Call of Duty: Black Ops Review
Treyarch’s latest Call of Duty outing is arguably their biggest and most important to date. After the near dissolution of Infinity Ward, Call of Duty fans are left with the B-Team. Luckily Treyarch is coming off the heels of the surprisingly popular Call of Duty: World at World. Despite it being set in the tired era of WWII, it was well received and was seen as a huge improvement over the terribly weak Call of Duty 3. Black Ops’ bizarre and risky premise positions Treyarch to become THE developer of Call of Duty if they deliver a top shelf experience. It’s much like when Harmonix left Activison, and they handed Guitar Hero over to Neversoft, except in this case, Treyarch has a lot of experience making Call of Duty games.
Black Ops is set in the heart of the cold war, during the Kennedy administration and beyond. It explores a possible yet highly improbable plot line that until the end of the game is largely confusing. The majority of the game your character, Alex Mason, is being interrogated by an unknown party. Through the interrogation process, Mason begins his story and explains what he remembers about relevant missions he had worked leading up to the interrogation. As he talks about the missions, you play through them.
This is a story development tool that has been used in movies before and it successfully communicates the gravity of Mason’s situation and past missions. The interrogation sequence last most of the game and serves as the glue for the unfolding story missions. Your fondness for the story of the game is going to be directly related to your fondness for the romanticism of the Cold War. Since the Cold War is one of the government’s most secretive and fascinating eras, its very easy to weave a conspiracy theorist dream of a plot only using 2 or 3 pieces of actual fact, and Black Ops does this perfectly. The majority of the game is played in awesome scenario after awesome scenario, and this is where Black Ops truly shines. The diverse environments are truly unique and the tension and mood of the settings keep the game fresh, even as you go into the final areas.
However, Treyarch’s story telling talents apparently haven’t reached the level of their Infinity Ward counterparts. At the conclusion of Both Modern Warfare games, the end felt like a huge global issue. Almost like the events of the game have a greater meaning and consequence than initially suggested. This is where Black Ops fails. The end, without spoiling it, is weak. The game’s premise and story structure writes a check that the end just can’t cash. The predictable plot twist at the end feels like a failed ode to the Bioshock story structure. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, the epilogue is even worse. Treyarch tries to pull off a giant mind fuck and it falls flat before it even reveals the final twist.
While we’re on the topic, let’s air some more dirty laundry in Black Ops. The voice acting, despite being voiced by famous real actors, is mediocre at best. Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation, and Clash of the Titans) voices Alex Mason, and many times Worthington’s American Accent disappears, revealing his Australian roots. Also, whoever thought it was a good idea, to cast Ice Cube as a character from the 60’s should be fired. I’m sure there are many other games Activision has that Ice Cube could be perfect for, but a period piece is not one of them. Ice Cube typically sounds like a rapper, and continues to do so in Black Ops.
There are a few spots in Black Ops when the waypoints telling you where to go next are either wrong, or don’t work properly when you walk near them. Most of the time, this is not a big issue. As for the ones that don’t trigger immediately, you can just back up and try again, and they usually trigger quickly after that. However there is a very large problem with a very specific level regarding the placement of a waypoint marker. The part starts on the top of a hill with an infinite number of enemies spawning at the bottom of the hill. The waypoint marker is at the foot of the hill. It seems as if you would need to kill enemies and work your way down the hill. Well, after dying about 10 times, it became very obvious that I either suck as Black Ops or I was going about the level incorrectly.
After looking for alternate routes, I just decided to potentially make my way down the hill feverishly hiding from enemies. Once I reached the marker, nothing happened. I ended up running in the most logical direction to progress the action, and died several more times. Come to find out that somewhere on the hill is a barrel of napalm you need to pour out to light on fire. This will end the infinite stream of Viet Cong coming your way. The game does little to tell you what to do. There are a few vague voice prompts but largely the game just wants you to figure the shit out. I made it through the hard way, but those of you looking to play Black Ops, save yourself the trouble and just pour out the napalm and move on.
That may sound like a lot of problems but in the grand scheme of the game they are tiny. The gameplay is smooth and the frame rate is solid. After playing Medal of Honor, Black Ops’ framerate is greatly appreciated. It seems a bit easier than previous Call of Duty games, but that’s pretty relative to your skill level. The single player experience is on par or maybe even eclipses the Modern Warfare games. While it still feels like Call of Duty, it’s definitely structured and designed unlike any other game in the franchise. Treyarch did a great job setting Black Ops apart from the well established formula. The campaign will take you about 6 hours to complete, which has become a standard time for First Person action games. Despite the bummer of an ending, the story benefits from just being really cool.
Zombies are back…but I really don’t care. The Zombie chapters have many characteristics that I simply don’t like in other games. It’s a neat addition, it just not for me. I will stick with Left 4 Dead. I’m also not even going to pretend like a played multiplayer. If you are into Call of Duty Multiplayer, I don’t have to sell this game to you. You probably already own it.
Overall Black Ops seemed significantly more violent that its predecessors. There’s a lot of close quarters neck stabbing and a lot of scripted hand to hand murders in the cut scenes. That’s not a complaint, I was just surprised at how graphic they let it get. The vehicular combat is quick to pick up a do, but is difficult enough to be enjoyable, especially the helicopter sequence.
Black Ops is a top tier FPS that stands up well to its Modern Warfare brothers. If Treyarch continues to put together intriguing single player experiences such as this, I think I’m ok with them being the premier Call of Duty developer.
Verdict: Fake history has never been more fun
