Wednesday 18 May 2011

Call of duty:Black Ops

Gamespot score:9.0(Editor's choice)

my score:7.8

(+)Pros:-Great multiplayer,-story is unexpectedly clever,-impressive visuals,-variety of weapons give players more options,-well made maps,-zombie mode is incredibly addictive.

(-)Cons:-Core shooting mechanics are derative,-campaign is stupidly short,-plays and feels exactly the same as MW 2

Gamepay time:20 hours+



Call of duty is one franchise I do loathe a lot. There are a lot of results for this. The online community is bad, people who yell at you over the speaker for killing them over and over, or scolding your parents just because you suck. Pathetic, really. Plus, ever since call od duty:MW, nothing has been done to improve it. Every year around november, they release a new COD game with new weapons and a new campaign, and somehow it gets good reviews. Seriously, this is getting very stupid. While COD as a franchise is good, the developers should seriously step up thier game and make something new, instead of creating the same game over and over. Still, black ops isnt bad, but it wasnt as great as MW when it 1st debuted. Heres the letdown.



The story is black ops is one of its stronger points. It pits you in the shoes of Mason, an agent who constantly after a group of evil schemers. Ever since he is captured and sent to vorkuta for imprisonment, he has been dead set on returning the favour, especially to thier leader, dragovich. The story is very short, but  even if its short, its a good ride. You are sent around the world to beat out the organization and play as different characters. But all in all, the story is cleverly planned out, and I cant really tell you the important parts without spoiling the story's true suprise. It may seem very simple and derative, but once the big suprise unfolds, its one huge mind fuck.



Shoot your enemies the same way you usually do all the time.

If you have played another call of duty before in your life, you should fairly know how black ops plays. As usual, you go around shooting others up, get points and such. Blah blah blah, its all been done before. Luckily, theres a bunch of weapons for you to use, ranging from rifles to crossbows and even grenade launchers. Most of the in-game weapons are accessable in the campaign, which means that just playing the arcade will already get you opened up to what cool weapons you get to expect, and what you get to use in the multiplayer( which is probably the game's main focus anyway).

Visually, the game does impress. Environment and enemy details are great, and setting of icy mountain bases and cities getting blown up really do well to provide some flashy eye candy. The game's characters, though little, provide good dialouge, though as AI, they dont do really well since they seem to be shooting air 90% of the time. Though it doesnt really matter since they cant really die, they constantly shout at you to take cover while they constantly get shot up and jus keep standing there.



Gun your enemies from a distance.

The multiplayer is black ops, or in fact, any call of duty's strong and main point. Yes, indeed, the multiplayer is great. The maps are well varied, and having the excitement of gunning down another human player while keeping your streak is entertaining. The streak system still works here, like how you get enough kill streaks and you are granted a free support, such as radar, helicopter, or the new ridiculously well made remote control toy car. As usual, gaining a kill streak and having it keep going feels great. Of course, the class system makes a return. Before every match, you are allowed to pick either a preset class or a custom class that you made yourself. Custom classes are obviously preferable but for those who dont know what to make of in thier dream character, the preset provide a good start.

You only get a few preset classes at the start and unlock more as you rank up. There are also the basic assortment of modes that you get in the previous COD games, but many can agree that the best modes are still deathmatches and team deathmatches, since nothing beats core killing shooting without having any objectives. And lets not forget the incredibly addictive zombie mode. Zombie mode pits you in 1 of 2 maps, playing as one of four playable characters that either friends or online strangers play as. In this survivial mode, you fight off against a horde of zombies that come at you in waves, of course with each wave getting even move instense. Be it alone or as a group, zombie mode is fun as heck.




Flying helicopters and many other vehicles help stray from the derative shooting.
 Black ops is fun, but its no different from the MW 2 released the year before it. They just threw in a few new guns, a new campaign and name give it a new game, its so ridiculous its not even funny. The shooting too, its incredibly derative. Theres nothing to it besides pointless shooting with just different weapons, luckily in the campaign, control of vehicles stray away from that. Plus, for the whole game, you will be just killing soldiers, nothing more, and thats just lame. The soldiers dont even have variety to them (except for those armored dudes in vortuka, they were cool). Finally, the campaign. It is good, dont get me wront, but it doesnt take a genius to figure out how incredible short it is. Even on my 1st run, it took me no more than 5 hours to finish it.

Black ops is just another entry to the COD franchise. Nothing really new, innovative, or mind blowing about it, its just your run of the mill COD game. Theres a third one coming this year, good god, how much worse can this game. As I said, black ops isnt bad, but if they dont throw out something really new this year for MW3, the game will seriously start to bore.



Happy gaming.