The seventh installment of the long-running action franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops puts players into the early era of the Cold War (including the Vietnam War) as a member of the United States black operations unit known as the SOG.
Now. I like hard games, so don't get me wrong. I enjoy a challenge. But in the case of this game, it's simply cheap. I don't consider it hard if every enemy has pinpoint accuracy while going full auto into a tiny crevice I'm looking out of. I don't find it hard if an enemy shoots me with pinpoint accuracy through smoke. I don't find it hard when the missions that are on rails have me almost die before I even have full control over the vehicle(Once again because everybody has pinpoint accuracy with every one of their bullets.)
It shouldn't simply be "An enemy sees you anywhere you are located instantly and shoots you instantly with no recoil. So now it's hard!" They should have better aim than the other difficulties and be more intelligent(Flanking, not standing out in the open as often, not running towards you like an idiot). Not wallhacks, aimbots, and no recoil.
For example, that mission where you are in a hazmat suit, I found myself hiding in a corner most of the time because if I popped out for a split second, anywhere I was every enemy would instantly know where I was and all start shooting at me.
Not to mention every single person with you is completely useless. In one of the Vietnam missions, I had 6 guys shooting one guy just standing there in the open and none of them could hit him.
Love the game though. Just think Veteran in CoD games really needs some reworking. This one is worse than all of the others though.
" Did Black Ops bring back infinitely spawning enemies until you get to a certain spot in the level? "
nope its a certain amount and then theyre all gone and yea every cod game has veteran like that. it hasnt changed for several years "
hmm? I'm pretty sure at least one of the Vietnam missions has infinitely spawning enemies. I spent at least 20-30 mins killing dudes at this one spot hoping they would eventually go away.. -_-
" That's just about how I felt about the hardest difficulty in Killzone 2. "
That's weird because I quite enjoyed playing Killzone 2 at the highest difficulty with the HUD turned off. One of the few games I ever do that with. I just felt like you could be less careless in your use of cover/staying out in the open for too long more than anything else. Didn't really feel the omniscient AI problem though or increased enemy accuracy.
Have always hated my veteran run throughs on COD games though.
How about: A nigh un-killable Zealot with a fully automatic rocket launcher that never needs reloading and 100 percent accuracy. Call of Duty is pussy mode compared to that nonsense.
That's him officer, that's the man that made me cry!
Once you could practically see the script in action in MW2 with the magically spawning enemies and such, I pledged never to do it again. Veteran in CoD games literally boils down to enemies do way more damage, they spawn in stupid places, and there's more of them. It's like it's the retarded cousin of The Director in L4D and it's pissed off at you.
" That's just about how I felt about the hardest difficulty in Killzone 2. "
That's weird because I quite enjoyed playing Killzone 2 at the highest difficulty with the HUD turned off. One of the few games I ever do that with. I just felt like you could be less careless in your use of cover/staying out in the open for too long more than anything else. Didn't really feel the omniscient AI problem though or increased enemy accuracy. Have always hated my veteran run throughs on COD games though. "
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my playthrough of Killzone 2 on Elite. There were just some moments where it felt like an endless spawn of Helghast until you hit a certain trigger. And we all know much the Helghast like to be bullet sponges! So having what seems to be a limitless amount of Helghast spawning, and you haveing limited ammo, it got frustrating at times. I also didn't feel like it was clear enough on your objective when you fight Radec. I wasn't sure to do damage to him, or just focus on his minions. Don't even get me started on Rico AI...
i always play on veteran for achievements, never for the fun factor. if i play Halo on Legendary or Devil May Cry on Dante Must Die, i have a good time.
I never appreciated it when a game deliberately just spawns enemies in games set in our modern times. Nothing breaks immersion more than standing in one spot, and shooting more than 50 terrorists coming out of a room or a really small house. It is pretty dumb that the developers don't limit this more to be a bit more believable.
yes, it is. it's really frustrating to play like that. i tried playing it on cod 4 and i gave up. i play on hardened ant that is also a little bit cheap. i do enjoy not having to worry about the grenade spamming though.
" @mano521: The final part of Executive Order has infinitely spawning enemies. It's frustrating, doubled with the long hallway with barely any cover. "
I decided to go back and play through MW2 on veteran yesterday. I've got to say, I didn't really think it was that hard as long as you take it slow and be careful. I remember trying to do World at War on veteran though and I couldn't, so maybe Treyarch is just harsher with their difficulty.
of course it's cheap. the cheap veteran difficulty is something they've never even attempted to improve. it's about memorizing enemy locations, and it's not fun. I beat all the other CODs on veteran difficulty, but with Black Ops I started out on veteran and then 20 minutes in I said screw it and set it to regular. I say just set it to regular and play to have fun. Don't even play it on hardened because while it's less frustrating than veteran, it is still frustrating. regular is how it's meant to be played.
I beat every single Call of Duty game prior to Black-Ops on Veteran.
I couldn't get past the first few levels without becoming utterly infuriated with Black-Ops. The infinitely re-spawning enemies, their ridiculous aim, and the sheer stupidity of it all combined to make me just say "fuck it" and turn it down to hardened. What's even more of a bummer, though, is that hardened is far too easy.
I've been jumping back and forth between levels on veteran and the end of Executive order is fucking ridiculous. It reminded me a lot of No fighting in the war room...just frustratingly annoying. I skipped SOG for now as I'm going to assume thats the second hardest level to complete with the napalm hill. The funniest thing is that I did the Kowloon, Nova and Vietnam levels with under five deaths between them, Theres a few points to exploit the A.I in a bunch of levels but it really isnt fun waiting around for checkpoints that may or may not activate only for some random to rush you down and kill you before he's even fully seen you. The worst kills are when an enemy shoots you whilst clearly stumbling backwards or through some gap in the scenery you can't shoot through yet they can shoot you. The infinite respawn shit has to go it just makes sections of the game luck instead of skill based.
hmm? I'm pretty sure at least one of the Vietnam missions has infinitely spawning enemies. I spent at least 20-30 mins killing dudes at this one spot hoping they would eventually go away.. -_- "
@ESREVER said:
" That's just about how I felt about the hardest difficulty in Killzone 2. "
for both games i just run as fast as i can jumping from cover to cover and skipping most enemies, makes everything easier. i found the knife/melee to be the best weapon for the hardest difficult in KZ2 (especially the final boss), i barely used any other weapon.
@jayjonesjunior: Indeed, the Melee was very useful in Killzone 2. Much more useful than that lame ass Revolver with infinite bullets. When i fought Radec on Elite, he kind of glitched out. He was stuck on fire for the whole duration of the battle. He would just run and scream, teleport somewhere and just run and scream some more. So I wailed on him until he went back to the balcony, then shot in the face with a sniper rifle. Quite amusing.
I'm not sure how you managed to just run through the missions. The Helghast were quite keen on running me down and bashing my face in. Especially when you're trying to make your way to the Visari. SO many Helghasts!
" How about: A nigh un-killable Zealot with a fully automatic rocket launcher that never needs reloading and 100 percent accuracy. Call of Duty is pussy mode compared to that nonsense.
That's him officer, that's the man that made me cry! "
That shit ruined Halo Reach's campaign. it was no longer fun nor moderately challenging, just cheap and horribly designed.
My Xbox almost did not survive the first 4 levels of veteran mode. I agree that it's very cheap. I like how the AI can lean around corners, blindfire without looking at you and still have 100% accuracy. Also, I REALLY enjoyed how the enemy AI ignores my friendlies who are out in the open, and instead focus on me for the split-second I pop-out of cover — it's like the enemy knows my AI teammates are indestructible so they don't even bother.
" My Xbox almost did not survive the first 4 levels of veteran mode. I agree that it's very cheap. I like how the AI can lean around corners, blindfire without looking at you and still have 100% accuracy. Also, I REALLY enjoyed how the enemy AI ignores my friendlies who are out in the open, and instead focus on me for the split-second I pop-out of cover — it's like the enemy knows my AI teammates are indestructible so they don't even bother. "
Yeah. Veteran shouldn't be like that. It should just have smarter enemies. Not enemies that cheat.
I think it's a Treyarch thing. I'm going through MW2 on Veteran now and it's pretty manageable. But a bit ago I went through World at War on Veteran and it's just plain out cheap as you say about Black Ops. Not hard in a fun and challenging way, as soon as you get behind cover grenades fall all around you, or the second you pop out of cover it's pretty much an instant death, or the fact that the enemy just keeps respawning if you don't keep moving. Very frustrating.
Seeing stuff like this puts me off the whole idea of even trying. I beat Call of Duty 2 on Veteran and have yet to do it on any other game in the series. I think I will stick with my whole "play through the entire game on Normal in one sitting" thing I have been doing and leave it at that!
I want to get all the achievements in this one, but its going to take so damn long to do a playthrough for all the intel, a playthrough on veteran, and a playthrough to get all the various special achievements like kill 3 dudes with 1 bullet. I did it on 4 and MW2.
Vietnam is really making me reconsider playing the Call of Dutys on Veteran. Of course, one lazy weekend is all I need to push me over the edge. At least, that's all I needed for Cod4 and MW2.
I was hoping Treyarch would take out the infinitely respawning enemies but that's just wishful thinking. I might do the first 2 or 3 missions on veteran.
So far, MW2 is the only CoD campaign that I found manageable on Veteran. It had a nice challenge to it that still allowed me to have fun through most of it. I just tried Black Ops on Veteran a little while ago. Couldn't even get through the first goddamn mission. It's just a giant cheating pile of fucking horseshit. Can't believe that Treyarch didn't even bother to at least attempt to make it a fair and legitimate challenge. Dudes just auto-lock on me before I'm even in a room and I'm dead before I get a chance to react. That, coupled with the fact that the checkpoints in this game are really awfully placed and are too few and far between will make this a tremendous pain in the ass.
It's not worth the frustration. I beat the game on hardened and that was maddening enough at some points as it was. Now I'm picking through missions and picking up stray achieves on normal, and it's far more fun. Usually I play normal first and save the replay for hard, but I guess I feared I wouldn't want to even play through it again(WaW is the cause I think,lol). But it is good enough to play through on normal or even recruit and just enjoy the action, and digest the story a little better.
" @CL60: how would you make it right. enemies taking 3x as many bullets to die? The only "cheap" CoD veteran game is WaW because of the infinite grenades. But yeah infinite enemies is still garbage "
I said how I would fix it. I would fix it like almost every other game does the hardest difficulty, just make the enemies more intelligent. I honestly don't find Black Ops hard on Veteran because of the reasons I mentioned. All of that shit just makes it annoying and cheap. They don't need to have pinpoint accuracy while blindfiring at you while you're looking through a tiny little crevice in a window for it to be hard. That's just dumb. They should program better AI, not just pump up their accuracy and have them all aim for your face literally the moment the see you. And as I said, sometimes they shoot you when they shouldn't even be able to see you.
I had gotten the full 1000 in the first MW and vowed never to do it again. It really does suck when enemies just HAPPEN to know where you are and smoke you with one shot.
@CL60: I totally agree, it's even more annoying because there end up being a couple of *ridiculous* difficulty spikes that come about I guess because the devs just didn't spend much time balancing the game on Veteran (corridor at the end of executive order was probably my "favourite").
I totally agree with the OP... I've finished Modern Warfare 1 & 2 and now this weekend also Black Ops on veteran. I almost burned down my apartment in the frustration of trying to stand on the back of trucks, blazing away with no cover, and getting shot up no matter what i did... But, you keep progressing, only every level takes 5-10 times as long as it should just because of shitty checkpoints and poor level-design. In MW 1 & 2, on veteran, if you die you realise that you've fucked up: "Ah, I took off too early"..."Oh, that cover is compromised by XYZ"... But Black Ops punishes you for playing the game. All the on-rails examples speak volumes about this, but also things like on Cuba, when you have to go through a doorway to progress the story and you die no matter what you do: you dive off to the right- you die. You try to pick off enemies- they respawn, you die.... Same thing in quite a few levels... Another shitty example is Kowloon when after you fall down the scaffolding, you can't move, only use the pistol. Your survival is to 100% determined by chance. I tried everything from just straight blasting at everything, to trying to not bring attention to myself by not shooting, to double-tapping people carefully.. In the end (as in ALL of these cases where the game does not want you to progress) you simply have to keep grinding till you luck-out...
And hey! A side-note: who else is annoyed at Khe Sanh, and there being no instruction to actually run up to the barrels to progress the script?!? Game-breaking. Too many flaws with this game. Red-dot sights that were invented in the seventies (INVENTED) are free to use for NVA, and russians in 1968? Steyr's and FAMAS "prototypes"? Embarrassing!
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