Black Ops, the new Call of Duty game, marks a significant change for the franchise. It has ditched the previous second world war and modern-day scenarios for a Cold War theme, with gamers undertaking missions in Cuba, China, Russia and Vietnam. The missions are different in length, ranging from destroying Russian tanks to defending against hordes of Vietcong fighters, and are more fun than the previous Call of Duty games.
Developer Treyarch has bought the zombie mode back but it is not as good as the World at War versions. The zombies are still Nazis; I was hoping to have Vietcong zombies. The zombie map is quite big, so you can’t play in single player mode and it is only possible to get far online with four people. The guns don’t help – they become as useless as stabbing after round three. The game still has dogs every six rounds and the random box.
The online mode is now more personal with customisable emblems – there are 48 pages of possible emblems and you can choose from loads of different colours. You can now put your emblem onto your gun and even chose your call sign background. Black Ops has added a currency system, so while you have to unlock the guns like in previous Call of Duty games, now you have to buy them with points and you do the same for attachments. You can choose what colour the sight is as well as the shape of the aim, with choices ranging from smiley faces to a nuclear sign.
Camouflage has changed as well – in previous versions you unlocked them with headshots, now you just buy them. For all classes of guns, except for specials and launchers, you get a classified gun which you can unlock by buying all the guns for that class. The game also now allows you to play split screen online with two people on the same console.
Black Ops has a new mode called wager matches, allowing you to gamble your points. You have to spend 10, 1,000 or 10,000 points and if you rank in the top three, you get a profit; if not, you lose your money.
There are four game modes. In Shootout, your gun changes every 45 seconds and enemies show up on the map with a delay. Sticks And Stones gives you three weapons – a tomahawk, a crossbow and a ballistic knife – and if you get killed by a ballistic knife, your score gets reset. The third is One In The Barrel, where you get one bullet in your gun and three lives and there are one shot kills. Finally, in the Gun Game, you start with a pistol and go through 20 tiers of weapons – if you get stabbed you go down a level, the same as if you commit suicide. To win, you have to get a kill with all the guns.
Overall, I think Treyarch has done well with Black Ops, but I still prefer Infinity Ward. The franchise should try to make a modern game instead of going back to the past.
Ratings:
Out-of-box playing: 10/10
Game-play: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Addictiveness: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
