Thursday, June 30, 2011

REVIEW: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Bottom Line: They Will Make It So Long They Can Milk It 

Score: 4/10

Now, now. For the first time in my life, I watched the report of a release of a game not on a game channel, but on BBC World. This is serious. This shows how big this series are now. And the report shows interesting scenes: people sleeping in the line, and that the game has broken every existing record upon its release. There were many celebrities in the line. The reporter asked them how much of a gamer they are. The answer? Not much. So let us ask ourselves: how many people in that long line are actually there for a video game? How many of them are serious gamers? Why are they there?

Because Call of Duty is no more a game series. It's a fad. It's a goldmine. And we should not look at it as a serious video game, if we do that, we will be disappointed. They will now only make it to earn money. And they will not bother with being creative. You cannot blame them; for Call of Duty is no more about integrity, but about business. When we can crap on two DVDs and millions are going to buy it, why should we worry about the quality of our crap? We won't eat vegetables and fruits to crap good quality crap. We eat everything and will get an explosive diarrhea, because it's our crap that they're paying for.



Gameplay:
There is no gameplay. And that's the main problem. The game is a movie, an action movie. You can watch it. You might feel excited about it, but there's no real gaming element.

It's one thing to say a game is linear and scripted, (which many great video games are), but it's different to say "you almost do nothing". The basic idea of the game is this: run in a battlefield, watch cool cinematic deaths, kill a person or two (or don't), watch cool cinematic deaths again, watch cool explosions, watch a clip, go to the next level. That's all there is to it.

The game never gets difficult or challenging. I played the game on "The Veteran" difficulty, which is described thus: "You will not survive." Actually, you do. I died once or twice. The enemies are very easy to kill and your comrades are very strong, some of them are invincible. The enemies suffer from lack of AI, either running straight to you or standing somewhere. They rarely try to protect themselves. (Guess they really like martyrdom). But your allies on the other hand, are highly sophisticated, and they easily kill the enemies in masses.

Maybe two anecdotes can show how this game works: In one mission, I picked up a sniper, stood before a door and calmly killed enemies as they walked in. On that particular moment, my right hand was on the mouse, and my left hand was free. Each enemy who entered got his head shot, and the level finished. Yes, the graphics are great, but I've played stick man flash games on the internet which are more complicated in gameplay.

The other anecdote is this: A friend of mine is somehow a non-gamer. This is his strategy for playing this game: He watches the cool scenes, he waits a little far from the battlefield for his friends to finish the enemies off, and then proceeds.

If you buy an action war film with visual effects, it's the same as playing this game.

Story:
The game has an interesting story which almost makes no sense. Of course, when you begin the game, the story is really suspenseful and it's maybe the only reason that you will continue playing the game, but at the very end, it makes no sense. I can't spoil the ending, but I can tell you that it's unrealistic. While the Call of Duty series have always been proud of their realism, this game mingles fantasy in a realistic atmosphere. There are also numerous plot holes in the game.

Overall, the game's story is interesting but they can't really add it up in in the end.

I also want to address the political leaning of the game. I don't know why some people say these series are anti-war or critical of US. They're the opposite.

First of all the game glorifies the war in general. With all that action scenes, cool explosions, and even the violence, it makes the war looks cool. Secondly, the game supports Americans completely, it's a propaganda. In the game, the American soldiers are brave, heroic, and cool, while their enemies are either evil or brainless masses. The game doesn't show a single instant of an American soldier murdering an innocent citizen.

It seems as if the battlefields are either empty from Americans or only the Vietnamese kill their own citizens. Even when ordering air attacks, no civilian is in the range. Somehow a big lie, considering that at least 2,000,000 civilians died in that war.

Graphics and Sound:
The graphics and sound are the only departments where the game is perfect. They're really great.

You can see that character models are so natural and real, and they convey their emotions completely realistically. The visual effects are perfect. So are the animations. The explosions look really cool, while people act realistically. The violence is really pictured well, the way that the enemies splatter blood and gore and lose their limbs is beautiful.

The setting and the atmosphere looks great and completely conveys the sense of the game.

The same can be said about sounds. Good music, and perfect sound effects. The way you hear people shouting, running, the sound of bullets, explosions, all and all are done as magnificently as in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

However, the developers should know that better graphics does not equate better game, or a good game. Graphics is merely a cover for a book. The content is the gameplay and the story. So, the fact that graphics is good means nothing at the end.

Conclusion:
The game is really short, and not replayable in anyway. If you're going to buy it for the multiplayer system, stick to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, for the game hasn't been improved in any way.

Enough is enough. The game could be interesting at a time, but right now we have a not-so-much interactive movie which is not as a good as a movie anyway with no real gameplay, and an almost ridiculous plot. The game is an utter failure. It may break sales record, but so does Harry Potter and Avatar.

So let's shout: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! But the creators won't hear us, for their cool explosions are too loud, and the odor of money is too sweet.

Originally published at Gamefaqs

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