Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War Open Beta Modes Revealed

The Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War beta begins with the PlayStation 4 early access on Oct. 8-9. That means that if you’ve pre-ordered the PlayStation version of the highly-anticipated first-person shooter, you’ll be able to finally get your hands on some of the game’s multiplayer modes as soon as this weekend.

The PS4 open beta will follow on Oct. 10-12 before the beta hits Xbox One and PC starting on Oct. 15. You can check out a full breakdown of the beta dates below:

Ahead of the beta, Activision has confirmed the multiplayer modes fans will be able to try starting this weekend. Players should expect to go hands-on with a few Call of Duty staples, including Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed, as well as three new modes called VIP Escort, Combined Arms, and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb. Here’s a breakdown of how the three new modes work:

VIP Escort

In this new 6v6 objective core game mode, teams either protect or subdue a randomly selected player who becomes a VIP. This Very Important Player only gets a kitted-out pistol, a smoke grenade, a UAV for team intel, and the satisfaction of having up to five other squadmates defend them.

These protectors must escort the VIP to an extraction point as they fend off the attacking team, whose goal is to neutralize the VIP before they escape. A non-VIP who dies during the round is out until the next one, but a downed player at zero health can defend themselves in Last Stand or be revived by a teammate to get back into the fight.

Combined Arms

A 12v12 battle that combines infantry and vehicular gameplay, Combined Arms is a larger-scale mode where the action is tailed to the environment it takes place within.

Depending on the map, vehicles such as Tanks, Snowmobiles, Attack Helicopters or Wakerunners will amplify and advance the action alongside traditional gunfights, allowing for jaw-dropping moments right in the middle of an intense engagement.

At launch, expect to play multiple Combined Arms Maps across a handful of Combined Arms Modes, including Domination, which places multiple flags around a given map for teams to capture and defend.

Fireteam

Fireteam is a new 40-player category of Black Ops Multiplayer with up to 10 teams of four, where the action is centered around not just the operators in the field, but also the environment they battle in. The first available Fireteam game type is called Dirty Bomb, which we’ll have more information on as we get closer to launch!

Unfortunately, players won’t be able to try Cold War‘s take on the franchise’s popular Zombies mode, which kicks off a whole new story unrelated to the past Black Ops games. Also missing from the open beta is Cold War‘s version of Warzone, which will allow you to bring all of your rewards from the Modern Warfare edition of the battle royale mode forward to the new game.

Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War is out on Nov. 13 for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PS4, XBO, and PC. You can pre-order the game here.