Not many of us noticed that Treyarch took over from Infinity Ward to make a CoD game a few years back, even though they did go back to the tried-to-death formulae of WWII shooters. Well that can be considered to be a warm up to what appears to be THE defining military shooter in the markets now. Yes Black Ops isn’t modern warfare but far from it. But it has a story worth dying for, and shooting sequences worth replaying the longest CoD campaign in ages.
The game takes us back to the cold war era with the American army looking to stop a full scale nuclear war from breaking out. Here you mostly play as Alex Mason, an undercover agent sent by the President of the States to take out a Soviet named Dragovich, who is in possession of a mystery weapon capable of levelling an entire country.
But Dragovich plays a greater role than that here. So does Mason who faces some….psychological trauma throughout the campaign which is played through flashback while Mason lies shackled in a secret base, interrogated by a heavy-voiced man to finally seemed to be…wait, im not telling you that.
Although the story here plays the starring role, with stupendously strong characters supporting your own in the form of Frank Woods and his SOG team, the shooting experience isn’t all that far behind. The environment feels lively and everything you shoot leaves behind holes to show for it. Paper will be send flying when you shoot near them in the velocity of the bullet and enemies will grovel after receiving a few in the knees. Yes the shooting feels strong and empowering, with plenty of guns and ammo around you and also animated sequences to take you through great moments in the game.
Flaws are hard to find, and you can effectively look beyond them if you actually want to experience the whole of this enjoyable shooter. Good visuals with great textures and very well recorded sounds of the battlefield make you feel at home if you are the war veteran of todays modern shooters.
Play this game just to see how well Treyarch uses a very uncharted timeline in military shooters to come up with a great game not just from a CoD lovers POV, but from a neutral bullet-toothed trigger happy shooter’s as well.