Better than Modern Warfare 2, but the amount of bugs is disappointing, and some gameplay changes are sorely needed.
Story
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You start the game, being interrogated by Mr. Unknown who wants to know the meaning of some numbers, for a unknown country that he won't tell and to stop something terrible, preferably a unknown war lead by another Mr. Unknown, so basically it's the attack of the big unknowns on the land of unknown and apparently you can stop this unknown tragedy. In all seriousness, you play as Alex Mason, who's being interrogated about some mysterious numbers for a broadcast station, and it's the perfect time to take a trip down memory lane, as you get to play through his moments that led up to all this.
The story lacks character development. You barely get to know anyone (even the villains!) and there is a twist (that's hinted at in the ending) that's pretty stupid, if you ask me. But beyond that, the story is actually good. It's not stupid (like MW2, I can never forget the idiotic of invading a country because of one dude, and where the hell was NATO during the whole incident!?), has a few good twists , it's incredibly dark (something not expected in a CoD title) and it has the right amount of intrigue to keep you on glued to the screen. It's the best story in a Call of Duty game, but in regards to many other games, the game does nothing new. Expect some surprising cameos in the game.
8.5
Gameplay
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Explaining the gameplay in Call of Duty is as useless as telling a Danish teenager not to drink, you know he's not going to listen and just do it anyway, because he's a decedent of the Vikings. It's literally been 5 years with the game gameplay. Nothing's been changed since Call of Duty 2 introduced regenerative health. Oh wait, there is one minor improvement. You can actually do a dive now, it's amazing! (Epic scarscam) It can be a big help to be honest, and help get you into cover just in the brink of a bullet. And thankfully, you can't shoot while you do the dive, so there goes another spamming method for Multiplayer.
The campaign itself is split into 15 levels, and unlike MW2, it's equally balanced between epic moments and down time. There isn't any moment that's more memorable than the nuclear bomb in CoD4, but there are a few moments that are better than a dozen moments in MW2 combined. There's a lot of holy s### moments, and a lot of really intense ones, contributing to the "glued to your seats" aspect". It helps with a lot of variety in the campaign too. One min your just running around shooting people, and in the next your flying in helicopters, flying in boats, or going through a place that's littered with dangerous chemicals in a suit that get's broken the more you get hit. It's an amazing campaign and easily one of the best in the series.
But that being said, it's not without its issues. There are a few spots in the levels where the game just goes on auto-pilot. There's a really awesome moment in a certain place (I know it's the third level, but I'll leave the location out to those to play it), that has a really dark and spy-like feeling to it, and while you'll be sitting, smiling, over how awesome it is, you can't help but feel that the game is doing everything for you. All you can do, is look around, while the game moves your character around on its own, it's stupid and there's no reason why you shouldn't be allowed to look around on your own. It's a little on the short side too. Though a bit longer than MW2's 6 hour campaign, Black Ops takes around 7-8 hours, which is still a little bit short, but it's at least a big longer. There is also a level where you're supposed to push down some barrels with Napalm, only the game doesn't tell you, you're supposed to, something I figured out on my second play through. The A.I. for your friends (and sometimes enemies) is stupid too, though at least they don't like to throw grenades a lot anymore.
The multiplayer was hugely popular in MW2. Mostly for how great it was, and for how unbalanced and glitch it was. Black Ops comes equipped with loads of new modes and different options for new equipment. In additional to your standard multiplayer mode options, you can now have wager matches. These matches I think is the best in the entire game. You have a mode where you have to get a kill with 20 different weapons before in order to win. A mode where weapons change every 40th second. It's exciting and (dare I say) original. The only thing is, you can't decide how much money you want to bet on, nor can't you bet on a persons performance, but rather have it all decided on who gets the most points, but it's a great mode. It's also possible to play the multiplayer mode, with offline bots, though in these matches it's everyone versus you (and a friend possibly).
Meanwhile, the leveling structure has been changed. While you still gain levels and can perform challenges, the only thing you gain by leveling up, is the rights to buy new weapons and equipment. You earn money by (what else?) wager matches and regular matches. It doesn't really hinder anything, as the costs for each piece of weapon and equipment is affordable, but not too expensive.
But even the multiplayer has it's issues sadly. I've encountered lag in a few matches, and have been kicked out, due to lost connection, plus there's a few kill streaks that everyone just spam's (especially the RC radio car).
Sadly, the single player has a few bugs of its own. I ran into some script issues in some of the levels, so I had to restart them (to make it worse, it was on veteran, d'oh!). There are also a few trophies that glitches sadly, so don't be surprised if you complete the game on veteran and don't get the trophy.
That being said that though, the game is great, the campaign is amazing and the multiplayer is a lot of fun to play. There's so much content on the disc (including a hidden mini game), that you'll be coming back again, and again, and again. Even if the bugs are somewhat worrying.
9.0
Graphics
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The game looks goods good. The environments look great, the character models looks good, the set pieces are amazing and it all runs really well... for the most part. There are a few visual bugs to be experienced, and performance issues, though they aren't frequent, but double disturbing when they happen. Likewise, the shadows are pixilated; the fire effects could have been a lot better.
8.0
Sound
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And yes, even the sound has a few issues of its own. The music disappeared on me all of a sudden (abruptly too) and it had a few clipping issues (oddly enough). The music (not done with Hans Zimmer this time) is good, although not as good as MW2 (finally, something MW has better than Black Ops!). The voice acting however, is sweet, with stars like Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Topher Grace, Ice Cube & Sam Worthington. The music (Again) deserves a special mention for including a few moments, set to Rolling Stone's "Sympathy for the Devil" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son".
9.0
Overall
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CoD: Black Ops is a million times better than Modern Warfare 2. The campaign is better, the multiplayer (though not without issues) is better than MW2. The game itself is just a pretty good game. But at the same time, the amount of bugs is disappointing and how the multiplayer fares depend on how committed Treyarch is to the game. I'm letting the game go with a pretty good score (9.0), thanks to it's campaign, but it's at the closing point to an 8.5, so next time, I'd like to see some changes to the gameplay and fewer bugs, please!