Ever since Call of Duty Modern Warfare took the world by storm back in 2007, the series has been colossally popular. 2009's Modern Warfare 2 to the series to even greater heights in terms of sales, yet they was plenty of hate around for it on the internet, more than it deserved in my opinion. Now that Black Ops has been out for 8 weeks, not only have the sales increased, but so has the amount of hate towards the game filling internet blogs.
Treyarch, the team behind Black Ops, are often referred to as the lesser developer compared to Infinity Ward. For me though Black Ops shows otherwise. While Black Ops sticks to that fast paced, intense cinematic style that IW crafted, it brings a fresh take on it, with a great deal more diversity with regards to gameplay and environments, plus an actual meaningful story, one that you'll have to play right through to the end of to fully understand.
You begin the campaign, and play much of it, as Alex Mason. The story is told in a sort of flashback scenario with Mason securely held in an interrogation room being questioned by someone who refuses to reveal their identity. It’s quite confronting to a degree, when you can't remember information you are subjected to electric shocks, which visibly and audibly cause Mason some pretty serious pain. They haven't gone too far with this though, and after the first few missions the torture pretty much stops, so it isn't too in-your-face.
Throughout the campaign you are taken to some pretty cool locations. I don't want to spoil any of them by mentioning them specifically but you can be assured that they each call for a slightly different tactical approach. And before you say what tactics, this is Call of Duty, try playing through Black Ops on veteran with a run a gun attitude and you won't pass a single checkpoint. Whilst Modern Warfare 2 was really quite easy even on veteran, Black Ops is bloody difficult. I must admit there would have been a dozen locations where I spent more than 10 attempts to get through. A lot of this is down to how truly unfair the game is. You are almost always outnumbered 5, 10, maybe even 20 to 1, plus the AI is quite sloppy.
The AI certainly is the most annoying thing about Black Ops. At a handful of locations throughout the game all I needed my friendlies to do was take out one or two contacts. But could they? No! They just sit there ducking in and out of cover, shooting aimlessly near the opponent, but never well enough that it could be considered even harassing or covering fire. At one point, I think it was in Vietnam after escaping a sinking vehicle; I'd fought of some attackers and gotten to shore. Once there, one of my friendlies who was further along the shore shooting some opponents turned around and fired three clips into the rock behind me. There was no one there. On top of all this, the enemy AI do tend to focus their fire on you, although not as bad as some games (looking at Killzone 2 here).
As you can tell Black Ops certainly isn't flawless. Apart from the AI, I encountered a major bug right towards the end of the game which required me to restart the entire level. A warning, spoilers are contained in the rest of this paragraph. The bug occurred in the level where you are assaulting the Numbers Broadcasting station. After fighting of all of the targets in the helicopter, and then shooting all the guys inside the ship, you then go down into the actual station. You have to dive down to it, and then from underneath the station via some sort of pool. However, I couldn't get into it, invisible walls had constructed themselves around the thing stopping me from getting in, forcing me to restart.
Regardless of these issues, I had a really good time with the campaign. I don't know how long it took me but I'd say its around twice as long as MW2, and it manages to keep up the intensity for most of it, and also manages to match if not outdo MW2 in terms of awesome weaponry, stunning locations and insane fire fights. On top of that it includes a solid story, engaging characters and what I believe is the series' most entertaining campaign to date.
Obviously though, it's the multiplayer that most people are interested in when it comes to CoD. Black Ops is both essentially the same as MW2, yet quite different at the same time. Most of the modes from the previous game are back, as are most of the killstreaks.
What makes it different is that for the most part, everything is balanced really well. While the attack dogs and chopper gun can cause absolute carnage, if you're good enough with a gun to shoot a fast moving dog or smart enough to have an anti-air kit on stand-by, then they shouldn't cause any issues. The perks are also much fairer now. Essentially this means Commando is gone, enough said really. Weapons wise the Famas is widely used online and is considered an all conquering gun. Myself though I go with the AK74sU, which has been sufficient to get me to a 1.7 K/D and a 1.3 Win/Loss playing mostly FFA.
The major change to MP is certainly the CoD points system. You get CoD points by racking up kills, winning games, completing challenges and completing contracts (contracts require you to complete certain tasks in a set amount of time, and must be purchased for CoD points, but give a bigger reward if successfully completed) and taking objectives. These points can then be used to buy guns, attachments, outfits, camouflage, custom classes, and layers/decals for your player card. You still have to unlock these things by attaining a certain level, but the system adds a layer of micromanagement to the game.
The player card is a pretty awesome feature. You can purchase up to 11 layers, onto each of which you can place any of the hundreds of preset pictures available. You use these to make a sort of logo for yourself. You can make quite detailed logo's if you have the creativity to do so, as you are given the ability to change the size, colour, rotation, show outline only or filled, position and layer.
The most major addition though is Wager Matches. There are four wager modes each with up to six players, One in the Chamber, Gun Game, Sticks and Stones and Sharpshooter. In the first you get three lives, and spawn with only a single bullet in your pistol plus a knife. Shooting an enemy gives you back your bullet, while knifing an enemy scores you an extra bullet. In Gun Game everyone spawns with a pistol and must get a kill with each weapon in order to progress to the next weapon. Being knifed or suiciding sets you back one gun.
In Sticks and Stones you get a crossbow, a ballistic knife, a knife and a tomahawk. The first two get you the most points, while killing someone with the tomahawk resets their score to 0. It's incredibly frustrating when in dying seconds of a game you watch yourself taken out of the standings by a well placed tomahawk, especially when like me, you've kicked arse for the entire game. Sharpshooter is a basic weapon rotation based mode, where everyone gets the same gun, which changes every 45 seconds or so. Getting kills earns you perks, and getting killstreaks will net you a points multiplier.
I've spent probably most of my time in Black Ops with wager modes. Initially I stuck to One in the Chamber, but upon finding out how fun the others (with the exception of sharpshooter) are, I've diversified a bit.
On top of all this, there are still more additions to come! Black Ops automatically records every game you play, keeping up to 100 of these at any one time. You can place your best clips on a sort of wall for all to see. People can watch these and then rate your performance. There are plenty of viewing options; you can watch the action from any player’s perspective or even free camera view. Find something you like and you can take a screenshot. This is a really awesome addition, as those who brag about how good they can now keep the evidence to back it up.
The other changes to the multiplayer are that the level cap has been decreased to 50, and that kit equipment now has its own slot. This means you can have each of a special grenade, a lethal grenade and either a claymore, motion sensor camper camera etc. While claymores are pretty much a cheap kill, or for campers a way of protecting they're arses, the others are less deadly but still very helpful. There are also new killstreaks like the RC-XD, a remote control car with an explosive package strapped to it.
Overall, Treyarch have put a lot of effort into Black Ops, and while the experience may be marred by some substantial bugs, both the campaign are really enjoyable, and there is enough there to keep most coming back for many tens of hours at least. For those into it, there is also the Zombies mode, and although this really isn't for me, my friends clock up many hours here as well.
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."
Issues with hit detection, general lag and terrible host mirgration make this a poor installment.
It's like playing CoD4 again when the host leaves. 90% it's the end of the match. I agree the the actual content/game is a step up from MW2, but the network issues make it unplayable for me.
Edit
I should point out I have the PS3 version and Veteran difficulty is no where near as bad as MW or WoW.
This reads like you just copy and pasted bits from other reviews.
and this game is not .2 imaginary points better than BFBC2, no matter how imaginary the points are.
u.........rated..........this. ........higher...... than bad company 2???!?!?!!
0.o
" Whilst Modern Warfare 2 was really quite easy even on veteran" I have to disagree with you. MW2 was pretty difficult in the Veteran difficulty. I don't see Blops being more difficult than MW2 was.