Call of Duty Black Ops Review

Another year, another installment in the ridiculously successful Call of Duty franchise. By this time Activision is literally printing money every time they slap Call of Duty on the box of a game. Black Ops, the newest title in this juggernaut, made 368 million dollars in its first day. So to say that this series is popular would be a massive understatement. So far, every game has had the quality one would expect from such a phenomenon. Unfortunately, this year, the tried and true formula is starting to reach its expiration date.

    The multiplayer, in both lasting appeal and effort put into development, has slowly overshadowed the single player campaign and Black Ops is no exception. Taking players into the depths of the Cold War, the game is played through flashbacks that your character experiences as he is being interrogated. The purpose of the interrogation is to find out the secret behind some "Lost" style numbers engrained into your memory. The format of the script is definitely more interesting than what has been seen before. Unfortunately, the story makes you take part in such unbelievable missions that playing through the campaign feels like a Michael Bay movie on steroids. The dialogue is reminiscent of a Steven Segal movie, with badass one-liners making their rounds. While there isn't anything wrong with this, especially in a game that enters around epic shooting expositions, the believability that was present in other games in the series is completely lost. The story in prior Call of Duties felt ridiculous yet believable. Black Ops just feels like a 13 year old boy's daydream. Not to mention the amount of explosions and shell shock you are exposed to leaves you so numb by the end, that breaking through a window after surviving a helicopter crash and killing three guys as you break into the room in slow motion feels like another Wednesday night.

    When one takes away the weak script and ludicrous scenarios you are left with an extremely solid shooter, and that is all the multiplayer needs. However, there are some really interesting changes done by Treyarch that will change the battlefield in unforeseen ways. In Call of Duty Black Ops you do not unlock things like in previous games. You still gain experience and level up just like before but now you also earn COD points every time you do anything significant in the field. These points are essentially in game currency. Every weapon, perk, attachment and even costume costs a certain amount of COD points. So while the traditional leveling does unlock new gear, you will have to manage your economy and decide what to spend you hard earned points on. This does allow for some interesting paths throughout your multiplayer history. You can completely ignore updates you know you are not going to use and instead focus on improving your concentrated classes.

The addition of COD points also made way for wager matches. These specialized game modes let you bet your points and fight to win said bet. Not only that, there are also  rather unorthodox games. The gun game has been brought in from counter strike, where every kill you get gives you a better weapon, eventually covering the entire armament. There is also a game where every player has one bullet and a knife, which can lead to some hilarious competition online.

In the end this game will not change your position on Call of Duty. The single player is a copy and paste from past games with slight change in scenery while the multiplayer still delivers a package comparable only to Halo in terms of variety and replay value. The zombie mode from World at War has made a triumphant return, adding more bang to your buck, and there is an awesome zombie survival minigame hidden in the main menu which is sure to take up some of your time. The value one gets from this game is insane and if it is your cup of coffee it is a definite buy. Unfortunately, much like any Hollywood blockbuster, those looking for anything past surface value will be very disappointed.