Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

[Skjutentrast]

Well. There has been a lot of COD hate around for the shitty MW2 fan base, and I agree.
But for me, as PC GAMING MASTER RACE, this is a step up. I liked the campaign so far at least (Playing on veteran, due to massive balls and need for some self-verification. Also, I like a challenge)and it has lasted me a good 8 hours so far due to a lot of dying.

To many cut-scenes, but varied environments in some different setting like war in nam an infiltration of secret mountain base and escape in an urban environment. Also the game had Castro. That awesome.

It also mixed things up a little from the previous one, which was nice. The boat scene was awesome. Anyhow, how you feel about the story is not what i felt. I think this will be the kind of hate-like kind of story. At least it's different and a bit interesting. Kinda like a B-movie, but a bit to easy to figure out a head. Anyhow, how you feel about the story is very subjective.

The game play is mostly unchanged, so if you liked MW1 and MW2, you will like this. Some scenes like the one in the spy-plane is a bit unnecessary, but most of the vehicle-sections are fun. The use of many different scenes also allows many different type of guns, which is always nice. ( Mosin?Nagant <3)

Zombie mode is a blast at LAN-Parties and with friends while in Skype or such. Simply awesome.


Since this review did not touch mp I will only say that it's nice with dedicated servers back and the nerf of killstreak rewards. But the RC car is boring and game breaking. Just feels a bit silly.

Wont give a score. Thats just silly. Anyhow, if you like SHOOTAN and have the money to spare, i can recommend the PC version. Only scrubs play FPS on console.

Each to his own tho i guess. Skjutentrast over and out.

 

[Marowit]

It's sad, I love the escapist, but people take these reviews as if they're only right. I think their shouldn't be perfessonal reviews anymore for any game, only user reviews.

No offense, but seriously, people read this and then say "well this guy says it sucks, so it must suck." Without ever even trying it. People should try games for themselves, not just going off the opinion of others.

I am not saying this review is right or wrong, its someones opinion and I don't want to change that, I just hate when reviewer's opinions are taken above anyone elses.

And user reviews would be different...how, exactly? Assuming, of course, people paid any attention to them, which is all folks are doing here. They're reading the review, and deciding for themselves whether or not they still want to get the game. Paying attention to a professional reviewer and paying attention to an amateur one is no different.

maybe they woudn't be any better. It's hard to say, but Reviewers unlike User Reviewers are much more well known. So likely less to be heard, which obvious would then it would take in consideration whether or not their would be need for any reviews.

I just think that, people take review's and I myself am guilty of this sometimes, that I take a reviewers opinion for truth and that if they say a game sucks it must suck. I do this often with certain types of games. Though lately I have been trying to form my own opinions.

Now the main reason why I get angry at sometimes reviews, is not becuase of what their opinion is, if they hate a game or like it, thats their opinion (well duh. XD), but sometimes people don't form their own opinions. They look at these and agree with it just becuase they wish to agree with it instead of trying out it for them selves.

a review could say "well this game is really bad" but then the player decides to go out and try it for themselves and discoveres that they like it. I think more people should do that. I write my own reviews at times aswell, I plan to write one for Black Ops and possibly Arcania: Gothic 4. Though even reviewing these, I hope people learn more about the game and then try it for themselves.

You completely neglect the reason why most people go to reviewers: most of us can't afford to get every game that comes out, and it's great to get a heads up from a reviewer that you trust has similar feelings/opinions about gaming. Of course there are going to be games reviewers don't like/do like that will be counter to your opinion, but when that happens then you can then figure out the who/what/when/where/how's of why your opinions/feelings deviated.

So yes, if you get free games, like reviewers, you should play them all and form your own opinions. However, for the vast majority of us it's far more pragmatic to find reviewers we trust, and listen to what they have to say.


On Topic:

I was kind of worried the game would follow the MW2 version of level design - design cool levels, and then figure out a story that can tie them together. My brother picked up the game, I think, and I'll probably just do what I did with MW2 and play it on his computer so I don't feel like I got gypped.

 

[aaronmcc]

Can 5.6 million bleating sheep be wrong?

 

[FightThePower]

Completely disagree. Black Ops is a good game. Not going to argue that though cause I don't want to.

I honestly felt like this review was a whole lot less professional that usual. A lot of it sounds like a rant from someone who had a predisposition about this game from the start, it's extremely unbalanced and honestly it sounds quite childish at times.

Almost no mention of the Multiplayer or the Zombie Survival mode, which considering this is Call of Duty that represents damn-near the whole game; it's like reviewing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Subspace Emissary alone. I am aware that at the top of the review it does say it will focus on the Single-player but like I said, it represents such a huge portion of the game you can't just ignore it. No mention some of the genuinely bad points about the game: the awful friendly AI, the repetitive battle chatter, the cheap deaths and occasionally unclear mission objectives.

The Escapist's reviews are always much better than this. This was essentially Zero Punctuation without the humour and with worse arguments.

 

[Skjutentrast]

Can 5.6 million bleating sheep be wrong?

"People who like and find popular games fun are sheep who only follows the herd! No chance that popular things are popular for a reason and people have different tastes! AM I COOL YET GUYS XD?"

No. But really. This is what you sound like.

 

[rizo536]

Oh, wow. I'd say even Yahtzee could give Black Ops a fairer review than this.

This game isn't on my top 10 (Just, no.), but I was very capable of enjoying the game despite it's flaws.

 

[aaronmcc]

Can 5.6 million bleating sheep be wrong?

"People who like and find popular games fun are sheep who only follows the herd! No chance that popular things are popular for a reason and people have different tastes! AM I COOL YET GUYS XD?"

No. But really. This is what you sound like.

Wow, you got all that from my post? I find it interesting that your first post says "each to their own" and yet here you are essentially telling me I'm wrong, despite it being a question, not a statement, and a clearly tongue-in-cheek one at that.

Welcome to the Escapist, try not to take everything so seriously.

 

[kasperbbs]

Personally i liked the SP ,it was kinda weird at first ,but the more i played the more i liked it ,and in the end all the pieces come together. I hate that squad thing cod/moh has going on ,you cant move until they passed some specific spot ,and in BO i had to repeat one mission because one of the guys couldnt manage to pass through the door.

 

[Syphous]

This seems really... biased. Like I know it's not the greatest game ever, but Jesus, you just wanted to hate some CoD it seems. Graphics are very nice, voice work is good, and the story is original without being MW over-the-top retarded. I just disagree with this review immensely.

 

[veryboringfact]

It's sad, I love the escapist, but people take these reviews as if they're only right. I think their shouldn't be perfessonal reviews anymore for any game, only user reviews.

No offense, but seriously, people read this and then say "well this guy says it sucks, so it must suck." Without ever even trying it. People should try games for themselves, not just going off the opinion of others.

I am not saying this review is right or wrong, its someones opinion and I don't want to change that, I just hate when reviewer's opinions are taken above anyone elses.

And user reviews would be different...how, exactly? Assuming, of course, people paid any attention to them, which is all folks are doing here. They're reading the review, and deciding for themselves whether or not they still want to get the game. Paying attention to a professional reviewer and paying attention to an amateur one is no different.

The difference between a reader's review and a journalist's is usually in the number of typos.

Game wasn't that bad; ugly graphics but a better written single player than MW2 and a MUCH better multiplayer (until people find a way to ruin it). Yes MoH is a much better looking game and has the potential to be a better playing one, but until they sort out their own issues with the multiplayer (ie balance and bugs) noone will take that seriously either.

 

[Skjutentrast]

@ aaronmcc.

Can't help it, breed from /v/.
Anyhow, to take in to account how popular a title is, is to bring down the discussion a level. On MP, as long as the game has 10.000 players it's well over the amount it needs to be "alive"

Debating over if it's good or not with statistics over how many copies it has sold is to make the argument quality=popularity. Which would mean that Harry potter and Twilight are great books.
Anyhow, thanks for the welcome! And I do have a broom handle a bit to far up my ass to be able to NOT take things seriously

 

[Karathos]

Can 5.6 million bleating sheep be wrong?

Sometimes, popular things are popular for a reason. Calling people sheep because they like something makes you look like a complete dick. You're entitled to your opinion, but how about not branding people sheep for theirs eh?

 

[Frostbite3789]

This review makes me feel vindicated for when I walked into Walmart at midnight to get my copy of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and looked at some guy with his copy of Black Ops and just said, "Bro! Black Ops! Black Ops! Bro! Bro!" Then walked away.

Can Treyarch please make a good game from an original IP? Please? Can that happen? I would view them so much more favorably. As it is, over the past 5-10 they've just piggybacked off of IW, because CoD3 and World and War were probably the weakest entries into the CoD series and apparently this one isn't much better.

 

[Hosker]

I thought the single player was somewhat fun; the best one since 2 in my opinion. And the voice acting was adequate; it's not nearly as bad as a lot of other games.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Black Ops's campaign may have been a little odd but it still stands out as the most unique story of the the CODs. The battles lack that 'oomph' of the Modern Warfare but I think that it needed a bit of a change and focus on character experiences, rather than Infinity Ward's approach of a controlling mute guy that will most likely end up dead at the end of the chapter.

I'm glad they balanced the multiplayer though. I haven't seen a 360 degree spinning no-scoping one-hit-killing sniper in days now...and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Sterling|D-Reaver]

Side note: Reviewers should enjoy the kind of games they are reviewing if they don't the can't write a fair review for many reasons.

Um, no, just no. A reviewer is entitled to their opinion, just as you are to yours. Just because they didn't like the game and you do, that means nothing. Things like voice acting and gameplay can't be judged objectivity, it's all a matter of a person's likes and dislikes. You're not wrong if you liked Black Ops, and they're not wrong because they disliked it. Games are determined as good or bad by the individual, not by concensus.

Read what I said more carefully. . .

What I was saying was that a reviewer can't properly review a game if they don't enjoy that TYPE of game (i.e. FPS or MMO) and you can take it further and say they must enjoy the frenetic, fast paced gameplay COD has and have played other games like it, to know where it is different, better or worse.

You would want a person who has never played WoW to review an MMO because WoW is so central to that genre if the reviewer cannot relate the game they are reviewing to WoW then many of their readers will have lost an important point of reference that they expect in an MMO review.

 

[Soyokaze]

Actually, I was impressed with the story, acting, and characters. Are they amazing? No, but this is easily the best written and executed story of any Call of Duty campaign ever. It's not merely a series of military operations, but rather a psychological drama centered upon a character that has changes and an arc. It might not be breathtaking, but it's a mighty leap forward from MW2's absolutely idiotic plot.

As for the acting, I hate to say this but you are objectively wrong. You can not honestly tell me that Gary Oldman's turn as Reznov was bad acting. Seriously?

 

[debramster123]

I completely agree the campaign story makes no sense. Another thing what is up with the grenades and explosions sounding like they're underwater/muffled?

yea i overheard that when i was on the bus.. is it really that bad?

 

[DannibalG36]

Three stars. Not two stars. Three stars. If only for the prison escape mission.

Otherwise, thank you for putting Black Ops in its place.