THE BAD
Now, let’s take a look at the bad. And honestly, this was actually a bit difficult to compile – for a battle royale, Blackout is pretty damn good. Sure, Blackout doesn’t do too much to innovate the genre, but it puts a much-needed Call of Duty spin on it. With that said, here are a few negatives worth mentioning.
Pick-up Issues
During my time with Blackout, I noticed it was a bit of a hassle to pick up items. To pick up an item, you need to be close to it, look right at it, wait for the “Hold Square” prompt to appear, then hold the button down for a moment. On one hand, it does create a bit of tension – are you sure the area is clear before you attempt that item? But I think the game would flow a bit better if they reduced the time to pick up. Fortunately, it sounds like the developers are already planning to address this issue at some point.
Pacing
Because it’s a battle royale game, there can be an issue with pacing. During gunfights, the action (ie: me dying) could be over before I even know what’s happening. On the other hand, I could be camped out in a location for minutes at a time waiting for a passerby. This isn’t a Blackout issue, but rather an issue with battle royales in general. How does it get fixed? Honestly, it probably doesn’t – but if you’ve played battle royale games in the past and you don’t like this style of pacing, the Call of Duty touch doesn’t do much to fix it.
Item Accessibility
While most items are accessible without going into the menu, the game’s items (such as grenades, grappling hooks, RC cars, and barricades) are not as easily accessible. The first item you pick up will appear in your hud and you can use it by pressing R1. But if the situation calls for a different item, you’ll need to go into your menu and switch items – not exactly hard, but in battle, every second counts! A quick fix would be to assign one of the D-Pad directions to let you swap between items quickly – hopefully, Treyarch is reading this…