Activision Hits Us With a Letdown: Black Ops Arrives on PlayStation
In July 2026, Activision suddenly dropped Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 onto the PlayStation Store (PS5 and PS4) with a shadow-drop — no announcement beforehand. The price: $39.99 (£34.99) per game, with a 50% discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers through August 6, 2026.
Honestly, I was hyped at first. A classic game brought back to life on modern hardware? Sounded like a solid promise. But the moment I downloaded the port and started playing, I realized Activision didn't really put in the work here.
The Port Quality: A Real Letdown
Let me be straight with you: what we got is a pretty lazy port. The PS5 version is basically identical to the original PS3 release from 2010. No frame rate improvements, no field-of-view (FOV) slider, none of the visual upgrades you'd expect from a game launching on 2024 hardware.
The only real improvement? 1080p resolution compared to the original. That's literally it. No updated lighting, no enhanced textures, nothing worth writing home about.
In my opinion, this isn't a professional port — it's just a re-release. Activision could've done way better, especially at this price point.
Content: The Basics Only, Everything Else Missing
You get the bare bones: single-player, multiplayer, and Zombies mode. But zero DLC content — no extra maps, no exclusive weapons, nothing to actually enrich the experience.
Worse than that? Players have spotted missing trophies from the original Black Ops, including "Date Night" and "In the Money." This signals that some of the game's classic content is literally just gone from this version. Activision hasn't given any clear explanation why.
Who Should Buy, and Who Should Skip?
If you're just looking for casual gaming sessions with friends in Zombies or light multiplayer runs, you might find some value at the current price — especially if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber and grabbed that 50% discount. At that price point, it's at least somewhat reasonable.
But if you're a serious gamer expecting a real port with visual improvements, enhanced performance, and added content, I'd skip this one for now. The gap between what the company promised (implicitly) and what it delivered is huge.
Plus, those missing trophies raise serious red flags about whether this version is even complete, which only adds to the frustration.
My Final Verdict
This launch was pure business strategy from Activision: re-release an old game with minimal effort, rake in quick cash from nostalgic players. And frankly, they pulled it off. But the quality clearly suffered as a result.
If you own the originals or can access them through emulation, you're getting basically the same experience without dropping $40. And if you really do want to play Black Ops on PS5 and PS4, I'd hold tight for future patches and fixes, or wait for a better sale.
