Black is a in every sense of the word a shooter, but that's all it really is.
First the good things, Black has amazing visuals. They are by far some of the best that I’ve seen on the Xbox. Grenades create a very convincing dust cloud, machines kick up dust as each bullet hits, and RPGs leave behind a great smoke trail. Not only do these explosions all look great, but the thing that’s so impressive is the amount of things going on at once. There could be an explosion from a grenade over here, several machine gunners firing at you, all while a building is blowing up. Overall the visuals are fantastic.
The sound is also another highlight in Black. All of the guns have very unique sounds, but it’s the explosions that will get the most praise. Grenades have a particular booming sound, and when something blows up you can feel it. Needless to say, something better than the speakers on the TV will be needed to fully enjoy this game.
Now on to the things that I don’t like about Black. First of all the nonsensical story. The story is told through live action cut scenes. Now that’s not my problem, in fact I quite enjoy the style used in them, but it’s what happens in these cut scenes that doesn’t make sense. Random things happening on screen, voice recordings that don’t make sense. Overall terribly done. By the end of the game you’re not really sure you’ve accomplished anything and it the ending is cliffhanger which I’m not sure will ever be answered.
Level design is another particular problem with Black. The games level design goes from good, too bad, to terrible. The first few opening levels are great. Lots of room to run around, astatically pleasing, and you always know what you are doing and where you are going. As you progress through the game the level design begins to deteriorate. In one particular level I was supposed to gain entrance to a compound. I cleaned out all of the bad guys and began looking for some sort of entrance to this compound. I found what I ended up walking around for a few minutes not finding anything. I had seen a bunker, but there was no way inside it. It turns out that you had to throw a few grenades at it to cause it to explode. My problem is that in no way does the game suggest this to the player. There are plenty more examples in the game, but I don’t feel like listing them all. Another thing I found was that as the game progressed freedom also began lacking. Things like not being able to walk off edges, and being forced to walk a very straight line.
Yet another problem with Black is the amount of bullets it takes to kill someone. There is no way that a man can survive 14 rounds from an M249 SAW. This can create a lot of frustration, especially in the later levels.
But by far my biggest problem with Black is that it really doesn’t do anything original. It is a shooter in every sense of the word. There are no puzzles to solve, you never have to plan any real strategy to beat a group of enemies, you just hold down the trigger until nothing is alive. I’ll admit the destruction you cause is pretty cool, but after a while you realize that’s all there is to this game. Nothing more, nothing less.
Black is simply put “a pretty shooter.” It doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen before, there’s nothing particularly memorable about it. It just a basic shooter and I’ve started to expect more from my games these days. But if you’re just looking for a game to release those inner frustrations and not have to think, well Black could be your game.