Splitting Hairs
By sweep 40 Comments
With a title as large and socially obtrusive as the latest iteration of Call Of Duty, it places the humble bloggers amongst us in an awkward position. Finding something relevant to say in the cluster-fuck of Black Ops related banter is an unpleasant task that must nevertheless be undertaken. Because, whether you like it or not, Black Ops is relevant.
FUCK.
So. Black Ops, huh?
That happened.
More importantly, it happened to Treyarch. Which, despite their best efforts, is not the same as if it happened to say... oh, I don't know... Infinity Ward?
And it shows.
There are chunks (whole chunks!) of Black Ops which seem to be rehashed battles from the second world conflict, a theatre in which Treyarch seems to perform much more comfortably. There are several levels in which this disguise is even enjoyable, the escape from the Russian prison at the beginning of the game for example, though the juxtaposition is tremendously prominent during some of the more modern escapades. The Vietnam levels work well, also, due to the sheer mass of explosions, napalm, and untrained Vietcong soldiers flooding into the battleground. But the fact is, Treyarch lacks the finesse that Infinity Ward demonstrated so naturally - and the tighter levels suffer for it. It came as little surprise to me when, halfway through the game, the narrative is surrendered to a series of WW2 missions, as though Treyarch simply threw their hands up in despair and returned to the safety-net they established with Call Of Duty 3.
The multiplayer... is acceptable. If I were being a cunt (I am) I would complain that the levels seem hastily thrown together as oppose to being carefully constructed. Modern Warfare 2, similar to Halo 3 and Team Fortress 2, always had a sense that the levels had been cultivated with purpose. We place these buildings here to create a bottleneck that forces players to rush this way and gain the high ground over here. The levels in Black Ops seem fairly unremarkable, with too many empty nuclear facilities and factories that have been littered with objects almost out of embarrassment, as oppose to with a specific intention of channelling the players and controlling the flow of the battle.
And while I'm being a cunt (yep) I may as well openly object to the weapons. I am yet to find a satisfactory combination of weight and power in any of the guns. I'm only rank 18 so I will no doubt find something sooner or later but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Right.
That's all I have to say about that.In other news, I finally got my Whiskey Media shirt. It looks, as one would expect, sexual. Observe:
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep