Treyarch's Best, Despite Numerous Flaws
With Activision screwing over Infinity Ward, it was a tough purchase for me to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops. I have nothing against Treyarch, but they have always made the inferior version of Call of Duty. Black Ops is a new and interesting take on Call of Duty, and i have to give Treyarch credit for that. Behind the curtain however, the game is filled with inconsistencies and glitches, mainly with the multiplayer, that make the game extremely frustrating.
The campaign was fantastic for a Call of Duty game, despite how predictable the twist was. There is a huge variety of missions, you never feel like you are doing the same thing twice. If you like explosions, there are plenty of them. You play as Alex Mason, being interrogated throughout the game trying to figure out what "the numbers" mean. The levels play out as the people interrogate you asking questions about what has happened, then you play through a level to see. The campaign is short, and should only take you around 6 hours to complete.
Almost everyone plays Call of Duty for the multiplayer. Even though the campaign is fantastic, the multiplayer is what will keep you coming back. There are plenty of reasons to come back to Black Ops multiplayer, assuming you can look past the obvious flaws. In previous Call of Duty games, you simply rank up and gain experience, and unlock new stuff. In this game, you level up and unlock new stuff, while also earning "Cod Points" and spending them to purchase weapon attachments, new weapons, perks, killstreak rewards, camo, red dots, pretty much anything. If you notice you are a few levels away from a new weapon that you want to invest in, you might want to start saving up so you can buy the desired attachments. The system is great, and i really enjoy it.
The variety of game modes in Black Ops is huge. Some certain game types you will not unlock until you rank up. There is your basic team deathmatch, headquarters, and search and destroy, along with other favorites. As you rank up, you can unlock hardcore team deathmatch, "pure" team deathmatch (no killstreaks , perks, etc.), and classic team deathmatch (killstreak rewards @ 3 / 5 / 7). There is also wager matches, where you can gamble a certain amount of your "Cod Points" and play extremely interesting modes. My favorite of the wager matches is called Gun Game, where you work your way through 20 different tiers of guns, first to complete them all wins.
there was a way to fix this. If you run around trying to kill people, you will die. If you camp, you may get lucky and kill someone, but if the other team is just camping, it is extremely boring. Call of Duty has always faced this problem, but Black Ops really seemed to frustrate me the most because of it. The spawn method when playing online is horrendous. You should never spawn next to an enemy, and die almost instantly after spawning. Sorry, but that is ridiculous Treyarch, and you need to fix your game. One of the earliest killstreak rewards you get is the RC-XD car, which i like to call the "almost guaranteed to get a kill killstreak reward". Another problem is playing with a party. Countless number of times while playing with friends, it will start searching and then drop the other person saying the session is no longer available. When in the middle of a match, i see a lot of "host migration" pop ups, pausing the game and sometimes causing me to be dropped, losing all points and experience i have earned.
At the end of the day, i thoroughly enjoyed Black Ops, and i think it's Treyarch's best Call of Duty game thus far. The campaign was great, and the multiplayer can be fun if you look past all the problems. It's hard for me to give this game a three out of five, simply because it is a pretty good game, and it's an extremely good bang for your buck. Even though it is a good game, it's ridiculous Treyarch would ship the game with so many problems when playing Multiplayer. It's been a week since the game launched, and still no word or patches from Treyarch. If they want to fix their game, i'd be happy to give the game a higher score.
