Call of Duty: Black Ops
Review
The FPS experience of the decade!
by Bane Williams
reviewed on X360
Multiplayer Multiplicity
Treyarch had a bit of a hit and miss affair with their last title in the series, Call of Duty: World at War. Many of the problems were primarily caused by the fact that the studio was creating four other games alongside it, and had an extremely tight timeframe leading up to the games' release. With Black Ops, Treyarch had the opportunity to spend the better part of two whole years devoted entirely to the game, and the polish shines through.
Towards rectifying the multiplayer balance, Treyarch have decided to change many things from the core game that players have become used to. No longer are there ways to increase the damage of weapons or explosives, neither can you increase player health. Deathstreaks have disappeared entirely, and shooting is not accurate within the first couple of seconds when looking through the scope on a sniper rifle in order to render ’quick-scoping’ near impossible. Putting a suppressor on your weapon also decreases its damage to the point where a silenced sniper rifle can never kill in one hit, in the Core playlist at least.
Of course, one of the major issues that large calibre multiplayer games have are the glitches and hacking that occurs. Treyarch have aimed to completely eradicate these issues, and so far they are doing well to release updates and patches on a daily basis to keep those who seek to spoil the experience for others at bay. I recall one instance when a ‘hotfix’ (an on-the-fly update that does not require a player update) disallowed a glitch to work, a mere three hours after it was displayed on YouTube.
Treyarch have brought their hugely popular Zombie mode back, with two maps that provide vastly different experiences. One of them being set inside the Pentagon lets you control one of four world leaders (Fidel Castro, McNamara, Nixon or JFK). In addition to these modes, there are also a few secrets littered around for those who explore the menu screen well enough. But it is probably the online multiplayer that will keep the bulk of players busy for months on end and abandoning their love interests and so it is this that should be looked into further.
Welcome to the High Roller suites
Almost instantly there are noticeable differences from the established Call of Duty multiplayer in Black Ops with the newly introduced CoD points. Using these points as currency, players can choose in what order they acquire perks, weapons and other personalized features. CoD Points are accrued with kills, capturing objectives and advancing in the ranks. Although you can purchase items in the order you choose, you still have to wait until a higher rank unlocks the more desirable weapons.
Another feature that goes alongside the CoD Points is a method of gambling your earnings with the onset of Wager Matches. This new playlist contains four fast paced and highly competitive game modes designed to keep players in the action from start to finish. One in the Chamber is a tactical style game mode where players start with a pistol, one bullet and three lives, meaning accuracy and timing are the keys to victory. Sticks and Stones is all about speed and situational awareness - you are given three of the game's new weapons: an explosive tipped crossbow, ballistic knife and a tomahawk. Killing someone with the tomahawk resets their points back to zero and if you are leading, you are made visible as a golden dot on the minimap for everyone else to hunt down.
Gun Game is a community made game mode that Counter-Strike players might be familiar with. There are 20 tiers in the game, and on each level you are specified a gun to gain a kill with in order to advance to the next tier. This mode is extremely fun, but can be annoying if you get stuck on a single level for too long. Sharpshooter is the final Wager Match mode, and those who can do well with any weapon will be perfectly at home here. Everyone gets the same gun and every 45 seconds this is switched to a completely random gun with random attachments. Killstreaks give you perks and eventually a score multiplier, but only for as long as you can stay alive.
The top three players of the Wager Match get paid and the rest go broke - losing their initial pay-in fee. Having your CoD points on the line creates tension and even rivalry between players, especially if that one player keeps bankrupting you again and again! There is also the option to 'double down' where the entry fee for the match is doubled, as well as the payouts of course.
CoD Points can be also be gained by signing up to Contracts. Contracts are time-based challenges that have to be purchased with previously earned CoD Points in order to attempt them. Contracts come in three different flavours, and have something to suit every play style. The costs and rewards escalate with difficulty, giving players a mixture of both CoD Points and EXP.
9.7
fun score
Pros
Great story full of twists and turns, fight Zombies as JFK, a mostly balanced multiplayer
Cons
Some basic multiplayer design issues keep this from being as perfect a game as this could be
