For those that don’t know, Prop Hunt is one of the most ridiculously entertaining modes to play in some of the Call of Duty games, including Black Ops Cold War. It was first introduced in Black Ops III back in 2018. It is one of the craziest yet most amusing modes for a game that I have ever played.
Basically, what happens is that the players are divided into two teams—props and hunters. Props are exactly what they sound like—inanimate objects (which is what you are) that are scattered around the map. So, you could spawn as a chair, for example. The team of hunters are supposed to locate and destroy the player-props. As a prop, you still have the ability to run and jump around, though you could also choose to remain still and hide in your surroundings. The only problem with that method is, oddly enough, you have the uncontrollable urge to whistle every 30 seconds. So that’s exactly what happens. Hunters can then gauge better where the props are that they’re supposed to destroy, so good luck hiding for too long.
Luckily, props get some extra time at the beginning to choose a hiding space. Furthermore, they also get decoys, the option to change shapes, and the ability to stun the hunters in order to give the props a chance at winning. This is great and all, but my biggest issue with the game is that it’s still majorly stacked against props in a bad way.
I know, it’s just a fun, party game that doesn’t need to be balanced. That’s true, but unfortunately, as I’ve experienced more than a few times, hunters can wreck the party. I don’t need the game to include completely equal playing fields, but when hunters have unlimited ammo, and their job is to discover which inanimate objects are actually players that they need to kill, what do you expect is going to happen? It seems like a design flaw when the most obvious approach for hunters to take in the game is to come in trigger happy. I mean if there’s no penalty and unlimited ammo, why not just walk around with the trigger button held down until you hit a target?
Luckily, not everyone thinks this way. There are a fair number of players out there that, even when playing as hunters, feel that that method would just take away from the fun of the game. But I’ve encountered enough who don’t feel that way that it has gotten annoying, and it seems that there are several simple ways to fix this.
The most obvious approach would be to limit ammo. If hunters don’t have unlimited ammo, they’ll be less likely to walk around with the trigger button held down. I don’t see how limited ammo would really take away from the experience either, unless you’ve got awful aim (but that’s what practice is for, right?).
Possibly an even better approach though, if players aren’t behind the limited ammo idea, would be to have the hunters suffer a penalty (likely in the form of taking damage) if they shoot or attack an inanimate object that isn’t actually a player. With this method, the game becomes more strategic, people won’t come in guns blazing, and there isn’t the added stress of having to worry about how much ammo you’ve got left. Obviously there would need to only be certain objects that would cause damage (hunters shouldn’t take damage if they shoot the wall or the floor, etc.), so that hunters aren’t always penalized for missing when they shoot.
Overall, Prop Hunt is a hilariously fun game. But with these slight improvements, the game would be enhanced, and people would get less pissed off when playing as the props.