Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is borrowing from Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and Siege

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s beta has kicked back into action, and this time it is on PC and Xbox One as well. I jumped into the Battle.net version this afternoon to try out the new Heist mode, which is Treyarch’s twist on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive formula. But that’s not the only game Black Ops 4 is reminiscent of — the game is also taking cues from other popular and successful shooters like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Blizzard’s Overwatch.

Black Ops 4 still feels like a Call of Duty first and foremost. When it launches on October 12 on PC and consoles, you won’t mistake it for any of those other games. Treyarch is obviously borrowing ideas from the competition, but the foundation is still a million miles closer to Black Ops II than Rainbow Six. In fact, I’ll just say that I don’t think it feels anything like Siege even if I see the inspiration in some of the design.