Black is nothing more than a shooting game with lots of destruction, while that may sound bad, its good for what it does.
The gameplay can be disappointing to the player looking for a game with a lot of features besides a singleplayer mode (which is what most game players look for), but when you're playing the game, if you just try to realize the quality that the game delivers as just a shooting game with lots of destruction, then you can have a good time. Another cool thing about Black is that it changes the way you would think about playing a game. In most FPSs if you see a guy standing next to a car, you would shoot the guy until he dies, but in Black it takes a lot of rounds to kill a guy, so why not blow that car next to him into pieces, making the explosion kill the guy. For each gun it seems the weight, and clip size was really taken into consideration in terms of how fast you run, and how much ammo it takes to waste a guy, for example the shotgun makes you run and turn slower, but empty about 2 shells into a guy and he's dead, if you take an uzi, you're going to run a lot faster, but you are gonna have to shoot about a dozen bullets to kill a guy. Another thing about the game, like many critics have said, is through the entire first level or so of the game you'll be amazed by the presentation, and quality it delivers. But, my problem is that its really nothing more than a story mode, and the story mode itself isn't too long, no mulitplayer, or extras levels, or anything, which can be pretty disappointing.
The graphics are great, and they present a gritty, war-torn city very well. No slow-downs, or graphical glitches to be found, and some great lighting effects. My problem is that the country-side missions look pretty bland, and what's with the cutscenes being live-acted??
The soundtrack delivers some great, intense orchestral music, and the sound effects are top-notch. But two problems, I think that some rock music could've had a better effect during shoot-outs, and the voice-overs are terrible.
When you start out Black, you're gonna want to play it until you beat it, and sometimes its fun to play certain levels again, but after that, you'll most likely forget about it.
There's some fun to be had with Black, and it delivers some great quality and presentation, but there's just not enough there to make it a really good game.
All in all, if you are itching to play a new game just for a weekend, or just want a quality singleplayer experience Black is for you. But be warned, if you want more out of a game, Black can get pretty dissappointing.