Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

A Grizzled Veteran’s Perspective

by  exterminat

©2010 Nicholas Laborde

Undoubtedly, Activision’s biggest pool of cash lies within the World of Warcraft (thanks to the company being joined with Blizzard) and Call of Duty properties.

The Call of Duty series has had a yearly iteration (by a coincidence almost, early on) ever since the first game of the series in 2003. Luckily, for the most part, each addition to the series did something significantly new or notable.

Call of Duty (2003) had tons of friendly AI fighting alongside you in combat, which was a new thing at the time.

Call of Duty: United Offensive (2004) set the bar for what a PC expansion pack should be, and was the first work by Gray Matter (now known as Treyarch) on the series.

Call of Duty 2 (2005) was a near-perfect game, with the PC version having a massive community backing it, and the 360 version being a defining title of system’s launch.

• Call of Duty Black Ops Trailer

To give you an indication of how popular Call of Duty 2 was, until the end of 2006, there were essentially two games played on Xbox Live: Call of Duty 2 and Halo 2. I easily put over a thousand hours into Call of Duty 2, and it still remains my all-time favorite Call of Duty title.

My expectations for a title to be as excellent as that one have only been met once across the five iterations that have followed it, and that title was Call of Duty 4.

Never in my life have I been this undecided on where I actually stand regarding a game. This review is as much a journey for me as it is to you, the interested reader. But without further adieu, let’s embark upon this adventure of mysteriousness, shall we?

Singleplayer – The Story:

Raising Hell

One thing that is relatively fresh to the Call of Duty series is storytelling or narratives that contain depth. The first title to feature this was Call of Duty 4 (2007).

That story continued and indefinitely ended with Modern Warfare 2 (2009). But in 2008′s iteration, Call Of Duty: World at War, we got quite a different story, in that there was almost none at all.

Instead of deciding to focus on a fancy bigger-picture story like its Modern Warfare counterparts, Call  Of Duty: World at War chose to tell a more realistic story, focusing on the tales of the soldiers themselves and the journeys they undertook.

That is the precise direction Treyarch chose to take with the campaign in Black Ops.

The story focuses on a single protagonist, Alex Mason, a former CIA member (although you do play as other characters from time to time, but very briefly).

It begins, literally, with you fading into Mason’s point of view as he’s strapped to a chair, screaming obscenities in a crude torture chamber, surrounded by television screens and computer panels.

First impressions quite possibly mean the most, and this one is no different, setting a spot-on tone for what is to come. A mysterious interrogator yells at you, and demands that you speak about certain events.

Alex Mason has no idea who is interrogating him, why he is here, and why he keeps hearing a mysterious string of numbers.

The story is told through Mason’s recollection of events that take place between 1945 and 1968 (not all of the recollections are his own, and you play as different characters for a short time to fill in the gaps).

To not spoil anything, the campaign is definitely the best in the entire series. It’s a gripping, visceral, action-packed tale of complete and utter strangeness. I found myself surprised at how enveloped I was into the atmosphere of the story, and wanted so much more when the credits rolled.

Infinity Ward can be quoted saying that the Call of Duty series is based off of “the best action moments from the best action movies.” There’s no doubt that Treyarch based a lot of events off of “the best action moments from the best action games.”

One specific title that Black Ops draws heavily from is a sleeper title from 2006 entitled Black, [One of the best FPS on the 1st-Gen Xbox - ED:] that focused on similar black ops/CIA type of affairs.

Although that is true, they do try and differentiate the moments. Most aren’t noticeable, and are only found by picky critics such as myself that notice every last little detail.

As with all shooters these days, you’ll get around five to six hours out of the campaign. But surprisingly, it’s a tale that is acceptably told within it’s time frame, and perfectly paced.

You WILL want more at the end, but are given a tale of enough weight and depth to justify the length. It’s a wild ride that even Tom Clancy, the master of modern-day suspense and espionage, could learn from.

The Technicals:

Ascend From Darkness

The gaming industry would definitely be a strange place without the id Tech engine.

Ever since the original Call of Duty (with the exclusion of Call of Duty 3), every iteration of the main series has featured a slightly tweaked version of the engine. (That’s some interesting food for thought: this game runs off of modified technology from 2003!)

Regardless of the age of the engine, it still manages to shine with the yearly upgrades and tweaks. Character models are fantastic, animations have a natural fluidity about them, and they finally seem to have been able to make the characters realistically hold weapons.

The lighting is absolutely fantastic, although shadows still tend to be pixellated.

Environments range from lush, open jungles in Vietnam to dark, enclosed corridors of a Soviet space shuttle launch site, and they truly are remarkable. The fact that the game runs at above 60 fps and never dips below that mark is still fantastically unbelievable, but once again it’s pulled off flawlessly.

Sound is at its peak here, with powerful-sounding weapons, a booming orchestral score, truer-than-life explosions and brilliant voice acting by a star-studded cast. Gary Oldman (my personal favorite actor) once again proves himself as not only a compelling actor, but a great voice actor.

And of course, the gameplay consists of the usual tightening of controls, tweaks to handling and difficulty balancing. One new feature is the ability to dive/slide.

When sprinting, if you hold down the crouch button (which would normally lay you down), your character will dive forward and land on the ground. In multiplayer and zombies, this is extremely useful (and entertaining to watch!).

The campaign is a tad more difficult than Modern Warfare 2′s, but the fixes that MW2 introduced (non-respawning enemies, and limited amount of grenades that they can throw) are still in place to ensure an enjoyable experience no matter the difficulty setting.

The Zombies

Unleash The Horde

The biggest selling point of World at War was the inclusion of a cooperative survival/wave defense mode entitled Nazi Zombies. The goal was to survive as long as you could against infinite waves of zombies that happened to be Nazis (until later maps, where there were Japanese zombies as well).

It instantly turned out to be a huge hit among fans (including myself) and spawned three more maps via DLC. Funny thing about them: the DLC packs had a new Zombies map in each iteration, and two or three more multiplayer maps, and at $10 USD each.

Most people, myself included, never even touched those multiplayer maps, and spent their ten bones on a new Zombies map.

• Call of Duty Black Ops – Zombie Hordes

Treyarch realized that this was a massive success, and continued the mode in Black Ops. But instead of following the one-map-per-paid-iteration formula, we’re thrown a bone with two maps and a bonus mode!

Black Ops features two maps on the disc in which you can unleash your fury against hell’s many rising Nazi inhabitants. The first map, Kino der Toten, takes place in a massive theater and the building around it.

It features all of the innovations introduced in World at War’s many maps: Perk-A-Cola perk machines, Pack-A-Punch weapon upgrade stations, environment traps and many other things are included to present the definitive Nazi Zombies map.

In Kino, though, we play as the story-based characters introduced in World at War’s later zombie maps: mad Nazi scientist Doctor Max Richtofen, crazed Russian drunk Nikolai Belinski, American tough-guy Peter “Tank” Dempsey, and Japanese quiet guy Takeo Masaki. The zombie-fighting group was teleported from Der Riese to this theater, where they continue their endless fight against the undead Nazi horde.

The second map making its debut in Black Ops is “Five.” If you recall, I wrote an article about how it was basically offensive to the memories of the people portrayed (you can find it HERE). And, after having played the game, I now view it as acceptable (although it still is early to be putting Robert McNamara in something like this).

Players assume the roles of John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Fidel Castro and Richard Nixon as they defend the Pentagon from a zombie invasion. It’s a well-designed map and is very worthy of the name. The level has many different areas, and multiple floors, providing for a well-varied undead Nazi killing experience.

It doesn’t include all of the aids and advances of Kino, but is a different experience altogether. It’s just as much fun to play.

Periodically throughout the waves, a mad scientist will randomly come up to you and steal your weapons. Obviously, this must be prevented from happening at ALL costs, as you’ll lose EVERYTHING you have if he gets too close to you.

The goal is to run from him, and if you happen to encounter him, kill him. A nice achievement accompanies killing him if he steals your weapons.

Finally, for a third dosage of undead Nazi killing goodness, we have an arcade shooter called Dead Ops Arcade. It’s your standard 3D, isometric arcade shooter for up to four players. You simply must survive rounds of zombie attack, and then choose which area of the screen that you want to go into to defend in next.

Zombies drop power ups that range from things such as helicopters and tanks (which allow you to become said vehicle for limited amounts of time) to flamethrowers and miniguns.

I played with four of my good buddies and managed to get to round 28, landing us at places 107, 109, 110 and 112 on the leaderboards for rounds survived. It’s extremely light, but at the same time, infinitely entertaining. It’s a nice little mode, and an interesting way of seeing what Treyarch likes to do for their games.

The Multiplayer:

Wield A Fist of Iron

Finally, we have, undoubtedly, the biggest calling of Black Ops (to most): the multiplayer.

Call of Duty 4 introduced one of the best and most innovative FPS multiplayer experiences the industry had ever seen. World at War made a color copy of it, and didn’t mess it up.

Modern Warfare 2 expanded upon it, and once again, Black Ops is essentially a color copy, but not wholly.

Gone are the days where we had to grind and grind and grind in order to unlock that certain assault rifle. Black Ops introduces a new system similar to that of Halo: Reach’s Armory. As you play, you earn “COD Points.” These points can be spent on weapons, attachments, perks, throwing items, suits, camo, killstreaks, and playercard emblems and backgrounds.

As you rank up, you become eligible to buy guns (similar to the old method of unlocking them by reaching a certain rank) and can purchase them at your disposal. It’s a very intuitive system and it opens the door for much more diversity and customization. At first I despised it, but then realized that it’s a massive triumph over what’s been set in stone.

There’s all the usual new weapons, attachments, killstreaks and perks. Some new things are a flamethrower attachment for weapons, and a napalm strike as a kill streak. It’s widely varied and perfectly suited to the changing time frame implored by the game.

All the multiplayer modes we’ve all come to love and hate are still intact, and play even better than past iterations.

A new addition to the foray of fragging is a new section of the multiplayer mode entirely, entitled Wager Matches. The matches simulate gambling at it’s best, and make you put your money (or, rather, COD points) where your mouth is across four different game modes with three different buy-in prerequisites.

You have the possibility of doubling, tripling, even quadrupling your buy-in fee if you place high in these matches. This is called being “in the money.”

To be “in the money,” you have to be in first, second or third place out of the maximum of six people allowed for each game mode, with respective COD Point differences based on the position. If you get fourth, fifth or six… well, you get nothing. Sorry. You shouldn’t be playing Wager Matches, most likely!

One In The Chamber is the first of these four types of gambling excursions. The game mode is as the name implies: you start a round with nothing but three lives, a knife, and a pistol with a single shot. That one shot is an insta-kill, and if you kill someone with it, you get the bullet back to continue on your spree.

Sticks And Stones is the second mode available to Wager Match partakers. You get a Crossbow, a Tomahawk, and a Ballistic Knife. The goal is simply to kill players and earn points. But there’s a catch: kill someone with a tomahawk… and their score is reset to zero. It’s quite an intense mode, and will undoubtedly cause much rage to anyone on the opposite end of a Tomahawk.

Gun Game is the third mode that comes into play. It’s blatantly ripped from a popular mode in Counter-Strike: Source where you kill someone with your starting weapon, and receive a newer, slightly better weapon upon success of the kill. It continues on until someone gets a kill with every weapon, which ends the game. Although clearly copied, it’s one of my favorite modes to lose points in.

Sharpshooter is the final mode in Wager Matches. It’s quite possibly the most chaotic of them all. Weapons cycle every 45 seconds. Yes, you read that right: every 45 seconds, your weapon is so unlovingly ripped from your poor hands and replaced with another. It’s frantic, chaotic, dynamic all-out fun.

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Apart from Wager Matches, we’re treated to two new additions to the Call of Duty franchise: an exact replica of Halo 3′s Theater mode, entitled (who guessed it?) Theater, that allows you to re-watch multiplayer matches by yourself or with friends from any angle (or, to people like me, the perfect machinima-making tool), and a bot match mode called Combat Training.

In Combat Training, you simulate the multiplayer environment in its entirety. Playable by yourself or with friends, you play matches with and against bots that assume the names of random people from your friends list. You have a rank that’s separate from the normal multiplayer mode, with separate COD Points.

It’s fun to sit back, relax, and just practice map strategies with a few friends against these bots. They’re formidable foes and, for the most part, simulate how real opponents play.

• Black Ops Prestige Edition Fun Video

The Verdict Overall

After much heavy thought and analysis, I have concluded that Black Ops is definitely a high point for the franchise.

The campaign sets a new standard for how a story should be told, the cooperative zombies mode sets the standard for what an alternative cooperative experience should be, and the multiplayer doesn’t exactly break records, but fixes many problems of the predecessor while pushing new ideas of its own.

All in all, it’s one of the most entertaining experiences available in 2010, and definitely nets you a lot of bang for your buck.

• Weapons lists and pics available for Download.

Black Ops Weaponry listing

OXCGN’s Golden Award

“9.5/10

©2010 Nicholas Laborde,

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