aw crap, I meant to delete AJ's name and put mine on this before I hit 'publish'
Call of Duty: Black Ops Review
Game Review | December 1, 2010 12:38 am
By AJ
Call of Duty: Black Ops, obviously something that millions of people purchased day one (I'm sure hundreds of thousands even picked it up at midnight launches), I was a little skeptical when it came to this game after what happened with W@W with all the map glitches and just overall cheap feeling experience (not to mention the grenade rain in the campaign on veteran). Black Ops was actually a refreshing Call of Duty since the let down of Modern Warfare 2.
Gameplay (campaign)
Blacks Ops has one of the best campaigns of any game that I have ever played. Without giving too much away, the campaign was something that was somewhat non-fictional at times, it wasn't full of the ridiculousness that was in previous CoD's. The campaign was full of twists and turns and even some crazy surprises when you get towards the end. Overall the campaign wasn't very long; maybe 4-5 hours on normal, add a few more while trying to make your way through the game on veteran. In my opinion, the second easiest CoD on veteran to date (easiest being MW2).
Rating - 9/10
Gameplay (multiplayer)
Now to the part of the game that 95% of people buy this game for; the multiplayer. Black Ops multiplayer is very balanced when it comes right down to it. All the weapons are pretty solid for the most part and there's really no weapons that are ridiculously over-powered (I'm looking at you UMP [MW2] and M16 [CoD 4]). With the exception of the first few days of server lag and some long waiting times while searching for matches the MP has settled down a bit and matchmaking seems to run smoothly, lately. However, the servers are peer to peer (like previous CoD's), if the host leaves, get ready for about a 20 second match delay. This wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have to go through about 5-6 of these every game. Some of the lobbies in Black Ops seem a little laggy as well; although it's not as bad as the first few days of gameplay there are still a lot of unexplained killcams happening in almost every match. I personally hate shooting at someone with a whole clip of ammo from about 10 feet away only to have them turn around and hit me with one bullet and kill me (but hey, what are you going to do).
Rating - 7/10 - Could be a bit better
Gametypes (MP and SP)
Combat Training; probably my favorite feature of Black Ops. This is a mode where you can either play on a team or free for all against AI and/or be on a team with your friends over XBL. All you need to do is go into combat training and set up the match, invite some friends, set up the teams and gametype and start the match. You can also set the AI difficulty (ranges from Easy to Veteran). This is a great way for someone new to the Call of Duty series to get acquainted with MP before jumping right into matchmaking and become humiliated with every death. The only problem with this feature is that you can only play team deathmatch or free for all.
The gametypes in MP have been carried over throughout the CoD's but in Black Ops, there's a whole new type of matches - wager matches. Along with the experience you gain in MP for kill, capturing objectives, planting bombs, etc. you also earn money. Since the whole MP experience revolves around money there is a lot of money to be made in wager matches. The matches are comprised of 6 people and only the top three places pay out. You can buy in for 10 dollars, 1,000 dollars and the high roller matches which cost a staggering 10,000 dollars to play. There are only 4 different types of wager matches that you can choose from however:
One in the Chamber - everyone starts with 1 bullet and knife, for every kill you get another bullet but you only get three lives. Once you die three times be prepared to watch the rest of the match (be prepared for quitters and host changes).
Sticks and Stones - everyone starts with a crossbow, ballistic knife and a tomahawk. Objective, rack up kills, the different weapons give you different points for kills. And if you're in first place - don't get tomahawked, it will bankrupt you and reset your score. You'll also show up on the radar as a gold blip instead of the standard orange one.
Gun Game - everyone starts off with the same starting pistol, you then progress through the game by getting 1 kill with each weapon until someone gets a kill with all 20 weapons and the game is over. Watch out for knives in this game though, if you get knifed (or humiliated) you'll revert back to your previous weapon.
Sharpshooter - I've never played this one, but everyone on the map starts out with a certain weapons. For every kill you get you earn a perk (up to 4), but if you die, you lose them. After a certain amount of time the weapons change. Not much to be said about this gametype.
Rating 8.5/10 - Fix the lag and it would be a 10.
Graphics and Maps
The graphics aren't top notch, but they're not exactly horrible either. They do look a little out-dated and I know the game is supposed to be set a ways back from MW2, but I just don't think the graphics are up to par for this title. The hands holding your gun in either single player or MP look very plain and lack a lot of detail. The blood splatter after killing someone just looks like someone shot a jar full of strawberry jam and the same goes for when you're wounded in in the game (except it's all over your screen).
The maps however, have a ton of detail and I was actually very surprised with the maps overall. I don't know how many there are but there sure are a lot. I don't even know if I've played them all in MP or combat training yet. Just as previous CoD's did, most of the maps are parts of the single player campaign. I am a little disappointed in the size of most of the maps, there's only a couple you can snipe on (effectively) since it takes your character a little less than an hour to scope in and stop having a seizure, since Treyarch tried to take out no-scoping.
Rating - 9/10
Zombies
Same 'ole zombies when you compare it to W@W, with a few additions. There are different types of zombies; crawler nova 6 gas filled ones and dogs, very quick dogs. Lots of weapons and different perks you can buy in zombies. I've only played a couple matches to get the 4 zombie achievements and haven't touched it since. You'll have to find out for yourself. The zombie maps however, are great. Multiple levels with elevators/stairs to bring you to the different levels so you escape your pursuing zombies. If you have the special code, you also get the maps from W@W's zombieness as well.
Rating - 8/10
Achievements
Now, to what most people on this site are wondering about - achievements. The achievements in Call of Duty: Black Ops are very straight forward. Beating certain levels, then beating a few levels on veteran at a time. A few random achievements mixed in, four zombie achievements and one MP achievement for finishing in the the money in 5 wager matches (if you just stick around for the whole match you're almost guaranteed to be in the money with all the quitters out there). All in all, it took me about 10-12 hours to finish and about 4 hours of that was a ridiculously long zombie match. If you don't get lucky with the zombie achievements, they can be pretty frustrating. It takes a lot of time and luck with the random weapon box, not to mention you need a lot of teamwork to get up into the higher rounds. A fairly simple completion overall if you have some CoD skills at all.
Rating - 10/10
Overall Rating - 9/10
Obviously, there's a ton of replay value especially with the MP and zombies (even the combat training for that matter). I don't know if I'm going to hold onto this, however. After getting the achievements and playing the MP, I don't see myself buying the onslaught of map packs and DLC that are probably in Black Ops' future.
Rating: 9.0 of 10
Reviewed: Call of Duty®: Black Ops™
Keywords: None
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