Review of: Call of Duty Black Ops

  

Reviewer: David Lam

Title: Call of Duty Black Ops

System: Xbox 360

Genre: FPS, Action

            Alright so this game came out and I felt like I had to analyze it since all I could hear from my brother recently was vulgar profanities that was caused by playing Black Ops. So I asked my brother what the problem was although I knew because I have played and looked over previous COD games. The problem that day was that he lost his killstreak from a person camping in the corner. Now that incident caused him to yell loud vulgar language resulting in my sister telling my mom, leaving me a sad brother and unoccupied Xbox 360. So seeing as it was unoccupied and I was looking for something different I played Black Ops although I generally dislike Call of Duty and their style of gameplay.

            So one positive from Black Ops was an interesting and well done plotline for the campaign. I am a history junkie and seeing JFK along with other well known people such as Fidel Castro caused me to become delighted. Black Ops presented us with a couple of conspiracy theories and also the majority of the game is played through memories. Even the main menu which consists of TV’s and an interrogation room gives this tension to the game. The plot kept my interest as I attack Cuba in the Bay of Pigs and defended against the VC in the Vietnam War. 

            The negatives consist of unrealistic game physics, unbalanced multiplayer system, and a multiplayer population consisting of super competitive, single minded, short tempered players. The physics of the game don’t really make much sense. For example the strange term which I am certain is now part of the English language called Quick Scoping is unrealistic. Sniper rifles are powerful  rifles capable of making only one accurate shot at a time. Sniping takes intense training and accuracy and quick scoping happens to somehow actually be accurate. Snipers never shoot the guns while standing only when prone or using a structure in front of them to keep the rifle leveled. Snipers are capable of single accurate shots and even those who have used real semi automatic sniper rifles in war have never shot as fast as those who shoot snipers in Call of Duty.

            The graphics are not bad and they have not majorly improved in their graphic desgin but nonetheless they have improved. Now Nazi Zombies return once again featuring characters like JFk or Fidel Castro which is interesting. They also have Richard Nixon which provides us with a couple of laughs. More importantly the Nazi Zombies provides players with a new zombie that looks a lot like Smeagle. It crawls and when killed it will emit a gas that will blind you. There are new weapons and new special weapons. More importantly the teleportation system is a little different but it allows for some intense zombie gameplay that could rival that of Left 4 Dead. When it comes to music Call of Duty chose the right composer because he definitely had the mood right in the songs.

            Even though I generally dislike Call of Duty I can not say it is a bad game just because that would be biased. I believe they should balance the multiplayer and make it more realistic however the current style suits the majority of players. So the game is good because Black Ops succeeded in obtaining a large population of players that I believe exceeds the amount of people playing Halo Reach. 

Graphics: B+
Gameplay: A
Sound: A
Lasting Appeal: A
Overall: A