Combat Training



Combat Training is a new game mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It serves as ONLINE multiplayer for those who are new, or for those who want to try out new tactics or practice with different weapons. It features a separate ranking and unlock system with AI opponents instead of online enemies. It can be played cooperatively. The players can change how difficult it is to kill the AI opponents much like single player's difficulties: Recruit, Regular, Hardened, and Veteran. The Bots can play on any map in Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch games. One interesting note, however, is that Combat Training only allows the players to practice on Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch modes, and not more tactic-based modes like Search & Destroy. Treyarch’s MP Design Director, David Vonderhaar, responded to a question about this in the official Call of Duty Forums. His comment was that the A.I Bots are not developed enough to take objectives yet, such as capturing flags and arming/disarming bombs. He did say a more intelligent A.I. was a possibility for future Call of Duty titles. In this mode there is no option to perform a Wager Match.

Rank progression
In Combat Training it is possible to rank up and unlock features just like normal multi-player. Though this mode does not have leaderboards, it has a separate ranking system to other game modes. An example of this, is that you can be level 20 in Combat Training and level 30 in regular games at the same time. You can't transfer unlocks, ranks and CoD Points from other game modes and vice-versa.

Contradictions before release
In a post on the official Call of Duty forums, Lead MP Designer David Vonderhaar posted that Combat Training would need an internet connection to be able to play it. He listed it amongst the other modes showing the differences between them in the ranking system. The only offline modes he listed were vague four player split-screen and LAN options (system link). Two player split-screen online was also confirmed in the same post. Both players usually being on the same team.

On the other hand the information on the official site suggested that there is offline split-screen as well as the confirmed online option: "Jump into Combat Training and hone your tactics offline against A.I. bots in both Free-For-All and Team Deathmatch game modes." and "Combat Training allows you to play against enemy controlled AI with your friends, online and split-screen." are the official words. On top of this, Community Manager Josh Olin confirmed that it is playable offline via Twitter ''"@JD_2020 #AskJD how many people can play co-op together on one console (zombies and combat training)? @yen888 Two player local Split-Screen." Dan Suarez, Executive Producer, also mentioned when asked if Combat Training had local split-screen play (6:23 in the video) that “Yes, you can play split-screen on the combat training mode and on MP." was his response.  ''