Topic #8 - Black Ops Part 1 (Early Opinion)

Let me start off with the following: EARLY OPINION! Thank you!

Now, I'll break it down into four parts. Campaign, Co-op, Multiplayer and Zombies.

Campaign

Now, I've been saying this since World at War, Treyarch does a great, if not fantastic job with their campaign mode. Yes, Call of Duty has a campaign, shocking. Black Ops had a very compelling story and felt a lot more focused on the story rather than little new things in the game play or little cut scene action sequences. They had a very believable set of characters, the vibe and ambiance was fitting, and you could easily get into the game for hours without stoppage. It got right into the action and didn't have many dull moments, if any at all.

I am extremely grateful that the campaign's veteran mode has been eased down a tad bit. Everyone knows how ridiculous World at War's veteran mode was and they made it hard enough to take time on, but easy enough to actually accomplish. The graphics could have used a little bit of a push, but I'll get into detail with that a little later.


Co-op

I can say I was disappointed that there was no 4-Player co-op mode in this game and no online co-op if I'm not mistaken, there might be, though. I have played co-op with friends split-screen, and needless to say, wasn't as fun and could have been improved. This is something I most definitely would like in any of the next Call of Duty games. If not 4-Player co-op like in World at War, then at the least, a 2-Player mode, whether it's like Spec Ops or just a co-op campaign.

I wouldn't mind having Call of Duty try to reinvent the co-op aspect as well. Have more situations like in Spec Ops where you would need 2 people to accomplish your goal. Not everything from Spec-Ops had 2-Player necessity, but it was a campaign, it'd be a nice touch in the future. Anyways, I know I'm one of the few people who care about co-op gameplay, but I feel it's a huge letdown to go from co-op 4-Player in World at War, to almost none in Black Ops.


Multiplayer

Probably the place everyone began to look. This is the variable in the franchise, it can start off like a great game, end up being horrible, so I'll try going in great detail.

Off the bat, I hate Second Chance. I think it's the dumbest perk in the game since Call of Duty 4, and I have no clue why they kept it in. I figured they'd clean up the perks, yet they left in Second Chance. Aside from that, I can't complain about the other perks. I do think Ghost should go back to the MW2 Cold-Blooded rather than being just hidden from UAV at first. With a game like this, and the amount of air support there is now, you need to have something to counter aside from a Strela which is countered mostly by flares on the gunners, anyways. Overall, better than the past franchises for sure.

I am completely fine with the Assault Rifles, but I do think G11 could be slightly nerfed, aside from that, I have no other complaints there. Sub Machine Guns for me feel like a lot of choices, but only a few stand out. AK-74u of course, is pretty much as good as in Call of Duty 4, MP5K feels like a mix of CoD4's MP5 and MW2's MP5K, and duel-wielding Skorpions and MAC-11s make close range battles fun. Light Machine Guns, which I do in fact enjoy using from time to time, especially in certain game modes, aren't too bad, but I did like the RPD and the diversity of MW2's selection of LMGs. Shotguns are okay, nothing overpowered, nothing underpowered, and they all have their own perks that go with them. Whether it's duel-wielding, double barrel, pump action, or semi-auto, they all can go with what players enjoy. Snipers suck, end of story. Dragunov is good, and so is WA2000. There is only one Bolt-Acton gun and I don't enjoy it too much. The sniper I liked going in was the PSG-1, but they nerfed it badly, so I grew to hate sniping in the game overall. Just my opinion. CoD4 had the better all round choice for snipers.

Emblems customization is fantastic and would love to see the franchise build off of that. Customizing the player was a let down to me, I would have loved choosing how each of the people looked all together instead of just adding face paint and...that's it. They can improve greatly in this category, but nothing upsetting at all.

Gameplay wise, my problem is the lag, and most of it comes from the fact that Treyarch did not build off the MW2 engine, rather building off their CoD4/WaW engine which of course, had it's faults and which is why IW fixed it for MW2. Next time, they should definitely build it off the MW2 and then it'd solve most of their hit detection issues, and other sources where the game fails in. Of course, they need to have better connection regardless, and it's been a problem for years.

Killstreaks are okay, Dolphin Diving is fun, customizing your guns a bit more is great and prestige is still just a choice and not a need. Overall, good game so far, but gets boring fast. Hell, maybe I'll start doing game nights and have big parties so everyone can lag and die together, as a unit.


Zombies

To be completely honest with you, I'm bored of zombies. I thought it was fun and innovative, and probably saved any value World at War had for me, but now it's just drawn out and dull. You kill zombies, board up, get guns, power up, rinse repeat, and you eventually die. I for one get tired of playing something I won't win in, but even then, I feel like they did nothing to improve it and just put it in to get some more buys, which probably worked, not for me, but I know many people that got it for zombies. I don't have much to say and feel like it's just overrated by now. So many games added zombie modes now, that it's become a tiring cliche.


Overall, the game isn't amazing, but it's an huge improvement from WaW, and as of now, is getting higher on my list of favorite CoD games. My list is CoD4, CoD2, MW2, BO, and a tie with CoD3/WaW. I'd leave it at top 4. I don't care if you *censored* about MW2 on my list, it was way overhyped, but greatly abused and the community itself ruined most of it.



Part 2 will come in the future, perhaps around the spring or summer, maybe even when the next CoD game comes out.

Everything is my opinion, so don't take it to the heart. Let me know your opinion, I'll debate of course, because I like to argue.

Bravo Mike, bravo.

Second chance can die a horrible death.

i find ghost to be annoying, along with warlord. i mean, do you need an rds and a suppressor?

gggfrt wrote:

i find ghost to be annoying, along with warlord. i mean, do you need an rds and a suppressor?

Ghosts's good. All the perks have the pros and cons which i like and sp doesnt rein supreme. Ghost can be counterd by things like marathon in SnD because of the speed of rushers like myself
Also warlord ftw? If people cant handle iron sights that just gives them a perk less and 1 more for me. And its amazing 2 grenades and 3 tactical nades and a dual mag + supressor ftw?

The story was great. I liked how Treyarch focused the story on one person instead of two. It seemed like they took a different approach when it came to the story this time around. There were actual "cutscenes" in the game that help define the story. We also get to see the dude we were playing as in the game as well. Freaking awesome like cool beans.

I thought it was nice to let your character have a voice in single player and actually breach with your teammates in story. I remember in CoD4 on the cargo ship operation when they breached rooms you were kinda left out. Now Mason and Woods breach together in slow-mo (similar to Mw2) and take out multiple bad guys. Pretty cool to me

Ghillie wrote:

I thought it was nice to let your character have a voice in single player and actually breach with your teammates in story. I remember in CoD4 on the cargo ship operation when they breached rooms you were kinda left out. Now Mason and Woods breach together in slow-mo (similar to Mw2) and take out multiple bad guys. Pretty cool to me

nice pedo bear sig

Numbers are Project Nova were my personal favourite missions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yovl9HvpPU

That music and the setting is just epic. I just wish treyarch and IW would combine and make Infinity arch and Treyarch makes the single player and Infinity Ward make the Multiplayer. Thats possible because 1 game a year and the dev's would need to do half the work. Anyone agree?

Saint570 wrote:

gggfrt wrote:

i find ghost to be annoying, along with warlord. i mean, do you need an rds and a suppressor?

Ghosts's good. All the perks have the pros and cons which i like and sp doesnt rein supreme. Ghost can be counterd by things like marathon in SnD because of the speed of rushers like myself
Also warlord ftw? If people cant handle iron sights that just gives them a perk less and 1 more for me. And its amazing 2 grenades and 3 tactical nades and a dual mag + supressor ftw?

commando dual mag rds orange retical or light blue not that many blue or orange maps 2 semtexes 4decoys lightweight warlord marathon is pro for snd