Welcome to the world of Black
So you've heard the hype. "Gun porn" it was called. But does Black live up to it's expectations? If you're the hard core, no nonsense, balls to the wall action junkie like myself. HELL YES.
What we have here are 8 missions chocked full of enemies willing to throw themselves in front of your bullets for your enjoyment. Each mission is settled in a, what can be said "Typical action locals." From the streets of a ruined European city, to the thick forest just outside a a border crossing. A dockyard, an abandoned Asylum, an industrial factory, etc and so forth. Sure these aren't the most inventive destinations, but this is the definition of Black. Nothing complicated, simple and to the point. And here it works.
Gameplay: Take what defines a FPS, shooting a gun, then amplify it ten folds. Moving through each level is tense because you know every time you walk into a new, perfectly clean room... it's about to be given a face lift. The first thing that can be said is that this is NOT run and gun shooter. You are NOT super human, in fact you'll take not much more damage than your enemy before you die. One of the famous tag lines for Black was "Every bullet is your baby" Don't believe it, bullets are not your babies, Cover is. Cover is the most vital thing in Black. When you do in fact initiate a shootout with a slew of enemies, the first thing that should be done is retreat for cover. Then you can move from cover to cover, taking out any bad guy that happens to be out in the open. But none of this really matters if the shooting isn't fun, in Black... it is. The guns feel very powerful, from your standard AK-47, to the monstrous SAW. At first though you won;'t notice, many many things in the world of Black is destructible. Not Red Faction, Geo-mode, destructible.. but more "Action movie-esque" Cars explode, as do fuel containers. Windows shatter, pillars erupt with their concrete showering down to the ground. Bullets pop off of metal surfaces with a satisfying "pop" and a reassuring spark.
Graphics: Gun porn? Maybe when they said this they meant the detail that was put into the weapon models, because is that;s the case... I might have blown my load. It's almost out of place, the gun looks THAT good. Not saying that everything else is bad, quite the contrary actually. But what I am saying is that the guns look that much better than everything else. It's really something to be had. One of my favorite things about the graphics are the lighting effects. Example: On mission 6, Asylum. After you enter the Asylum and begin to explore, you'll begin to see a shift in color spectrums. One moment the room is a very cool, very mellow bluish cobalt color. Then once you enter a hallway that branches off, everything is given a very dirty brown tint. Then going back to the main room, you see the brown tint seems to overcame the blue, but when you enter the color shifts very naturally back to blue. It's a very subtle color scheme change that makes the overall feeling of a gunfight that much more meaningful. Other things like explosions are crisp and full of rich orange texture. Very nicely done overall.
Sound: I won't spend much time with this. The sound has been the most hyped part of Black. So I'll just say this: It IS what they said it would be. Maybe even better. If you want to know what I'm talking about, go see for yourself. Read any of the previews about the sounds of Black. It's all there. I'll sum it up: The sound of the guns going off creates an amazing thud that will rock your sound system and make you believe you're in the movie Saving Private Ryan. Ditto for the explosions. It's all sharp and extremely well done.
Value: My only complaint. The game is short. 8-10 hours until you complete it. But for me, I will definitely go back and replay missions until the cows come home. But it's still little disappointing that more wasn't done to make the game longer. One can say that it's short because in a sense all you're doing is shooting people, and that can get boring after awhile. So if you make it short, you end the game before it gets old. I happen to agree with that. I also think that it's better to have 10 hours of a intense action packed fun filled game, then 10 hours of fun nestled in 20 hours of filler. Oh and multiplayer? I don't play much multiplayer games unless they are called "Battlefield 2" so it doesn't bother me that it wasn't included.
Criterion proved they could take an idea, and make it bigger and better with Burnout. And they've taken that formula and turned it into a FPS. The simpleness of Black is what makes it brilliant.
If you're looking for 10 hours of sheer action and adrenaline, then Black is for you.