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Call Of Duty: Black Ops hits stores today and if you’re a fan of the series, this edition is a must-have.
Black Ops manages to achieve what I’ve been craving in CoD multiplayer since CoD4, down to the most finite details. Though I miss last year’s Spec Ops mode, there is so much in the single-player and delightful zombie slaughterfests to be had that it’s impossible to be bored or dissatisfied with the experience as a whole. – Abbie Heppe, G4 TV
A short history lesson, if you will, before we dive into the Call of Duty: Black Ops review: Call of Duty first appeared in 2003 and quickly set the standard for first person WWII shooters. Then, they just kept coming. At about the same time even The History Channel figured out it couldn’t survive on Hitler alone, Call of Duty 4 launched the series into the modern day and quickly became the highest selling game in franchise history. Though a solid game, next year’s World at War seemed passé, remembered more for Nazi zombies then recouping CoD4’s user base. Then there was Modern Warfare 2: controversial, sure, but initially only for the “No Russian” level, then for its notorious glitches, rampant cheating and delayed patches. With the majority of Infinity Ward jumping ship, we questioned if we’d ever really see Modern Warfare 3 and where the series would go next.
Black Ops, in stores today, is both the embodiment of Modern Warfare and the advancement of Treyarch’s installments into the modern era. The game succeeds in nudging the time period several years forward into the years of Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis while conceding that everyone really loves to shoot their friends in the modern day, anachronistic multiplayer.
The Pros
- Fantastically rebalanced multiplayer in the vein of Modern Warfare 2
- Lengthy and exciting single player campaign
- Tons of added multiplayer content like new modes and personalization
The Cons
- Single-player campaign dabbles in cliché and unintentional hilarity
- Animations can be quirky, even in multiplayer
Even with all the rebalancing and removal of game elements, Black Ops is by no means a pared down version of MW2. Beyond the brand new modes, customization, theater, extensive stat tracking, combat training AND zombie content, the game adds (and brings over from WaW) several new weapons, attachments and kill streaks like the RC XD remote controlled bomb car, nova gas, napalm strikes, attack dogs, defensive anti-air turrets, a flamethrower attachment and much more. My favorite is definitely the RC car, which acts as both recon and a weapon and most of the maps have special tunnels explicitly for its usage.
Past all the blatant changes to multiplayer, the area where Black Ops really succeeds is in the details: tweaks like letting you back your whole party out of a lobby rather than wait for the last person to figure it out, or fading out flags that block your point of view in Domination (and other team game modes) are minor but significant changes that illustrate how thoroughly Treyarch has fine-tuned the multiplayer experience.
Now, pardon me, I’m so close to unlocking the rainbow pony background for my emblem that I’ve been eyeing since day one, so I need to get back to merciless online destruction. – Abbie Heppe
Please check out Abbie Heppe and Adam Sessler’s full reviews at G4TV now.
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