I just saw the great film “The Godfather” again. It’s one of Hollywood’s biggest films ever. Hollywood films directly inspire Activision’s latest installment of its immensely popular first person shooter Call of Duty. The Call Of Duty series is like a giant striding through the video game landscape. It towers over almost anything in the video games industry. It can be said that one foot of this gaming giant is the game developer Infinity Ward. The other foot is the game developer Treyarch. Each game studio takes turns making Call of Duty games. Now its Treyarch’s turn at the series with Call Of Duty: Black Ops.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops takes place during “the Cold War” era. Those were truly turbulent times with the opposing forces of Democracy and Communism facing off symbolically and physically all over the world. The campaign is sprawled across Cuba, the USSR, Vietnam and other areas. The story is told through a secret operative Alex Mason’s flashbacks as he is being tortured and interrogated. From the torture chair you slowly fade into each of the 14 missions. It all begins with the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba. In each level you basically battle your way to through countless enemies with allies that you follow towards marked check points. Much like the previous Call of Duty games. The levels are similar to a Hollywood blockbuster action sequences. There is nonstop and then more nonstop action after that. In one level you and your squad are dashing through swarming enemies on a runway towards your escape aircraft. The story is brutal. The main menu screen is actually the view from the torture chair. Guns and knives are used aplenty. There is a part early on that is taken directly from “The Godfather‘s” disturbing bar scene. Overall the campaign is not very long but is full of the spectacular visuals and crackling sound and smooth gameplay that the franchise is known for. This is a very entertaining campaign and one of the best in the Call Of Duty franchise.
The other half of what Call Of Duty: Black Ops features is the multiplayer. Here you can choose from Zombie Mode or Online Multiplayer Mode. In Zombie mode you and others face wave after wave of zombies. This is a lot of fun and its nice to see it returning from its appearance in Treyarch’s Call Of Duty: World At War. The Online Multiplayer has always been Call Of Duty’s strongest feature. And this continues with Call Of Duty: Black Ops. You play online against others with an assortment of weapons and perks (power-ups that give you various abilities) through well designed and beautiful looking maps. There are a wide assortment of weapons ranging from the Enfield Rifle to the AK-47. An explosive radio controlled car even makes an appearance as a killstreak. It is a very balanced multiplayer I’m happy to say. Each of the guns have some recoil so opponents are tough to bring down from afar. All of your equipment except the arsenal you start with are bought with an innovative element called Call Of Duty points. Though oddly you have to reach certain levels to unlock items to be then purchased. COD Points are acquired by playing in online matches. You can earn COD points by also taking out contracts for certain tasks like bringing down five enemies without dying. Contracts shuffle so they vary over time to keep things fresh. Another way to earn points is by competing in wager matches against other players. If you do well in these matches you win more points. If you don’t do well then you lose all of your points wagered. These matches are fun and exciting but I don’t think the gambling aspect is a good idea. Overall, Call Of Duty points is a great new feature for the series. There is a flaw to the point system though. Weapons and perks all require relatively few points and after a while of playing you can purchase everything and have plenty of points left over and no new items to purchase. It would have made more sense to make the equipment more expensive and harder to acquire I think. Call Of Duty: Black Ops also focuses heavily on player customization. You are given the ability to customize your guns and player card with a large set of emblems. You can also choose from a selection of reticle and reticle colors for your guns. Tweaking so many things towards your liking is a lot of fun. A new mode available to multiplayer is Combat Training. It allows you to play multiplayer against computer controlled bots. Combat Training is a great way to learn how to play before diving into the horribly unforgiving and cruel(very, very cruel) world of online multiplayer. Finally there is the truly wonderful Theater Mode. Each match of yours is saved in Theater Mode so you can view it afterwards. This allows players to see their gaming masterpieces or learn from their painful errors again and again. You can even view the matches of other Call Of Duty: Black Ops players from across the whole community as well. Players can save several matches to be viewable by the entire Call Of Duty: Black Ops community. You can even upload a 30 second clip of your match to Youtube. Theater Mode is a great new addition to Call Of Duty.
The Call Of Duty franchise has always been known for its high level of graphics, sound and gameplay. Treyarch's game reaches those high standards. And despite few changes to the Call Of Duty formula Call Of Duty: Black Ops has an exciting Campaign and sparkling Online Multiplayer and Zombie Mode and it has added some great new bells and whistles to the series as well in the form of Combat Training and Theater Mode. Treyarch’s exceptional Call Of Duty: Black Ops definitely makes you an offer you can't refuse!
The video on Black Ops 1 shows some separate rooms, assets, and other features which exist outside of the boundary of the game.
Jacob writes: "What do we have with the original Call of Duty: Black Ops? Quite simply, one of the best Call of Duty titles of all time."
Andrew says: "The intrinsic values of COD are the following: memorable campaigns, meticulous multiplayer marathons, and lobbies populated by screaming 12-year-old kids that think puberty is the evolved form of Jigglypuff."
Great Review
Good review, but I dont think the game is any better than Modern Warfare 2 in terms of gameplay. Seems like Mw2 remodeled with new campaign and new maps/weapons.