Call of Duty: Black Ops - Review
(for PC)




People kind of hate on Treyarch's CoD games. Die-hard Infinity Ward fans of the series are worst for it, obviously, but almost everyone who's played both brands of game will agree the modern warfare series is just a lot better. There are a lot of reasons thrown around for why, most of which relate to specific multiplayer game mechanics, but on the whole, like other Treyarch games, Black Ops lacks polish.

Actually, before I say things that are bad about the game, let me say this in bold: Treyarch makes great Call of Duty games. They're really fantastic and the only reason they're so frowned upon is because they're so heavily compaired to modern warfare. I think Treyarch did a really good job on Black Ops. That said, here's why I didn't like it as much.

Call of Duty games are hyperreal. They're games about war. I like playing them around and on rememberance day because they're unfiltered visions of what war is like, and what people really go through and see and experience. Modern Warfare 2 took it to another level, especially with scenes like the infamous "No Russian" which puts you in the weighted boots of a terrorist mowing down unarmed, terrified civillians in Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. There's something incredibly sobering about seeing this sort of abomonation from a first-person view, as opposed to seeing aftermath photographs of ambulances or shattered glass on the ground.

Alternatively, you'll know what it's like to become close to the members of your squad then have your helicopter go down, and have several hundred enemy infantry advancing on your position, shooting all your friends one by one as they try to defend your position. No matter how hard you fight, you'll feel utterly hopeless.

I know seeing this kind of experience is definitely not for everyone but for a desensitized generation X'er or Y'er or whatever the hell we're called, it's really something else. I hate having to play sequences like that but I'm very glad that I get to because it really gives me an idea of the kinds of horror that troops have to go through when they're at war.

So why can't Treyarch games do this so well? Black Ops' first failing is that it's not hyperreal. It's still grounded in very real events, but the main character is the victim of a brainwashing scheme which controls him and forces him to take action, kill certain people... there are some arguments that one could make involving post traumatic stress, and hallucinating, but the problem is that it's protrayed in a much more over-the-top video game-y way, it loses that grounding in reality that it had. Scenes just don't hit as hard. It's really a shame, it feels like Treyarch robs themselves of such big moments for no good reason besides a different style of storytelling.

They rob themselves of some excitement in multiplayer as well when compared to Modern Warfare 2. It's a sort of isolated issue, but I think it's really important. In the multiplayer progression, you always used to unlock new equipment and weapons and that sort of thing, and you did so in a very structured way. At each level you received specific rewards. In Black Ops, you get to choose your rewards. The problem is when after the first dozen or two dozen levels, you've acquired pretty much everything you would ever want to posess. This gives you absolutely jack-all to look forward to as a bigger reward in the later levels, besides the obvious online reputation and the eventual prestige. It's way less exciting.

It's just a lot of little things that combine to create an overall slightly less exciting experience (I won't mention that the games, especially the PC version of the game, are considerably buggy). It's only slightly unfortunate that everyone hates on it so much for such minute differences... again, only slightly unfortunate, as they're still making several buttloads of money. So they're being justly rewarded for their work. Just fine with me!

You'll notice in that review I didn't talk about Nazi Zombies at all... I held off on purpose because I just talk about zombies so damn much there's not much point in asking me. But if you're interested: yes, zombies are still completely badass, they've upped the gameplay in really fun ways, and given you a lot of things to try out. They even included a dual-joystick classic style zombie shooter. So much fun.