So, after my last blog post about how horrible Call of Duty Black Ops (from this point on refered to as Blops) is as a game, I was a little hesitant to continue playing. But today I figured "Ah, what the hell. It can't possibly get any worse, right?"

The game answered swiftly and with great confidence: yes, it can and will get worse. The next mission, which was the first Vietnam mission of the game, is fucking horrible. Pardon my French, but it just is. It's 2010, I thought we were past this point in games and were finally able to make some decent games that are engaging and fun to play. I guess Treyarch feels different and has taken several steps back to ensure that Blops will never be any fun.

So now I'm just going to be a little bitch and write down my experiences with Blops as I play it. These posts will be long and there will be lots of swearing and general anger from my side. I will try to keep the (big) spoilers to a minimum and just focus on the gameplay/game design aspect of the game from here on out. If you are a fan of Blops or don't like reading long slabs of text, I suggest you stop reading this post right... about... now! If you like actual games and can't be bothered to actually play this crap, follow me on my magical adventures in Blops!

Edit: Since I posted this in my last post, I should also post it here: I am a huge CoD fan and a professional game designer. Most of my complaints come from my experience and education creating and playing games. I don't *hate* CoD by default. And before this backfires and becomes 'a thing', I should also add that these are my personal opinions. I do not represent anyone else, least of all the company I work for.

Charlie don't die

Ok, so the infinite respawn means, in my experience with the Call of Duty games, that you just push forward until you reach the checkpoint. So I go down one more level on the hill. Everybody still keeps respawning around me. Woods and Hudson at least follow me down a level and are now the only friendly soldiers around. We're standing behind some medium cover. This means if I crouch, I can't see over it but I also can't be hit from the front. I have to stand up to shoot over the cover. Woods and Hudson are both standing up, are not moving and keep yelling the same phrase over and over again:"Enemy by the trench". Yeah, I know, Woods. I've shot the same exact enemy about 30 times now. But thanks for calling it out. I should also add that in addition to standing in the same spot, not moving, being shot at and not dying, both Woods and Hudson are also NOT. FUCKING. SHOOTING! Not once did they shoot an enemy. Even the ones that were out in the open right in front of them. So I am literally the only one shooting enemies and they keep infinitely respawning. At this point I am at a loss for words. But I have to keep going because this game has to have some redeeming quality at some point, right?

Tenacious me!

I am not going to describe what happens next, but it wasn't fun. It was quicker than going down the hill because now I knew what horrible level design there is in this mission but it was about as much fun. And again, Hudson and Woods stood at the top of the hill, out in the open, yelling at me, not shooting anybody, not dying and just being assholes. And then, when you get to the top of the hill, *SPOILER ALERT!* they make you do the exact same thing that Modern Warfare 1 ended with! *SPOILER ALERT OVER!* Come the fuck on, Treyarch! REALLY?! For fuck's sake!

*MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!* So I fall down, because I am the best soldier in the world, right, JFK? And Woods is a moron and attack somebody with a jammed weapon. He gets knocked down and the NVA he was attacking is about to shoot him. Magically, I have a revolver which I swear I didn't have before. So now I have to aim and shoot the NVA soldier before he shoots Woods. I have to admit, I let the NVA soldier shoot Woods the first time. I just wanted to see Woods die. So after that very emotional moment for me, I shoot the NVA soldier the second time. Woods gets up and RUNS AWAY! He literally doesn't say ANY-FUCKING-THING! Nothing. He just takes off. No "Hey Mason, thanks for saving my ass" or even a "Fuck, that was a close one". NOTHING! He takes off and my mission is now "Follow Woods". AAAAAAAAARGH! This was the fucking easiest moment so far to have a tiny bit of character development or emotion or bonding between this character that has been in almost every mission so far and there's nothing! How the fuck do you justify that as the game designer or level designer or script writer who is responsible for this? That is just fucking horrible!

Now we go through a tunnel and come to a fairly large area with a jeep. Woods tells me to get in the jeep. But, as I have noticed, whenever Woods tells me to do something and I don't do it, the game breaks. So I refuse and stand in the same spot. Nothing happens. The NVA in the background are shooting wildly at random things but never seem to hit anything. Hmmm... I wonder... So I shot a group of 4 NVA soldier in the distance. And lo and behold, 4 NVA soldiers spawn and run to the exact same spots where their fallen comrades have just died. So I shoot those 4 guys. And... 4 new ones spawn to take their place. And they don't just spawn off camera and run up, they fucking pop out of thin air at the back of the level and run to their assigned positions. Ugh, really? I know I'm really nitpicking right now but this happens a lot in Blops: when I don't do exactly what the game tells me, it takes me all of 5 seconds to expose how lazily this has been made. And you can say "Well, do what the game tells you then!", which is what I should do but Blops makes this too easy. And, I should add, this is a mission where Woods drives the jeep around and I shoot tanks. It doesn't even really matter if those guys respawn or not, especially if I haven't even gotten into the jeep yet.

This dragon needs a mint!

Story, schmory!

But this article is getting too long and I enjoyed that mission so much I don't want to ruin it with a potentially shitty mission so that's it for today. I need a drink and a smoke after all that.

So, after my last blog post about how horrible Call of Duty Black Ops (from this point on refered to as Blops) is as a game, I was a little hesitant to continue playing. But today I figured "Ah, what the hell. It can't possibly get any worse, right?"

The game answered swiftly and with great confidence: yes, it can and will get worse. The next mission, which was the first Vietnam mission of the game, is fucking horrible. Pardon my French, but it just is. It's 2010, I thought we were past this point in games and were finally able to make some decent games that are engaging and fun to play. I guess Treyarch feels different and has taken several steps back to ensure that Blops will never be any fun.

So now I'm just going to be a little bitch and write down my experiences with Blops as I play it. These posts will be long and there will be lots of swearing and general anger from my side. I will try to keep the (big) spoilers to a minimum and just focus on the gameplay/game design aspect of the game from here on out. If you are a fan of Blops or don't like reading long slabs of text, I suggest you stop reading this post right... about... now! If you like actual games and can't be bothered to actually play this crap, follow me on my magical adventures in Blops!

Edit: Since I posted this in my last post, I should also post it here: I am a huge CoD fan and a professional game designer. Most of my complaints come from my experience and education creating and playing games. I don't *hate* CoD by default. And before this backfires and becomes 'a thing', I should also add that these are my personal opinions. I do not represent anyone else, least of all the company I work for.

Charlie don't die

Ok, so the infinite respawn means, in my experience with the Call of Duty games, that you just push forward until you reach the checkpoint. So I go down one more level on the hill. Everybody still keeps respawning around me. Woods and Hudson at least follow me down a level and are now the only friendly soldiers around. We're standing behind some medium cover. This means if I crouch, I can't see over it but I also can't be hit from the front. I have to stand up to shoot over the cover. Woods and Hudson are both standing up, are not moving and keep yelling the same phrase over and over again:"Enemy by the trench". Yeah, I know, Woods. I've shot the same exact enemy about 30 times now. But thanks for calling it out. I should also add that in addition to standing in the same spot, not moving, being shot at and not dying, both Woods and Hudson are also NOT. FUCKING. SHOOTING! Not once did they shoot an enemy. Even the ones that were out in the open right in front of them. So I am literally the only one shooting enemies and they keep infinitely respawning. At this point I am at a loss for words. But I have to keep going because this game has to have some redeeming quality at some point, right?

Tenacious me!

I am not going to describe what happens next, but it wasn't fun. It was quicker than going down the hill because now I knew what horrible level design there is in this mission but it was about as much fun. And again, Hudson and Woods stood at the top of the hill, out in the open, yelling at me, not shooting anybody, not dying and just being assholes. And then, when you get to the top of the hill, *SPOILER ALERT!* they make you do the exact same thing that Modern Warfare 1 ended with! *SPOILER ALERT OVER!* Come the fuck on, Treyarch! REALLY?! For fuck's sake!

*MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!* So I fall down, because I am the best soldier in the world, right, JFK? And Woods is a moron and attack somebody with a jammed weapon. He gets knocked down and the NVA he was attacking is about to shoot him. Magically, I have a revolver which I swear I didn't have before. So now I have to aim and shoot the NVA soldier before he shoots Woods. I have to admit, I let the NVA soldier shoot Woods the first time. I just wanted to see Woods die. So after that very emotional moment for me, I shoot the NVA soldier the second time. Woods gets up and RUNS AWAY! He literally doesn't say ANY-FUCKING-THING! Nothing. He just takes off. No "Hey Mason, thanks for saving my ass" or even a "Fuck, that was a close one". NOTHING! He takes off and my mission is now "Follow Woods". AAAAAAAAARGH! This was the fucking easiest moment so far to have a tiny bit of character development or emotion or bonding between this character that has been in almost every mission so far and there's nothing! How the fuck do you justify that as the game designer or level designer or script writer who is responsible for this? That is just fucking horrible!

Now we go through a tunnel and come to a fairly large area with a jeep. Woods tells me to get in the jeep. But, as I have noticed, whenever Woods tells me to do something and I don't do it, the game breaks. So I refuse and stand in the same spot. Nothing happens. The NVA in the background are shooting wildly at random things but never seem to hit anything. Hmmm... I wonder... So I shot a group of 4 NVA soldier in the distance. And lo and behold, 4 NVA soldiers spawn and run to the exact same spots where their fallen comrades have just died. So I shoot those 4 guys. And... 4 new ones spawn to take their place. And they don't just spawn off camera and run up, they fucking pop out of thin air at the back of the level and run to their assigned positions. Ugh, really? I know I'm really nitpicking right now but this happens a lot in Blops: when I don't do exactly what the game tells me, it takes me all of 5 seconds to expose how lazily this has been made. And you can say "Well, do what the game tells you then!", which is what I should do but Blops makes this too easy. And, I should add, this is a mission where Woods drives the jeep around and I shoot tanks. It doesn't even really matter if those guys respawn or not, especially if I haven't even gotten into the jeep yet.

This dragon needs a mint!

Story, schmory!

But this article is getting too long and I enjoyed that mission so much I don't want to ruin it with a potentially shitty mission so that's it for today. I need a drink and a smoke after all that.

I saw no problem with the game communicating to me. Maybe I need to play again to see what everyone else is seeing. I just kept moving forward throughout the game, which is the point. It seems you just kept shooting guys in the same area.

No offense, but it sounds like you kinda suck at CoD.

The part where you are pushing down the hill isn't explained very well, but the best way is to go up the the barrels and press the action button. I know, everyone doesn't have a clue what to do here for a while, but once you figure it out, it's actually pretty easy. 
 
Going up the hill took me one attempt, on veteran. It wasn't hard and moaning over a small scene that a previous game in the series has done is a bit silly. 
 
The Dragon's Breath is awesome, yes. Very. 
 
COD makes people angry, makes me angry, but the feeling of getting past parts you were stuck at for a long time is very satisfying. Apart from 2 parts in the whole game, one you've already mentioned, I thought the game was pretty good and actually not that hard.

people actually play the single player?

I will gladly admit that I am not the best CoD player in the world (so no offense taken), but also definitely not the worst. Regardless of my (limited) skill level, I don't think that automatically excuses cheap and lazy game design. Up until the point where I had to storm down the hill, I had not died that much in the levels before (except for the horrible part in the opening level).

And I agree that it was silly to pick on the MW1 ending being re-used. That was a cheap shot but come on, it was really obvious that that's what they were doing. I didn't mind them re-using it so much (even though it felt cheap and random), the biggest problem I had with that was how they handled the moment after that where Woods just runs away without even mentioning it. I just saved your life, dude. Some acknowledgment of that would be nice.

And the Dragon's Breath mission was actually so awesome that it made up for a lot of the bad stuff. I really enjoyed that mission and I hope there are a lot more like that one in the rest of the game! Believe me, I WANT to enjoy this game since I payed 50 euro for it.

You know, there are shorter ways of admitting you can't play video games well :)

Sounds like you're pretty bad at CoD, bro.

Their is nothing that can't go wrong with this game you have 4 well crafted modes to chooses from 
one of those being easily the best Campaign in the series ever!
 
And with that the most balanced paced Multiplayer in general for again the series
 
So it's not the game it's you!

I feel your pain, sir.
 
Just finished the campaign on veteran last night. The Khe Sanh mission was a low point for me in terms of bad game design. It's the worst it gets, though, and if you get through it, the rest of the game shouldn't be too rough.

I agree with almost everything the OP says. The mission design can get so lazy if you do not do exactly what it says. The way the Devs combat this is by saying Cod is a cinematic experience etc. But if you see the video of the guy running the first level without shooting, you realise there is some very sloppy game design, and BLOPS takes linear to a new level.

You're bad at playing and comprehending. I beat the story with no problem on regular, and completely understood the story (which was fantastic btw), Just pay attention and don't skip the loading screens. 

When I was on the snow level, the cross hairs on my bow totally disappeared. I kind of get what's going on in the story, but it is convoluted. It has too many characters and variables for what little cut scenes and narrative scenes are in the game.

" people actually play the single player? "

From the other comments, this is another case of the badness madness. You're mad because you're bad.

You're spot on, OP.  There are a few good bits in the campaign but so much more that's frustratingly broken or generic and boring.  I even think World at War has a better one player campaign.  Nothing feels exciting in Black Ops the way it did in MW1 and 2.  People telling you you're bad at it are full of arse.

oh man exactly the same here ,mod war 2 sp i finished in 2 evening but this piece of crap i usually play one mission and stop and force myself the night after to do another one exactly same follow woods get me pissed off try to shoot him myself so many times ,same had a cigarette break on the vietnam map just before going down the tunnel that lead to the first hill and watched those thousands viet keeping coming back same way; firing a few on the way ,then on the hill stock 45 mn going all the way down visting each bunker shooting the barrels see if they explode ,but nothing ,at some point i stoped and watch woods behind a barrels trying to shoot throught it and an enemy just behind this same barrel doing exactly same thing , and that could have last forever no lie went on youtube too see how to go past this of course after only took me a couple of minutes ,story is without interest,one mission you start torturing a guy next second is your best buddy helping you escape,i mean WTF ,if your over 12 years old don t bother with this game ,last mission i was on a boat in laos i think but that was last week have not played since,as i dont think it gets better ,let me know if i m wrong