Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

[Anthony]

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review by Anthony

PALGN Review: Treyarch stick to their guns.

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[travers]

WTF? A crossbow picture but NO Chewbacca joke? I'm really disappointed.
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[Cian]

[NaTe]

Oh my god. I was wondering what the fuck I was doing wrong in that terrible mission. Once I figured out what to do it was a breeze.

It's good, but I wouldn't suggest it's a whole heap better than MW2. I enjoyed MW2 a lot. Good to see Treyarch are now compareable with Infinity wards editions.
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[jim beam]

i agree with cian i LOVED modern warfare 2 storyline was all over the place but gameplay was phenomenal constantly on edge of my seat and i loved the ending enjoying black ops at the moment but always have fond memories of modern warfare 2 fav thing i like about Black Ops is zombie mode terrific work if you have played dawn of the dead map variant on the old BNET servers you know what i mean all in all GREAT JOB
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burn rubber not your soul

[Cian]

Have you heard of a full stop Jim?


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[Mr Waffle]

It's funny how virtually every review absolutely swoons over this game, but the people I know in real life who've played it have basically said they thought it was a bit rubbish, especially compared to MW2...

[Eyce]

I'm still trying to remember what mission had something vaguely to do with barrels that everybody was banging on about.

The thing I kept dying on was f**king absailing. >_>
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[Jaws]

@ Eyce - the defence of Khe Sanh part of the SOG chapter where you need to kick down some napalm filled barrels but somehow no one ingame tells you this. Was very frustrating until I read what you have to do. The same goes for the first part of the Rebirth chapter where I would always get spotted no matter where I hid. Why have a 'Follow' marker on someone when you have to make the first move?

Being primarily a PC FPS gamer, the first title that really 'got me into' the Call of Duty franchise on the consoles was Modern Warfare. I remembered playing the demo on PC way back when and falling out of interest with the almost script directed gameplay where you were required to reach certain sections that 'trigger' your advance.

A few years later I gave the SP campaign a significant investment on bequest of a good friend who lended me the 360 version, I started to understand the feel of the gameplay and came to really enjoy it for what it is - a Hollywood style action FPS production.

Modern Warfare 2 personally raised the ante for me as I loved seeing some of the old characters brought back into the fold and the fact that the player controlled protagonist and his team are fighting against some really high stakes really got my attention. The highly enjoyable MP part and Spec Ops modes really sealed the deal.

I got Black Ops at launch and it has been hit and miss for me. The only previous CoD title I have played by Treyarch was CoD 3 which I didnt enjoy. Respawning enemies have never been my thing as there isnt just any satisfaction involved when all your 'hard work' continually comes back to bite you on the ass.

Black Ops does alot of things right, but I felt that sometimes the gameplay in the SP story is bogged down with too many semi-interactive cut scenes which player interaction shouldnt be really necessary for (eg..many of the swimming sections that drag out, the 'press button repeatedly for end result' sections, etc... Oh and the SR Blackbird intro is pointless and just flat out sh*ts me - atleast make that skippable FFS..!!!). I felt whilst the varying locales were excellent, there just wasn't enough variation on the FPS formula to really maximise the fun of this game. MW and MW 2 really mixed it up with pursuits, jailbreaks, breach & destroy missions, sniper stalking, etc.. most of the stuff in Black Ops is on the rails cut scenes inbetween basic shootouts with no real meat to them. I really think they could have done more in that dept.

Ofcourse they're all seperate games in one franchise and shouldn't be directly compared, but the ending of Black-Ops was the biggest let down for me. I won't spoil anything but the last chapter felt like a massive anti-climax compared to things getting much more intense towards endgame in MW and MW 2.

In all honesty, all that was missing from the ending of Black Ops was SPOILER (highlight to read):the f*cking Ewoks singing and dancing around on one of the aircraft carriers gathered around the player, whilst fireworks went off in the air around you as you resurfaced. That final scene was just vomit inducing..

On the other hand, I am quite enjoying the MP aspect of the game. Im yet to play wager matches but I enjoy most of the maps and the CoD Points thing keeps things interesting..

The fact that you can choose to search local games only is also a HUGE plus that needs to be a future part of every MP game out there!

All up, an improvement from Treyarch but still doesnt have that little bit of magic that I always feel when playing MW and MW 2. Perhaps time may change that..

[GooberMan]

Michael Bay presents: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It threw away the compelling anti-war story of the first one to go for an over-the-top Hollywood splosion fest. All it was missing was female soldiers in bikinis.

The single player of this one is miles above World at War. Good to see Treyarch actually improving there. Wiki says David S. Goyer was the scriptwriter, which explains the Hollywood influences that creep in to this one (while not being well over-the-top like MW2 was).

Multiplayer, well, I'm still of the opinion that World at War has provided the best package of the series in that regard.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it still suffers from "The most important combatant on the field is the player" AI stupidity. It's nowhere near as omniscient as World At War was, but still rears its ugly head in large open battlefields.

EDIT 2: Would anyone notice if the next CoD's single player was on rails? I probably wouldn't. The amount of times the game played itself for me...
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[Jarrod]

Sledgehammer's COD is next year. It will be interesting to see where that goes.

Call of Duty: Space Marines for the year after .
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[GooberMan]

If they made a CoD with the character Sledgehammer, well, it might be the best game ever.


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[mrpookles]

It's the most fun I've had with a campaign in the series, even if it is a bit inconsistent. It's as good as it gets as far as dumb action movie-ish gaming goes.

The online has a few problems, namely the awful re-spawning, but it's still great fun. 8 is about right.

[Azza]

I am having many problems with the multiplayer, especially the playerbase. Too many Assault rifles + so much goddamn proning = annoying experience.

Mind you, the single player is still fun. And the zombie mode is satisfying as all hell. But it's not worth buying the full game for.
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Facebook | Youtube | XBL Gamertag: Comrade Azza | Steam ID: Comrade_Azza

[jesuslol]

Jarrod: Sledgehammer is making the space marines COD

I absolutely love this game. Haven't played CoD since MW. The story was excellent. The twist was cool

Jaws I don't think you 'got' the last scene. It was meant to be awful in an "Amurca Fuck Yeh" way.

I'm sill not the great at it. Am lvl 30 atm and always end up in the middle of the table. I wish shotguns were a little more powerful. It seems that SMGs/ARs are all anyone uses. With a shotgun I can usually get one shot off before I get spammed but unless I am at point blank 1 shot doesn't kill.

There are a couple of problems. I keep getting an error occasionally when I try to join a server (duplicate qport). The spawning on TDM is way fucked atm. It swaps spawns constantly and if you stay still for too long you'll get knifed in the back by a freshly spawned enemy. This is fixed if you play any other mode.

[Jarrod]

[el_supraman]

This game is amazing. the story is great and it fixed all the lame things from mw2. I have no idea why its geting lower ratings than the mw2. It makes no sense. Sure the game is really an expansion, but it did everything right in my eyes.

No more lunging with knives, noob tubes, quick scope, kill streak staacking etc.

Maps are pretty good and zombies is better than spec ops for me. Dead ops shows they are adding new ides which is very nice of them.

Best of all regional filter so I can get games with Australians again. W@W did this why could infinity ward take a hint that americans are not the only ones who play the game. Amazing game. 9.5/10 from me and that does not come easy lol
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[Nietzsche]

It's because most reviewers focus on the single player even though 90% of the people playing will focus on MP, and well to be honest B:OPS SP is just not as good as MW2 even if the story was rubbish in MW2. I would rank the MP way higher than MW2 broken mess but it is still not as good as CoD4's.

[Cerebral]

[Nietzsche]

At any stage were you flying over an exploding castle? No. Did a nuke go off in space? No. MW2 went over the top and then just kept going. It would take a guy riding a nuclear bomb to go more over the top than MW2 so I can see where he is coming from.

[Benza]

I feel kind of like the odd one out, I've actually never played a call of duty game. I'm just not sure I'm actually missing out on anything?
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[el_supraman]

I thought the single player was the best one yet. Thats just my opinion but I loved it. Cod4 multi was good but you have to think about it.

Martydom, 3 grenades, kill streak stacking, everyone using m16. It was great for its time, but black ops is better at the end of the day cause the only real annoying thing atm is Rc car. That is just annoying cause my team uses them and not spy planes which are much more useful.

Benza you must try playing at least one of them. You can pick up cod4 very cheap at like ozgameshop. people still play it online and the single player is one of the best
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[GooberMan]

[Jaws]

The RC XD is very beatable. The sound is a dead giveaway and the scope of vision for the person controlling the drone is not the best seeing as it's very low to the ground which can give ground pounders an advantage in concealing themselves.

I have managed to hide quite easily I hear there's one in the area. Just stop and drop. Crouching behind barrels or something is almost always a guaranteed RC dodge as they will usually whizz right past you. Getting to higher ground usually works wonders too as most RC pilots will scavenge for targets on the ground first as time is never on their side. By the time it goes past you, you can try and take it out or wait till the fuse goes.

Ofcourse if you don't fancy hiding and don't like your chances at pinging one with a firearm, then plant a Claymore in the RC's probable path or lure it towards the trap yourself to take it down (might I remind that Flak Jacket is one of the best Perks ever!). Claymores always win out against RC XD's

I dont know about anyone else, but I have found that most if not all TDM maps aren't very conducive to sniping. The game seems a little quicker paced than MW 2 due to the closer quarter scenario presented in the maps and the respawn problem just kills it completely and is my pet hate in this game...

I might be in the second story of one of the houses in Nuke Town (an enjoyable map but faaaar too small) and all of a sudden, there's a backsurge and I'm suddenly in the thick of enemy troops which seriously minimises life expectancy and the fact that you've fought for a spot to dig in and snipe to your heart's content.

In another scenario, I was able to get three cheap kills because not long after I spawned, the area became the enemy spawn point at the drop of a hat. I hope this issue is resolved as it really ruins the fun and flow of MP.

[jesuslol]