Call of Duty prioritises fighting hackers in age-old Black Ops games despite unplayable modern titles

Quickly becoming the games of the summer, despite being over 15 years old, the Black Ops 1 and 2 duo have finally found themselves in the crosshairs of the boring, tormented hackers, and the developers are waging war.

The revival of Black Ops 1 and 2 has surpassed the nostalgia gimmick as it continues to be a best-seller on the console markets.

What started out as a reminder of 'how good we had it', the new ports have since become the only interest for the Call of Duty community.

That is, until one hacker has started causing chaos. Thankfully, Activision is sending in its Special Ops team to take them down.

Black Ops revival ports plagued by notorious hacker

Being so successful that they could even be more popular than the upcoming Modern Warfare 4, the old titles have finally been ruined by one specific hacker.

Dubbed 'C Isn’t Sharp', this old hacker from way back in the original Black Ops 2 (2011) days has reared their head again to continue plaguing players' experiences.

In the last few days, the players has been loading into Black Ops 2 lobbies and has been resetting everyone's accounts back to Level 1, removing all XP that they have earned and the subsequent weapon unlocks.

One of those players was 'TimTheTatman', who was left furious.

Countless players have taken to social media to complain about the unwavering cheater, as they continue to ruin the amazing experience.

However, after just a few days, Activision has taken notice.

Call of Duty promises to take action

Following the disruption, the Call of Duty team has waged war on these hackers.

"We are also investigating solutions for instances where accounts have been set to incorrect Prestige levels," Activision posted on X via the COD Updates channel.

This comes alongside a flurry of patch notes for Black Ops 2, including improved mid-match lobby backfilling, reduced input delay, a smoke grenade VFX fix, and a new toggle switch that can remove emblems amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the expletive player-made symbols.

What's quite ironic is that many of the players flocking to Black Ops 2 have been prompted to do so off the back of an 'unejoyable' Black Ops 7 experience that is plagued with hackers itself.

"I've been getting some gameplay for the new guns in Black Ops 7, and I still can't get over how unenjoyable this game has become," said popular content creator 'The Xclusive Ace'.

This follows a recent Q&A with Call of Duty anti-cheat provider Ricochet, which admitted to 'seeing disruption at the highest skill levels of Ranked Play.'

"Where the competitive stakes are highest and where even a small number of bad actors can have an outsized impact on the experience - at those tiers, a lot of players using cheats intentionally try to blend in with legit highly skilled competitors.

"Anti-cheat is an ongoing effort, not a single fix. But our direction is clear: faster enforcement, stronger protections, and fewer opportunities to impact fair competition."

It makes for an interesting juxtaposition for the Call of Duty franchise.

Black Ops 2 is the most-played game on PlayStation in July, and it appears that the developers are keen to keep it that way by putting resources into dealing with hackers there, while the Black Ops 7 situation wages on.