Formats: Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 / PC
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Release Date: November 9, 2010
Following up on one of the biggest entertainment products in history is no easy task. Infinity Ward’s main talent have since shifted to EA and Respawn Studios, leaving the difficult task to Call of Duty’s second development team, Treyarch – developers of the arguably inferior (but still enjoyable) Call of Duty 3 and World at War. It’s fair to say that Treyarch’s games stand out above most war shooters though, and are only looked down upon as they sand side by side with Infinity Ward’s masterpieces, Call of Duty 2 and the Modern Warfare titles. It’s also clear that Treyarch has been learning a thing or two about war shooters over the years, perhaps from Infinity Ward, so there’s a lot of pressure on them to get Black Ops right.
World War II may be a thing of the past for the franchise (as well as real life), but there’s nothing modern about Black Ops’ warfare. Black Ops marks the first game in the series to be set across several different wars, all connecting for one bigger story. Throughout the game we’ll be blasting our way through Vietnam, Cuba, the Arctic, Lao and Russia, with other locations still to be confirmed. If there’s one thing video games are lacking, it’s a decent Vietnam war shooter. It can only be a good thing that Call of Duty gives us what we want.
Of course, the huge success of Modern Warfare 2 basically guarantees big profits for Black Ops. With that in mind, Treyarch could have had some fun with this and left all press reveals to mission one, which could have been set in WWII. Only when players played the game could they reveal mission two is actually set elsewhere. Can you imagine the surprise? Of course, that’s not great marketing, and if Activision want instant success they need to lay all their cards on the table from the get-go.
Out of the many missions that are expected in the main campaign, just four have been revealed so far.
“WMD” is set in 1968 in the Ural mountains, Russia. The mission introduces the SR-71 Blackbird and the Crossbow weapon. It begins with players being escorted to their new tasty air craft, the aforementioned SR-71. While you’re led to believe you’ll be in full control of this thing, it’s left simply to a few button presses to take off, with no aerial control whatsoever. You’ll soon be flying over the Ural mountain region, guiding a team safely past enemy patrols via thermal vision.
Cut to: Below, in the freezing temperatures. Players take control of a US soldier equipped with a crossbow. The objective is to make it safely to a sub station, and avoid the Russian soldiers. Along the way you’ll be rapelling down cliff faces and taking out enemies with the crossbow, which can be altered to fire explosives. It sounds similar to Modern Warfare 2′s Cliffhanger mission, which began with climbing an icey mountain, stealthing through an enemy-filled compound and later escaping on a snow mobile. Treyarch has put their own touch to a similar setting, with a tasty new weapon and aerial support.
The Black Ops trailer has revealed that players can take control of a helicopter in Vietnam, which happens in the mission entitled “Payback”. With some guy named Frank as your gunner, players will control the helicopter to provide cover for the ground troops. Trouble also looms from the sky as enemy choppers will take fire at you. Eventually the chopper crash lands in the Hue River, leading up to the next mission in the thick of the Vietnam war.
“Victor Charlie” begins in the downed helicopter. From the wreckage players must swim up the Hue River, armed only with a knife. If this doesn’t provide tension by the bucketload, then what else possibly could? The next mission “Slaughter House” takes us to familiar territory – the action-packed first-person shooter. Continuing on from “Victor Charlie”, players must take on the vietnamese troops, as well as assist choppers with targets and escort an armoured vehicle through the rough Nam streets.
Vietnam and Russia are only two sections of the entire game, and with others still to be revealed we can only hope that the single player campaign is a lot longer than Modern Warfare 2. In additon to this, and the multiplayer, Black Ops comes with 4-player co-op play. Not only can you take on the enemy with three buddies, but the co-op missions are set to use altered levels to house the four of you. This makes it as worthwhile as playing alone.
As far as the multiplayer goes, it’s looking to be as good as the previous games, if not better. One new gadget worth mentioning is the RC car bomb. The idea is to find a safe corner, unleash the radio controlled car, and drive it to its destination before detonating it. This is most likely going to be a large kill streak perk, and one well worth killing for.
So far it seems Treyarch are handling the pressure very well indeed. There’s no denying that Black Ops is shaping up well, and could potentially steal the crown as the best Call of Duty game yet. We’ll see when the game is released this November.
