Call of Duty: Black Ops

Well it has been two years and finally doing a review, for what can be described as a great game, its good fun and thats whats important.
The campaign is a preety good one actually unbelievable ( having studied the cold war and vietnam war ) but wasn't expecting a real account otherwise it would be pretty boring, there wasn't that much spec ops work done, and what was done was in Russia.
Multiplayer, really good fun, alot of people hate that "quickscoping" was taken out but unfortunately it is not actually possible unless your about 3 feet away from the person. But it's quite fast paced and addictive, infruriating sometimes and great at other times, as always.
Zombies well what can i say treyarch out did themselves here, the most addictive thing of the game, and the map packs made it so much better, with some great easter eggs which are so hard to do, but make you want to keep trying to get it.
Its nice to see there not like Infinity ward and milking the cash cow that is Modern Warfare. Have reviewed them, not going into it here!
Only a few downsides, there is no multiplayer campaign (unlike Call Of Duty World At War) and connection can be annoying online, and i know it's not me as i have got really good Broadband.
But would definately recommend it!!

After having completed the game and played all aspects, i can happily say the game is great and i'm glad i bought it, but it comes not without penalty. It has good & bad points like most games. For me the good points are:

- The amazing gameplay and solid storyline that you'd expect from call of duty now days, the moments where you do more than just shoot everything in sight and are left thinking "woahh!". This game retains plenty of those moments and executes them very well. The storyline itself in this game is a great conspiracy thriller that will surprise you, maybe one of the best COD storylines to date.

- The customizations and extra features that are now here, killstreaks, limited character customization, equipment, emblem and playercard, lens and sight, neat new weapons and attachments (some old) the list continues. [You'll love the remote controlled RC bomb] And another new item that is great is the camera spike, it's amazing how helpful they can be.

The level design is wonderful and never gets old due the the diversity of the game (time periods and locations) Kowloon was brilliant and i hope it makes it as multiplayer DLC. Most of the multiplayer maps are great fun to play on, from a jungle to a snowy mountain top. (launch & nuketown also spring to mind, on launch i've seen people standing there staring at the rocket take off while bullets fly past them, and on nuketown at the end of the match, boooooom. The multiplayer levels are now more interactive than before, in small or big ways.)

- There are more vehicle moments in the game like a motorbike for instance or the chopper gunner you've no doubt seen, there's alot more i'm sure you'll enjoy, it all adds variety.

- Peoples limbs fly off which adds to the realism as it did in WaW, but not on multiplayer for some reason.

- Little details like paper scattering when piles of the stuff are shot, blood patches on people, wet patches on characters knees if they are kneeling in the rain, chunks of zombies missing when shot. "He's half the zombie he used to be"

- The voice acting is once again superb as is the character modeling.

- The AI is even smarter (rolling behind cover, blind fire etc) especially on combat training, if played on veteran it's like facing a good team of human opponents!

- There's a zombie mode which hasn't been tampered with or ruined, but instead amplified, you won't be fighting just demon hounds and won't be playing as just the 4 soldiers. I look forward to new zombie maps next year, i'm sure there will be more.

- The multiplayer itself is great fun, building up your CoD points to unlock new things adds more depth to it than previous titles. There seems to be a couple of new modes, and then there is the wager matches. One in the chamber is very tense, and gun game is fun as you race from weapon tier 1 to 20. You can chose 3 types of wager matches, the cheap one i often do, the medium one, or big spender one. You can now buy contracts that last for a period of time, and if completed reward you with more CoD points and experience. They range from the easy - getting 5 M16 kills within a hour of gameplay. To the hard - 5 sniper rifle headshots in one match. Also something i noticed, if you have a good eye you can actually shoot down spy planes and such with a homing rocket! Even care package choppers can be shot down, i'm not sure if this is a new feature but it's neat.

- The theater mode is a real treat, you can take pictures or record up to 10 segments from any of your previous matches. Once stringed together showing all the best parts from your match. You can switch views, fast forward and rewind, etc, it's pretty cool.

- You can do a running dive by holding sprint & pressing B which is cool and quite helpful, imagine a napalm strike just flew overhead and you have a second to take cover, run dive in a doorway!.

- Finally the menu; I dig it, you'll dig it too ;]

But every game has it's bad side; now for the bad points:

- Sometimes the cutscenes and switching back and forth between masons memory and the present, it gets a little annoying at first and makes following the storyline not the easiest task, maybe due to it being a new approach as to previous titles. The switching back and forth at times also feels like the player is missing out on some good parts, because when it seems like a good part is about to happen, the player is pulled out the action and the character describes what happened. (this is uncommon thankfully)

- The graphics aren't as good as modern warfare 2 but they're close.

- One or two things look unpolished like grass in one part not actually touching the ground, and characters feet going through the floor of the car slightly.

- In some multiplayer levels spawning seems to be a little problem, on hardcore mode after waiting 10 seconds to come back you can get killed instantly if a helicopter shoots you. And nuketown everyone will know about that in terms of getting shot in the back because an apposing player just spawned at your end of the map. There needs to be a spawn shield or something as campers can have a field day.

- Maybe there should be afew more weapons? I would love for DLC to be new weapons aswell as maps! But i know that'd be difficult.

- I'd love to also see more game modes that can be played as hardcore, ground war on hardcore would be the best.

- If played splitscreen or 'Locally' you immediately have access to everything which until you unlock everything can spoil it, as you have to unlock it all online with hard earned CoD points. I warn you don't look at the stuff straight away! as it'll make getting it all feel like a drag, you can even see things which online are blanked out with "Classified".

- The real big annoyance for me was...get ready for it..NO BOT MODE IF YOU DON'T HAVE XBOX LIVE. 'Combat Training' can only be played online with a gold membership. It almost seems pointless having a bot mode and separate progression if it's only online, it should be playable both online and offline. As someone rightfully mentioned it would help with learning the maps or blowing off steam, but i'm sure there's many out there who bought the game because they thought they could play it offline aswell.

No more bad points come to mind. The game was a good buy; the good points more than overshadow the bad ones in my opinion. The zombie mode is there, the action packed and breathtaking gameplay is there, the addictive online multiplayer is there. It feels abit like the others but who cares. I like the periods the game is set in, it's new to previous titles and that alone should pique your interest. So get it and enjoy it!

It's sad however that nearly 50 or so people gave the game 1* either because they are a hater or they didn't receive the game quick enough. Blame royal mail not the game. And for the haters blame your upbringing not treyarch.

Wow, so Treyarch has done the impossible. Did anyone predict that they would seriously outdo Infinity Ward this time round, if ever? Always seeming to create the inferior games, they didn't have a very hefty reputation amongst COD fanboys now did they? Well being one of the non believers, I take my words back. I apologise for ever going on a rant everytime it was confirmed Treyarch was to do the next installment and thinking to myself: "Activision are still paying these guys?". Well done guys, and its about freaking time.

But it seems that every COD seems to be consistently average with only a slight notch of improvement or disimprovement. COD4 came along and took the online community by storm, and arguarbly changed the face of first person shooters forever. I mean seriously, look at all the clones that one game spawned. And from there, both companies must have got some sort of big headed syndrome and milked the series constantly for four damned sequels. It's alright adding some new destructive weapons, kick-ass perks, indefeasable killstreaks, but if you ain't changing the course of the gameplay even the slightest, it's that "been there, done that" scenario. This isn't a sports game where you can get away with that every single year of every single decade. If you're going to plan a sequel annually, you better deliver. Instead, as expected with every COD game, we get a few new features.

Firstly, if you've read my review of MW2, you knew how much the fast paced combat online pissed me off. This may sound contradictory, but for players like myself who liked to play using tactics, I was so open to guys who sprayed from 10 km away and it would hit me in the face (that's what she said). The weapons where so unbalanced it was unreal. I think the term we are looking for is that MW2 was very "noob friendly". Treyarch has improved in this sector, delivering a much more even weapon format where certain guns are used for certain situations. You can't expect kills if you don't play strategically anymore. However, whilst they highly improved on this feat, the sniping on the game has completely downgraded. Using the most powerful sniper will require a headshot or no kill, which is somewhat rare, and the fact that the majority of the areas in the maps are closed, it's pretty useless in even attempting to (whos ever idea it was to not have sniping as one shot one kill, go die please).

There is a new playercard system where you are provided with a limited amount of icons to create your own emblem. Seeing as though you can't designe the icons yourself, you can't expect to make Solid Snake pixel by pixel like you could in Forza Motorsport, but it works suprising really well. I've seen Eric Cartman, Ezio, Dark Side of the Moon, Vito Corleone, explicity detailed women body parts. If you put your mind to it, you can create anything from pop art culture to... well woman genatilia. It works really well, and seeing as though we are hardly going to see improved gameplay, they should update this like bring some sort of voting system for emblems, and save your emblems so you can switch between them at any time.

You now have to buy your guns after unlocking them, thanks to this pointless little feature called COD points. XP's all we need, surely. It sort of takes away the thrill when you use to unlock the guns you wanted on previous CODs, and you equip them straight off the bat. Now you have to buy them, it doesn't give that similar feeling. But thats probably just me. It's only a minor complaint anyhoo, but at least they have put some use to it, by adding the excellent contracts, which are like challenges, but you select which ones you want to do with a time limit to do it in. They become very addictive and definitley gives the multiplayer mode a little bit more value. There's also wager matches where you gamble your COD points into small amounts if you just want to play the exclusive games without risking losing money, or high amounts, if you're feeling lucky. The four match types on this mode are very original, and work superbly well.

Treyarch have unfortunately decided to kill off the addictive Special Ops, but no need to threat, because WAW's Zombies make a return and it's bigger and better than ever. It's the only thing I still go on when I decide to stick Blacks Ops in. Even with the same three maps, it never seems to get repetitive. There's not much else to say about Zombies, but it's probably the most original and the best thing to come out of Treyarch's Call of Duty games. Oh, and you also get Dead Ops Arcade which although you won't play half as much as Zombies, it's still a welcome addition to the pack.

Now the campaigns to COD I haven't liked since the second one, so I've never finished any next gen CODs (apart from MW2, which was meh). I have always tried to get through them, but they have always seemed a chore to me, and I just want to get back online. Black Ops unfortunately is the same, I made it to level 3 and I couldn't go on. So I'm afraid I can't really comment, or ever comment on future COD campaigns.

I'd like to think of this as a less consistent The Orange Box. It is easily the most complete COD package yet, and with so much replay value, no matter what you think of the overall game, there's got to be something here for you. Just don't go in expecting something much more expansive because it's essentially the same old, with a few tweaks along the way.