The game remains the same
On the making-of documentaries for "the Lion King", one of the filmmakers remarked that they felt that the "B-team"; they're the team that's making that other Disney film they just happened to be making but rather their main focus was on "Pocahontas", their next prestige picture. Funny how Lion King became a massive hit (and oddly one of my top favorite movies ever) and Pocahontas was very warmly received. Even though it's an oddball analogy, I couldn't think of anything else that could explain Treyarch's situation going into "Call of Duty: Black Ops", their latest in the hugely popular FPS series. Known more for doing more of a placeholder entry rather than something special, you get the feeling Treyarch really went all-out on this one, to show they can be counted on to make an excellent game in the series. The final product is no doubt impressive and while I'm not exactly the best person to ask about it, this game is probably the most balanced and feature-packed of the series and no doubt their best entry.
Going away from modern warfare and World War 2, Black Ops takes place in the Cold War era as soldier Alex Mason is interrogated concerning the significance of numbers Mason keeps hearing in his head, 3 Russian terrorists that are planning an attack on the US and the return of an old comrade and the mysteries that come along with him. Right from the get-go, the storytelling is ambitious. Big set-pieces and political intrigue, there's a lot to keep track which might become the story's downfall for some people. You really have to pay attention in this one and unlike prior games where it was packed with military jargon and objectives, the story will jump back and forth between timelines and characters that it can be hard to keep track just how that character actually got to that place when you come back to it. Another thing is sometimes I feel Treyarch didn't quite take a page from Infinity Ward with their veteran difficulty because even on normal, running into a full-blown "respawning enemies" sequence and annoying hallways might make you dread the harder playthroughs.
One thing that they did nail though is the almost expected huge action moments where things get really loud, intense, cinematic and incredibly fun to play. Might find yourself on a boat firing at shacks and enemies along with other boats or just manning turrets as you lay siege to enemies and it becomes quite an experience. But then it happens: that familiarity that makes me wonder where the franchise can go from here in that some of the setpieces will start to repeat themselves. An escape sequence which is being filled with water (Call of Duty 4's opening tanker level), using an airborne vehicle to guide a ground team (AC-130 level) or speeding along on a vehicle where you can shoot guys with uncanny accuracy (Modern Warfare 2's snowmobile section), at certain points it kind of feels like they're re-doing specific sequences from prior games but they're making them look a bit cooler. That isn't to say they're not awesome (and in fact one involving an abandoned and destroyed ship has a very eerie, almost survival horror-ish vibe which I weirdly enjoyed) but you can only go so far before they again start re-using parts and just dressing them up.
The next big feature is the Zombies mode and I somewhat agree with people saying that it gets slightly old after awhile. There's 2 maps, one you unlock by beating campaign or a computer code, and it's pretty much zombie mode again: re-build windows and barriers, shoot zombies and get points which can be used to buy ammo, guns, perks or set off traps but I weirdly found it harder than before and zombies seem to take more bullets than I remember. But I would've liked to have seen a "spec ops" mode as well where you and a buddy tackle missions together and since Halo Reach added campaign matchmaking, I couldn't see why Treyarch couldn't put the mode in with matchmaking as well considering Infinity Ward never bothered with the one in MW2.
And of course we come down to the multiplayer and one of the reasons I said I'm probably the wrong guy to ask about this kind of thing is that I had a weird epiphany the other day: I'm not very good at these and don't enjoy playing them. Now from what I've heard, people in community and even top players have been saying that this is probably the most balanced and least frustrating out-of-the-box multiplayer yet and it just might be. Perks will have counters, weapons have recoil, air support can be shot down so they're not up in the air for too long but then weird headaches I've notice popped up too. It wasn't uncommon to die, spawn, walk out of a room and right smack into somebody and have him shoot me since I didn't know somebody would be near me that soon. Or bullets that connect to their body yet their knife lunge animation makes them somehow invulnerable and if somebody gets a gunship up in the air, good luck shooting that thing down and waiting for your launcher to lock on and you'll either probably die from the gunship or somebody shooting you while your eyes are towards the sky, proceeding to get further torn up by it.
2 more additions to the game, one of which is pretty good while one is the bigger draw. The first one is combat training and it's basically you against bots so if you want to figure out what guns have best damage or less recoil, or practice sniping or reaction time than you can spend some time here before you jump into the online. The second addition are wager matches which act like gambling in free for alls. There's 4 types: One in the Chamber (you and a bullet, get a kill, earn a bullet, miss and it's knives only) Sticks and Stones (crossbow, ballistic knife and tomahawk, latter of which resets player's score if they're killed by one) Gun Game (progression based match: get a kill, get a better weapon, get knifed, go back a rank) and Sharpshooter (45 seconds, everyone spawns with the same weapon). If you land in the top 3, you gain "CoD Points" which you use to buy, well practically everything. Guns, attachments, perks, pro versions of perks, emblems and ways to customize your character, everything costs money so you can choose how you best play but even then that's limited. That RPG I need to bring down that annoying air support? Takes near 3-4 seconds to lock on leaving me completely vulnerable and it only has one round but the better RPG? Unlocked in the early 30's. You can buy challenges which act like little accomplishments that net you more cash if you complete them so least those help.
One of the most commonly found sentiments in gaming right now is the milking and over-"sequelization" that Activision has been doing to their core franchises: namely this, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk. While the latter 2 have been slumping in sales, Call of Duty still seems to be a money magnet and already Black Ops has beat Modern Warfare 2's first day sales. Question becomes then if you're feeling burnt out on Call of Duty should you buy this? Well I'll say this: if you're a fan already, you most likely have it already but if you don't like the series or can't stand it anymore, this probably won't change your mind. This series is still one of the better developed and designed multiplayer shooters around which an addicting draw that makes you come back for more but you know what? Aside from minor things, nothing has changed but that still doesn't mean no one else can do it better and Treyarch, inexplicably, made the best one since Call of Duty 4.
