It's the worst case scenario for Black Ops Cold War, the game development was cut prematurely due to Activision decision to remove Sledgehammer from working further on it, Treyarch just came out of Black Ops 4 and it was rushed / missing solo campaign they lied in multiple interviews that it was always supposed to have no campaign but we've found out since due to leaks that there was indeed a campaign/multiplayer hybrid that has been planned and worked on for most of the game development, they axed it and Blackout (battle royale) was what remains of it, the game got awful lootboxes mechanics even worse than Black Ops 3 before it, so needless to say when Modern Warfare came out it completely revamped the franchise, for better or worse but everyone will agree the game is night and day different from sound design to animations and graphics, this is what people asked for since the glory days of 2007 to 2012 and on top of that the game is consumer friendly, it's the best we've had to date with free content ( maps + weapons ) and cross play for every platform, if you wanted cosmetics you could just spend 10 bucks and unlock the battle pass (100 tier of stuff) that once completed give you virtual currency that could be spent buying the next battle pass that in return give you virtual currency too etc...
Remember what COD was prior to 2019, i've played every cod since 2003, the worst thing was the micro transactions/lootboxes for weapons, the map packs being 15 bucks for 3 maps that on top of it reduced the player base by sorting matchmaking with only players that had the maps installed, map packs that were available a month after on other platforms, and there was 4 of them in an annual release, so that's 60 buck for all the maps.
The animations / graphics / sounds needed an overhaul, the franchise had few for me personally, in my opinion COD 2 was a huge difference to COD 1 then COD 4 MW then we had to wait for COD Advanced Warfare to be a major step up and finally MW 2019, i'm in no way talking about the game fun or ranking, just purely the tech differences between them on a visual/sound standpoint.
Now we are in a cross road with next gen hardware and Black Ops Cold War looks worse than the previous one, i'd say it's on par with COD WW2 , i'm just taking multiplayer for comparison's sake, SOLO CAMPAIGN are completely out of this entire discussion that's not the point, it's a regression from COD MW 2019 in sound / animations / graphics.
The fun / balance / gameplay / meta is completely subjective for each COD and as such some players love 3 lane maps design for example that emphasis run and gun arcade style of play but gets repetitive and could reduces encounters to a slot machine on who got the jump on the other first.
Other love more open maps with asymmetrical design, slow paced "tactical" gameplay that rewards teamwork and punishes solo plays like MW 2019 map design with doors everywhere and safe spaces, loud footsteps that discourages moving, hiding places everywhere, walls and covers bulletproof... there's PROS and CONS to each.
The point is Treyarch is now behind Infinity Ward, they have catch up to do, it's already bad all the SBMM controversy since ACTIVISION patents to pair players based on skins to incentive others to buy them, but they could had at least avoid some negative points COD MW 2019 did with the disbanding of lobbies, no map vote, and they gonna have to work on season pass content and ... next year COD too ! Remember this year is what Sledgehammer was working on, they still had to work on their COD too, just had COVID on top and that's a recipe for disaster.
For those who still played BLACK OPS 4 and hated Modern Warfare it will do, but for most of the player base that's not gonna be enough to keep the great momentum the series had, i think WARZONE (battle royale) will retain most of the player base, not so much for the core multiplayer, then again this year warzone is a continuation of last year so it's gonna be weird for Cold War having not something new to put on the table, Zombies aside.
At last the Campaign will go back to it's roots, Black Ops 3 Campaign was abysmal and 4 didn't had one, so there's that, but it's just 5 hours of content not worth 60 bucks / 70 euros.
I'm very concerned for 2021 COD for all the reasons mentioned above and what will Treyarch do this year for the monetisation, they apparently gonna follow MW 2019 battle pass system but if the game performs worse than previous year, we could have bullshit lootboxes or worse down the line so i'm not confident on that, Black Ops 3 and 4 were the worst on that regard, we could end up having 2 bad COD back to back having to wait 2022 for a COD MW 2.