This review contains spoilers.
I found this review rather hard to write. It's because I was sitting here, struggling to explain my viewpoint on this game, not least because I hadn't really decided my opinion. To really get a handle on why I was having difficulty trying to get across my thoughts on this game, and its predecessor, I decided I had to go back a few years to one of my first gaming experiences on my beloved 360. Back to the days of Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare.
When I first played that game, I remember coming away from the first level and talking to my cousin about it. The word "intense" was the best way to describe it. It had been faster, more visceral and so much more intense than any other game I'd tried until that point. Leaving aside my love affair with its strong campaign and addictive multiplayer, it was a really well done game.
WARNING : The following text can quite easily be entirely wrong, and be reading too much into a game.
It had a really nice underlayer of intelligence to it. Simmering beneath the surface, there was this commentary. There were the Americans, charging in full-bore to take down Al-Asad amongst the chaos of the coup d'etat, and against the backdrop of hardcore Russian nationalists. The sequence showing the Americans' ultimate failure was as poignant as it was a powerful statement. That last ditch attempt to stop an invasion had resulted in the detonation of a nuclear device in a war-torn city. The game doesn't go too far into the casualties, but its depiction of the player dying like he did and the long list of US soldiers killed by its explosion was just the surface. Throughout the game we saw the civilians there. A vast, sprawling Middle Eastern population centre, and the US actually caused its destruction, while the UK desperately tried to deal with a madman they had entirely underestimated.
I'm writing nothing new by describing the philosophical ideas in Call of Duty 4. I recommend reading this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.61839-Call-of-Duty-4-Because-Modern-War-Aint-Fair#501508] for a further expanding delve into its story and writing.
The real fact of the matter was that it was such a masterpiece, a topical work of art that delivered its many messages under a veneer of, and about, Modern Warfare.
Skipping a game, since WaW was simply more of the old World War 2 fare, and onto the next series' game to have an independent plot - Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2. This game was a sore spot for me. It dropped the interesting quirks of its younger brother, losing the beauty of villains more complex than RoboMechaHitler. It was like going from a chess game with Elie Wiesel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel] to a frat party.
"...Who?"
No no, no longer was war a difficult struggle against a desperate and unknown enemy who consider you to be just as faceless and "evil" as you them. Now it was Ivan's turn to be the bad guy for no good reason. The plot of this game was so poorly held together, so "action movie boomboom" and so logically flawed I have trouble believing it was made by the same team as the last one.
This game relied on such absurd logic that I had to think long and hard after I was done about exactly what I'd just seen. I'd been expecting the story of a Call of Duty 4 world - the US in a political knot for the nuclear device, the war having now been thrust into overdrive and global attempts to salvage the situation. Russian warriors who would stop at nothing to advance their agenda, perhaps having done so and fucked the world a new Soviet Russia arsehole.
Instead, we got - a USA with one defence capability that they keep in use after its theft.
There are more problems, just as lazy and significant as those I mentioned, but I want to finish this review while I'm still young, and shall move on.
The point of all this is to establish something extremely vital. Something key to my take on the Call of Duty series - I believe it has hope. Black Ops helped restore some faith. The light at the end of the tunnel.
And it has a beard.
I'm not saying that Black Ops returns to the magnificence of the original Modern Warfare. It suffers plainly from Activision's money fetish, and the focus is clearly on the multiplayer.
Its singleplayer wasn't terrible. It suffers from slight MW2 syndrome, in that it feels like they thought of a bunch of cool setpieces and then just joined them up. But only at first. Early on it feels disjointed and doesn't flow particularly well due to the fragmented narrative and missions with no connection and in places, practically no relation to the story, but it clears itself up and follows a clear plot with some understandable motivations and characters, which is more than can be said for MW2. Its main "twist" is alluded to with all the subtlety of a rhino searching for cake in your living room, but at least it's quite nice. The plot hasn't got a huge amount of depth, but it hasn't got the glaring plot holes of Modern Warfare 2, the environments are varied and pretty, and if you allow for a little suspension of disbelief you can get behind the sillier plot points. It's still linear, but fast and fun, and it's told in such an interesting way that I found myself congratulating the game on its attempt to bring something new to the juggernaut franchise. It's told from the perspective of a CIA operative, who worked in deep trouble during the Cold War, taking part in the titular "Black Ops". He's being tortured and forced to recount his experiences, which make up the missions. It's actually an interesting perspective, as time catches up with the story and you take over in "real time". These parts of the game did what they wanted well, and I thought did their job in showing the protagonist being drilled for information.
Bobby Kotick's pillow.
It is, as I mentioned earlier, plain that the game's focus was on multiplayer this time around. The singleplayer suffers from a lack of attention. It is OK, but the missions themselves will feel a touch shallow at times. You'll wonder if this was actually an important section of story to play through or just a "cool" level idea. This lack of polish and lack of depth just shows, but after I was done I can at least say this - it entertained me. The second and third acts kept me interested and the game was fun enough.
Moving on to the bigger focus of the game - the multiplayer. Here I must again reference Call of Duty 4, to say that its multiplayer really gripped me with "one more round" syndrome. It was fast and fun, and kept me going with friends on many an evening. It had some very nice maps and overall, was well done. Neither World at War or Modern Warfare 2 had that effect. Sure, I liked some maps and guns, but I was too detached playing them. When I lost, I just didn't really care. It failed to draw me in as an experience, failed to convince me that it was fun and I ought to get in another quick game.
Black Ops recaptures some of that spark, that competitive urge to play and win. In MW2 I'd happily play with nothing but a throwing knife out of sheer boredom. I had to keep myself amused by not playing the game as it was intended. Black Ops revives the fun in playing, the thrill of planting the bomb in Sabotage, the rush of leaping through the air and planting the enemy flag triumphantly in your base.
Actual screenshot.
When played with friends, it becomes one of my top "pizza games". Grab some beers, some pizzas and play away the night and you'll find few experiences to top it. The mix of competition, co-operation and the quick fun of the many game modes is priceless. I will say that sniping is a little pointless. It's not that you can't snipe and do well. It's just that there's no situation where I'd rather have a sniper's range than an assault rifle. The maps are fast and fluid, and snipers are obsolete. Claymores are absurd now, as they explode within reaction time and make no click. Oh, and they no longer take up a Perk slot like before MW2. No, you'll often just blow up in the random Claymore lottery.
What else.... the Care Packages make an unfortunate return. They now have a chance of giving you the incredibly overpowered Chopper Gunner, or its Machine Gun, but killstreaks no longer contribute to killstreaks. You must now earn every kill. Juggernaut and Stopping Power are gone, taking fucking Martyrdom with 'em.
Hm. They also removed quickscoping (finally! A 4 year old glitch, gone!), and added a tiny racing car strapped with C4 that are annoying but ultimately harmless. They move too fast to kill, but only get one or two kills at best, and the controller is vulnerable as he controls his zooming machine of death.
I was actually delighted to learn several things about this new multiplayer. Firstly, it has AI bots. Weirdly they are only available online (
?), but they are quick and good training, and a nice alternative for those nights when your internet isn't up to much. Or, get a few friends and see if 4 of you can beat 8 Veteran bots (Answer ; No). The next little bite of fun is the new customisation. It's hardly the Sims, but you can now alter your man. Make him unique. It sounds small, but when you kill a guy and he looks exactly like you, I found that a jarring experience that removed me from the game. Now you'll see a nice variety in costumes, tattoos/face paint, many gun camos and interesting reticules, and of course, some very cool new emblems. (and some not so cool [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.246367-Black-Ops-Swastika-Emblems-Will-Earn-Xbox-Live-Ban]).Lastly, it introduces a new set of matches directly appealing to people like me it seems. You gamble new "CoD points" (in game currency earned by playing to buy items) in game modes reminiscent of mods of old. They're just fun, new and interesting.
And zombies is still excellent. The writing and voice acting of the four characters on "Five" (the Pentagon map) Castro, Nixon, Kennedy and McNamara is golden.
That's really it. What I have to say. Diving back into the past, it makes me sad to see the sheer lack of depth they have each year, but Black Ops gives me hope, and I have to say its multiplayer and co-op modes are outstanding. I know it seems odd that I spent half the review on the past games, but we must look back to see the changes and influences over the course of this series, and then hope that we can look forward to an improved experience next time around, built on the lessons learned.
Just remember, dear reader...
War, children, it's just a shot away...
