Black Ops had potential...
Multiplayer. I have a hard time describing the multiplayer component of this game without including the word "JOKE." If you are a fan of the recent Call of Duty games; like COD4, MW2, World at War; then you might be majorly disappointed by this game. I think the easiest way for me to tell you about the multiplayer if you haven't already played it is with a pro's and con's list. Which will include comparisons to other COD games.
Pros:
1) Split-screen online is cool (like halo but with only 2 players instead of 4)
2) Dual-Magazine attachment (another magazine tapped upside down to the magazine currently loaded in the gun, which allows for a faster reload. Something I always wanted to see)
3) Wager Matches (Fun for a little while, but some of the cons listed bellow ruin its potential)
4) Guns cannot be fired fully automatic with precision, for the most part.
5) The perk 1 you pick determines what your guy looks like, so you can carry any weapon you want with a guillie suit for example
6) getting killstreaks (MW2) isn't the bread and butter of the game.
7) the halo-like theater mode is cool
8) A lot of cool stats to look through like k/d ratio's and accuracies with each weapon
Cons:
1) The levels are far too small to even think about sniping in (except the level array)
2) You cannot quick scope. There is literally a 2 or 3 second period from when you bring the scope of a sniper rifle to your face that you just cannot shoot accurately, the bullet just won't go anywhere near where your aiming.
3) Sniper rifles, even the bolt action L96 (AWP from CS), rarely 1-shot the person your shooting at. whats the point? since 99% of the levels are close-mid range.
4) Shotguns have an effective range of about 15ft.....pointless.....
5) The game has a horrible system of spawning, people will literally spawn 10ft directly behind you with you pretty much already in their sights. All they need to do is pull the trigger and they got a free kill.
6) the 1911 .45 pistol is one the weakest guns in the game. a 1911? really? The purpose of that gun in real life is to kill people, no other purpose. a .45 ACP bullet is pretty big, in fact it is 5 hundredths of an inch smaller in diameter than a .50 cal round which we ALL know does some serious damage.
7) You cannot snipe in this game (making this pretty clear) because you have to camp (see con #2), but you can't camp (see con #5)
8) If you have any expectations, at all, for someone to die after shooting them (registered hits) 10+ times with an assault rifle. dont play this game, or only play hardcore mode.
9) Hardcore mode has a very limited variety of game types to play.
10) Plenty of new options to play with, but if you want to win and score high, 99% of the new and old options are out of the question (ineffective). There is very little variety at all when people get competitive.
11) The only SMG I would advise using is the ak-74u, so 1 out of 9 smgs
12) The most commonly played maps are the ones where spawn killing is the most prominent, and people have the option to rematch and vote to play that map again. sometimes you have to endure an onslaught of spawn killing two games in a row.
13) no matter what connection your ping rating says you have, you always feel like your lagging (very common complaint)
14) Guns that shoot almost the exact same bullet, if not the exact same bullet, do different amounts of damage simply because the guns vary from semi auto, full auto, or bolt action.
15) in MW2 I actually liked trying to complete challenges in order to unlock the cool emblems and titles, but now everything is broken down into very simple pieces which allow the user to customize their tags. I like this feature, but they shouldn't have removed completely the premade ones.
16) Some of the cool gore effects that could be seen in WAW can only briefly been seen the single player, and they are zero cool gore effects in the multiplayer
17) if you want to consistently score decently, you have to use an assault rifle.
18) supressors make "guns" into "bb-guns" (unless on hardcore) A bullet is a bullet, especially if were talking about a range of less than 50 yards.
My #1 con: the spawn killing. the spawns in this game are the worst aspect of it. People spawn behind you, you spawn behind other people, you spawn directly in the sights of other people, you spawn within inches of a grenade thats about to explode, you spawn in the sights of a killstreak reward. I can honestly say that about 55-70% of my total deaths were within 10 seconds of spawning. I don't think I'm alone here when I say this, but I like to have a chance to play the game, and maybe get some kills or complete an objective, when I spawn
I don't expect games to be realistic, in fact I prefer for them not to be, but some aspects of this game are just ridiculous. I own a .45, and I am well aware of its lethality especially in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing (assuming "black ops" would fall into this category) so the "power" of the 1911 really annoys me.
All in all I am very disappointed with this game, although I will probably keep playing it because all my friends own this game. It's a good game to mess around with friends on, but if you get competitive like I do, this game will frustrate you to NO END. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining, since my kill/death ratio is 2.17, but I cannot help but dwell on the short-comings of this game because they are the one's that bug me in every game, but this game is an EXTREME case.