Earlier this month, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 were ported to PlayStation 4 and PS5. These ports are pricey and bare-bones. That hasn’t stopped them from becoming some of the most popular games on PlayStation right now. And for many players, returning to this simpler, older era of Call of Duty, a time before battle passes and in-game purchases, has been a wonderful experience. And a great example of this pre-battle-pass era of CoD can be found in BLOPS 1 and 2’s custom emblem editor.
In modern Call of Duty games (and most other online live-service games), players have to either buy new cosmetics, like emblems and skins, or grind during a limited time to unlock some of that content for free. And in many of these games, CoD included, there’s stuff you simply can’t grind for, no matter how dedicated you are, as it’s locked behind a premium battle pass tier or some other paywall. It can be a very frustrating experience.
However, in Black Ops and Black Ops 2, players can create emblems using various shapes and pre-made designs. This essentially gives every player in Call of Duty the ability to make an emblem featuring a Star Wars character, movie franchise, meme, or whatever else they can create with the editor. And it all costs zero dollars and zero cents.
It’s truly wild, as someone living and gaming in 2026, to basically go back in time via these ports. Scrolling through the Black Ops 2 subreddit or playing on PS5, I’ve spotted so many cool, funny, and copyright-infringing emblems. They are everywhere online and in almost every match. (The ones that don’t lag out or break due to hackers or other issues, at least.) And unlike in Fortnite or other modern live-service games, none of these emblems are approved by the IP owners or were purchased by anyone. They’re all handcrafted bits of art created using a free emblem editor that, while somewhat simple, allows for millions of options and designs.
There’s something genuinely charming about all of these off-brand skulls and memes popping up in every match. And when I see a cool emblem, one crafted particularly well, it is far more interesting and memorable than when I encounter some cosmetic item someone just bought in the shop in other, newer shooters.
And this sense of freedom applies to everything in Black Ops 2. There’s no time-limited battle pass filled with weird crossover skins or dozens of menus and currencies to juggle. If you want a really cool skin for your rifle, grind the challenges at your own pace and unlock it. And when someone sees you using that skin, they’ll recognize that you put in the work. That’s a lot cooler than when I spot someone in a modern live-service game and think, “Oh, they spent $20 on that skin…”
“It feels exciting to unlock new attachments knowing someone else didn’t buy them to get ahead,” posted one person on the BLOPS2 subreddit. “I’m quite sad that gaming will probably never go back the way things should be, and that buying a game doesn’t give you the right to everything in the game anymore. But for now I’ll enjoy this glimpse into how good we had it a decade ago.”
Sure, there are some issues that come with letting players make their own emblems. If you play enough or look around on Reddit for long, you’ll spot swastikas and racist shit. That stuff sucks, and should be reported and punished. It also probably explains why a recent update for Black Ops on PS4 and PS5 added an option to toggle custom emblems off entirely.
Still, I don’t think the emblem editor should be forgotten or banished because some assholes abuse it. Yet, for those reasons and likely others involving greed, 2018’s Black Ops 4 was the last Call of Duty to include a free custom emblem editor. What a shame. At least we can boot up Black Ops 2 in 2026 on PS5 and, assuming the servers work and nothing breaks, get a glimpse at a time when map packs were the main way companies made money and players were free to create an emblem of Sonic smoking a big one. How much we’ve lost.