If you’ve been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 the past few days, you have no doubt noticed that a new Specialist by the name of Zero has made her way into the game. In case you’re not familiar with her abilities, we posted a quick guide on what Specialist abilities she can destroy, what scorestreaks she can hack and more.

Needless to say, with Zero’s hacking ability affecting the entire map wherever she is, and lasting for a long duration (30 seconds), this has made a lot of players quite annoyed with game developer Treyarch. Over on Reddit, countless threads have popped up sharing their distaste over this new Specialist, with more being posted everyday. User Gpbroseph made a lengthy post about it, and summed it up quite nicely. We’ve included some choice excerpts below.

Zero’s Ice Pick sounds excellent on paper and to be fair, I think it would make a decent scorestreak such as the Power Core from BO2; but the only reason that would work is because you would have to earn it. Even then the Power Core only destroyed streaks and prevented you from calling them in. Now with the addition of Zero, not only can you destroy enemy scorestreaks, destroy/steal enemy equipment, AND hack every single enemy player, but now you can take control of a 1000 point Drone Squad AND a 1300 point Attack Chopper for simply being in the game long enough to obtain a specialist ability?? Not to mention that in hardcore, when you’re hacked you can’t see your teammate’s blue names above their head. Who in the world thought this would be a good idea?

Lastly, I’ve never really been one for a no specialist playlist, I think the specialists are a cool, fun addition to the game and I enjoy the different play styles associated with each individual specialist. On the other hand, I can see how certain people find specialists annoying, cheap, and “noob friendly”. With the current state and raw strength of the Ice Pick, there absolutley needs to be a no specialist playlist. Treyarch, the players want to be rewarded for their skill and time played, that’s why we play your game in the first place! For all of the struggle and skill it takes to earn these “”devastating scorestreaks””, how easy it is to destroy them just because you “””earned””” it by existing in the game long enough is just flat out unbalanced and overpowered.

Simply put, Zero’s addition to the game benefits no one, not skilled players, not new players, and especially not anyone in between. I recognize that Treyarch likely isn’t going to completely remove a specialist they just added to the game, but the Ice Pick needs to go back to the drawing board before other players end up logging off for good. In the meantime, I will be playing Rocket League and I encourage all of you to do the same. Let me know what you think about the Ice Pick, I am eager for this issue to be discussed and debated and hopefully soon, resolved.

He’s not the only one. There are videos and memes of Zero being unbalanced that’s circulating now. Reddit user johnny_no_smiles shares this thoughts and compares it to the Blackhat equipment in Black Ops 3 stating:

The black hat equipment was a thing in black ops 3 for all of 10 seconds until it got nerfed into oblivion. It got nerfed heavily when zeros abilities are more than a thousand times stronger. The scorestreaks in black ops 3 totally destroyed the enemy, black ops 4 streaks are trash by comparison and now 1/3 of the opposition can effortlessly steal/insta kill them while camping in their own spawn building… Can anyone explain how this is balanced? Can anyone give me a single reason i would use torque when his best equipment can be totalled by zeros first and stolen by her second? If you think having her position given away is a counter youre deluded. 99% of people start hacking from a fresh spawn. Meaning for me to stop that hack i have to rush into their spawn kill her before she hacks and leave without getting mowed by one of the other teammates spawning. most likely flipping the spawns and ruining map control.

Lastly, even Call of Duty YouTubers like XclusiveAce, have also called out how overpowered the new Specialist’s abilities are too.

Ace says it perfectly, the EMP grenade is a good edition to this game. But Zero’s main specialist ability (the icepick hacking system) is definitely OP in some aspects. The fact that it can destroy or take over high end kill streaks almost makes going for them pointless… from Blackops4

Unfortunately, Treyarch has not commented at all either on the official Black Ops 4 subreddit, or on social media. Could it be that they don’t care at all what the player base thinks? Highly doubt it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Zero’s abilities get a nerf soon.

Do you think Zero’s abilities are overpowered now? Or is this a way for more casual players to feel good about themselves and “earn” high-end scorestreaks that you approve of? Sound off and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.