Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Best in series"

Well if you are reading this you're probably interested in Call of Duty. Let me tell you that I am a big Call of Duty fan. I play a lot of different games, but in the last 5-6 years, Call of Duty has taken up the majority of my gaming time.

I'm writing this review in response to the massive release of MW3. I have been completely disappointed about my MW3 MP experience, roughly 30-hours or so now. There are many aspects to the game that I do not appreciate, but that's not what I'm here for.

Let me say in my opinion, COD Black Ops is the best multiplayer experience in any Call of Duty game released. It is amazing every aspect, and to tell you the honest truth I think that Treyarch is doing a much better job than Infinity Ward. I enjoyed COD: WAW and Black Ops much more than the Modern Warfare series.

Within Black Ops there is just so much balance, and I absolutely love the fact that Killstreaks do not stack. This utterly broke MW2 and is continued within MW3 to my obvious pain and agony. The killstreaks in Black Ops do get sort of vanilla, but they are an extreme challenge to get. I personally love the combination of the chopper gunner and dogs. It's fun to let my dogs run amuck for a while then popping the chopper and watching the rage quitters drop off the map!

Speaking of the maps, in Black Ops they are almost perfect. There are a few that are too big, namely crisis, but when comparing these to MW3's maps, Black Ops' maps are just head and shoulders better. They are fun to explore, but are not too cluttered, again I will use the word balance with these maps. There are not many that stand out, but I think most fans would agree that Nuketown is one of the best maps in the entire COD series.

The weapons are great as well. After coming off of MW2, I thought IW did a great job with the weapons, but then Black Ops came out and...wow! I love the way Treyarch makes using the weapons a chore in a way. In the MW series, it seems as each weapon is ridiculously overpowered and more importantly too accurate. In Black Ops the guns have much more realistic recoil and it is difficult to keep the bullet's path true. It gets very tiring running up to some individual in MW3 to simply get hit by 1-2 bullets from the UMP and you are down. Also there are drastic differences between the guns in Black Ops, the MPL is obviously completely different from the Galil. In the Modern Warfare series there really isn't too much differentiation between the majority of the weapons, nor a major advantage for those using the different weapon classes.

One other thing I think is so great in Black Ops is the playcard and statistic pages. I find it awesome that I can check my accuracy and KDR of each weapon I use in game. This way I can judge on which SMG I use, or which sniper rifle fits my play-style the best. I understand that this information is available on COD: Elite (I think...not completely sure), but it is so nice to be able to access this information fluidly within the game, unlike the MW series.

I know this is sort of a rant, but I have definitely went back to playing Black Ops, and I'm sure I'll be there for a long time to come! I am eagerly waiting the next Treyarch COD release!