Activision will be releasing their first Call of duty Battle Royale game. The new mode for video games has taken a spike with Fortnite introducing this in their game, and ever since then has been hit. With Black Ops 4 Blackout coming out, Game Life goes through the run down of what we can expect in the Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide.

Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide – Call of Duty Battle Royale

Activision’s new Call of Duty Black Ops 4 game is coming out later this year and a big announcement was made at IGN that has captured the attention of gamers all around the world. Call of Duty is introducing a brand new game mode called “Blackout” which is basically Call of Duty ‘s Battle Royale version of Fortnite. It’s going to dominate the online gaming world and Game Life is here to break down everything you need to know in this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide. If you think you are going to be playing Blackout, then CoD Authority is a great community to be part of..Now let’s jump right into it.

What is Blackout?

Call of Duty Blackout was introduced at the COD BO4 official community reveal event. The COD community already heard rumors that BO4 would not have single player and it was confirmed on May 17th at the event. Many gamers were disappointed about the news that single player would be extinct in the new Black Ops game, the void was filled with the announcement of Blackout.

So what is Blackout?

In short, Blackout is a Battle Royale game mode where you have to survive to be the last man standing. BO4 Blackout is specifically spinning off the Black Ops franchise. That’s right. World At War, Modern Warfare, Advanced Warfare, Ghosts, and Infinite Warfare will have nothing to do with Blackout which seems to be a misconception among some Call of Duty enthusiasts.

This is why the Black Ops 4 Blackout guide is here to help you understand what’s going on. From my belief, like “Nazi Zombies”, Blackout “should” spin off to other titles in the future.

Taken from the Official Call of Duty page:

“Black Ops comes to life in one massive battle royale experience, combining Black Ops signature combat and the biggest map in Call of Duty history. Play as fan favorite characters and battle through iconic settings from the Black Ops universe. It’s a collision course bringing together the worlds of Black Ops in an all-out survival and elimination experience featuring weapons; equipment; land, sea, and air vehicles; RC-XDs; traps; and even Zombies in an experience that is uniquely Black Ops.”

If you’re a COD enthusiast then you’ll recognize that these are exciting times . I never really caught onto Fortnite’s battle royale. But bringing the battle royal game mode to Call of Duty blows my mind away!

What Can We Expect?

Ever play Fortnite Battle Royale? Well how about multiplying the intensity level, fast-pace action and sweaty gamers by 1000? That’s right. We won’t have characters with smiles on their faces, or little shopping carts roaming the map, or even Llamas and glowing treasure chests.

This will be raw in-your-face action packed battle royale like you’ve never seen before. So this is what we know so far from the developers at TreyArch.

Blackout Characters

The Black Ops 4 Blackout characters will all be from the Black Ops Universe. So across the series of the last three BO games as well as Call of Duty Origins will be available on the battle royale game mode.

Just to refresh some of your memories here’s some of the characters I believe will be in the game mode as they we’re in one way shape or form pivitoal in the story line of every game from the franchise.

Alex Mason – Viktor Reznov – Jason hudson – Frank Woods – Billy Handsome – Arthur Arlington – Admiral Thomas Briggs – David Mason – Spectre – He Zhen-Zhen – Reaper – Alessandra Castillo – Donnie Walsh – Krystof Hejek – Erin Baker – David Wilkes – Dr. Maxis – Raul Menendez – Mike Harper – Danny Li – John Taylor – Jacob Hendricks ….

There’s many more characters that will be put into Blackout. But the main question is…

Will David Hasselhoff make an appearance?

Image from David Hasselhoff’s Twitter Page

Zombies

He is one of the most famous Zombie characters to ever hit the game mode. In Zombies Spaceland, David Hasselhoff was an Easter egg. So you couldn’t choose him from the regular line-up of characters. In order to get the Hoff you had to get the Soul Key and activate him in the DJ area. Once you did, there was a code inside the DJ booth wall where you had to input at the zombie menu screen to unlock him.

So the question is.. will he be part of the Blackout squad? Perhaps he might be an Easter egg where you’ll have to find a secret code in the Blackout map in order to unlock him like in Zombies Spaceland. I can imagine that there will be other Easter eggs for the game mode which will be exciting to see.

More news to in this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide come as to who will make an appearance in Blackout.

Blackout Weapons

When TreyArch announced that they would bring various weapons from all three Black Ops games the first question that came to everyone’s mind was:

Which weapons will be in the battle royale game mode? (Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide)

I don’t think TreyArch will take every single weapon from every BO game, but we’ll definitely see the usual suspects. As a refresher, there are Primary, Secondary weapons as well as equipment:

The Primary Weapons consists of Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Specials and sub machine guns.

Secondary Weapons are those that you switch to when you either run out of ammo on your primary gun, or if you want to take out a heli, or perhaps troll an unsuspected camper :). Secondary weapons include Pistols, Launchers and Specials (crossbows / tactical knife)

Equipment

Equipment are usually Lethal (nades, semtex, combat axe) and tactical (smoke nade, stun nade, flashbang). I won’t get into specifics with attachments such as ACOGS, and lazer sights but I am extremely curious what TreyArch will have in store. Imagine that there will be various combinations you can put together that stream across the whole Black Ops Universe which will be very interesting to see.

I believe we’ll be seeing a line-up that looks like this:

MP5 – Glock 17 – Black Mesa Crossbow – M249 Squad Automatic Weapon – M40A1 Sniper Rifle – Mk 2 Grenade – Browning Machine Gun – Remington 870 MCS – KSG – m1216 – Skorpion – Peacekeeper – Vector – FAL OSW – SCAR-H – M8A1 – AN-94 – Ballista – DSR 50 – RPG – and every special weapon from BO3

I do believe that there will be new weapons added to the mix such as the popular P90 submachine gun and the XM-LAR, but we’ll have to wait to see.

More news to come in this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide as what type of weapons will make an appearance in Blackout.

Blackout Vehicles

The only thing remotely close to “driving” in any Black Ops game was using a remote controlled RC-XD to terminate enemies. Other than that, there were no other means of transportation using land, sea and air vehicles.

The only Call of Duty I can recall using any vehicles in battle was Call of Duty 3, a World War II themed multiplayer game. During multiplayer games, you can find tanks on the side of the road and jump in to drive them around and kill the enemies.

As well, you were able to jump on a controlled tank and over-take it if the enemy was driving it.

It wasn’t an easy task to take control of a tank that was already being used. Sneaking up on a moving tank required some level of skill as you can get run over or worst, blown to pieces. Will we see something of this nature in Call of Duty Blackout?

Which begs the question…

What will TreyArch do in terms of both transportation and using vehicles to fight enemies? Alright yes, the RC-XD will make it’s appearance again and it’s clear from this screenshot:

What we know

We know there’s a bunch of vehicles that have come around in Black Ops like the:

Jeep Wrangler – BTR-60 – UAZ-3151 – BM-21 – GAZ-66 – M113 APC – GMC CCKW – BTR-40

However, they weren’t used for online play. If TreyArch will be touching the Black Ops universe, then that means there’s no limitations to what they will use and take single-player aspects to incorporate into Blackout. One moment that sticks out for me is when you had to protect Madame President in BO2. Eventually you have to drive a Humvee in order to bypass enemy barrier points.

At the moment your guess is as good as mine. But I can imagine there will be both types of vehicles. Those that are just used as a means of transportation (perhaps only sea vehicles) and those where you can control to eliminate your enemies.

More news to come in this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide when we finally hear word what type of vehicles will be in Blackout.

Black Ops 4 Blackout Map

Although we don’t know much about the new Blackout map, we did receive small details during the Blackout introduction back in May. We know that the map will feature only the most iconic sections in every Black Ops map ever released. We also know that it will be 1500 times bigger than Nuketown (:p).

So all you Nuketown lovers who only stuck to playing it in every BO game will now have to get out from under your rock and be exposed to a gigantic map filled with at least 100 other players.

Clues for the Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide

We don’t have any details yet as to what the Black Ops 4 Blackout Map will entail. However, we can draw many clues from the teaser trailer and what the developers might have in mind.

Looking at the recent Blackout trailer we can see that there are many key bridges leading to key points on the map. We also have an idea of the “layout” in terms of where the main battles will be taking place. Please do keep in mind that we are very aware that this is just a mock up map of what TreyArch released in the Blackout trailer.

We are also are that the visuals can do a 180 once the official map gets released. In the meantime, we’re still sticking to the vision and if this layout was pushed into the Blackout trailer, we have a better idea of what the developers have in mind, so this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide should help.

Here’s a mock-up of what we believe are the main zones in the Blackout Map:

Suicide Tower = This will most likely be the most popular location on the map. Multi-level building, perfect for air drops and roundabouts, I can see many intense battles happening here. One can imagine how many rooms there will be in this tower, and how many players will take advantage and close themselves in setting up traps for others. But if its anything like the screenshots below which was taken from the trailer, it won’t end well…

Key Point Bridges = For the players who don’t have any means of transportation will need to take these bridges to get from one side to the other. But they are high risk areas. If you’re running across the bridge you’ll need to take cover from snipers, aerial attacks and sea vehicles launching rockets at you. I can imagine there will be protective barriers setup as TreyArch couldn’t be that crawl with us right? Or could they…

Wind Turbine Waste Land = A vast area which will be sniper heaven. I can imagine the quick battles happening to catch a turbine and claim it your base. If you’re good with snip[er rifles this will be the point of interest for you. Sniping across the land wouldn’t come any easier. Of course, you’ll need to be careful for aerial attacks and enemies sneaking into your base.

Battle Port Royale = I can imagine that most of the sea vesicles will be found here, and it wall be a battle to the finish to overtake the small and large vessels. This will be one of the key points in the map to conquer and if you’re able to withhold the heat here, you pretty much guarantee yourself some of the best vehicles in the game (Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide).

Who Will Survive Blackout?

This is the the million dollar question. Who can survive Blackout? What will it take to beat out 100+ opponents on Call of Duty biggest map ever?

We need to look at the most popular game modes in every Black Ops game. Below are the most played game modes:

Game Modes

Every game mode has different tactics and strategies to consider. For example, you can’t simply run and gun in Search and Destroy (although I do hehe) as you would in Team Deathmatch because if you die in S&D then you’re out for the round.

Likewise, if you just run and gun in Team Deathmatch and don’t have a solid plan in place like you do in Search and Destroy, then you’re putting your whole team at risk to lose the game (if it’s a close game).

The average Call of Duty player has played all of these game modes. Some tend to have a couple that they lean more towards. But playing every game mode myself I can say that the modes that should benefit a Blackout player would be Search and Destroy and Free for All.

Now I’m not bashing the other game modes. It takes a lot of skill and team work to play modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination; especially Domination as it’s objective based and you need to have a solid plan in place to be able to dominate game. However, here’s my reasoning for my choices.

Best Game Modes for Blackout

Search and Destroy – Every great Search and Destroy player plays vigilant and has all their corners covered. They have a strategy in place and execute it given the situation they’re in (either planting the bomb or being corner in an area of the map). With that said, this brings out the survival instincts.

Search players won’t run out in the middle of the map and and shout. They’ll be cautious with every move which is what will be required with Blackout. Great Search players will have an edge in this new game mode. If you’re not a veteran of SnD, I highly recommend you start playing that game mode to prepare yourself better for Blackout.

Free-for-All – The name speaks for itself and everyone has played Free For All. I’ve played against some great players and noticed they all have the same approach. Find a spot in the map and hold it down knowing that you’ll be attacked from all angles.

Great players

The great players set up traps and are very aware of their surroundings. They constantly check the map to see what’s going on, and they will have a good feeling of where their enemy is spawning which will be key for Blackout if it’s anything like Fortnite Battle Royale.

Your opponents will be dropping from the sky and the most popular spots will be targeted. With this in mind, free-for-all players will keep tabs on where the points of interest are and be extremely vigilant when approaching these areas.

Good news is that Free-For-All can be picked up pretty quickly and probably after 20 games you’ll have a very good understanding of how to take care of yourself as you won’t be able to depend on teammates in Blackout. Search and Destroy will take a little longer to get a hold on.

If you rarely played Search, my best advice would be to watch some clips on Youtube of great SnD players and understand their way of thinking as to why they do specific actions throughout the map. Come back to this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide as we’ll continue updating it with relevant tips.

Official Call of Duty Black Ops 4 Blackout Trailer

For those of you who missed the introduction, below is the official Call of Duty Black Ops 4 – Blackout introduction which gives you a sneak peak of what you should expect from the new game mode. The Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide is not included.

Upcoming Months for the Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide

The whole Call of Duty blackout experience is fresh and a lot of uncertainty is still looming in the air which is why we created this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide. We can expect more news to come out from the TreyArch camp as to what Blackout will have in store. It’s a whole new COD experience which many gamers will flock to.

But will this game mode make up for Activision’s Call of Duty flops in recent titles? Can they make-up for the disappointing games that have received harsh criticism? In case you missed it, the last two Call of Duty games received the most criticism for their multiplayer capabilities.

With Infinite Warfare and WWII being the main titles that fell short, can Black Ops revive a franchise that’s in need of something fresh?

I believe Blackout will be the answer, and that the developers at TreyArch have probably been working on this project for longer than we think. The last decent game from Call of Duty was Modern Warfare Remastered, and it was a remake of one of the best Call of Duty games ever made. That tells you a lot about the recent titles that fell short of expectations.

Stay up-to-date

If you want to stay up-to-date with everything related to Blackout, come back to this Black Ops 4 Blackout Guide which will be updated as we move along to the release date of BO4.

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