Another year, another Call of Duty game. Developed by Treyarch, this new installment promises a grittier storyline, stealthier missions and a better story. Do they deliver? Kinda. I'll explain.
In Black Ops you play as Alex Mason a Black Ops agent who is strapped to a chair. The whole game is played in his head (memories) as you try to figure out a code some guy behind a frosted window keeps yelling to you about. As you progress, you will visit many locales from Cuba to Vietnam. In great CoD fashion, the first mission is fast paced, making you run around Cuba making your way up to Castro's base. To do what you ask? You should have a pretty good idea being a CoD game.
There is this conspiracy vibe during the entire extent of the game which is focused on numbers (more specifically a number station). The cutscenes cut between live action shots of war and propaganda clips to in game models (Think Prototype Web Of Intrigue). Don't try to follow these because they make as much sense as the story itself. You have to apparently stop the Russians from unleashing something called Nova 6, which is a bio toxin that makes peoples inside spurt out.
Was it just me, or did the AI enemies get significantly dumber? They just walk up to you and wait for you to notice them before shooting you. Either that or they walk near you casually, just walking like you're no enemy. When it happens so often you end up shooting teammates thinking they're hostiles. Next, some guns have RIDICULOUS amounts of recoil that leave you shooting in the area just above the enemy. While I'm on aiming, the aiming is really off. To get a clear head shot you need to aim just above the target's head. Even body shots tend to miss. While I'm on THAT, enemies can soak up tons of damage before going down. Some even fall over for a few seconds then GET BACK UP like nothing happened! Luckily accompanied with their own horrible aiming you'll end up running up to most of the enemies and just stabbing them. A personal gripe, knife kills don't feel satisfying. Like in MW2 you can actual hear and feel the knife slice. In Ops its just a swing and a tiny spurt of blood. Infinite spawning bad guys. I can do without them forever after Black Ops. Almost every single scenario had them and they're so annoying and should never be in any game ever. Lastly, smoke grenades have zero effect on enemies so don't waste your time throwing them, their shots will still hit you.
Now the good (the small amount there was): Water levels were done very well. Swimming is easy and you don't have to worry about quickly losing your breath. The damage taken, blood on your screen looks less like grape jelly and more like blood which was a welcome shift. The player controlled guided missiles were fun as well letting you take out enemies and mainly tanks while elegantly spinning a guided missile down on them. The crossbow. A hundred times the crossbow. It was so entertaining pinning an enemy with and exploding bolt and watch them flail until it exploded.
Graphically this game look likes any other war game. There are different variations of green brown and grey for our liking. They did introduce blue but that's just because water can't be green or brown without looking like diarrhea. The explosions are really shitty. Even grand explosions like when you take out a rocket look like tiny pops of light. The sky is well done though giving a real feeling of change and time of day.
Ok I didn't touch the multiplayer because the Single Player pissed me off so much but I did manage to try the Zombie mode and I can say that its meh. Its not good but its not very bad. You know how in typical zombie games, headshots equals death? Not for Black Ops zombies! I would shot them in the head and they would continue to attack me regardless. Even shooting most of their limbs off didn't seem to faze these zombies. I ended up shooting them in the shoulder which would kill them faster oddly. When you get power ups (which come in the form of a floating green number or letter) an extremely creepy voice announces what you've picked up. That's good and all but sometimes you can barely understand him and you're left wondering what you picked up. Luckily it shows it a the bottom of the screen but sometimes the symbols are to vague to know what they are. The in game dialogue between you and your partner is VERY ANNOYING. The voice acting for the zombie mode is incredibly bad with no way of turning it off. To advance in Zombie Mode you need to collect points equal to the amount the door prompts you. This can be done by fixing doors and killing zombies. You can cheat and break down a fixed door with your knife and collect the points while your partner keeps the zombies busy. Also, points aren't shared meaning if the door needs 1000 points to open and you have 500 and your partner has 500 you can't combine them which is fine for online Multiplayer but for couch co-op is a pain in the ass.
All and all, die-hard fans will pick this up regardless but if you're new to it, I suggest Modern Warfare 2.
Also I can sum up the entire main story line with one name. Tyler Durden.
