Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III | Blackcell Season One Review

As most of you are aware by now Modern Warfare III's Blackcell battle pass is a premium edition of the standard battle pass that includes bonus Blackcell operator/weapon skins, and items not included in the standard edition. It'll run you about $30 per season, and includes 100 tiers to unlock through a meticulous grind offset by some free unlocks that give you a head start on others grinding the standard battle pass. Not only do you get free tier unlocks (upwards of 20), but you also get the harder to unlock end pass skins from the start. Letting you show off, in advance, what others will have to grind all 100 tiers to get.

New to this MWIII season one Blackcell pass is a special flamethrower underbarrel attachment, Zombies mode single use items, and the usual weapons/operators skins with Blackcell variations for some. The Blackcell variants having a gilded gold and black appearance with a glittery gold dusting effect as well as a glowing red lighting effect. Also new to both versions of the pass are reactive guns with a red glow that intensifies with kills. There's that, and new weapons not previously included in-game which all players will eventually gain access to. In addition to those things comes the usual assortment of weapon charms, banners, avatars, finishing moves, and CoD Points. 

In the way of grinding approach options you can choose, once again, to automate the battle pass purchases or select which group of items you'd like to unlock first. One item unlock at a time. The actual XP grind takes several matches to unlock one tier unlock, and the only way to circumvent this process is to either pop XP boosters (which are also earned through the pass), or to take advantage of 2XP weekends which are few and far between. Should push come to shove, and time be running out to complete the pass you can send paid for CoD Points to purchase tier skips. These will set you back about 150 each. Something you can pull from your unlocked CoD Points.

My Thoughts ...

The season one Blackcell pass seems a little less creative than MWII's final season pass that featured Spawn, and Spawn related skins. That being said the Blackcell skins are cool in their own right. They have a gritty darker look with a mostly futuristic theme. Good enough for anyone looking to show off some payer prestige while they play. Outside of that the flamethrower underbarrel attachment is pretty sweet. Something to toy with in your gun loadouts. As far as weapon blueprints go they're not particularly as standout as I'd hoped outside of the glowing reactive variants. The banners, charms, and other lesser items are hit or miss in quality as well. Overall it's an okay season, but I do hope they get even more creative as the seasons progress.