Last year's praise-filled reviews of Modern Warfare 2 were followed by an astonishing backlash from gamers.
Critics were initially wowed by the thrilling set-pieces, tactical co-op and tried-and-tested multiplayer. But annoying bugs and game-ruining exploits spoilt the fun for many, whilst the single-player game seemed decreasingly stellar as the months past.
With hindsight, suddenly those 10/10 reviews didn't look quite so fair. And, boy, did hardcore gamers let us pundits know they thought we'd got it wrong.
Critiquing Call Of Duty: Black Ops, then, requires some trepidation. With CoD cynicism at an all-time high, it's going to to difficult to say anything celebratory without you lot not believing a word of it.
Illegal Operation
As far as the campaign's concerned, Black Ops blows Modern Warfare 2 out of the water. Make no mistake: This is the coolest Call of Duty yet. It's action-packed, inventive, interesting and - for the first time ever in this series - actually offers something resembling a compelling narrative.
You wake up on an interrogation chair, bright lights in your eyes and a masked, robotic voice blaring demands from behind frosted glass. You're Alex Mason, a deadly Studies and Observations Group operative. It's pretty clear from the off that you have a secret past - and that someone, or something, is willing to torture you until you spill the beans.
What this information is and who's holding you become clearer as your interrogation progresses. At time passes, you revisit decades of classified SOG battles across the globe via flashbacks.
You can probably tell this is already a more compelling setup than anything the pair of CoD studios have ever attempted before. Treyarch pulls it off with aplomb.
Every scenario in the game is interesting and clearly defined: You'll visit the brutal jungle battlefields of Vietnam in what we'd describe as 'the ghillie suit level with more stabbing'; You'll drive a motor bike in a high speed chase through a military compound; You'll sneak through a huge and intimidating missile launch site and hold on to the flight stick to take part in helicopter dogfights. Oh yes.
That's about as much as we can tell you without strolling into spoiler territory - and we wouldn't want to do that, particularly as the Black Ops missions you haven't seen in the press screenshots and trailers are arguably the best.
Treyarch has thrown half of Hollywood's smart alec ideas from the past 10 years into Black Ops. Eavesdrop our post-review completion pub conversation with other critics and you would've heard references like 'Fight Club', 'SAW', 'Inglorious Bastards', 'Das Boot' and 'f***ing brilliant war movies'.
Credit where credit's due then: Black Ops' twisting and deep narrative is a brave move on Treyarch's part, as many of the game's target audience probably won't have the faintest idea what's going on. Especially the Xbox Live kids. You know who I mean.
It's not Shakespeare, sure, but - without spoiling anything - Black Ops could have been a great movie. Treyarch's obviously put a lot of effort in to the plot, and it leaves Modern Warfare 2 looking like a comparatively mindless shooting game.
Comments
44 comments so far...
Mogs on 9 Nov '10 said:
Hmm, will wait for Homefront I think. This is a bit Medal of Honor lite.
badgerpog on 9 Nov '10 said:
But is it any longer than MW2?
Random Hangman on 9 Nov '10 said:
This review may actually sway me to get this... But there is still the nagging doubt based on MW2 and particularly how poor the MP maps felt after MW1.
Moorpheus on 9 Nov '10 said:
I'm not interested in the multiplayer side of things (never liked CoD online) so it's single player all the way for me.
Judging by various reviews, it seems like a rent at best for me - I'm not paying £40+ for a MW2-esque campaign again.
jimsmells on 9 Nov '10 said:
What about zombies?
ricflair on 9 Nov '10 said:
EG gave it an 8, IGN UK and US an 8.5. Seems much more like it really, solid but not amazing scores.
You can't bring out a yearly updated game and hardly change the formula and expect it to keep on getting 9's and 10's across the board.
Think I read the campaign is about 7 hours. That would be ok, but for me the replay value of games with non existant AI is pretty much zero.
Moribundman on 9 Nov '10 said:
Ooooooooh I've owned every single bloody one of these and not really bothered playing them properly due to simultaeous releases that sucked me in. This one looks very shiny though.
If it wasn't for Fallout/Fable/RDR:Undead/AC:Brotherhood I'd be all over this...
And will be in a couple of months
ps. Saw the grubby workshy students in their folding chairs on Oxford street last night (at least I hope they were students and hadn't taken today off work just to go to a midnight opening
Good on you lads, but rather you than me...
Triffic on 9 Nov '10 said:
Got it from Amazon pre-order yesterday and completed it yesterday. It's the best SP CoD yet (better than MW1) by some distance. It's a really, really excellent game. Only played the MP briefly, but seems really good too.
Also... pump action grenade launchers and AK-47s with Flame-thrower attachments > Everything.
MattyR95 on 9 Nov '10 said:
The multi-player looks extremely good, campaign looks extremely good also for an fps. But its the setting that makes me want to buy it, the cold war is the era of deception and all the secret wars etc. I'm not an fps fanatic, so it wont be day one or close to day one for me. Christmas perhaps.
pRM8 on 9 Nov '10 said:
Seems like a decent game, pity its from activision.
pmantis on 9 Nov '10 said:
8.5 sums up the game spot on from what i've played so far. With the multiplayer i've already found heavily ranked players owning everyone with better guns. The jump2prone thing is f**king useless. The matchmaking for the zombie mode is great. But you only get 3 maps
The story ain't bad. But i miss soap and price.
Nick33 on 9 Nov '10 said:
I've been playing it all morning online, it's good. All the BS from MW2 is gone. No more predator missile landing on your head every two minutes. No more people running around knifing, I haven't even seen anyone using a noob tube. The maps are a lot more interesting than MW2. And the urge to rage quit is totally gone. It just seems a lot more balanced. Only issue I have is the graphics could be better online, MW2 still looks better.
Other than that it's a better game for me, feels different than MW because it's built on the WaW engine, but it's still enjoyable. Everyone online seems to be having a good time.
Nick33 on 9 Nov '10 said:
The replay value is high, it has lots of content on and offline. But hey, you just want to hate because it's COD so carry on. It's got 90+ on metacritic, so it seems they can release a yearly COD and expect good scores. Does that make you a sad panda?
murph_77 on 9 Nov '10 said:
Get out much yesterday or is it really short as are most games nowadays?
I have it but have to do a days work before it graces my PS3! Counting down the minutes.
seabeast on 9 Nov '10 said:
Great review.
The Campaign takes around 7-8 hours if you do it on hardened, based one what 2 friends have told me.
ricflair on 9 Nov '10 said:
I'm hardly hating am I?? I'd hate to see how you'd react to some of the comments about it!
I'm not really into the multiplayer, and having played MW and MW2 I'm pretty sure that I won't have any incentive to go over the campaign again. It was just a comment, not hating. I find the constant 'hate' for the game tiresome too - I just would've been nice if the AI had played out a little differently, that's all.
I know the focus for this game is massively on the multiplayer. I haven't slagged it off and I know loads of people like it. It's just not for me. Is that OK? 8.5 is still a good score. Vanquish is my possible GOTY and it's metacritic is in the 80s (BO currently has 90 on 360 and 89 on PS3), I'm fine with that - I didn't need to accuse people of 'hating' it becaus eit's not for them.
piccadillio on 9 Nov '10 said:
This is how much I hate it. I should know better than to play CoD on Veteran, but I hoped that just maybe they'd changed things a little. No. Enemies still know exactly where you are, can still shoot around walls, you still take 2 shots to die and you still have to clear out the entire population of a zone on your own despite having 20+ AI 'comrades.'
Why do I buy these games?
svd_grasshopper on 9 Nov '10 said:
CVG rolls out the hype machine for the big guns once more.
how come vanquish gets a 7/10? something fresh and exciting, stylish, masses of fun and exhilaration. superb physics and rewarding tough old school action. sleeper game of the year. did you even play it?!
... and this yearly update, template shooter gets a 9.3
clean your tongue CVG. it's all dirty.
Cryotek on 9 Nov '10 said:
*yawn*
Maybe I'll get this in the bargain bin in a couple years.
Desmondo on 9 Nov '10 said:
I've only had a little go on this but 1st impressions is that it all looks and feels a little cheapo in every department, was a bit disapointed actually.
Obviously need to give it a bit more of a play see if I can get into it
I can't see how this game is getting 9.3s and the like
slick loose on 9 Nov '10 said:
Sounds good to me, except for...
I hated that in W@W...
digifreak277 on 9 Nov '10 said:
Borrowed this off a friend until i can buy it myself, it is a beast
theideal on 9 Nov '10 said:
Infinitely spawning enemies = Leave it on the shelf.
What is this, 1995?
Jensonjet on 9 Nov '10 said:
Infinite respawning enemy, poor AI, no co-op campaign, arcade style multiplayer (radars and perks). I preferred this game when I knew nothing about it. Oh well at least next year looks like the year of the shooter!
jack the vampire on 9 Nov '10 said:
The games a joke, so far I'm on the third level stuck in a corridor the respawn line won't stop and my ai allies are gawking at a corner shooting a pipe! Every year I fall for the hype and every year I come away disappointed.
dubplate240 on 9 Nov '10 said:
Anyone tried the 3D yet? It's Black Ops biggest selling point for me as I'm itching for a 3D FPS since Crysis was delayed.
Mmmmgrolsch on 9 Nov '10 said:
The_KFD_Case on 9 Nov '10 said:
"As far as the campaign's concerned, Black Ops blows Modern Warfare 2 out of the water. Make no mistake: This is the coolest Call of Duty yet. It's action-packed, inventive, interesting and - for the first time ever in this series - actually offers something resembling a compelling narrative."
I'll wait to see what "Homefront" offers. If I do end up purchasing "Black Ops" at some point, it will be second hand. I refuse to knowingly support Activision and Bobby Kotick.
richard99 on 9 Nov '10 said:
I still don't really trust the reviews when it comes to CoD. I'll see what the verdict is when the hype dies down.
Shame about the AI and the linearity though, for me fixing that's the only way it'll match Halo.
The_KFD_Case on 9 Nov '10 said:
Defensive much?
The Bossman on 9 Nov '10 said:
Calm down Mr Meldrew, have a lovely cup of tea and put your feet up. There, there.
churchy on 10 Nov '10 said:
You're right CVG. I don't believe you.
ledickolas on 10 Nov '10 said:
9.3? Just no.
A game that plainly refuses to move with the times does not deserve a score like that. It just seems that you can make things shinier and louder and it will fool people into thinking it's progress.
What confuses me is that they obviously have instilled AI routines for the new 'multiplayer training mode' so why couldn't they have gone the whole hog and advanced the single player campaign with it?
And whoever said this game was based on the W@W and not the MW one. W@W was itself based off of Infinity Ward's engine.
gothchild on 10 Nov '10 said:
I'm one of those apparent insignificant minority who buys a game mainly for the single player. Sounds like it's more dumb shooting galleries like MW2. I wish for god's sake someone would realise that the stealthy sections and parts where you were pinned down in MW1 were fantastic, instead of this running around childishly shooting anything and not getting punished.
Anyway, whine over. I probably will end up getting this, what with the zombie mode and multiplayer too. However, I'm going in with far less excitement than MW2 purely because no game has ever let me down as much as Infinity Ward's last singleplayer campaign.
slick loose on 10 Nov '10 said:
So it turns out it's a lot better on 360 then on PS3? Yet the PS3 is supposed to have the more advanced console AND disc...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... off?page=1
So, lazy developers OR the PS3 is just a bitch to make a game on OR...it just can't handle it!
PS3_fannyboy on 11 Nov '10 said:
Just don't think I could bring myself to downscale from the 256-player epic that is MAG, to be honest...
ricflair on 11 Nov '10 said:
I guess it's a mixture of the first two - it seems the PS3 is harder to develop for, but can be gotten around if you work hard enough and do things differently to 360/PC development.
As if Activision were going to spend more time and money on it though, when they could just get it out the door in a slightly inferior state and still not effect the money they make. I assume it would only effect people with both consoles and what format they get it on - it's not another bayonetta.
chunkyboymania on 11 Nov '10 said:
I'm with you mate MAG has nailed FPS multiplayer gaming for me. Even though when you play with randoms who go all Rambo COD style it can be massively frustrating.
I don't think reviews of COD can really be trusted or any online shooter for that matter. I find you need to put in some serious gaming ours to assess the maps before you can get any real enjoyment from the genre. These games should be re-reviewed after a couple of weeks of heavy gaming sessions.
eselae007 on 11 Nov '10 said:
While I do like that they have removed alot of the silly things that constantly happened in mw2, especially glitching, noobs and boosters, it seems like Treyarch focus was on this and not on the quality of the game. The graphics are inferior to MW2, the sounds of just about everything including gun fire to helecopters sounds chezzy, not to mention the online problems there having, hopefully that will be worked out. What can't be fixed is the design of the game. Poor quality graphics, among other things makes me regret buying this. I will play the game, but it is definitely a big step down from the previous MW2. It seems like your almost playing World at War with different maps and guns.Such a disappointment to me personally to me with all the hype that went with this game, but to each his own. Enjoy
Ripgore187Rip on 12 Nov '10 said:
Ive had bad experences with Treyrachs COD games up untill now and had no plans to buy this game. I came on to this site as i wanted a honest review from a english site. Well i dont believe you played the game i think activison paided you money even wrote the review because its rubbish thats what i think anyway. After reading this review I stupidly brought the game because of your 9.3 amazing score put all my worries at ease.
Ive played it over the last 3 days and got my 1000 Achievement points Rank 25 now I think im in a good position to have my point of view.
You Said
"As far as the campaign's concerned, Black Ops blows Modern Warfare 2 out of the water. Make no mistake: This is the coolest Call of Duty yet. It's action-packed, inventive, interesting and - for the first time ever in this series - actually offers something resembling a compelling narrative"
No it dosnt blow it out of the water its WAW again reskined with MW2 weapons. Its not cool its out of date and shabby tacky looks like a wax work gi joe simulater . Its action packed fair enough true, but be honest theres an explosion going off every 2 seconds smoke, rain, gas, and loads of stuff flying around trying to hide the hideous graphics. Inventive you said but that means its creative, original, innovative, imaginative, gifted, inspired,ingenious, ground-breaking ? NO ITS NOT ONE F***ING BIT have you played the other 7 COD games because if you had then you would get your facts straight. There nothing new here same old same just worse than the game that was release one year ago in every single department. The story was far fetched unbelievable and poorly told, it just didnt add anything to the gameplay.
COD Black Ops is ulgy, linner, Repetative, Stupid, Zombie popping junk, Broken match making, Zero creativity multiplayer is garbage you spawn all over the place making any chance of using tactic impossible the first team to get a chopper up wins. The credit system just ads nothing ive got like 20000 credits and nothing I want to buy iwas all sorted by level 14.Treyarch played it safe all the way to rake in the money. The game and your review it a fat slap in the face to COD fans.
AI was better in lemmings.
The average bloke on the street rates this game 6.5 maybe 7 max player reviews are what counts. Not someone who gets a "carepackage" and huge adverts on there site to tell porkys
(That won't keep the game out of the newspapers of course, but at least there's a warning message at the start of the game - and a huge 18 sticker on the box.)
lol its the same on every single game that is 18 hyping it up are we?
"Last year's praise-filled reviews of Modern Warfare 2 were followed by an astonishing backlash from gamers."
well guess what its even worse this time CVG you let us down big time
.
legion on 13 Nov '10 said:
The story mode is decent. But the multiplayer is same s**t different game
wishface on 14 Nov '10 said:
The multiplayer is broken. rubbish hit detection, unbalanced rewards, broken matchmaking, and of course...lag.
Btw, is it too much to ask to have a better matchmaking system than 'put all the crappy players (like me) in with all the monster hardcore play-all-day-long players in the same game'?
timpar3 on 30 Dec '10 said:
The game is not breath taking... I liked it don't get me wrong, the new way to unlock attachements makes for a much crazier game because you don't have to have 100 kills to get this, just buy it... Although I do like how each Perk 1 has different models it kinda gives away your play style..
On single player side it was pretty intense... I had issues with the AI being a Dead-Eye every shot was perfect.. and soooo many of them.. making it near impossible to run to cover.
Mulitplayer is just about the same though. Maybe switch things up.. Wager matches are new sure but.. really gets old after losing $2500 in a row because some guy tomahawks you near the end of the match >_>
Padua on 16 Feb '11 said:
No way is this game next generation in any way.
I only bought it last week and have been very disappointed.
I was entertained by the twisty plot in the campaign but it was 80% same-old same-old regarding game play.
Even zombies is not that great an improvement - although I do enjoy this game type.
I can not believe the high reviews this game has got. Do you get paid commission per point you award perhaps
I am sure it is fantastic if your in your pre-teens
My rating would be closer to 6/10 and 7/10 if I am generous (or drunk)
COD needs to go the same way as the Guitar Hero franchise : to the grave