Edge | Call Of Duty: Black Ops Review

Playing a new Call Of Duty can feel a little like Groundhog Day. Activision banks on it. The increasingly familiar hype campaign is launched, record pre-orders follow, and this year’s update waltzes to the top of the Christmas charts. But Black Ops has an extra importance as the first Treyarch game since the Infinity Ward unpleasantness, and the narrative arc fed to the press is simple: this is going to be the B-team stepping up and knocking it for six. Like all action blockbusters, Black Ops should be a feel-good story.

[Yi-Long]

...the CoD fanboys are going to be upset.... :D

Personally though, I don't really like on-rails shooters, so a 7 would probably be pretty much what I would grade it.

It's just Activision doing what they do best: they keep rehashing and milking their old ideas in their new games, and the fans love it and lap it up. Sadly.

[Rush]

Personally I would give every COD after 2 and 4 a 7 or lower there just the same game with broken arcade multiplayer.

I personally really liked COD2 back on the PC when it wasn't played by a mass of 12 year old it really was a great game.

I can respect COD4 for really opening up the FPS to the mass market like Halo had done before it. although personally I didn't like the game but I think am alone mostly on that one.

But then after that it's just been the same rehashed game from COD4 Activison haven't done anything of note since then and yet idiots keep buying it for insane prices.

I will take CounterStrike:Source over any COD game expect possibly 2.

Edit, for typo

[CrippleH]

I wouldn't compare Counter Strike to Call of Duty 4 and others. It's an insult.

Counter Strike actually take a ton of skill while anybody can get kills in COD4.

[Droid Control]

have failed to live up to the shear awesomeness that was Modern Warfare. The franchise feels milked out to me. Its why i've chosen not to buy Black Ops.

[Perjoss]

playing too much FPS will make you bored of them, after all, they are just point and click unless you play a shooter with a twist to the gameplay like Bioshock.

Military shooters almost always follow the same formula:

- kill 10 enemies before moving on
- plant the explosives and get out of range
- get on the mounted weapon on the vehichle

repeat 10 times and 4 or 5 hours later, game done.

[Gamer_Z]

This game is no longer special like COD4 was. BO is built for the masses of sheep that think they are good at COD when they actually suck balls. My 8 year old little brother loves this game, he gets 15 to 20 kills a game! but only gets 1 to 2 kills a game on COD4.

[KotC]

A 7 from Edge is like a 9.

[big_silky]

no, a 7 is a 7 no matter who it's from. some reviewers simply aren't dopes who are swayed by popularity or fear a "fanboy backlash".

i don't always agree with edge but they're leagues better than sites like ign that hand out 9s and 10s so often that they're meaningless. anybody who gives cod damn near 10s after 4 years of carbon copy games is effin high.

[111222333]

"hand out 9s and 10s so often that they're meaningless"

So a game should automatically be given a lower score depending on how many other games have been ranked highly recently.

Good logic there. It would seem you're one of those that don't actually read reviews, but just look at the score.

P.S I'm not talking about IGN, but reviews in general, and I agree with the first paragraph.

[QuantumSponge]

Trying to apply an objective scale to a subjective subject matter is fallacious. Just read the damn review text.

[KotC]

I guess what I should have said was "A 7 from Edge is like a 9 everywhere else because EDGE seems to score lower than most popular reviewers." I assumed some people would figure out thats what I meant in short text. Sorry, Twitter and Cell habits..

[Droid Control]

I'm sick of all this sh!t.

A 7 is a 7, a 9 is a 9.

I'm not saying EDGE are better reviewers than others, i'm simply saying that when looking at review scores, take them for what they are, not for what you want them to be.

[Lazy_Gamer]

Well, they say that even the most loyal dogs get upset if you keep feeding the same beef with a different skin. Get it?

[ambientFLIER]

Dogs are happy as long as you feed them, period.

[IronmanRR]

MW2 got an 9 and BlackOps gets a 7??? Should be the other way around, but given BlackOps a 8.

[chazjamie]

too be honest, i did not really enjoy blacks ops as much as mw2 (i should be saying i am not enjoying it as much, since i am messing around with the online).

I dont know. It felt like a mw2 expansion pack. The biggest mistake was changing the spilt screen: removing profiles, no level ups etc. That was already a dissapointment. Zombies WAS fun. the single player campaign, i do not know why the even bother with that anymore. I never thought i would be bored with explosions and guts, but this was too familiar, and it ended it being a tale that should of remained silent.

[OpiZA]

Tend to agree with this score, Single player was so well done, but the only memorable moments were when they took control out of your hands. When it's time for your input then its just aim/shoot/repeat. Felt like they were holding your hand through the whole experience and after a while the increible polish and set pieces became predictable and forgettable.

That said, dont' regret my purchase one bit, getting in to MP and can see this game will have longevity.

[Trunkz]

CoD series has become the Smackdown vs Raw of FPS. The series shouldn't be getting any more then 8.5 seeing as Black Ops and CoD4 there still isn't a huge leap in difference besides the unlocking system and customization. Activision will milk this before the move onto 2142 future stuff, then milk that.

[NickX]

Funny how a lot of people here hating on Black Ops have said they didn't buy it, so how the **** do they know if it's good or not.

They don't, they're just talking out their as as usual. Play the game first dick heads

[Kos-Mos]

You`re really stupid if can`t tell this game is a 6-7/10 before it`s released. Check who`s making the game and there you have it.
But I guess you got horny from the name cod and expected it to be a 10/10 like people you`re complaining about the other way.

[T9X69]

One thing that still gets me is comments like this

"As polished and pretty and fun as Black Ops often is, it feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer."

This isn't the first review to say this either. So what gets me is this comment pretty much sums up every sports game known to man, yet games like Madden for the past 5 years score 8-9 across the bored. So is it okay for a sports game to be the same experience every year with a few new tweaks, but when COD does it, it gets slashed on reviews?

[DigitalAnalog]

Madden (or any other sports game) cannot go beyond their realm of aesthetics. Let's take football/soccer for instance: Sure, it's pretty much the same game over and over again (going back as early as the PSX or even the SNES games). They only "technical" improvement they can give is a graphical upgrade, animations, AI and a new roster. But going for the "innovative" approach to the subject are proving too risky; like introducing a new control scheme or a different gameplay mechanic on the game. You don't want to go too "far" off with your game design.

Games like COD has these boundaries or limitations off. They have story, gameplay, graphics, etc etc. If the transition from COD2 to COD4: MW (IW developed) is what you call innovative approach to FPS - then you can pretty much use that as a measuring stick for future sequels. It's really not a fair game if you give COD the pass simply because it has a "winning" formula for gameplay. Remember R&C: CiT, that game got shot down for being TOO familiar with it's past re-iterations, and this is a game that gets released 2 years after it's first game, why should you justify COD getting the free-pass doing this yearly?

-End statement

[venom06]

Sports games are based are actually REAL-LIFE situations. This is why those games tend to be the same for the most part...Because the NFL, NBA, etc is the same every year... CoD IS MAKE BELIEVE, FICTION... the Devs need to come up with some NEW FICTIONAL crap... this $60 for the SAME garbage is getting old REAL quick..... I LOVE SEEING nerdboys/fanboys get upset when people speak the truth about this crapasss game...

[GeoramA]

Yet they give Halo: Reach a 9.

[hellraiserpop]

Reach did many new things for a Halo game. Stop being so butthurt.

[riksweeney]

Pros : It's a great FPS
Cons : It's available for the PS3

Bottom Line : If it was a 360 exclusive we'd have given it a 10, but since it's available for the PS3 we've subtracted 3 points.

7 / 10

[BabyTownFrolics]

turned this comment section into a support group. I like to imagine you all in bathrobes and slippys, sitting in a circle within the walls of a sterile white room, smoking cigs and drinking coffee, poining out to a shrink where on the dolly COD touched you.

get over yoursleves, it not our fault you dont enjoy COD, and since millions of other people are enjoying the game its not the devs fault either.

[AEtherbane]

is way better than MWF2. The reviews for Black Ops are what the reviews for MWF2 should have been, reviewers are just rating this game lower because they were all embarrassed to have rated MWF2 so high even with all the horrible flaws and glitches riddled throughout the game.

[Eliteskindog]

I personaly feel that the issues with MW2 were huge, this is why I stopped playing. I really wish you guys would have payed attention to making this Black OOPS! a little more on the realistic side. Please do away with the Lame KILL CAM. If you get shot, unless you are looking at them you shouldn't know where the Hell the Shot came from. I truley feel like Black OOPS! has been turned into another Halo Run and Gun game. That is truely a shame. Cause it could be so much more. Also you guys could have done a little better with Skill Matching in MUltipalyer Mode. I makes it very frustrating for new players to get comfortable playing, when everytime they turn around some Higher level A-hole has knifed them again.