Black Ops Cold War's beta launches this weekend and there's a lot of changes that have been made since the Alpha.
With the Alpha being praised highly, Treyarch is set to kick things up a notch and improve the game even further.
Every beta has had that one weapon or two that standouts from the rest and a few that flag behind.
So it's up to the developers to adjust what's available to create a more balanced ecosystem for weapons.
The big headliner is that the AK74u got nerfed! Other weapons have also had major changes, so here's what's changed.
General Weapon Changes
Treyarch hasn't dived into every specific change, only opting to highlight a few key and specific changes.
But they have issued a more global update for all weapons.
Changes
"Added new weapon-recoil systems and firing animations, with a comprehensive tuning pass for a revamped weapon-firing feel on every weapon for both hip-fire and ADS."
"Reworked and rebalanced all recoil patterns, impacting weapon balance and mastery across the board."
"Full touch-up pass on animations across all weapons based on feedback."
Verdict
Added new [aim-down-sights] weapon-rendering technology for more realistic ADS perspective. Smoothed out all ADS in/out transitions."
The most important of these is definitely the recoil systems and ADS changes as these can take good weapons and render them very impractical to use.
In particular, this change seems to have been highlighted on the AK74u.
ALMOST EVERY WEAPON HAS BEEN ADJUSTED IN THE BETA
AK74u Nerfed
Changes
"Increases to AK-74u recoil and ADS time".
Verdict
The most standout change is that the AK74u was nerfed.
It was undoubtedly the strongest weapon in the Alpha and ended up being an all-purpose weapon for both close-quarter engagements and long-range fights.
It's clear that this is not its intended use and Treyarch has acted accordingly.
A smart call because it would have been a very similar situation and with a progression system being added to the beta, it's unlikely players would explore many other weapons.
LMGs Buffed
Changes
"Increasing LMG ammo capacity".
Verdict
A very small update for the LMGs, that were ultimately very forgettable in the Alpha.
It may not make a huge difference but with other weapons being adjusted it could find a happy home.
Gunsmith Changes
Changes
“We’ve refined our weapons tech and animations since the alpha, completed numerous tuning and tweaking passes on our weapons, and added more details to attachment statistics in Gunsmith”.
"Added a more detailed breakdown of statistics for each attachment, explaining in detail how each attachment influences its weapon’s stats."
"Full attachment-balance pass to ensure all attachments stay relevant and balanced."
Verdict
This is a big deal for the Gunsmith and attachments on weapons. Overall, it felt like there was a very clear set of attachments that just did everything you need it to.
In fact, most attachments offered few drawbacks when you looked at what impact they had on the weapon.
Modern Warfare was great for allowing you to excel in one area, at the expense of another.
While admittedly some attachments still reigned supreme and their drawbacks were negligible, it's great to see some love coming in for this area.
NERF: The AK74u has been NERFED!
Snipers Changed
Changes
“We’ve also made several positive changes to how sniper rifles work based on alpha data and feedback.”
"Added aim assist on snipers for controller users for cross-platform balancing."
"Several precision-aiming adjustments to help the sniping experience feel more fluid."
"Sniper glint now displays more often and more reliably to help players understand when they are in danger."
"Adjusted ADS time on sniper rifles."
"Sniper rifles now require higher hits on the body for one-hit eliminations (for example, upper chest instead of the stomach, or upper arm instead of the lower arm)."
Verdict
This was a mixture of both a buff and nerf in many ways.
Snipers have been improved with aim assist, something that hasn't been seen in a Treyarch game since Black Ops 2, as well as more precision-aiming adjustments.
But the glint issue has now been fixed, allowing players to dip out of danger. They've also "adjusted" the ADS time, likely meaning they have been made slower.
They have also made it so that they need to hit from the upper-chest to get a 1-hit-kill.
Overall, I would say this is a big nerf to the snipers. They were frustratingly good in the Alpha and rightfully so needed a change, but this may be a step too far.
But then again, snipers have faired fine in past games. The Ballista was a one-shot to the upper-chest and that did fine.
Frag Grenades Buffed
Changes
Reduced the fuse time on the frag grenade for beta. Throw-speed adjustments are targeted for launch.
Verdict
I'm still not sure what was going on with the Frag Grenades in the Alpha. One minute you'd throw like you were Tom Brady and the next you were throwing like a nerfed C4 in Warzone.
The fuse time has been reduced hopefully leading to more consistency in throws and leading to more kills.