Call Of Duty: Black Ops Review

12 Nov 2010 at 11:40:07 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Poor Treyarch. Since the amusingly-monikered Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, they've played second fiddle to super-studio Infinity Ward,. Even World at War was damned with faint praise thanks to comparisons to the rest of the series. Still, they look to be the lead Call of Duty studio now that Infinity Ward has imploded, and Black Ops is their chance to really show the public their stuff.

And Call of Duty: Black Ops (or Codblops, if you like hilarious contractions) is good. It meticulously fixes a lot of the problems apparent in extended play of Modern Warfare 2 and carves out its own identity in the Call of Duty franchise. But – you were waiting for that, weren't you? - I'm going to end up damning it with faint praise anyway, because despite superb multiplayer, the return of the Zombies mode, and a perfectly adequate single-player campaign, there are still elements that don't quite match up to its competition in the field of first-person gunnery.

If the name “Black Ops” led you to expect some form of history-bending deniable ops, or maybe just some slightly more low-key gunplay than in previous Call of Duty games, then you're going to be disappointed. If anything, the action is perhaps more over-the-top than in previous titles and is frequently reminiscent of ludicrous 80s action movies like Commando. The first level is a distinctly high-profile assassination attempt on Fidel Castro and things only scale up from there: by the time the credits roll you'll have blown up Viet Cong camps with a helicopter gunship, blasted a Russian gulag to hell with a minigun, and  had an enjoyable time firing off a shotgun that sets people on fire. There are a whole gamut of silly weapons, from the aforementioned shotgun through spring-loaded knives and a crossbow that fires explosive-tipped bolts, and they're all fun to play with.

The plot, on the other hand, moves out of the action-thriller territory of Modern Warfare into a globe-trotting spy-fi thriller – so Commando starring James Bond, if you like. Protagonist Alex Mason (no, that one's Alec Mason) begins the game strapped to a chair and pumped full of drugs, to facilitate his interrogation by a shadowy figure. As he recounts old missions to his interrogator, you play through them.

It's a neat framing device, with each little in-mission reveal making you further question the identity and motives of his captors and just what the antagonist's evil plan is, and unlike Modern Warfare 2, the plot isn't completely batshit insane. It's pulp, certainly, but it's entertaining pulp that actually makes sense, and it's fascinating enough that you'll want to keep playing to see what happens next and how things turn out, despite the characters being as well-rounded as a cube. There are plenty of film references to be caught throughout the plot, but even mentioning the names would likely spoil some of the reveals, so I'll refrain.

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