It may seem nearly inconceivable to members of Generation Z, but there was a time in the not-too-distant past during which Call of Duty was a respectable franchise produced and published by a team which only chose to iterate on the property when necessary. Today, it’s anything but that, and gamers are so bogged down with multiplayer-focused faux-military FPS titles that it’s getting difficult to tell some of them apart. Black Ops II looks a lot like Black Ops III, and Black Ops III, looks a lot like Infinite Warfare, and that cycle seems to continue almost endlessly.

Black Ops 4 (or, alternatively, Black Ops IIII if you want to show off just how little you know about Roman numerals) looks, in some ways, to be a new take on the Call of Duty series. These changes may be subtle, but there has definitely been a shift in terms of focus, and the series could be totally rejuvenated by this new perspective. Plus, Call of Duty’s ever-present zombies mode is back in the hands of the developers which started it in the first place, and that can only be a good thing.

However, this change in focus seems to have emphasized the game’s touted multiplayer component and totally eradicated any single player component. It isn’t even out yet, and Black Ops 4 is already controversial among series stalwarts. With that in mind, here are 15 things we need to see in Treyarch’s new game, and 15 we really don’t.

30 Need: Bring Back Wager Matches

Though they’ve been a part of the game to some degree since their introduction in the original Black Ops title, wager matches just aren’t nearly as much fun without the eponymous currency-wagering aspect. Modes like Gun Game and One in the Chamber were made all the more interesting and tense thanks to the in-game currency players could put on the line, and it’s that same system which needs to make a return in Black Ops 4. However, we don’t want to be gambling with COD points earned through real-world purchases, just cyber monopoly money.

29 Don’t Need: Another Fortnite Clone

The battle royale genre may be king of the video game hill right now, but something tells us that it won’t be that way forever, and dug-in gaming institutions like Call of Duty had better avoid chasing trends lest the franchise burn out with them. Fortnite is great for a unique set of reasons, but COD fans certainly don’t want to play that same game with a simple Call of Duty skin stretched over it. Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode needs to be totally one-of-a-kind, as nobody wants to play an inferior version of the game they were already playing.

28 Need: More Local Multiplayer

Couch-based peer-to-peer gaming seems to be going the way of the dodo, and games featuring online multiplayer components are continuing to take the industry by storm. In the eyes of Activision Blizzard, local multiplayer may have been fine during the antiquated days of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, but it isn’t something worth including these days. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and Call of Duty’s zombies mode is a longstanding split screen gaming mainstay. The ability to play with friends on the other side of the country is nice, but we also want to slaughter some undead hordes with the people seated right next to us.

27 Don’t Need: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane! No, It’s a Jetpack…

Most COD fans will remember back in May of 2016 when Activision Blizzard’s trailer for the then-upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare became one of the most disliked videos in YouTube history over a period of few short days. The overwhelmingly negative response made it clear that players were sick of the futuristic movement abilities, and the publisher likely started to lay the groundwork for the more based-in-reality Call of Duty: WWII not long after that. We have all seen the new grappling hook multiplayer ability in Black Ops 4, and even that is pushing the envelope. Seriously, Treyarch, we would like to keep our boots firmly on the ground this time around.

26 Need: A Single-Player (... Even Though We Won't Get One)

While the single player portions of recent Call of Duty titles like Black Ops III, Infinite Warfare, and WWII weren’t anything to write home about, they weren’t bad enough to necessitate a total rescission of the mode. The campaigns featured in Treyarch’s Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops were series highlights, and it’s a pity to see that axed in favor of an online multiplayer focus. Most still fondly remember the Cold War exploits of Mason and Reznov, but I doubt many will care about whatever Seraph, Ruin, and Firebreak are up to: we want a campaign, not more battle royale.

25 Don’t Need: Zanier Zombies

On a personal note, I love Call of Duty’s zombies mode more than I love just about anything. Yet, though this marks me as a bit of a minority in the community, I am not a fan of the story-intensive route the newer iterations have been taking. I don’t want a re-imagined zombies experience, though I don’t doubt that Treyarch will knock it out of the park regardless of the mode’s subject matter. I would like a set of maps which seem to hold some basis in reality: I’ve explored a few too many multiverses to be able to stomach more of this dimension-shifting stuff.

24 Need: More Unique Variants

The invariant system utilized in Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: WWII helped to grant the game’s weapons a deep sense of individuality and heterogeneity. While traditional skins are always nice, the developers really seemed to take this feature the extra mile. What’s more is that certain weapon variants held specific stat buffs and alterations, and, barring any significant increases in weapon roster size, this mechanic would be a great inclusion in Black Ops 4. It seems ripe for exploitation, though, so players may need to be careful what they wish for.

23 Don’t Need: Fighting Over Specialists

Treyarch has announced that, unlike in Black Ops III’s multiplayer mode, each specialist has to be unique on each team. In other words, two player on the same team won’t be allowed to pick the same specialist. While this does seem like a small step forward in terms of advancing player codependency, it also seems like a future breeding ground for arguments between twelve-year-olds over who will be getting to play as the guy with the flamethrower. This feature may work in Rainbow Six Siege, but Black Ops 4—and the Call of Duty series as a whole—tends to be much less tactical.

22 Need: To Stop Trying To Make Call Of Duty Futuristic

This is the fourth entry into a sub-series in a set of games which has been going on for over fifteen years at this point, and the Call of Duty community is desperate for some major change. Six of the last seven titles have taken place either in the modern day or in some nebulous futuristic era, and the one outlying title was only borne of consumer frustration. We seem to be headed back to the future in Black Ops 4, but the game needs to be visually distinct from the other future-centric Call of Duty titles. We can only live in a militaristic dystopia for so long before things start to get stale.

21 Don’t Need: More Lone Wolf Perks

Though Call of Duty’s infamously rage-inducing multiplayer mode has been top-dog of the FPS market for well over a decade at this point, it will soon be time for Activision Blizzard to give up the ghost. The game’s rogue warrior, all-for-one basis doesn’t quite fly anymore, and playing with a team comprised entirely of uncooperative lone wolves just isn’t fun. Tactical shooters like the aforementioned Rainbow Six Siege have proven that gamers actually are capable of working together, and the random atoms-in-a-supercollider gameplay of COD is hardly as captivating as it once was.

20 Need: To Get Over Nuketown

Call of Duty: Black Ops was, for many, one of the last great games in the famous FPS franchise. Subsequent iterations have given rise to dull, poorly-optimized maps that couldn’t possibly replicate the impact of the older, classic multiplayer layouts. With that in mind, it may be time to give up on reboots of older Call of Duty maps. Black Ops III and WWII were rife with map reskins, and, at this point, this time-saving tactic development tactic is getting old. We really don’t need a fourth version of Nuketown set even further into the future called “N4ketown.” We really, really don’t.

19 Don’t Need: Overly-Complex Easter Eggs

Call of Duty’s zombies mode has gone way, way overboard with its easter eggs. What once started as a fun little distraction and snide way of connecting each map via narrative elements has since grown into a set of lore so bulbous and impenetrable the developers can’t even fully understand it. For a game mode that has struggled in the past to attract new players, COD’s famous horde mode needs to tone it down. Newcomers won’t find your game very compelling if they need to lookup forty-five-minute walkthroughs just to unlock all of a maps features each time they sit down to play.

18 Need: A GOOD Social Hub

Though it was a bit of a mess at launch, the online social hub introduced in Call of Duty: WWII was a bold new step in terms of multiplayer ingenuity. It wasn’t popular with everyone, but it did provide a decent suite of activities for those not content to sit around with their eyes glued to the lobby leaderboard. It is these sort of quality of life improvements that help to increase the longevity of a game. In a market extremely concerned with player base maintenance, keeping players occupied is a pretty big deal.

17 Don’t Need: Black Ops Pass

DLC season passes are among a set of unpopular monetization strategies that are slowly being pried from the hands of greedy publishers by an unruly and dissatisfied consumer base. For many, it was acceptable all the way up until it wasn’t, and the rise of loot box mechanics and random skin unlock scams seems to have made the concept of a thirty to fifty dollar season pass totally inane. What’s more is that the industry-leading Fortnite has popularized the “Battle Pass” strategy through which players essentially pay for optional content seasons instead of outright purchasing large chunks of a split-up game.

16 Need: A Perfect Zombies Experience

Though I have argued that Treyarch must be mindful of newcomers to their convoluted, complicated zombies storyline, they also have to cater to series veterans. With more eyes than ever focused on Black Ops’ zombies experience now that the campaign has been removed, it’s safe to say that zombies lead Jason Blundell and company really have to hit a home run when October roles around. They seem to be off to a great start with the inclusion of two reimagined fan-favorite maps, but the introduction of a new set of characters has some seasoned players casting their minds back to the failure that was Black Ops II’s Tranzit.

15 Don’t Need: Pre-order Bonuses

Much like the season pass, pre-order culture seems to be an odd, semi-archaic money making strategy perpetuated by publishers eager to sap their customers of every possible dime. In an era in which most games are purchased and played digitally, the chances that a game will actually sell out and become unavailable are slim to none. Consumers no longer need to rush out and brave the midnight release crowds in order to secure a day-one copy of Call of Duty, and forking sixty dollars over to a publisher like Activision Blizzard before the game is even in your hand—regardless of exclusive pre-order package deals—seems like a truly risky proposition.

14 Need: Return To The “Pick 10” System

Call of Duty: WWII’s divisions system was a quirky and convoluted attempt at separating the game’s multiplayer from some of the series’ previous online offerings. In reality, it served as just another strange road black placed between the player and actual gameplay, and it only served to confuse newcomers and returning COD fans alike. The so-called “Pick 10” system, which was introduced in 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II had been the standard until last November’s COD release, and it would be nice to see a return to that system. Divisions may be a new take on an old formula, but it seems to have unnecessarily muddied the waters.

13 Don’t Need: Pistol Grips and Level Skips

As previously mentioned, 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII was packed floor-to-ceiling with customizable items. A shoddy attempt at emphasizing the eye-rolling loot box system, Sledgehammer Games seems to have included some ridiculously tacky and mediocre unlockable skins. For instance, players could unlock a set of ornate pistol grips, but the artwork was covered up by the character model’s hand so often that it was hardly worth the effort. Black Ops 4 doesn’t need an onslaught of lame collectibles, double-XP tokens, or customizable outfits. Here’s a radical opinion: instead of all that stuff, perhaps gameplay should be front-and-center.

12 Need: To Speed Up Matchmaking... A LOT.

The load times present in Call of Duty: WWII felt like a step back in the evolution of the entire medium. For whatever reason, older COD titles seem to far outpace WWII in terms of loading speed, and it really drags down the multiplayer experience. With gameplay as fast and frenetic as Call of Duty’s, players tend to want to get back into the action very quickly, but much of that emotion tends to have dissipated once the next map is finally loaded. These things can’t be instantaneous and were major issues in previous eras of gaming, but, even on the relatively well-handled PC port, the amount of launch-to-gameplay downtime is just ludicrous.

11 Don’t Need: It’s Time To Ditch Riot Shields

Just about everyone who has picked up Call of Duty: WWII since a content update introduced riot shields will tell you that they don’t add a whole lot to the game. In fact, they may even be detrimental to the pace of a typical COD match. They were a nuisance when they were first introduced in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they’re even more annoying now. Unfortunately, we know that these ugly weapons will be returning in some form to the series as one was prominently featured in Black Ops 4’s multiplayer reveal trailer. It seems like it may be a specialist-specific item, though most of us still aren’t looking forward to frantically shooting at the feet of an encroaching, shield-bearing enemy soldier.