Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Don't believe the hype"

First, I want to say that if Black Ops didn't have the Call of Duty title, it might be more enjoyable. It's certainly a good game on its own. But the fact is, it does have that title and as such it's expected that the features that made previous games fun would be kept. They weren't.

While multiplayer is its main component, it does include a campaign. The campaign is an engrossing storyline the first time around. You won't want to skip any cutscenes. But if you do, too bad. You can't. When you go through your second playthrough to beat it on veteran, or get intel (same as in the Modern Warfare games), or do anything, you have to sit through every single cutscene and scripted event. Many of these are too long and will leave you frustrated and annoyed. Luckily, the campaign is easy, even on veteran, and soon you can leave singleplayer.

The Call of Duty series is well known for its multiplayer, and the persistent unlocking and drive to level up that comes with it. But in Black Ops, you can unlock every perk, piece of equipment, and grenade at level one. Black Ops has a currency system (CoD points) where you buy every aspect of your custom classes. The system of "get so many kills with x attachment to get y attachment" was removed. While this certainly makes the multiplayer easier, it also diminishes the replay value. While in previous games you might spend your entire prestige using a few weapons and mastering them, and spend the next prestige mastering another select few weapons, now in one prestige you can easily unlock and use every attachment and gun. Treyarch sought to extend game time by adding new prestiges (now there are 15 instead of 10), but as there is no difference between prestiges the feature is ultimately useless.

The guns in the game are dull and boring, and ultimately the same. Almost all the assault rifles shoot the same, even the semi auto ones. For some reason, the two semi auto rifles (the M14 and the FN FAL) shoot at the rate that a mod would, so long as you have a decent trigger finger. The sniper rifles are broken, and whether you hardscope or quickscope you'll have trouble. LMG's are not even worth mentioning and SMG's are all the same, excluding the AK74u, which has the same functionality of an assault rifle.

Perks return (along with pro versions, although they have changed), but as you can choose from all of them from level one the choices are clear. Some perks are absolutely useless (Marathon does not do anything until it is upgraded) and some are put into the wrong tier. Whereas in MW2 there were defined tiers (red being the most important, blue second, green/yellow third), in Black Ops the worst perks are put in with the best (steady aim and sleight of hand in the same tier).

To say the least, the maps need more color. Every map can be summed up in tones of white, blue, brown grey, and dark green. You're either in the jungle, the artic, or occasionally the desert. The maps' layouts are ultimately the same, and almost every room has at least three entrances. While this eliminates camping, it also means that certain objective games are decided purely by luck and not strategy.

Treyarch's main goal in Black Ops was balancing the game. Unfortunately, games aren't supposed to be balanced. Someone is supposed to win outright, and someone is supposed to lose horribly. You can't have winners without losers, and trying to eliminate this along with the sense of competition is Black Ops' downfall.