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    Call of Duty: Black Ops

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Nov 09, 2010

    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.

    loopy_101's Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360) review

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    Black Ops plays it safe

    The resounding success of Modern Warfare 2, both critically and commercially left no room for error as Treyarch unravelled Call of Duty Black Ops. It could easily represent the most ambitious entry into the series, disregarding the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 ofcourse. Treyarch battled hard to convince fans that this experience would be better than the last, merging the greater concepts of Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, or atleast it seemed. It has to be said that Black Ops initially did well to impress, especially for a COD cynic gamer like myself (just go read my review for Modern Warfare 2 and need look no further). 


    Call of Duty Black Ops is the first in it's series to be told nearly through it's entirely in flashback. For the majority of the campaign you play as Mason, a captured CIA agent, interrogated by unknown individuals over a numbers conspiracy. As we see him first hand being tortured, strapped to a chair, he recounts each mission from the Bay of Pigs in Cuba to Laos, Vietnam. The story goes through the most notorious and controversial periods of the cold war but, with many of the greater plot twists and action set-pieces made famous by the Call of Duty series.


    If you came to Black Ops expecting the same engrossing developments and plot twists of Modern Warfare 2 then you won't be disappointed. The game is littered with explosions, full-auto gunfire and those imperturbable moments of slowdown, just to reel in those sweet kills. Call of Duty has always teemed in awesomeness and flair in how it depicts such Hollywood inspired action, Black Ops couldn't be more unashamedly gung-ho and macho without trying. It has style evident all the way to reloading your rifle like the Terminator while riding on a Harley – which coincidentally happens in a chase sequence little more than within an hour of play. Yes, I really do like Black Ops' single player. It has to be experienced first hand however otherwise it'll be spoilt.


    As with Modern Warfare 2 I have mixed opinions of Black Ops' online play. It is strange thinking about it because technically it is an accomplishment when compared to Infinity Ward's 2009 hit. Host transition is no longer an issue: finding a new leader on the consoles is done almost instantly on Xbox 360/PS3 and on PC it never becomes an issue with dedicated servers. The number of available game modes is as high as ever. Black Ops even offers various barebones and COD 4 influenced game modes under the guise of "classic", which cogently makes it so that the killstreaks are only limited to UAV, Airstrike and Helicopter attacks (corresponding to 3, 5 and 7 kills). And as killstreaks go, it is worth mentioning that they all saw a number of amendments. 


    The removal of the tactical nuke for example would come of some huge relief to those who had their experiences of Modern Warfare 2 let down by cheating players. Another positive change worth putting under the spotlight would be the return of two World At War killstreaks: Artlitery and Attack Dogs, both of which can tip the match in one team's favour dramatically, used tactically. Treyarch also wisely removed attachments like the thermal scope that made hiding from a sniper's scope nay impossible. I took much delight in noticing that the broken perks of Modern Warfare 2, such as commando pro, danger close and the deathstreaks – particularly painkiller, had all been removed for the refined system Treyarch designed. It makes the experience far more raw and down to player expertise, which Black Ops certainly doesn't kid around with, as it's tough beginner's weapons and level progression demonstrate.


    It would be impossible to delve into the chasm of Black Ops' multiplayer without drawing attention to the notorious COD points scheme and what exactly this entails for the experience. As fascinating of a concept it is, I believe it was a decision for the worse. Originally when you levelled up on Call of Duty it entitled you to a whole series of new perks, weapons, attachments and the ability to alter your available classes (which could be expanded as you re-start your levelling upon reaching the highest level to prestige mode). This worked as it gave you instant access to whatever you unlocked, allowing for trial and error and some thinking outside of the box as to what weapons work on what maps, under set conditions. Cod points restricts the practice.


    I also have a problem with the weapons themselves. They all feel awkward to use and in a lot of ways are as broken as they are in Modern Warfare 2. For starters, the basic weapons themselves are weak. The M16 is beyond under-powered, the Olympia is inefficient with two shot rounds followed by a looooooooooooooong reload and the MP5K fires far, far too slowly for a sub-machine gun. Most of the weapon sets are now redundant. The shotguns are useless, the pistols have been notably nerfed as a secondary and rockets still are separate from noobtubes when they shouldn't be. I can't get over how the Famas and all subsequent assault rifles have absolutely perfect range, accuracy, damage, etc, etc and how firing from the hip is now entirely useless . Truth be told though, Treyarch did fix some of the weapons in Black Ops. The noobtube is at last the final unlock for weapon attachments, and besides that, they made it impossible to no-scope with a sniper, atleast easily anyway.


    What upsets me the most about Black Ops' online multiplayer is that it fails to fix upon Modern Warfare 2's major quirks – sort of enhancing them instead. It is only the WIDELY complained, and I mean widely complained, features that have seen some sort of amendment or removal. There are dozens of design quirks I could write about such as the stupidly over-powered semtex, the ability to carry three forms of grenade in one set-up and the stupidly large hitbox of napalm. It's still a load of fun but the same could be said of Modern Warfare 2. Despite how absorbing it might be to work your way up the ladder in Blacks, how gratifying it might be to kill a randomer online or score victory in a close match of search & destroy on Black Ops, it lacks that near perfect balancing and succession found with Call of Duty 4. It's not like it's hard to understand, World at War sustained itself under the same conditions as Call of Duty 4, with it's slight quirks layed in place. The only factual benefit lies in Treyarch's high quality servers and host locating compared to the often still-born matches that can be experienced on any pre Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty.


    There finally needs to be some acknowledgement of the third portion of Black Ops' gameplay: Zombies. The incorporation of Zombies in Black Ops is, without giving it too little credit, a curiously praised segment of the Call of Duty package. If unaware of it originally, and undoubtedly many Wii gamers might be, zombies was an unlockable extra in World at War which essentially played out as survival mode akin to Gears of War 2's Horde mode. While fun – serving somewhat of a nice break to matchmaking online, the game mode of zombies was repetitive and lacking depth. This is still the case in Black Ops, but Treyarch have done their best to atleast make zombies more compelling with unique weapons, bosses and objectives set to the two levels of "Five and "Kino Der Toten". Admittedly the design, featuring witty one-liners and pop-culture references to the likes of Ghostbusters, is humourous but the mode once again has appeal as a time-waster above all else.


    There are many other secrets and easter eggs that Treyarch put in place Black Ops does terrifically in benefiting from. The game has a much bolder presentation than any Call of Duty before it, debatably being one of the best looking games on PS3 and 360, even appearing more aesthetically appealing than Modern Warfare 2. As ever, it runs on the super smooth, with near unmatchable animation, realistic blood and effects besides world physics for a shooter of it's type. Treyarch don't mess around with the gore of this COD either with dismemberment and decapitation being the enivtiable consequences of killing enemies during the game. It is a mature rated release for a reason. But as hinted at earlier, Black Ops has a vougish approach to cinematics making elegant use of slow-motion, blur and multiple camera cuts when necessary. Call of Duty could pass for an action movie if it wanted to.


    The differences between each version of Black Ops is minimal but noticeable. Obviously the PC version benefits from having the higher quality net play due to the placement of dedicated servers. It is, in theory, is easier to find matches because of it's preference of a browser rather than searching for close games and merging lobbies as it would on consoles. The PC version additionally benefits from modding tools and the ability to lean which deserve some praise. Although it is a still a poor port as it is poorly optimised to computer hardware demanding powerful processors and plentiful amounts of ram besides suffering from horrendous stutter and lag. To this day there is no fix. Between the two, Xbox 360 and PS3 barely have any major flaws that betters one over the other. That said, the PS3 Black Ops has a number of performance trip-ups, especially while the game is playing in splitscreen, that Xbox 360 owners are without. 


    By far the most intriguing version of Black Ops is on Wii. Under Treyarch, Nintendo Call of Duty has always been able to hold up solidly against the Xbox 360 and PS3. With Modern Warfare Reflex, they were able to make a near 1/1 copy of the campaign and multiplayer with impressive visual presentation values, fantastic controls and minimal lag issues online. Black Ops continues this tradition of accurately restoring COD on Wii and it even features zombies, besides headset and classic controller support. Treyarch wisely used their own Wi-Fi service aswell which makes adding friends an easier process than in any COD game prior to Black Ops. The game even allows for patches and updates on occasion to routinely regulate the servers from any malicious hacks that could otherwise hamper the experience. All in all, the experience of Call of Duty on Wii is a supremely positive one, and considering the lack of Modern Warfare 2 on the system, the void for such a gripping shooter is partrially filled for the time being. 


    Concluding this review, Black Ops does well to meld the better elements of Call of Duty's engrossing, picturesque quality campaign and provide an addictive, structured multiplayer. Not bad for a company that ten years prior would be better known for porting various other Activision games over to the Dreamcast. But Treyarch could only do so much with the Call of Duty licence and it is difficult to push the envelope when working towards such a tight annual deadline provided by such a demanding audience. In this condition it is hard to say Black Ops is a bad game. However it isn't hard to say that it could have been more. It very well could have been more on the PC and with so much going on with Black Ops' multiplayer, many might find themselves more comfortable sticking to the classic alternatives of Modern Warfare or even Treyarch's now better forgotten Call of Duty 3. The similarities between Call of Duty 3 and Blacks Ops though probably aren't that wide envisioning the way they came to be, which isn't good. Both games sort of just extended the experience had in the last Call of Duty. Then again, the scale of Black Ops to Call of Duty 3 is much wider. 


    Once again the campaign is what saves Call of Duty, which is why it is bewildering that they're always so short. Black Ops has an 6-8 hour long playthrough which can be enthusiastically be played on veteran difficulty without too much worry. The game's difficulty however is mostly balanced with the choke points propping up through the use of pesky checkpoints and on-rails sequences that heighten your vulnerability. Although even with a solid campaign, Black Ops has a mixed experience online that ultimately lets down it's high production values and quality presentation. I ironically found Black Ops to be most impressive played on Wii, despite being the least invested as Treyarch did a lot with the system's limitations. Bearing in mind the Nintendo Wii is almost entirely without mature rated games, nevermind shooters, the fact that one like Black Ops was developed with such tenacity is an uplifting experience to any Nintendo owner. I would recommend it for this machine, especially since it lacks Modern Warfare 2


    On the HD platforms though, it's an odd one to say. EA's Battlefield Bad Company 2 does the FPS genre so many more favours than Call of Duty Black Ops and has as competant of a single player experience as it does online. Taking exclusive examples, the same can be equally said for Halo Reach on Xbox 360 and Killzone 2 on PS3. These are all older titles, cheaper and still widely played – sharing the common trait of being better than Black Ops. Taking Treyarch's side, you could argue they worked bloody hard to cram as much as they had done in the year's space they had following Modern Warfare 2. Halo Reach and Killzone 2 certainly had a lot longer development time than Black Ops and thus HAD to have better online features because of this. 


    The fate of Call of Duty rests with how Activision deals with this revelation because Modern Warfare 3 needs to go places in order to battle the heightening competition and resentment for the Call of Duty series in the core gaming audiences out there. Sales might disagree but people will grow fed up with Call of Duty and the downward slope is already in motion. Atleast for the time, with Black Ops, we can emulse ourselves in an overboard singleplayer and multiplayer experience and enjoy the ride while we can.

    Other reviews for Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360)

      All must die 0

      Call of Duty: Black Ops is the seventh core Call of Duty game to be released in the past eight years, making it one of modern gaming’s most consistent franchises. And while each entry is generally solid, that ridiculously frequent release pattern is starting to dilute the overall product. Black Ops is a perfectly fine shooter, and an equally fine entry into this blockbuster series. But it also does so little that hasn’t been done to death already, making it increasingly hard to jump on t...

      7 out of 7 found this review helpful.

      Scripted bore. 0

      Everything in the solo campaign is scripted.  If you move up too fast, you can actually shoot enemies and they won't die because they aren't "valid" because their script hasn't started.  In that same theme, enemies will spawn in certain areas to supposedly make a tense event.  Sure is amazing how many guys hide behind a door even thou you can see that its clear until you walk thru.  The CoD series is no longer exciting.  You can see scripted events coming up, you can even guess what will happen ...

      10 out of 14 found this review helpful.

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