Black Ops capitalizes on what every other piece of the CoD franchise has shown us, making it best in series.
I waited a while to write this review, due mainly to all of the hype associated with the game. I wanted to feel that I had a good understanding of everything the game had to offer before I sat down to write the review of one of the most anticipated games of the year.
In essence, CoD Black Ops doesn't stray too far from the successful formula of the Call of Duty franchise. It follows a particular agent of a specific branch of the armed forces, and showcases their journeys while serving. Black Ops puts a new spin on this formula though by allowing the player to experience the story in flashbacks instead of playing through them in real time. While it may not make sense at first, it creates a great and intriguing story that is well executed throughout the entire game, and culminates perfectly at the end. In my opinion, Black Ops offers the best campaign ever seen in a CoD game, making it stand out above the rest of the current games on the market, and the other games in the CoD series.
The controls are no different from what a returning CoD veteran would expect. None of the major buttons or actions were changed. For the most part, the game feels almost identical to the other CoD games, but operates on a much smoother and more enjoyable engine. The developers at Treyarch just created an enjoyable and smooth game.
Visually, Black Ops is also my favorite game in the series. The way that Black Ops handles various aspects of terrain, textual changes in the environment, weather, and humans in the game are just visually stunning. Hands down Black Ops is the best looking game in the CoD series, and it's something Treyarch should be proud of. The most impressive part to me is the execution on distinct human characteristics, emotions, and facial expressions. The characters in the game simply look and feel real. It's very very well done, and makes the gameplay, ranging from cutscenes to actual gameplay, very enjoyable.
One thing that must be discussed is the terrific voice acting in the game. Now, Sam Worthington is not my favorite. Worthington does a mediocre job at best. But Gary Oldman as Reznov in the game is just amazing. Oldman talent shines through even in the medium of a video game. The majority of the other characters in the game also do a great job with voice acting, making the game, specifically the campaign, a lot of fun.
One of the most important aspect of Black Ops is its multiplayer, and that is no doubt what the majority of Black Ops players are currently doing right now. Black Ops once again doesn't make too many significant changes in the multiplayer system. The mechanics of multiplayer are largely the same. With team deathmatch and objective-based games, the player is able to pick the particular game type that fits his play style. The only real mechanic change to this game is the different perks, guns, and killstreaks present in Black Ops. However, the leveling system of Black Ops has changed greatly. At the end of every match the player still gains experience, but also gains money. Instead of unlocking weapons as the player progresses in experience, the player is forced to buy new weapons using the money he has acquired. The same is true of weapon attachments, camouflage, and face paint available to the player. I personally love the money system. Having more of a reason to play than just leveling up really adds some new life to a typically stale multiplayer community. The money can also be used to customize the player's gamertag display, changing the background of their name and the emblem next to their name. My emblem is currently the symbol of The Watchmen =) All in all, while the changes to the multiplayer in Black Ops are mechanically different, they are fundamental changes that increase the amount of joy available from repetitive matches of killing one another.
Black Ops biggest problem is also related to its multiplayer. It's actual two problems combined into one: level design and spawn points. The level design of the majority of Black Ops levels is functionally good. The majority of the levels are large, and allow some level of choice on how to play the map. However, two problems seem to exist on nearly every map. The first is that the maps are still camping friendly. There are TOO many spots on each map that are easy to camp from. I know that it is variably impossible to design a level with no camping positions, but I feel like Black Ops just has TOO many. The other problem is that the majority of maps do not lend themselves to the practice of sniping. I've never personally been very good at sniping, and normally try to stay away from it. However, there were maps on games like MW and MW2 which were fun to snipe on and lent themselves to being successful while sniping. The opposite is true of Black Ops. I've yet to find a single map that lends itself to sniping, due mainly to the level design and sheer number of obstructive objects placed randomly throughout the level design. The other large problem was initially designed to combat camping: random spawn locations. Players spawn on the maps seemingly in completely random positions, regardless of where their opponents are located on the map. This causes players to not only be the victim of being killed immediately after spawned, but also allows players to spawn behind their enemies and shoot them in the back with their enemies having no hope of survival. In theory, it was a good system, because it was supposed to stop camping. But in practice, the system has not worked nearly as well as initially hoped.
All in all, the things that Black Ops does well far out weigh the things that it does poorly. And this is enough to make the Black Ops title stand out as the best title to be released thus far in the Call of Duty series. However, Black Ops flaws are large enough to prevent the game from receiving a perfect score of 10, which is why I must give it a 9 instead.