Post: Weekly review: Week 1 Black ops
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01-10-2011, 10:25 PM
#1
Manxlad619
Hiya
The Weekly Review: Week 1 Black ops
This is the start of a new series of threads I am going to be starting up. Every weekend I will be releasing a new review on a game voted for by you.( I know today is not weekend but I thought I’d get it started)
So each week I will ask you guys to PM me with the game you want me to review and I will then go and rent that game(so this is costing me money
) and play it and then on the Sunday I will release a review on it. So I thought this week for the first one I would do Call of Duty: Black ops because I’m sure that is the game most people are playing.I know general discussion isn't really a great place to post but I can't post in Gaming News, Notes, and Analysis , but I can't so I put it in General Discussion
Also don’t ask me for Xbox games please I only play PS3
Please Comment
So with all that out of the way let’s start this review =D.
[Multipage=Plot]The main plot of this story is very exciting and fast paced. You constantly on the edge of your seat and you never know what is going to happen next and then the ending is so different it is crazy. I had no idea all along.
Now I have took this plot summary from the Black ops Wikipedia page here:You must login or register to view this content. This is because I thought they would do a lot better plot summary and it would save me time on taking in every bit of the story by replaying it. Also for the benefit of people who haven’t played the game, however I’m sure a lot of people have I put the plot in a spoiler.
If you haven’t played the story don’t look
In 1961, Mason, Woods, and Bowman attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as a part of Operation 40. Mason apparently succeeds in the assassination, but their exfiltration goes awry, with Mason staying behind to protect the extraction plane. He is captured by the real Castro, having shot a double. Because of an alliance with the Soviet Union, Castro hands Mason over to General Nikita Dragovich. Mason is then held captive at Vorkuta Gulag for two years. During his imprisonment, Mason befriends Viktor Reznov, a former Red Army soldier. Reznov recounts to Mason the identities of those involved in Mason’s torture: Dragovich, Lev Kravchenko (his right-hand man) and Friedrich Steiner, an ex-Nazi scientist who defected to the Soviet Union. All three share a connection to Reznov: in October 1945, Reznov, Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Dimitri Petrenko were a part of a unit sent to locate Steiner, hiding with a unit of the SS in the Arctic Circle. During the operation, Reznov was betrayed by Dragovich, who used Steiner's creation, a nerve agent known as "Nova-6" on Petrenko. Reznov was spared the same fate when British commandos attacked the Russians. During the confusion, he destroys Nova-6. However, it was later recreated by Steiner and a British scientist named Daniel Clarke for the Soviets. Shortly afterward, Reznov is imprisoned in Vorkuta. Mason and Reznov spark a prisoner uprising to escape the gulag, but only Mason escapes.
One month later, President John F. Kennedy authorizes the assassination of Dragovich. In November 1963, Mason, Woods, Bowman and Weaver are dispatched to Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR to disrupt the Soviet space program and eliminate members of the Soviet Ascension program. At the start of the operation, Weaver is captured and Mason sees Kravchenko torture him, stabbing his left eye, but Mason and his team later rescue him, while still destroying the Soyuz spacecraft as well. Dragovich eludes assassination, prompting Mason to search for him over the next five years. By 1968, the MACV-SOG was established in Vietnam to investigate the Soviets' presence. After defending Khe Sanh, the SOG is deployed to Hue during the Tet Offensive to recover a dossier with information on Dragovich from a Russian defector. The team recovers the dossier, while Mason encounters Reznov, who is revealed to be the defector. The SOG then penetrates Laos to recover a Nova-6 shipment from a downed Soviet plane. At the crash site, they are overwhelmed by waves of Viet Cong and Spetznaz soldiers, eventually getting captured. Mason and Reznov escape, but Bowman is executed and Woods dies while killing Kravchenko.
Meanwhile, Hudson and Weaver interrogate Dr. Daniel Clarke, the engineer who stabilized Nova-6, in Kowloon. Clarke identifies Steiner as part of the conspiracy, and reveals the location of a hidden facility in Mount Yamantau before being killed by Dragovich's men. Hudson and Weaver head to Mount Yamantau to destroy the facility and apprehend Steiner. During the mission, Hudson receives a transmission from Steiner requesting to meet him at Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea to learn how to halt a numbers broadcast that would send instructions to sleeper agents to release Nova-6 gas in American cities. Mason and Reznov head to Rebirth Island to assassinate Steiner. In the present, Mason is adamant that Reznov executed Steiner, but Hudson had witnessed Mason carrying out the deed. At this point, Hudson and Weaver are revealed as Mason's interrogators. Hudson realizes that Dragovich brainwashed Mason to understand the numbers broadcasts, effectively becoming a Soviet sleeper agent. Out of options, Hudson deliberately sets Mason free in order to follow him. It is revealed that the real Reznov died during the Vorkuta break out, and Mason’s visions of Reznov are a result of a dissociative disorder caused by the traumatic brainwashing program. Reznov had, in fact, reprogrammed Mason to assassinate Dragovich, Kravchenko and Steiner instead of President Kennedy prior to the Vorkuta breakout. Hudson plays the numbers recording for Mason a final time, prompting him to remember the location of the Russian cargo ship Rusalka off the coast of Cuba.
By dawn, the team launches an assault on the Rusalka, with Mason and Hudson infiltrating an underwater broadcast station protected by the ship, a Soviet submarine station intended to be used as a staging point for US invasion after the planned Nova-6 attack. Confirming that the Rusalka is the numbers station, Hudson calls in the US Navy to destroy the ship and its underwater base. Mason and Hudson finally find Dragovich in the lower levels of the facility and manage to kill him before the destruction of the base, swimming for the surface during the destruction of the targets. While swimming to the surface, Mason hears Reznov say he has done it and he could not. Weaver declares victory, but Mason is unsure, haunted by his last conversation with Dragovich.
Archive footage of President Kennedy prior to his assassination are shown, with the broadcaster and Mason narrating random numbers. After a second play-through of the archive footage, Mason's appearance in the crowd, as well as Dragovich's final words suggest that Mason followed his original programming and assassinated Kennedy.
[multipage=Thoughts on the campaign]The campaign is overall very good There are lots of twists, some of which work more than others, however sometimes it feels like it's on autopilot. Just one example is when you "guide" the take off of the SR-71 Blackbird in the mission WMD. If you attempt to not pull back on the flight stick when the game tells you to, the Blackbird lifts off on its own. Especially when there is astoundingly rich and detailed environments like Vietnamese jungles and the inner chambers of the Pentagon only to be told we can't go anywhere.
The artificial intelligence of both your friendly soldiers and the enemies you face is alsprather bad in some areas. The AI behave stupidly for a lot of the campaign. I read about someone that watched a friendly soldier who just shot the back of an armored car that he was using for cover for a about 20 seconds. However sometimes the AI amazes you as they roll and leap around the screen wielding their semi-autos and shotguns. However it is still let down in some parts.
Also there are a few design flaws and annoyances that I have seen reported (however I have not encountered one), such as a game-ending bug in the first level that made people restart the entire mission. Also in the Battle of Khe Sanh the mission never tells you what to actually do and even misdirects you.
The ending is similar to Modern Warfare titles in that it actually boils down to a classic manhunt in the end. Part of the success of the game, though, has nothing to do with its relentless action: the comparatively authentic characterisation is vital. None of the people in Black Ops are as interesting as Modern Warfare's astounding Captain John Price, but characterisation is great all through
Despite a lot of these issues I have mentioned, I really enjoyed the story that the campaign presents and I think it's the best of the series. The characters are well-crafted and the plot rarely disappoints, however parts in the middle do get slightly disjointed, but unlike Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops does a wonderful job of cleaning everything up for the finale.
[multipage=Multiplayer thoughts] The new system that Treyarch have implemented is a massive change, but once you understand the COD Points system it's actually a great new feature. It basically allows you to sculpt your style of play however you'd like. The only catch is that once you buy a weapon, perk, or killstreak, there are no refunds. In other words, you'd better be sure you want that weapon before you buy it. On the other hand this de-emphasizes what made Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 and even World at War’s multiplayer so much fun; the levelling itself.
The COD Points system does lead to a higher level of customization though. Not only can you customize your title and emblem, but you can write your clan tag on your weapon, change the color and look of your targeting reticule, as well as a lot more. Of course, every thing that you add will cost you COD Points, so you will need to save up if you want to really customize something.
But the new Wager Match modes can help you earn COD points quickly. The 4 Wager matches; Gun game, One in the Chamber, Sticks and Stones and Sharpshooter all have their different tactics. One in the Chamber is a game of real patience and accuracy. While gun game tests your speed at getting kills with a variety of weapons. Sticks and Stones tests you use of the special weapons in the game and lastly Sharpshooter is a game where you have to be good with a variety of weapons to win.
Also to help build up your COD points, Treyarch have included a contract system where you buy a contract for a small amount of points, and try to complete the goal of the contract a with the reward being a more COD points back. However, the contract system needs to be a bit broader and the contracts never seem to vary much.
The map designs are mostly well designed, with maps having dynamic elements that you can change or move such as opening and closing doors. The maps also usually have a good mixture of high and low points for the people who sit and snipe and for the people who run and gun.
The main feature I think is great on Black Ops is the brand new theater system that allows you to clip your favourite moments from a game, and then share it all with your pals. Then you can also upload up to 30 seconds of clips to Youtube so other people on the internet can watch. The limit on the amount you can upload is a bit annoying but for people with capture cards and recorders, theatre mode is a really helpful addition for making videos.
Another feature Treyarch has implemented is a "Combat Training" mode with bots to encourage players to practice playing and for testing out new guns,, but the bots are a little jerky and also the levelling up system is completely separate to the online system, so you have to rank up again by playing these bots to get the gun and perks you want.
Unfortunately, Black Ops is also suffering problems with the multiplayer; the framerate occasionally drops, matches are losing connection and people are being kicked from lobbies. This really puts a downer on the multiplayer as overall it is a great classic Call of Duty multiplayer, but these connection problems are ruining it for everyone.
[multipage
ombies!!!] Honestly I love zombies. Treyarch understood the fans loved the original and have expanded well on the original, but the offerings were surprisingly limited -- I only saw three maps available (two if we’re not counting Dead ops which is an arcade game)The three maps in Zombies are as follows; ‘Kino Der Toten’ a pretty standard and set in an old theatre, ‘Five’ A map set in the pentagon where you play as either JFK, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, or Robert McNamara. ‘
ead ops arcade’ I don’t really know whether this can be classed as a real zombie map because it just seems really random. The main point is you are playing an old style arcade game. It is fun for a few goes but after while it just gets a bit same old, same old.The maps are all great additions, but they feel unfinished and unpolished, like they seem to focus more on the multiplayer than on zombies, which they probably did but I think they could of added just a bit more to it.
[multipage=Conclusion] Call of Duty: Black Ops is great overall that has many elements to keep people interested. The multiplayer modes are based off Modern Warfare, but Treyarch expanded well upon it. The problem it faces with the multiplayer is the lag and connection issues which will hopefully be ironed out eventually. Black Ops is a terrific action game with a solid story and some tremendous action sequences but there are areas that did need touching up on. However the story is the best from a Call of Duty game so far. Also the addition of zombies is welcomed back although I think it needed some more work. Overall I think Black ops is a must have and although it has it’s downfalls it has definitely got a lot to offer.
I know this is rather long but there was so much to write
. The following ones will probably be a bit shorter but anyway thanks for reading this :y:
The following 8 users say thank you to Manxlad619 for this useful post:
01-10-2011, 10:40 PM
#3
Manxlad619
Hiya
Originally posted by Lewy
Nicely written, i read it all. I liked this. Although i do NOT like black ops, i find it a "campers" game, no real meaning to the game. While MW2 was and still is hackable, it was more amusing to play something like that than a piece of crap like Black Ops!
I see your point but I wasn't going to include campers in the review because that is down to the fault of the players not the game.
01-10-2011, 10:46 PM
#5
Manxlad619
Hiya
But a more recent game would have been nice since black ops has been out a while now and i have seen countless reviews on it. But other than that good job :y:
01-10-2011, 11:49 PM
#9
Manxlad619
Hiya
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