Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

Only a year ago Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out to record-breaking sales and rave reviews. Call of Duty: Black Ops has so far outperformed its predecessors on the sales front, posting an impressive 5.6 million units sold in the first 24 hours. Yet reviews have been slightly less positive. How does the latest Call of Duty stack up?

The game takes place during the Vietnam-era. You play as Mason, a member of the Special Forces, and are in charge with taking out Fidel Castro in Cuba during the early 1960s. The plan, of course, is botched. The Bay of Pigs was a failure. Tensions increased between the United States and Soviet Union. War seemed like it was inevitable.

The developers at Treyarch did a wonderful job of crafting a story around the historical backdrop of the Cold War. They took events, such as the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam War, to craft a historical fiction that rivals that of Hollywood movies. Yes, it is over-the-top and even at times cheesy, but really that is what they are going for. It’s an interactive action movie on steroids.

The single-player experience, while impressive for the short duration that it lasts, has long been a weakness in the franchise. They basically gave up on a lengthy single-player campaign after the franchise switched to the modern warfare setting, favoring the multi-player experience. That changed with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which had extensive offline options with its story and split-screen mission options.

Call of Duty: Black Ops extends the single-player story by a few hours, but lacks the co-op missions that gave Modern Warfare 2 some extra replay value. Some people may appreciate the greater attention to the storyline, although it is quite weird at times, while others will likely wish they would have kept the co-op missions. At any rate, the overall package is well-balanced with both single and multi-player.

Returning to the franchise is the popular Nazi Zombies mode that first made its appearance in Call of Duty: World at War. Each of the Zombie maps are playable with two players offline and four players online. Black Ops includes two new Zombie maps: Kino der Toten and Five, as well as a new mode called “Dead Ops”. Kino der Toten is the only real “Nazi Zombies” map; Five is actually in the Pentagon during the 1960s, featuring undead civilians and scientists. Gamers play as Presidents Kennedy and Nixon, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro. Some of the dialogue is hilarious and the character models look very similar to their real-life counterparts. Ich bin ein Berliner!

Dead Ops is a new addition to the Call of Duty franchise. It takes the basic concept of Nazi Zombies, survival from undead hordes, and puts it into a fun shoot-em-up game. If you have ever played the classic Smash TV, then you have a good sense of Dead Ops. It basically has you fire in a unidirectional angle using the right analog stick and moving the character with the left analog stick. The game has little 2D sprites and is a fun distraction.

The clear appeal of Call of Duty: Black Ops comes from its robust online multi-player. The new maps take you everywhere from a nuclear missile facility to a 50s-era “nuke town”. Others include more tropical locations such as the maps in Vietnam and Cuba, as well as colder, snowy climates like that of Siberia. The number of maps is impressive and none of them are poorly done, although some flaws (such as spawn points), can be annoying. Ultimately, the decision for what map to play falls to the users playing. They can vote on a map that the game selected, vote for the previously played map, or vote for a new random map.

Also new to the multi-player is the inclusion of an in-game money system. While the ranking and rewards are mostly the same, the money system means that you have to earn in-game cash from playing well, completing missions that you can purchase, and wagering against friends. Virtually everything requires money now: the weapons, perks, killstreaks, attachments, and even items such as images for your player card (basically a customizable user logo).

Fans of the franchise are sure to love the new Call of Duty. Black Ops is an improvement on an annual franchise that shows no signs of slowing down. Frankly, I started to feel Call of Duty fatigue after playing Modern Warfare 2 for a couple months. Black Ops has me back in it, playing with friends and spending countless hours killing random strangers online. Does it feel old? Yeah, the formula hasn’t changed much since 2007. It still works and relatively well, even if a break would be welcome next year. Six million people can’t be wrong, can they?