Call of Duty: Black Ops review

Formats: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS
Format Reviewed: PS3
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Made2Game Call of Duty: Black Ops review score: 8 out of 10

It's crunch time for Activision, after all of the recent internal changes, can Call of Duty Black Ops possibly compare to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. Yes it has had huge pre-orders and record sales but that does not necessarily mean it’s a great game.

Single player starts off with your character strapped to a chair with a mysterious voice demanding to know what some numbers mean; as they flash on the TV screen surrounding you  receive electric shocks, causing you to fade in and out of consciousness as they demand answers. Your character starts to sing like a bird, though he has no idea what the numbers mean, he starts to describe events from his past that are all linked to these numbers.

You are then taken on a travel through time via some flashbacks to hotspots all over the world with events linked to Cold War. Starting in hostile territory in Cuba and the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro, you then find yourself as part of a prison break, huge battles in Vietnam and the Arctic Circle and roof jumping in Hong Kong. The action is fast, almost too fast, imagine every Hollywood blockbuster film crammed into a 5 minute level. Shaky cameras’, debris flying everywhere, bullets whizzing past your head, helicopters exploding, jeeps chasing, tanks pinning you down, mini guns and this is just the first 30 minutes of play. It pours it on and does not let up, which to me is a problem, you feel totally disconnected from the characters, in the previous games the pain of war and the consequences where shown to you, be it in fallen comrades or the short quotes of war that sprung up, here it’s more like an 80’s Schwarzenegger flick on speed.

You do feel that you are being helped along a bit too much and it's very linear as your surrounding team-mates are all able to dispose of enemies, leaving you only occasionally having to pull the trigger if you run into the wrong person, and to push the game along by running to the next checkpoint. Vehicles play a large part here, but mainly as an on rails shooter with you steering just to avoid trees and such, with you being able to (at set points) ride motorbikes, a helicopter and use truck mounted machine guns.

 In the end the campaign is a play it once, rinse for the achievements and then forget all about it type of experience (other than maybe the level once the game has finished), but that’s not really what COD has been about in the past, is it? Thankfully the multiplayer is what this game is about, with Black Ops improving on the favourite Modern Warfare 2.

First off you have the Combat Training, where you can play against bots or other players in a stress free environment, giving you the chance to get up to speed with the new changes, or if new to the series, just find out what’s going on. A major change over last year is the inclusion of cash. As you play online you earn COD Points and with these you can purchase new weapons and attachments. You still need to rank up and unlock the ability to purchase these items, but it does offer more variety and you will notice plenty more customised players running around the war zone. To earn even more cash you can take out contracts before games, these offer a large cash boost for a required action, be it so many wins, 10 headshots or so many kills with a sniper rifle, it really offers another level into the game, rather than just killing everything as quickly as possible.

Over the 14 maps included. which range from jungle villages to rocket sites, you have a huge variety of modes to play. They unlock as you rank up and offer a pretty good selection, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are your basics. You also have Demolition and Search and Destroy which have teams trying to stop the others from blowing up a point on the map, and Domination, a current favourite which has 3 areas to capture and then defend from the other team.

The newest game modes are the Wager matches; here you can put forward your hard earned cash in certain game modes. There are a few different match types included here, such as One in the Chamber, which has each player running around with one bullet in the chamber and a knife, kill someone to have another bullet, die three times and you’re out. Sharpshooter swaps weapons every 45 seconds; Sticks and Stones goes all American Indian and sets you up with a crossbow, knife and tomahawk, and finally the Gun Game starts you off with a pistol and with every kill you earn a better gun. All these modes are a lot more tense as there is usually a lot of cash riding on the outcome and with only the top three taking home the winnings, there are going to be a lot of upset people out there.

The Zombie mode makes a return, starting you of in the lobby of a derelict house. During the match zombies will start to break down barricaded doors and swarm into the room. Disposing of these and reviving any fallen comrades will progress you through the house, it’s not just zombies though as to mix it up you also have hell hounds that will rip through your team if not organised enough. As you progress through the game more and more areas of the house open up, giving you more weapons to purchase and also more power-ups which the whole team will share when collected.

There are also a couple of Easter Eggs hidden away to find, first off the is text adventure Zork and as an extra little treat  is the Dead Ops Arcade game that can be found during the main menu. This is a top down shooter that plays like classic arcade games like Smash TV, with the left stick controlling the character and the right your aim, you need to fend off a constant swarm of zombies and monsters across numerous rooms, collecting cash and better weapons along the way.

Call of Duty Black Ops both improves and fails over last year’s Modern Warfare 2. The story is just a bit too bland and run of the mill, we've seen it all before, albeit it looks even more glorious. The online modes though show this to invest in the game, with numerous improvements and new modes to keep you hooked until next year’s inevitable release.

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