Another Call of Duty to tie you over till next year's Call of Duty.
Single player
Story:
I'll admit, Call of Duty isn't really famous because of their story. I'm well aware everyone bought it for the multiplayer; however, I enjoy a good single player game. This one, isn't one of them. Sure, a flashy cinematic do tend to draw the eye, but the overall story is a bit weak and just boring. I was tired of it after a few minutes, and didn't really pay attention after. Which isn't my fault, it's just that the game didn't drawn me in. The flash backs; and the general time-period isn't my cup of tea. While it does have an interesting flare to it, it really will never be anywhere close to the best. Which I didn't expect from Call of Duty.
Bugs:
While Black Ops did suffer from a lot of minor bugs, they weren't as bad as a few other games I've played lately. While that is no excuse for bugs to be accepted, allowing them will impact my review of the game because it shows the developer never took the time to actually care about the single player. No play testers, because I've found a few objections on the main route with just horrible collusion detection. A rock that I couldn't jump over, and was like a force field. Or a stack of pallets that you could just walk through. Sure, that's minor, but it's still not there. The AI is another problem. It's, well, straight up dumb. The AI on your team will rarely be any help, and in my case, usually just a hindrance. While it isn't really a bug, more of just a letdown; however, when the AI on your team gets stuck, and you can't progress because he's the one to kick open the door, you have to kill yourself. It gets annoying. And I don't think any patches will be released for these bugs because they're already working on the next Call of Duty. Due out 2011.
Game play:
I really don't need to cover game play for Call of Duty, it's always the same. Just different weapons, and different places. But, for some reason, the enemy AI in Black Ops is really quite punishing(at least on harder difficulties). On one level, you have to run down a hill, kick over two far apart barrels, to stop the infinite spawns of enemies. Your team mates allow the enemies to run right past them, and often allow them to walk up to you and shoot you. The enemy AI always targets you. At least from my experiences. Another item about the game play is the random game over screens that stop you from having fun. One part, you have to silently strangle a guy. To show off your rope handling skills, or something. But, if you shoot him, you'll instantly be greeted by a "You let your teammates die." Which confused me. Do they just give up and shoot themselves if you don't do what they say? Or if you don't wait two seconds for your AI to beat two guards down, and kill them, game over. But if you wait, they take them out back, and stomp on their heads. Where you can knife them, but then the entire enemy team knows who you are, and what you just did. But no game over screen. I've only ran into a couple of those screens, but they are frustrating and slow the lack of creativity in this game. You just instantly lose if you want to do things your way. Also, you do everything in this game. And I do mean everything. From shooting down warheads to integrating people. It's so focused on you, it's a bit silly when you can't kick down a door. Or open it.
Multiplayer:
Now, everyone does often say how great Call of Duty is online, and how you have to be skilled. I went to school with a Game Battles kid, he had turtle beaches. I personally, don't find the online in this 'game' to be all that amazing. So this will be the part where people really start to hate my opinion. Now.
Maps:
I've gone through the majority of maps, seen the smallest to some of the larger ones and really got a good feeling for them. However, mostly all of the maps are so similar, it just feels repetitive. I will admit I do enjoy one map, Nuketown. Because it actually has character, it's unique, whereas war torn streets, or war torn streets, or war torn... buildings... don't. It just has a balance that made it enjoyable, except when playing with more than 8 people. Then the spawns are random, and sometimes frustrating.
Game play:
The legendary Call of Duty multiplayer. It's really similar to Modern Warfare 2, same feel to guns, same feel to kill streaks. It all just doesn't feel all that new. Sure, some people love the Call of Duty franchise, so they will probably get a kick out of Black Ops. But there isn't really anything new. I did only manage to play The Gun Game, which was an interesting twist, but the weapons it gives you are sometimes a bit weird. Giving a Grim Reaper, for example, is an instant kill. But the next level is a sniping rifle. On a small map, that's annoying for some. Overall, the game play is fun. Yes, it is. But it's not new, and it's still frustrating.
Combat Training:
Personally, I love a good single player game. No chance of lag, no chance of idiots. So, I was pretty happy playing Combat Training. 9v1 is a nice challenge, and it really does give you an idea of all the guns. However, when I reached level 10, I couldn't use kill streaks. I couldn't use the default ones. Which made me think, why wouldn't they allow them? I'm unsure if this will be fixed, or maybe it was my console acting up. But it just wouldn't allow them. Anyways, another thing I noticed when I was looking for it, it's only online. You think, you would be able to play a single player game offline, but no. You can't. That was disappointing because the servers were down, so my friends never got to try it.
Weapon Customization:
A very hyped up aspect of the Call of Duty series, one of the major selling points, at least to me. But to be honest, it's not as great as it was shown as. Sure, you can add anything you want. But after making a pure golden weapon, I just got bored with it. There was only a few options, and nothing that really blew me away. And even after having a pure gold Spas-12, my friend picked it up only to hold a normal Spas-12. The golden awesome just faded. May be a bug, or a timer. But it just didn't stick like it should. Overall, it's a nice touch, but not nearly as good as I thought it would be.
Bugs:
Online will tend to have bugs, I agree. But some of them shouldn't be there. For example bullet proof curtains in Nuketown, or being shot with a rocket only makes your character fall over. Not rag doll and fly back. Something that someone may look into, I assume when the game releases, they will find a lot more bugs. But right now, I only found a few. Hopefully nothing game breaking.
Zombie Mode:
My friend was really looking forward to this, as I never did play World At War. I swore off Call of Duty at 3, and only came back to play Modern Warfare 2 because of Spec Ops. But it wasn't really something I could ever see myself playing often. The voice actors were funny at times, but just got to the point where it was annoying. Shouting "LOOK. I'M OUTSIDE." is really unneeded. The zombie game overall lacked any flare, and I was pretty bored the entire time playing it. Testing it with a friend. They through a random wave that really confused me. Flaming zombie dogs. Giant flaming zombie dogs. I was so confused as to why they were here. I still don't know. The only map I had available to test was the first one, where you have to turn on the generator, but it took us a couple deaths to find out where that was. Would of been helpful if we knew which door led where, but they do have those small chalk maps on the wall. They may help, I couldn't really read them. Also, if you had a friend down, and you were trying to back pedal away from zombies, a hit would take a few seconds to register, so you would often die a couple feet away from any zombies. Which was annoying. And the game over screen. Your head just goes sideways. Overall, could be fun given the right amount of people. But it just lacked flare for me.
In Conclusion:
Call of Duty Black Ops is a good game, fun at times, but since mostly everyone is going to be playing the online, it's more frustration. Don't get me wrong, I may be a very hard to impress critic, but it will be fun if you still enjoy Modern Warfare 2. It does live up to that standard, and trying to play Modern Warfare 2 after playing Black Ops was just no fun. It's a good game, but a milked series. And after they announced the new Call of Duty in 2011, I was less than impressed by them making a game before they even know what they should change. Or even trying to add that into the current one. Overall, Black Ops is good. But filled with bugs, no real single player and just copy-paste game play.