Everything they say is true; there is nothing innovative, it's linear, it's short but it's A LOT OF FUN too!

User Rating: 8.3 | Black (Platinum Hits) XBOX
By Anarky | Review Date:
I can't remember the last time that a game caused me to start laughing out loud because of joy at the virtual mayhem. Maybe the first time I played HALO and the Flood first came at me. In BLACK, the first time I shot something that caused an entire building to explode I was giggling like an escaped lunatic.

All the reviews are absolutely correct. There are a lot of things to fault about this game: It is completely linear, it is WAAAY too short, it isn't innovative in the least, the story is more or less incomprehensible, the physics are hit or miss, etc.

What those reviews seem to forget though is the point of playing video games is to have FUN, this game is a HELL OF A LOT OF FUN!!

I'm going to tell you that I recently got a new surround sound system which enabled me to connect my XBOX through the optical line and get true digital surround sound. (Don't believe those that tell you the XBOX can't do digital sound, you just need to buy an optical cable for it). The reason I bring that up is that part of what made this game so fun for me is that it has REALLY GOOD SOUND! The surround sound effects are the best I've heard on an Xbox game, the gun sounds, the explosions, the cartridges hitting the ground all enhance the game tremendously. Especially the explosions and there are a LOT of explosions in this game. It suffers from the stereotypical FPS red barrel syndrome. Most of the vehicles in the game, even old wrecks in a junkyard like level (the level takes place in an insane asylum, but for some reason there is a junkyard in front of it, maybe they rent out the space to a local garage) blow up if you shoot them enough.

I am a FPS fan but for the most part I prefer the ones that have a semblance of tactics to them such as the PC versions of Ghost Recon, Rainbow 6, SWAT and the like. I do like the occasional mindless FPS though IF it is done well and this one is done really well.

It is a very short game but I bought it used so I didn't feel ripped off. I DO recommend this game but I wouldn't want to pay $50 for it not because of the game's quality but totally based on the quantity (length) of it.

IF you have a good surround sound setup and what some mindless mayhem for a few hours then you can't go wrong with BLACK!

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