may have helped ease the outrage regarding the alpha’s absurd sniper rifles. After all, players had no idea certain parts of the game would be tuned so far in one direction, and a heads up likely could have prevented some frustration.
Still, Flame closes his tweet by ensuring fans that the rifles will be nerfed before they get their hands on Black Ops Cold War again. According to the Treyarch game designer, “sniper rifles WILL have balance changes for the upcoming Beta” based on the studio’s analytics. How much the rifles are weakened is unclear, but players will at least snag a special Modern Warfare calling card for enduring the alpha’s sniper rifle fiasco.
Getting the sniper rifle damage right will be particularly important for Treyarch, as it does not only matter for multiplayer. Warzone’s future with Black Ops Cold War will be interesting to keep an eye on, as will the dominance of snipers within the mode.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be available November 13th on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions will also be available.