For the true competitive connoisseurs out there, nothing really beats the Call of Duty franchise’s hardcore competitive multiplayer modes. True to their name, Call of Duty’s hardcore modes utilize the same basic rules and parameters as their standard variants while removing many of the player-oriented safeguards and UI elements that are normally present.
Recently, Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch confirmed the game’s Blackout battle royale mode won’t have a hardcore playlist “at launch.” This suggests that one could be in the works.
Black Ops 4 Blackout Hardcore Status
Specifically, Black Ops 4 design director David “Vahn” Vonderhaar confirmed the lack of a hardcore playlist for Blackout via Twitter:
@charlieintel Before this gets lost in translation, I was answering a question about hardcore in Blackout, not Blackops. Cheers.
— Lord Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) September 29, 2018
Vonderhaar was responding to earlier reports which had misconstrued a previous tweet he had sent. The reports suggested that Black Ops 4 wouldn’t have any hardcore multiplayer playlists at all when it launched. However, Vonderhaar quickly clarified that his initial tweet only applied to Blackout. Given Vonderhaar’s clarification, Black Ops 4’s standard multiplayer modes will likely have hardcore variants at launch. Such modes include Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed.
The lack of a hardcore playlist for the Blackout experience isn’t surprising considering the noticeably larger scale of the mode. Unlike Call of Duty’s more iconic small-scale fast-patched multiplayer modes, Blackout is more of a methodical slow burn. It makes sense that Treyarch wouldn’t want players trying to adapt to the Blackout mindset will also dealing with the typical hardcore mode traits (limited HUD feedback, reduced health regeneration, etc.). In some ways Blackout already feels akin to a hardcore mode thanks to elements such as friendly fire.
Call of Duty Black Ops 4 will launch for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on Oct. 12. For more on the game, be sure to read about the game’s Xbox One file size or how DLC will be coming to the PlayStation 4 version first.