By Sam Coles:
2010 was a great year for gaming as we got the superb Red Dead
Redemption, but it was good year to be a Call of Duty fan as we got the
excellent Call of Duty Black Ops. The game strayed away from the contemporary setting
and instead told a story in the height of the Cold War during the 1960’s. It
explores some controversial events from that era, such as The Bay of Pigs
Invasion to the Vietnam War which isn’t explored often due to the unethical nature,
but Treyarch don’t pull any punches with the subjects as it is a deep look into
mind control and PTSD.
Call of Duty Black Ops takes place during the 1960’s at the
height of the Cold War, where you play as Alex Mason who is in the SOG unit
under the command of Frank Woods. Mason is being questioned by the CIA due to a
string of mysterious numbers Mason keeps hearing inside his head, Mason
recollects his past missions to get to the bottom of the situation. The game
starts in 1961 during The Bay of Pigs Invasion which was a CIA operation to go
in and eliminate Castro, they end up killing a double and Mason gets capture and
ends up in a Russian prison camp.
Mason ends up bumping into an old man and if you have played
World at War you’ll know Reznov. Reznov devises a plan to escape and Mason is
successful but Reznov is not and is sent back to the prison camp or so you we
think. In 1968 Mason is transferred to Vietnam with his best friend and
commanding officer Frank Woods where they are investigating Soviet activity in Laos
and Cambodia. They end up finding the Soviets and everything goes to hell. What
I like about the story is that it doesn’t shy away from the subject matter, it
goes really dark with torture, political conspiracies, mind control and just
gory images as you go through the rat tunnels of Vietnam.
Gameplay is what you would expect from a Call of Duty game
you point and you shoot, but it takes a raw and guerrilla approach with the warfare
because it’s all about deniability, so you’ll be using different weapons like
tomahawks, ballistic knives and my favourite explosive tipped crossbows. It
feels excellent when you nail a direct hit with the crossbow because you start
to see the enemy panic as the beeps get faster and more intense until it
explodes and you see body parts fly everywhere. There are different vehicle
sections in this campaign where you take control of a boat with machine guns on
it, a Hind Helicopter with missiles and minigun and an SR-71 Blackbird where
you command a platoon of soldiers in extreme weather conditions. It keeps the
game fresh and breaks up the monotony of the shooting galleries.
Multiplayer was a big shift after the mess that was Modern
Warfare 2, for starters they got rid of all the broken perks such Stopping
Power as well as getting rid of the stupid deathstreaks. You could also
customise your characters at your own pace as you could spend points on weapons
and attachments with COD points. How you earned COD points is by doing
challenges, or the more fun way is to play Wager Matches this is a lot of fun
as you could double down your bet and there was actually something on the line
rather than just a match loss.
Presentation is
something you can’t complain about when it comes to the Call of Duty series as
they seem to hit out of the park every time and this game is no exception. The
detail in this game is fantastic with beautiful animations from faces and
movement from each main character, the animation is superb for a game that came
out in 2010 this felt like developers from this point had a good grip with what
they could do with the 360 and PS3. Environments look amazing from the frost laden
mountains of Russia to the muggy and sweltering jungles of Vietnam with mud
soaked with blood from the previous battle.
Call of Duty Black Ops is a great game and kicked off an
excellent trilogy, you should pick this up it is fairly cheap although the 360
version is slightly more expensive due to the fact it is playable on Xbox One
via backwards compatibility. If you have the chance pick this game up for the
campaign alone as it is a deep psychological thriller that will mess with your
mind.
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