What’s most surprising about Black is that it essentially has no new features, yet feels entirely different from any other shooter we’ve played before. Within the first few minutes of play, it’s clear that Criterion have spent a lot of time attempting to make the game fun. Undeniably fun. They have brought the adrenalin rush and destruction found in Burnout, and put it into the first person shooter. In the spirit of being realistic, the game becomes quite hard. It is partly this difficulty level that makes it so rewarding. When you try shooting enemy soldiers in the stomach, it can take a good 10-15 bullets to kill them. A well placed head-shot on the other hand can kill in one go.
So far very few details have been revealed surrounding Black’s story. All we know is that it involves black operatives in a modern day environment. It also involves shooting things. Lots of things. People, windows, doors, walls, cars, event entire buildings; if you pump enough bullets into it, in most cases it will explode, fall apart or die.
We’ve seen 'fully' destructible environments before in games like Red Faction, but none of those have worked particularly well. Black takes this idea and makes it integral to the gameplay. Have you seen an enemy running behind a thin wall? No problem. Just pull out your shotgun and blow a hole straight through. Likewise you can find yourself hiding behind a pillar, only discover it being chipped away by enemy bullets. In fact most of the game seems to involve figuring out what you can take cover behind and what can be destroyed.
Next gen graphics on current gen machines.
The first level we attempted was 'City Streets', which we played on a PlayStation 2. The level starts inside a small room with dirty glass windows on two walls along with a metal door on one. The floor is littered with debris. Within a few seconds we see a shadow moving behind one of the windows, several seconds later the window shatters and bullets come streaming in. With no place to hide, the only option is to shoot back. We fired off a few bullets but the solider took cover behind a window frame. Anticipating the cliché 'peaking out behind cover' movement we lined up the gun’s sight next to the window. The movement never came. When you think about it, would anyone stick their head out, when they know there’s someone holding a gun at them a couple of meters away? We moved forward a few steps and found a shotgun on the floor. One shot later half the window frame was missing, the door hand blown off its hinges and the kill count at the top of the screen said 1.
The rest of the section of the level that we played was outside, advancing through a shattered cityscape. The buildings were typically modern except torn apart by bomb blasts. Sides of buildings had fallen down, so their inside could be seen. This provided some convenient vantage points for enemy soldiers. Shots came from all directions, high and low.
At one stage we had taken cover in some rubble at the base of one of the buildings. Two of our team mates had appeared and were under attack from an RPG-brandishing solider on the roof of one of the adjacent buildings. We fired a few shots at the solider, but they failed to take him down. Suddenly, the solider began to turn toward us and with each shot the rockets came progressively closer as he homed in on our position. After failing to achieve a head shot, it was a frantic few seconds before we pumped out enough bullets to take him out. Later in the level, we encountered another RPG soldier; this time situated at the top of a bell tower 100 meters away. When he was finally taken down there was a large explosion which resulted in the whole tower falling apart in a cloud of dust. Most games rely on a blinding flash or a dust cloud to hide the destruction, but here we could actually see the sides of the building breaking and falling apart. It was a 'wow' moment.
The second level we tried was the 'Tivliz Asylum'. This level started inside a large room with rectangular pillars spaced at intervals. At one end of the room were steps coming down from two balconies which enemy soldiers entered through. Standing in the direct line of fire leads to death in only a few moments, so it was necessary to constantly seek cover behind the pillars. The result was a very reminiscent of the Matrix lobby scene as we moved between the pillars with chunks being blown out of them if we stood behind one for too long. After one badly aimed shot at the floor beside one of the soldiers we discovered it was possible to achieve a 'ricochet kill' by bouncing bullets off the floor.
As we continued to play through the level it became clear just how much attention had been paid to to the actual action of shooting. We're no gun experts here at PALGN (Pfft, I'm a regular Dirty Harry - Ed), but the guns certainly looked realistic to us. The shooting animations are impressive, but what stands out most is the sound. It's amazingly 'strong' and makes firing feel powerful. When you've been firing for a long time, or have stood close to an explosion the sound becomes dulled to simulate momentary deafness. Similarly shooting at anything for an extended period will bring up a lot of dust which reduces visibility.
Can you see why it's called Black?
The final level was named 'The Road to Teneska Border'. This time we played on an Xbox. The graphics were slightly better, but it was surprising how well the PS2 version stood up compared with the Xbox. The level is situated outdoors in the middle of a forest and involved working through the trees in order to approach a border crossing. We were disappointed that we couldn’t seem to cut down the trees with our guns. It would have resulted in some interesting gameplay options. It begs the question; can you really chop down a tree with a gun? Maybe - if you had a powerful enough gun. Maybe we just needed a more powerful gun. Maybe…
The level ended in a huge firefight as we fought our way through a compound surrounding a gate we needed to get through (read: blow up). It took several attempts to complete the level and in the process of getting lost in the woods on one attempt we discovered there was another path that could be taken. Instead of traveling through the forest there was a path through a tunnel inside a cave, that allowed us to approach the compound from a different position. Neither path was the 'right' way to go and it was possible to pass that section by going either way. Despite having linear gameplay missions, it’s nice to see this kind of free range when attempting to complete objectivies.
In an unusual twist of fate, Black does not feature any kind of multiplayer. This is a pity, since we'd love to see the some of the unique multiplayer scenarios that would arise from the destructible environments. It's likely the data required to keep track of the environment would be more than can be handled by the current generation consoles. There have been rumors that an Xbox 360 port is in the works. If it does eventuate, we wouldn't be surprised if this was released with some form of multiplayer. Multiplayer can 'add value' to many games, but when it's done badly it can be a waste and take away resources that would have otherwise been put into single player development. It will be interesting to see what affect the lack of mulitplayer has on the final product.
There is one other aspect of the game that we are worried about. From the time we’ve spent, we felt the game had quite a high difficulty, which means dieing frequently, which makes it repetitive. At this stage the sheer fun of playing through each level (even several times) saves this from behind annoying, however it is possible that after an extended play the novelty of destruction will wear off and play will become a chore. Then again, does blowing up buildings ever get old?
Black is shaping up to be a system seller. It’s a pity that it has come so late in both the Xbox and PS2 lifecycle. Originally planned to be released only two days before the Xbox 360 launch in Australia, it should now provide some comfort during the three week delay. Black will be available on February 28th.
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