Black

BLACK was on many a wish list for quite some time before launch, and in many respects lived up to they hype.

However, there is very rarely perfection in a game, and BLACK has its share of flaws that detract from the awesome graphics and initially intense gameplay.

Playing the role of a Black-Ops agent, your mission is to hunt down and eliminate the leader of a shadowy terrorist organisation called Seventh Wave. In the somewhat limited story, Seventh wave are international in their scope but strangely restrictive on their recruitment policy - only hiring Russian-speaking mercenaries to do their work. There is also intrigue as you discover that the reason for your enforced debriefing - shown as cutscenes between each mission that actually takes place after the events in the game - is not as clear cut as you think.

The action in BLACK takes place in a number of locations across a fictional Eastern European city, from abandoned, war-torn city streets to fields and abandoned farmhouses, from an abandoned asylum to a prison. Which is also abandoned. Surprisingly. In many ways, BLACK is a powerhouse of a game. It promises Hollywood-style action, and by God, does it do that in spades. The first time you play, you will be blown away (no pun intended) by the simple act of launching a rocket into an office building or church tower, only to watch all the windows on one floor blow out. (or in the case of the church, the tower collapse completely). And although the grenade-throwing mechanic feels a little clunky, you will marvel at the explosions that ensue. And don't even get me started on intense shoot-outs in tiled communal bathrooms - stuff flying everywhere!

And this, in one way, is BLACK's strongest feature - it manages to squeeze just about every iota of processing power out of the old Xbox, producing a game that, being honest, looked next-gen before there was a next gen. In fact, it actually puts some next-gen games to utter shame. The Treneska Border crossing level, for example, is set in woodland, and the fact that grass is rendered here a la Call of Duty 3 is a marvel. Lighting and fogging effects add to the stunning imagery, and all in all, you are left wishing that, somehow, game developers had managed to figure all this out a lot earlier in the lifecycle of the beloved console. To watch an RPG round head towards its target, leaving a plume of smoke in its wake, is a joy. Sound is also very well done, with much whizzing of bullets, ricochets and environmental sounds. Some of the weapons sound a little lifeless, admittedly, but they are LOUD. The enemy chatter is intriguing at first, all in (what sounds like) Russian, although the variation is limited, and gets a bit repetitive after a while.

The in-game music is excellent for the most part, with a stirring main title theme in which Michael Guacharo’s presence is obvious. He will be sadly missed from the Medal of Honor franchise!

Overall, gameplay is good, with some flaws, but the promise of non-stop action is maintained, at least for a while. But the mechanic is flawed in that there is no variation - it is TOO non-stop. After a little while, you realise that the only thing really keeping you glued is the visual aspect of the game, and even that starts to wear thin after a while. And this, sadly, is where BLACK falls down. Which brings me to the first flaw in this game - overall the story is a little weak and it is difficult to fully engage in the character you play, or his motives. And there are conflicts in the scale of the story - we are led to believe that this is a terrorist organisation you are tasked to destroy, yet, everywhere is destroyed and abandoned. How big is Seventh Wave? Some of the settings look like the Third Reich has steamed its way through, laying waste to everything in its path. There are no local armed forces, just the bad guys, you, and occasionally a couple of teammates to keep you company. These are admittedly niggles only, and there are great games out there with little or no plot at all - yet they are still great. But it is still noticeable. For example, in a game such as Serious Sam, you don't really lament the lack of a story - it doesn't really need one. You shoot alien dudes. But with BLACK, once you start getting into plotlines and exposition, you really feel there should be more to it. And there isn't. Which is a shame, because there cold have been great potential for a Tom Clancy-esque plot here. Once you realise you don't really care why you are doing what you are doing, the interest peters out.

Another sticking point is the enemy AI, or lack thereof. Enemy combatant types are not very varied - five in total - and the tactics they employ are: 1 -walk around before you do anything. 2 - once they spot you, shoot at you from wherever they are or run out in the open through your line of fire to get to cover and then shoot at you. 3- when behind over, walk into the open, shoot a bit, go back. Rinse and repeat. The first part of tactic two can make for some intense close up action in places, but sadly the second part of it and third tactic mean that long distance combat is a simple case of lining up your aim for the head the first few times they pop out, pop back, pop out, pop back. It doesn't take long before this starts to feel like an assembly line. Thankfully you will never be short of ammunition - it's lying around in spades - but like other aspects of the game, holding an enemy in place with bullets till he drops get a bit old.

It also takes a lot of bullets to take down enemies. And I mean a lot. This is partly explained away by everyone wearing body armor. But it takes something away from the gameplay when you are pumping ten or more shots into a dude before he goes down. And that's just the basic grunt-dudes. Some level of graduation between the basic character classes would have been nice, and also a little more location-specific damage. Some hardcore tension can arise when fighting shotgun dudes, as they take hella damage before keeling over, and can take you out in one or two shots. But after a while of playing the game, you realise that they are totally unable to cope with a circle-strafe maneuver, which takes the edge away.

You can cause damage to the game world - trees fall apart, columns shatter, tiled walls are reduced to bare plaster. But whilst this is awesome at first, it doesn’t take long to spot where the damage is built in - visible seam lines in trees, convenient explosive barrels in key locations. It all becomes a bit formulaic.

Difficulty is also a bit fractured. On the easiest setting, the challenge is fine until the Asylum level, where the difficulty is suddenly ramped up to something altogether harder. Then the following levels go back to easy, and then the final level again sees a turning up of the difficulty slider. A more gradual toughening would have been better placed here. I can see many less-experienced FPS fans being put off by the sudden change on the Asylum level. And the checkpoint system and lack of player saves does not help matters much here.

Lastly, there is no co-op or multiplayer component at all. Perhaps these would have been a little too much to ask, given the demands placed on the console by the single-player campaign on its own. But it is still a shame. So, in conclusion, BLACK is very good game on first play-through, clocking in at between 8-10 hours. But once you know enemy locations, and where there is stuff you can blow up, replay becomes a mindless exercise. It can still be fun every now and then, but you will find yourself playing only the levels you enjoy the most, and then not very often. Some replay value is added by the harder difficulty levels, where extra mission objectives are added. Completing the game means that you unlock silver weapons with unlimited ammo for any for that difficulty level and any below it. Even that is flawed - you can't turn them off, so if you finish easy difficulty and want to play again without unlimited ammo, for a challenge, you can't.

This is definitely a show-off game, but I wouldn't buy it new - if it is even still available new nowadays - search out a pre-owned copy, or rent it first. There is fun to be had, but it is to be hoped that the upcoming Xbox 360 version (or second and third sequels, as some rumors state) pick up on the flaws and work to improve them. True next-gen visuals and the removal of the niggles that take this game down a peg or two could make for a truly awesome, replayable and unforgettable experience.