With the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta kicking off on PC yesterday, Twitch streamer Shroud decided to load up the game and give it a chance in front of thousands of viewers. It did not take long for Shroud to voice his concerns about Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and with those concerns came a very bold statement about both killstreaks and scorestreaks.
Before the discussion around Black Ops Cold War’s skill-based matchmaking kicked off, much of the concern was about the game’s use of scorestreaks. Introducing a new system that has yet to be seen in a Call of Duty game, where streaks continue to be built up to after death but can be earned faster if getting multiple kills in one life, Black Ops Cold War’s use of streaks immediately became controversial.
While the scorestreak debates have died down in recent weeks, either because of players adapting to the new system or because fan concerns for skill-based matchmaking are far greater, Shroud seems to be aiming to once again start a discussion around streaks in the game. Shroud’s criticism, however, is more about the streaks themselves as opposed to the process of earning them within Black Ops Cold War.
Despite Black Ops Cold War featuring many returning streaks, Shroud believes killstreaks as a whole ruin gameplay and have no place in the series. After having a particularly troublesome game where the enemy team acquired sentry guns and an attack helicopter, Shroud told his viewers that “killstreaks have got to go.” Shroud made the bold claim that “nobody [cares] about these killstreaks anymore,” adding that they ruin the experience and only exist to give players fake progression.
The fastest growing streamer on Twitch goes on to say that streaks in CoD are “a waste of space” and “a waste of everything,” before reiterating that “nobody cares.” While there are certainly some CoD players out there who would like to see the Black Ops Cold War streaks re-balanced, and a small minority that would like simple streaks like those in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War, Shroud’s statement that “nobody cares” is an extreme one. Streaks have been a staple in the CoD series for over a decade, with their consistent addition and the community discussion around them showing that many players do care about streaks.
While Shroud may personally not want scorestreaks in CoD, speaking for everyone with that statement seems like a mistake. With chopper gunners and other scorestreaks even being added to Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies mode as well, it seems unlikely that the popular streamer gets his wish anytime soon.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to release on November 13th for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Shroud