Call of Duty: Black Ops by Activision was released this week to a record amount of sales and a gaming public eager to get back on the battlefield and kick some serious butt on Xbox Live.
If you have played the previous Call of Duty games, Black Ops will feel the same as any other Call of Duty game. Except for in the customization and upgrading of your solider on multiplayer. This year instead of getting upgrades when you level up, you now earn Call of Duty money that allows you to buy whatever upgrades you have unlocked and can afford. I love this new way of upgrading and building my character, it feels more customized and allows me to focus on items I’ll actually use during game play.
Another new and cool aspect on Black Ops is the theater mode, where you can now watch your previous seven last games and actually make little 30 second videos from the entire match that you can share with your friends or that noob you just stabbed for the third time in a row. You can also upload your best video to the Black Ops community online where others can view and vote on the video or screenshots you post.
Activision got a lot of the small things right on this game, with tons of stats, and updates letting you know when your buddies online hit achievements along with updates on the entire community. One thing I absolutely love is that one of the updates says, “Multiplayer free with every copy of Call of Duty”, a direct shot at Electronic Arts who charge their renting customers an additional fee to play their games online, so lame!
Call of Duty: Black Ops also brings some new weapons, perks, kill streaks, and attachments to the game, while retaining all the old favorites. One of my favorite new kill streaks is the remote control bomb-car that allows you to race around the map finding unsuspecting victims that you can blow apart once you get close enough, super fun.
The single player experience has also been lengthened, and is pretty fun. While not as innovative or authentic as the Medal of Honor single player, it is a lot of fun even though it is a little repetitive, but will add another 8-10 game play hours.
Overall I am very happy with this latest Call of Duty and definitely recommend buying this game, I give Call of Duty: Black Ops a, 4.9 / 5!
Graphics – 4.5
Sounds – 5
Controls – 5
Multiplayer – 5
Replay Value – 5
Video Game Magic* – 5
*Video Game Magic is the video game’s ability to transport you the player into the game experience – usually the effects this has on the human condition are, severe loss of time management, extreme video game jonesing, and an extended altered state of reality.
