Hi everyone, I thought I would post up my thoughts on the Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer. The review will be split into different sections.

Online Multiplayer

Maps

The maps are nothing special, and look like crap really, but they play really well. What I've found is that in the Infinity Ward games (CoD4 and MW2) the maps look bright, colourful, and are really interesting to look at but sometimes the design of the maps is poor. In the Treyarch games (WaW and BO) the maps look really gloomy, and aren't interesting at all, it's all a little bit samey but they have a nice variety of maps and the layout of them is nearly always excellent.

There are a few maps where using a sniper rifle is a valid choice, and the obligatory tiny map is a nice surprise. Called Nuketown, it's about the same size as Dome from WaW and is very linear with really only 3 routes from one side of the street to the other. However, the action is fast-paced and fun, and you can choose any class and do well.

Overall maps rating: 8/10

Customization

The customization this year has been ramped up to the next level. If you decide to choose a red dot sight or a reflex sight, it's possible to change the reticle from a dot to something like a skull, you can change the colour of the reticle and also the colour of the lens. You can add your clan tag and your own emblem to the gun - a new feature is that you can create your own emblem. While a good idea in theory, the amount of people using inappropriate emblems is ridiculous. A lot of people are using swastikas, including some with the clan tag of 'Jews', and somebody else I saw had an emblem with a plane flying into one of two towers. Really, I'd be happier if Treyarch took this out of the game, but they have added a report function and so hopefully these people can be punished in some way (maybe a temporary ban from online).

You now have three equipment choices - Lethal, Tactical, and Equipment. Lethal is either a frag, a semtex or a tomahawk (essentially a mini axe which you throw, a bit like the throwing knife from MW). Tactical is your special grenade, and equipment is a placeable object, like a claymore, motion sensor, jammer, or C4.

There are a large number of guns as well, and they all seem to be well balanced.

One of the differences in this game, is that you have to pay for your guns. While playing you can earn CoD Points by completing contracts which you set yourself, and just by playing you'll pick a few up. You can also play Wager Matches, which I'll come to later. When you reach a certain level, you unlock a gun but you still have to buy it. No longer do you have to complete tedious challenges to get that red dot sight, just get enough CoD points together and it's yours. You pay for everything - equipment, guns, attachments, perks, killstreaks, new emblems etc.

Gameplay

The gameplay is great. All the weapons are balanced, there seem to be far less n00b-tubers, and because Stopping Power has been taken out everybody is on a level playing field. I've encountered one problem in the knife lunge, where you can effectively teleport across a room and knife them. IMO the knife should just be a swipe in front of you, without a lunge of any kind.

Combat Training

Combat Training is a new mode in which you set up your game with variable settings, and then proceed to fight against AI bots. I was hoping for great things from this, especially seeing as my Xbox Live was running out two days before Black Ops came out and was really looking forward to this as it was what Treyarch called 'the CoD multiplayer experience , now offline'. Shame that it isn't offline. You have to have an Xbox Live Gold account to play it. This really annoyed me, because it meant I had to create a new xbox live account (giving me a free month of gold) in order to play online or combat training.

But the Combat Training is good. A few problems: a) AI players, when shooting, will stand still. b) They will always rush forward looking for kills, rather than staying back and c) They don't use any equipment as far as I can see.

Overall Ratings

Online Multiplayer: 9/10

Combat Training: 7/10