Black Ops

[2019 Champs]

lol that review makes no sense.

[2019 Champs]

"the campaign isn't great"

"suffers from the same symptoms of MOH"

"perfectly suited for camping"

but yet somehow, by the end of it, this game could quite possibly be revolutionary? lol

[tEnSiXniNe]

The game will be good but I would rather player Halo for online matchmaking because COD is the same and Halo has made significant changes.

[tEnSiXniNe]

Overall, WG concludes that Black Ops "gaming mechanics for Black Ops are very similar to those of World At War".

hmmmm

[martinez]

Nov 8, 2010 10:32:01 GMT -5 tEnSiXniNe said:

The game will be good but I would rather player Halo for online matchmaking because COD is the same and Halo has made significant changes.

what significant changes is that? Explain.

[martinez]

Nov 8, 2010 10:33:17 GMT -5 tEnSiXniNe said:

Overall, WG concludes that Black Ops "gaming mechanics for Black Ops are very similar to those of World At War".

hmmmm

what's your point? Halo Reach's mechanics are the same exact ones as Halo 1.

[martinez]

Nov 8, 2010 10:30:53 GMT -5 2019 Champs said:

"the campaign isn't great"

"suffers from the same symptoms of MOH"

"perfectly suited for camping"

but yet somehow, by the end of it, this game could quite possibly be revolutionary? lol

COD has never been about the single player game and the game is revolutionary in the multiplayer aspect don't see how that's confusing.

[martinez]

I just don't get the argument that someone who plays Halo is complaining that COD is always the same when Halo is "always the same"

[2019 Champs]

how can it be revolutionary when the reviewer says that it is very similar to the past game? maybe he isn't sure what the term revolutionary means?

[martinez]

Nov 8, 2010 11:00:44 GMT -5 2019 Champs said:

how can it be revolutionary when the reviewer says that it is very similar to the past game? maybe he isn't sure what the term revolutionary means?

huh?

Overview – Most people reading this will already know exactly what to expect from the multiplayer element of Black Ops, but for those who don’t I’ll briefly touch on the more notable changes. To give you a brief overview, the mutiplayer is the absolute main reason you buy this game, it’s as solid as it gets and unlike the campaign,it actually delivers some believable combat.

COD Currency – First off, let’s look at the whole idea behind purchasing weapons, perks, upgrades, titles, attachments… pretty much everything, with COD currency. I have to admit, when I first heard about COD points or COD currency, I was fairly excited over the idea. However, after playing roughly 15 hours of multiplayer I can now honestly say that the COD currency system is starting to look like a bad idea. The only time you ever feel as though the system is worthwhile is while you’re playing wager matches, which are a blast, otherwise the system seems a little unnecessary.

Most upgrades cannot be purchased until you reach a certain level anyways, regardless of how many points or dollars you have in the bank. I hate to say it, but it almost feels as though Modern Warfare 2’s approach to earning weapon attachments by completing challenges was a better system and at the very least felt more rewarding. In Black Ops, all you have to do is wait for the attachment to become available and then purchase it, the same goes for everything else like titles, perks, weapons… etc.

Killstreaks – Killstreaks are now customizable just as they were in Modern Warfare 2. They include a generous mix of World At War killstreaks, like the Attack Dogs and the Artillery Barrage, and Modern Warfare 2 killstreaks, like the Sentry Gun and the Chopper Gunner. Thrown into the mix are a few new player-controlled killstreaks such as the Valkyrie Rocket, RC-XD and Gunship. The Gunship is a player controlled helicopter that is surprisingly not as deadly as it sounds. You’ll spend more time flying the ship than you will killing other players, which isn’t the best, but it’s also more in the spirit and continuity of Black Ops’ multiplayer.

Match Types - There’s four main match types to select from in the standard Black Ops multiplayer mode, Core, Barebones, Hardcore and Prestige. These are fairly self explanatory. The one thing I would like to note is that Hardcore Free-For-All has finally returned and the addition of Wager Matches is extremely welcome.

Theater Mode – Multiplayer also now has a newly added Theater mode which is simply put, brilliant. Every multiplayer game you play is recorded for you by Treyarch. The database can hold up to thirty of your games and lets you keep six on you at all times for anyone to view. Say, for example, you just finish a game where you went 32 – 0 and you want to show your friends just how badass you are. Well, now you can, simply add the recording from the database to your “My File Share” and voila, you and all your friends can go in and re-watch your massive pwnage at any time as long as you keep it there. You can also edit the full match recordings into smaller clips and change around the camera views and add labels and whatnot. I can’t wait to see what the hardcore Call Of Duty fanatics do with this tool. It’s going to be pretty amazing and so long as Treyarchs servers hold out and Black Ops doesn’t fry your console in the process I think the way this Theater Mode has been pulled off could potentially be borderline revolutionary for the future of online FPS videogames.

Levels – Black Ops has 14 levels for you to destroy each other in. Just like the campaign, you’ll be all over the world in these levels. There are quite a few massive levels this time around as well. Array, Cracked, WMD and Villa to name a few. There’s also a super tiny level called Nuketown where a random grenade will kill you three or four times a match. The detail to the environment in the multiplayer levels is also especially impressive and Treyarch’s signature touch and feel can be noted every time you ready up.

There’s also a brilliant little feature that allows players to vote between three different maps to determine what the next level will be while they’re waiting in the lobby.

Gun Selection - Like the killstreaks the gun selection seems to have been mostly borrowed from both Modern Warfare 2 and World At War’s armories. Familiar sights include the MP5K and the UZI submachine guns, the M16, AK47, FAL and AUG assault rifles, the SPAS-12 shotgun and the Dragunov sniper rifle. There are a total of 31 guns and this time around shotguns are considered primary weapons.

Conclusion – If you were a big fan of Modern Warfare and World At War disappointed you, you’ll likely face a similar fate with Black Ops in regards to Modern Warfare 2. This isn’t a run and gun multiplayer. It’s a lot more difficult to get kills and the level environments are perfectly suited for “camping”. It’s likely going to elicit some angry bouts of rage from various young teenage boys on YouTube who are outraged and disappointed that they can no longer run around guns-a-blazin’ and win a good amount of matches while doing so.

On the other hand, this is also going thoroughly please a huge amount of Call Of Duty players with it’s clever new features, attention to detail, massive depth and overall enjoyment.

Overview – The Black Ops Zombie mode has all the amenities of World At War’s Nazi Zombies mode. It continues to be an extremely fun side game that can stand on its own next to the likes of the campaign and multiplayer. Unfortunately, it feels as though nothings really changed.

Levels – The levels are much, much larger than the previous Nazi Zombie levels were in World At War and there’s a few new types of zombies trying to kill you but otherwise again, not much else has really changed. Even the sounds have all remained the same, “Max Ammo!” “Carpenter!” “Double Points!” The Pack-A-Punch and Perk-a-Cola machines are also back along with the mystery box and its little haunted creepy teddy bear companion.

Conclusion – There’s two ways to look at this I guess. Either A, not much has changed, but that’s a good thing because the Nazi Zombie mode was perfect as it was, or B, Treyarch dropped the ball and failed to inspire a new generation of Zombie warfare. I’m not sure which I think as of yet.

Mechanics

Conclusion – The gaming mechanics for Black Ops are very similar to those of World At War. You move like a human being, not like a Super Saiyan. You can throw grenades the distance an average human being can throw grenades, not the distance the Hulk can throw grenades. It takes you a little while to pull out and setup that 80-pound rocket launcher you’ve been carrying on your back for the past 500-feet. These are all good things though and add to the experience of the multiplayer. Aiming, reloading, running, changing weapons, etc… is all very similar to World At War. There’s no surprises here.
Successes Thus Far

-Theater mode is absolutely amazing and is an unbelievably crafty little tool by Treyarch
-Wager matches are a ton of fun and add a whole new game type to the multiplayer mix.
-The Camera Spike perk is astoundingly good.
-Hardcore mode once again has Free-For-All. Thank you God.
Gripes Thus Far

-It takes too long time to enter the multiplayer menu. Anywhere from a minute to a minute and a half, which is twice as long as it took in Modern Warfare 2.
-The strain on your console is significant and trying to access the menu while in a match can sometimes freeze the whole system. It’s happened to me three times already.
-Enemy spawn points are far too often directly behind you in multiplayer almost always leading to your death.
-Enemy gunfire sound is off. For example, an enemy attack helicopter unloading it’s miniguns fifty feet above your head should be noisy, instead it’s nearly completely silent.
-Barebones and Hardcore match modes should be available to players from the get go or at the very least at a low level. Instead they require you to be level 16 and 18 which is far too high and takes far too long.
Overall Conclusion

Black Ops isn’t just a good game, it’s borderline revolutionary. It might very well might do what Modern Warfare did three years ago for the future of FPSes. It’s campaign might not be the best, but it’s solid enough that playing through it is fun and what the campaign lacks, the multiplayer and zombie modes more than make up for. The key here is depth, and Black Ops has a metric shit ton of it.

[martinez]

yeah im just busting your balls it is a real shitty review lol

[TheNorth]

Didn't read.

[martinez]

you don't seem like the reading type anyways.

[TheNorth]

Yeah.

[TheNorth]

I'm probably going to just get this instead Reach.