Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4's Cosmetics And Microtransactions Are Bad -- Here's How To Fix Them

When Treyarch and Activision announced the new progression system for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, I felt it was a big step in the right direction---away from loot boxes and toward something more akin to the Fortnite Battle Pass and Item Shop.

In Black Ops 4, you can unlock various cosmetic rewards by simply playing the game as you rank up your Black Market Tiers (which reset each season), or you can visit Blackjack's Shop to buy cosmetic items that are regularly rotated. Finally, you can purchase Special Orders which are basically cosmetic bundles.

Let's take a look at while each of these, while perfectly fine in concept, falls short to various degrees.

Conceptually, this is a lot like Fortnite's Battle Pass. In the Battle Pass you have 100 tiers to progress through in a ten-week season. These tiers unlock new sprays, toys, skins, pickaxes, gliders, and even the in-game currency, V-Bucks. Since Fortnite is free-to-play, you have to spend $10 on each Battle Pass, while Black Ops 4's progression system is included in the price of the game.

But Treyarch's version of Epic's Battle Pass is an inferior product. Not only are the items you can unlock largely uninteresting, progression is far too slow. It simply takes far too long to unlock these tiers to ever hope to reach Tier 200 for the average player. You can speed up progress by spending Call of Duty Points (ie real money) but you shouldn't have to.

Another thing that Fortnite's Battle Pass does that Black Ops 4 doesn't: Give away currency. Those V-Bucks that Epic hands out allow players to save up and buy other cosmetics from the Item Shop, or even a new Battle Pass. Black Ops 4 doesn't give away any Call of Duty Points.

If Special Orders were just special cosmetic bundles, I'd be fine with them. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Special Order bundles include cosmetics and signature weapons but there's absolutely no way to earn them just by playing. You can't earn any type of in-game currency in Black Ops 4, meaning you have to spend real money on Special Orders.

To make matters worse, Special Orders aren't completely unlocked when they're purchased. Once you purchase them, to unlock the full content of the pack you have to grind for hours in the game. You're paying real money to not even unlock all the items you just purchased. This is just bizarre.

Treyarch is having its cake and eating it, too with this one, and for no discernable reason. If you could unlock Special Orders through gameplay, fine. Make them a progressive unlock. Paying real money should skip the grind, pure and simple.

Once again, having an item shop where you can purchase cosmetics is all fine and good, though I think there should be an in-game currency you can earn in order to purchase all these items without spending real money. It beats loot boxes, but it's still not okay in a premium game. Virtually all other games in this franchise have included a currency you can earn through play.

But perhaps the biggest problem---one that makes almost all of these other ones irrelevant---is that the cosmetics on offer in Black Ops 4 are hot garbage in the worst sort of way. I haven't seen a single skin that I wanted to buy. The gaudy, colorful Day of the Dead theme they have going on would be fine if it was just part of a larger selection of skins and cosmetics, but it's pretty much all you can buy. These skins are just terrible.

Here, take a look at Blackjack's Shop from the other day:

This is basically what Blackjack's Shop always looks like. Uninspired, boring, goofy looking skins. Now compare these to some of the cosmetics you could get in Call of Duty: Ghosts:

I mean, I'm playing Call of Duty, I want gritty, military skins. I want to feel like a special ops badass, not some goofy cartoon character. While I didn't like Call of Duty: WWII's loot boxes, I was much more inclined to purchase those than anything in Black Ops 4, because there were cool winter longcoats and international uniforms to collect:

Again, these are great outfits. The Ghosts skins are as well. Black Ops 4's skins are hot, steaming garbage.

The silver lining? We don't have to be tempted to spend any money on this game beyond the price of admission and Season Pass. And frankly, Activision is being fa, far too greedy at this point anyways. Splitting the player base with paid map packs is, as far as I'm concerned, an unforgivable practice that hurts the game and its community. Hardly anyone other than Activision is doing this anymore for this very reason.

First, create better cosmetics and 100 tier Battle Passes free for all players.

Second, ditch the paid map packs altogether and sell Zombies missions and new single-player missions as expansion DLC. I know a lot of players would be happy to get some solo campaign content for this game. Better still, make all this content free also, but have cool cosmetics people can buy for each.

Third, have the item shop do what it's doing but with better cosmetics and a way to earn currency through the Battle Pass so that players can have the option to buy without spending real money. Blackjack's Shop is a good idea. There's just nothing cool to buy there right now.

Fourth, change the way we tier up Black Market Tiers by adding daily and weekly challenges or bounties instead of simply time spent playing. Having a system where time spent in game is the only mechanic to level up encourages AFK play and discourages honest players. Besides, challenges and bounties are fun.

Finally, add a War Mode to this game! War Mode was the best thing about last year's entry and it would be a match made in heaven in Black Ops 4. I honestly enjoyed it more than I enjoy Blackout. I know that's beside the point, but I would really love to see it.

Let me know your thoughts on all this. You can hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for stopping by!