Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops
by Activision Publishing

Call of Duty: Black Ops
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Product Summary

Brand: Activision
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-11
Release Date: 2010-11-09
Platform: PlayStation 3
Model: 84004
Publisher: Activision Publishing
Product features:
  • Wide array of play modes including single player, local multiplayer versus and online co-op and multiplayer
  • Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era
  • Diverse variety of play setting ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat
  • Blending of traditional COD and new first-person character scenarios designed to both retain the essence of the COD gaming experience and ensure constantly flowing and varied action
  • New arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era, including the SR-71 Blackbird and sited explosive-tipped crossbows
Accessories:

Video Game Reviews of Call of Duty: Black Ops

Customer Review: Despite being broken in some areas, Black Ops still delivers plenty of bang for the buck.
Summary: 4 Stars

COD Black Ops Review:

After witnessing some major hype for Call of Duty (COD) Black Ops (BO), I felt like the game couldn't possibly deliver on what it was built up to be. I played and enjoyed COD Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) for months. Not simply just multiplayer (MP) like what seems to be the focus for these games, but also for the Spec Ops and yes, the single player (SP) campaign. I consider myself a gamer somewhere between the realm of casual, and hardcore (casu-core?). To me, this means I like to enjoy games for their SP campaigns first before I go online to play with others. Even though my main interest in gaming lies in being told a great story, COD Black Ops did not disappoint in this and most other areas.

Gameplay: 9 / 10

The gameplay in Black Ops is simply a revision of what's been tried and true from other versions of COD. COD has become an obvious annual release date, for which some find to be a bad thing. However, the gameplay doesn't falter. The controls feel very tight and responsive, you're given a whole slew of options in terms of button configurations and difficulty levels. I find that the gunplay, the firefights, and the assistance from bot team members all help me to feel immersed in the games. As for the SP campaign, I always play through the first time on the default difficulty setting, but then go back and crank it up to super hard (Veteran for COD). I found that the Black Ops' difficulty ramps up rather nicely. The Normal SP campaign is very approachable even if you've been away from first person shooters (FPS) for a while, while the Veteran campaign is noticeably more difficult. On Veteran, be expecting some excellent tactics for the most part on behalf of your enemies. They flank, they flush you out with grenades, they corner you, they'll take side passage ways (when they exist) and if they get a bead on you, you're a 1-2 shot kill for the most part. They don't miss much...which sometimes can feel a bit cheap and lead to a set of "die-restarts-die-restart" moments.

My gripes about COD Black Ops are probably shared by many: there obvious points where the action stopped because I hadn't passed an invisible line. I can see needing a break on Casual or Normal difficulty, but it seems that on the harder difficulties it would be in order for your team to eventually press forward even when you're not ready. This would make it harder, but more realistic. The enemies in this don't follow you very far, so if you're not ready to approach you can just back up into the empty wasteland of dead bodies you've left behind. The enemies still waiting will...wait. Additionally previous games by Treyarch (COD World at War specifically) had the issue of infinite spawning enemies until you crossed a line. Black Ops deals with this for most levels but there are some where I can swear it still exists... In a nutshell the enemy spawning is a bit rocky. The SP campaign is for the most part 99% linear, with minor variations of hallways that lead to the same place. It would be nice to have a bit of exploring to do, though I have to say the cut scenes between playable sections are top notch action and have many "oh snap!" moments. Lastly, the lack of a online and/or split screen co-op campaign mode is a bummer, though I can't really see how it would work well given the storyline.

As for the MP side of things, the customization is a huge improvement. You are no longer (compared to MW2) required to unlock perks, weapons etc. in order, instead you're allowed to pick the one you like and buy it with earned COD points. You earn more points with kills, and also level up your profile. There are still unlockables which really turned out to be a nice variety of game mechanics. The perks are for the most part the same (with the exception of 1 or 2) which was rather disappointing. In reality I anticipated there to be some noticeable differences in the MP options. The guns, the attachments and perks were for the most part the same. I really felt like had this been a MP-only game it would have been an extension of MW2 with a 1960's twist.

The differences I can think of off the top of my head was a reflex sighting (my personal favorite), the under-barrel flamethrower, the nova gas grenade, one that emulates someone firing on your opponents' map. On the other hand, the killstreak rewards were about half different. I like the addition of napalm and the fact that since a 5 killstreak is about my normal max it's a nice one at an achievable level. The tactical nuke (from MW2) is gone, which never seemed very tactical in the first place, and I being a "casu-core" gamer never had a chance at the 20+ killstreak to get it, so no loss to me.

The MP is still filled with young teens with racist and/or dirty vocabulary, but that's sort of the norm on the internet it seems. I would love for COD Black Ops to have included some method of an age check or filter that would allow those of us who wish to play competitively with people who are actually respectful to have a venue to do so. But such is life. Additionally, the player level matching seems to be non-existent where I'll be on a team of 3 or 4 newbies up against a team of 5-6 generals. A graduated level system would have been a great inclusion, one that would let those who are level 10 and under play against others in their same range, and on to level 11-20 etc.. to give those getting started a chance instead of being fragged 47 times before getting to move around. Just a thought.

I actually greatly missed the inclusion of Spec Ops missions from this game. However, my wife and I both enjoyed the Zombies mode for a short while. The difficulty on it makes it unapproachable for us as a team beyond the 5th or 6th round. I enjoyed playing with random folks online and the action is quite intense. To me, however, the lasting appeal isn't there. I can only play through the same 4-5 rounds with access to the same 4 guns so many times before it's onto something else. Perhaps a gun randomizer (not the mystery box) for which guns are the starter weapons, or even a difficulty setting adjustment would have been nice. Still, Zombies mode was fun for a short while, but I found Spec Ops to hold my attention better.

Finally, there are a few minigames hidden as Easter eggs, one of which is very well executed "Smash TV"-style game with a top down view in the essence of Black Ops and Zombies mode called "Dead Ops Arcade. It's a welcome yet totally unexpected addition; and worth having a go for sure.

Graphics: 10 / 10

I have heard people continuously gripe about how bad the graphics are; I on the other hand believe these complaints are completely unfounded. The graphics have a grit to them, but look extremely good. The gun models (and animations) are fantastic, the character models and facial expressions are also very realistic. The lip-syncing is also excellent...which means it was never noticeably off. I found the environments that you walk through in both SP and MP to be highly detailed with great high-res textures and models. In fact I found myself thinking had I designed it I probably wouldn't have thought to put "X" there, but it looks realistic, lived-in and used. All of this adds to the immersion which is the main goal of gaming in my books. As previously mentioned, the cut scenes between playable sections are very high action and quite entertaining. But fitting to this section, their graphics are crystal clear and highly detailed.

Sound: 10 / 10

While I'm not a huge Stones fan, I did think it fit the SP campaign well and was used sparingly enough to make it feel fresh to the game. The little heavy metal sections were welcome and indicated "this is going to be intense"...which never seemed to fail to deliver. The weapon sounds make the weapons feel incredibly real and certainly powerful. The sounds for each weapon are noticeably different and gave me the impression that the sound designers had their work cut out for them. The SP's voice acting is delivered very well by the recognizable voices of Ed Harris (Hudson) and Sam Worthington (Mason), and Ice Cube (Bowman), Gary Oldman (Reznov). I found the cast fit very well and gave this game a very high-production value feel to it. The writers developed a dialog that never felt clunky or out of place as well. Finally the sound effects of the vehicles, explosions, ricochets, and even voices being muffled through water sounded dead on. Overall the sound is incredible and really deserves to be played where the surround sound is able to work its magic.

Presentation: 7 / 10

Black Ops packs some major presentation value as is the norm with COD games. The action is like being in an over the top 1980's movie, where you're somehow able to single-handedly clean out entire squads of highly trained soldiers. But the way it's presented lets the realistic part of me agree to just enjoy. There has to be at least 20 explosions in nearly every chapter and yet it still gains intensity up to the end. The graphics and sound work come together to assist the story into believable that has been crafted to be woven into the history during the cold war. While intentionally confusing at times, I found the story to be quite entertaining and well structured.

Black Ops takes place in a number of vastly different and unique locales. I particularly enjoyed the snowy levels in MW2 and was not disappointed in the similar levels in Black Ops. The voice acting of even the unnamed soldiers is excellent to the point of making you believe the team is highly trained and legit.

While the presentation for the most part was phenomenal, I couldn't help but notice some really bad errors, bugs or just sloppy work in some of the closing moments of various chapters in Black Ops. Unfortunately, these sort of trumped the rest for me, as I couldn't believe how unfinished or rushed some parts felt. During both of my play-throughs of the SP campaign, I felt that the concluding moments of the entire game, along with those of a few other chapters were all too abrupt. While trying not to spoil anything, I remember noticing that after having endured some of the most incredibly hectic and intense firefighting during S.O.G (chapter 4), the end of the chapter is just "BAM!" Good guys land, bad guys are nowhere to be found and everything's alright. It went so far as to go from a treacherous battlefield full of enemies to a deserted wasteland in a matter of seconds. While it feels small in writing, what it takes from the experience is not to be understated. For all the work that goes into making a gamer feel immersed in the action and letting it all of sudden wrap up in 5 seconds is just absurd and dumb. In my opinion, all the rest of the game's polish was cheapened due to these inconsistent parts.

Another gripe was when Hudson or one of the other NPCs would get stuck in a corner continuously running. After trying to wedge myself between them and the corner to no avail, it had to kill myself to restart at the last check point. Lame.

While not exactly a presentation issue, in MP the servers were less than cooperative. I got booted from nearly as many games as I actually got to finish. My connection was not the issue and I believe it may have been patched within the past few days. But still, for a game that is 5% SP and 95% MP, the MP should be absolutely shining flawless.

Final Thoughts: 9 / 10

Black Ops delivers in many ways. The changes to MP were either no change to something good, or more customization and options to make it better. I think there's still room for improvement in the area of match making, but I'm only one. As far as the SP campaign, the story was very interesting and had some overall very high-production-value and memorable moments. While the feeling of immersion is greedily snatched away during certain low points may have ruined some moments for me, overall the game is a good value if you enjoy MP, SP and find Zombies mode entertaining. If you're ONLY in for SP, you may be disappointed with the length, but the replay value is there if you enjoy a challenge.

Description of Call of Duty: Black Ops

The newest installment in the biggest action series of all time and the follow-up to last year's blockbuster Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on November 9, 2010.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter with stealth and tactical play aspect that puts players in the role of a shadow soldier fighting in a variety of historically representative fictional Black Ops missions of the Cold War era. Created with the input of actual Black Ops soldiers from the time, the game mixes traditional Call of Duty tactical shooter gameplay with new gameplay options designed to expand the players' experience. Additional features include extensive multiplayer options, along with new vehicles and explosive new weapons.

Call of Duty: Black Ops game logo
Putting Out the Hotspots of the Cold War
Follow-up to 2009?s blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops breaks new ground in the Call of Duty series and the video game industry at large by delving into the not-so cold conflicts of the Cold War.

Black Ops solidier with face in shadow from Call of Duty: Black Ops
Relive the Cold War COD style.
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Inspired by the experiences of real Black Ops soldiers of the era, the missions of Call of Duty: Black Ops take the player to a wide variety of settings, ranging from snowbound mountain strongholds in historical Soviet held territories, to the jungles and urban settings of Vietnam War era SE Asia. Throughout all, care has been taken to maintain the traditional essence of Call of Duty style combat, while also introducing new types of player action that add to the gameplay experience. Additional features include co-op, versus and team-based multiplayer options, new vehicles like the SR-71 Blackbird and lethal new weapons such as explosive-tipped crossbows.

Key Game Features

  • Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era.
  • Diverse variety of play setting ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat.
  • Blending of traditional COD, and new first-person character scenarios designed to both retain the essence of the COD gaming experience and ensure constantly flowing and varied action.
  • New arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era, including the SR-71 Blackbird and sited explosive-tipped crossbows.
  • Wide array of play modes including single player, local multiplayer versus and online co-op and multiplayer.
3-D Game Features
  • Fully playable in stereoscopic 3D: the game will be compatible with 3D-ready HDTVs and 3D PCs utilizing state-of-the-art active shutter 3D glasses, delivering true depth of field and an unprecedented level of immersion that is perfectly suited for the Call of Duty action experience.
  • Awesome 3D experiences: aim down the sights of your weapons, fly in helicopters, rappel down mountains, move through highly detailed environments and more.
  • The experience is seamless to use with a simple menu option to enable stereoscopic 3D or disable it at any time whether playing in the single player campaign, multiplayer or Zombie mode.
  • Playable in both 3D and non-3D on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Call of Duty: Black Ops for Windows PC is NVIDIA(R) 3D Vision(R)-Ready and supports stereoscopic 3D gaming using 3D Vision active-shutter glasses and NVIDIA GeForce GPUs.   For Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system consoles, 3D features require a compatible 3D-ready HD TV.
Additional Screenshots:
Base jumping off a snowcapped mountain side in Call of Duty: Black Ops
Variety in gameplay action.
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Ground units in an urban Vietnem War setting in Call of Duty: Black Ops
COD style multiplayer.
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Soldier decked out for snow combat in a Soviet setting in Call of Duty: Black Ops
Diverse play settings.
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US gunship firing at ground targets in an urban Vietnamese setting in Call of Duty: Black Ops
Cold war themed action.
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