Call of Duty: Black Ops - Review
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- knightmonkey
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The first 3 games in the Call of Duty series started by covering the world wars, which were very successful in their own right despite the fact that the medal of honor series had already trodden that path, to great success. Modern Warfare’s release in 2007 was a breath of fresh air to the ‘war’ themed fps games of recent years, showing a fresh approach to story telling and weaponry, proving to be hugely successful and spawning a successful sequel two years later. Needless to say the hopes for the next game in the series, (assumed to be simply, Modern Warfare 3), were high, and many people just wanted more of the same, an exciting storyline, high production values and an unparalleled multiplayer experience.
This isn’t Modern Warfare 3.
This isn’t modern.
This is set around the Cold War era in the 1960’s but with a storyline reminiscent of a Jerry Bruckheimer flick. The game follows the character of Alex Mason, a special forces operative who after being kidnapped is subjected to an interrogation Jack Bauer would be proud of. Mason is grilled about a series of numbers that he is the key to decipher and the story is played out in the years in the run up to Mason’s interrogation, having you play through all his important missions.
Campaign...
Starting in April 1961 in Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion where a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The game starts in a Cuban bar where it all kicks off immediately with a police shoot out through the streets at night. The first noticeable thing is the graphics. The player models seem a lot more realistic than in MW2, and everything seems to have a more glossy feel. Unlike MW2, there’s no training section where you get to try out your guns or learn how to jump, this time you get given a gun and the first target in your reticule is a Cuban policeman’s head. The controls are perfectly mapped out as usual, everything is in the right place and veterans of the series will feel instantly at home here.
Where the recent Medal of Honor was like a theme park ride through all the clichés of war, Black Ops is a homage to popular culture. Storming into a room where it switches into slow-mo, enabling you to expertly pick off the soldiers taken by surprise as debris and bullets fly through the air. Very reminiscent of a John Woo movie (minus the white doves). The Vietnam sections with the Vietnam rock soundtrack, the split-screen ‘24’-esque cut scenes. One level sees you riding a motorcycle with a shotgun in your hand, and when you reload, Mason twirls the gun around a la Arnie in Terminator 2. Very cool and bought a smile to my face. Another level sees you with a giant slingshot on the roof with the aim to find the right trajectory to then fire into an enemy structure in the distance. Angry Birds anyone?
It’s full of fantastic moments, some of which I’ve mentioned, but a lot of which I won’t spoil. A harpoon and an enemy helicopter spring to mind.
The game is certainly action-packed, there’s hardly any let up once the mission gets going with constant waves of enemies to mow down, explosions, tanks and vehicle driving sections where you have to dodge debris while taking out potential attackers. When there is a quiet area, this is usually filled with well-scripted dialogue (voiced by veteran Hollywood actors such as Gary Oldman and Ed Harris), or the occasional stealth section where you must take out guards silently usually followed by the guard suffering a grizzly knife-related death of some description. I don’t really have any complaints about the campaign apart from the odd interactive cut scenes which just seemed a bit like an afterthought really, for example on one mission you get into a car and on-screen prompts tell you to press LT which makes the car reverse, and then RT to accelerate the car forwards. No steering is involved, just hold down the RT and enjoy the slow-mo gunfire and shattered windscreen. This is something I noticed quite a bit throughout the game, essentially glorified cut-scenes where you follow an on-screen prompt to move the action forward. For example, being able to steer the car through the streets as you try to escape would have increased player immersion and made it a bit more exciting.
Considering the fact that most people probably won’t even give the campaign a look in, it amazes me how breathtakingly good it actually is, and how much time, effort and production value has gone into what will essentially be, criminally overlooked.
Multiplayer...
The multiplayer is, as expected, awesome. Most of it is similar to MW2 so I’ll just concentrate on the new additions to the incredible multiplayer model that has already been established.
Wager matches see you betting your hard-earned ‘COD points’(earned alongside XP) against other players, adding something a bit different to the mix, and another incentive to win.
‘Gun Game’ sees you get a weapon upgrade after every kill, which you lose if you get stabbed.
‘One in the Chamber’ each player is given one bullet with three lives. Every stray bullet could mean you losing the match! Incredibly intense.
‘Sticks and Stones’ arms each player with an explosive-tipped crossbow, expect lots of explosions.
These new additions make the multiplayer experience fresh and exciting to keep people coming back day after day. The online experience is second to none, with the additional feature now to be able to record your previous match and play it back and also the ability to take screen shots. This is something the Halo games have done since Halo 3 but it’s a worthy addition and one I’m sure to be used during all those “Did you SEE THAT?!” moments.
Zombies...
As another addition to the package, there is Zombies, a mode which sees you trapped inside an old Nazi building and either alone (or up to three friends) you must fight off the waves of zombies smashing and clawing their way through your barricades. Once the wave has calmed down you have chance rebuild the barricade which earns you credits (as well as killing them) and in turn enable you to buy guns and open new doors to other parts of the level.
To say this addition isn’t as addictive as hell would be a lie. It’s incredible, and anyone with a familiarity of the Zombie mode in COD:World at War will know exactly what I mean. Like a Nazi ‘Left 4 Dead’ – amazing.
Overall...
I would definitely rate COD: Black Ops as a fantastic package. The single player mode alone, although not massive, (coming in at around seven or eight hours), is intense and exciting enough to leave you feeling satisfied once the credits roll, with the replay-ability that all the COD games have, encouraging you to replay it through again on Veteran mode (if you didn’t first time round) and get those extra achievement points. The multiplayer will keep people playing into the early hours of the morning like MW2 did, probably even more so with the new game modes and the multiplayer zombie mode too.
A game which is hard to fault in single player, with a multiplayer which is also hard to beat, a truly generous package, an essential purchase, and one which was well worth queuing up at midnight for.
9/10
Adam Knight
This isn’t Modern Warfare 3.
This isn’t modern.
This is set around the Cold War era in the 1960’s but with a storyline reminiscent of a Jerry Bruckheimer flick. The game follows the character of Alex Mason, a special forces operative who after being kidnapped is subjected to an interrogation Jack Bauer would be proud of. Mason is grilled about a series of numbers that he is the key to decipher and the story is played out in the years in the run up to Mason’s interrogation, having you play through all his important missions.
Campaign...
Starting in April 1961 in Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion where a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The game starts in a Cuban bar where it all kicks off immediately with a police shoot out through the streets at night. The first noticeable thing is the graphics. The player models seem a lot more realistic than in MW2, and everything seems to have a more glossy feel. Unlike MW2, there’s no training section where you get to try out your guns or learn how to jump, this time you get given a gun and the first target in your reticule is a Cuban policeman’s head. The controls are perfectly mapped out as usual, everything is in the right place and veterans of the series will feel instantly at home here.
Where the recent Medal of Honor was like a theme park ride through all the clichés of war, Black Ops is a homage to popular culture. Storming into a room where it switches into slow-mo, enabling you to expertly pick off the soldiers taken by surprise as debris and bullets fly through the air. Very reminiscent of a John Woo movie (minus the white doves). The Vietnam sections with the Vietnam rock soundtrack, the split-screen ‘24’-esque cut scenes. One level sees you riding a motorcycle with a shotgun in your hand, and when you reload, Mason twirls the gun around a la Arnie in Terminator 2. Very cool and bought a smile to my face. Another level sees you with a giant slingshot on the roof with the aim to find the right trajectory to then fire into an enemy structure in the distance. Angry Birds anyone?
It’s full of fantastic moments, some of which I’ve mentioned, but a lot of which I won’t spoil. A harpoon and an enemy helicopter spring to mind.
The game is certainly action-packed, there’s hardly any let up once the mission gets going with constant waves of enemies to mow down, explosions, tanks and vehicle driving sections where you have to dodge debris while taking out potential attackers. When there is a quiet area, this is usually filled with well-scripted dialogue (voiced by veteran Hollywood actors such as Gary Oldman and Ed Harris), or the occasional stealth section where you must take out guards silently usually followed by the guard suffering a grizzly knife-related death of some description. I don’t really have any complaints about the campaign apart from the odd interactive cut scenes which just seemed a bit like an afterthought really, for example on one mission you get into a car and on-screen prompts tell you to press LT which makes the car reverse, and then RT to accelerate the car forwards. No steering is involved, just hold down the RT and enjoy the slow-mo gunfire and shattered windscreen. This is something I noticed quite a bit throughout the game, essentially glorified cut-scenes where you follow an on-screen prompt to move the action forward. For example, being able to steer the car through the streets as you try to escape would have increased player immersion and made it a bit more exciting.
Considering the fact that most people probably won’t even give the campaign a look in, it amazes me how breathtakingly good it actually is, and how much time, effort and production value has gone into what will essentially be, criminally overlooked.
Multiplayer...
The multiplayer is, as expected, awesome. Most of it is similar to MW2 so I’ll just concentrate on the new additions to the incredible multiplayer model that has already been established.
Wager matches see you betting your hard-earned ‘COD points’(earned alongside XP) against other players, adding something a bit different to the mix, and another incentive to win.
‘Gun Game’ sees you get a weapon upgrade after every kill, which you lose if you get stabbed.
‘One in the Chamber’ each player is given one bullet with three lives. Every stray bullet could mean you losing the match! Incredibly intense.
‘Sticks and Stones’ arms each player with an explosive-tipped crossbow, expect lots of explosions.
These new additions make the multiplayer experience fresh and exciting to keep people coming back day after day. The online experience is second to none, with the additional feature now to be able to record your previous match and play it back and also the ability to take screen shots. This is something the Halo games have done since Halo 3 but it’s a worthy addition and one I’m sure to be used during all those “Did you SEE THAT?!” moments.
Zombies...
As another addition to the package, there is Zombies, a mode which sees you trapped inside an old Nazi building and either alone (or up to three friends) you must fight off the waves of zombies smashing and clawing their way through your barricades. Once the wave has calmed down you have chance rebuild the barricade which earns you credits (as well as killing them) and in turn enable you to buy guns and open new doors to other parts of the level.
To say this addition isn’t as addictive as hell would be a lie. It’s incredible, and anyone with a familiarity of the Zombie mode in COD:World at War will know exactly what I mean. Like a Nazi ‘Left 4 Dead’ – amazing.
Overall...
I would definitely rate COD: Black Ops as a fantastic package. The single player mode alone, although not massive, (coming in at around seven or eight hours), is intense and exciting enough to leave you feeling satisfied once the credits roll, with the replay-ability that all the COD games have, encouraging you to replay it through again on Veteran mode (if you didn’t first time round) and get those extra achievement points. The multiplayer will keep people playing into the early hours of the morning like MW2 did, probably even more so with the new game modes and the multiplayer zombie mode too.
A game which is hard to fault in single player, with a multiplayer which is also hard to beat, a truly generous package, an essential purchase, and one which was well worth queuing up at midnight for.
9/10
Adam Knight
