Game-Pad: Call of Duty Black Ops Review

Treyarch are back to try and steal the crown from Infinity Ward with their latest entry into the massive Call of Duty franchise, but does it live up to expectations?

[frankymv]

This could be the best COD yet.

[Acquiescence]

Wouldn't be saying much would it.

Yeah, what vhero said. The hyperbole rolls in, the embargo lifts and "critics" stumble over themselves to lavish the game with superlatives thick and fast.

And then...months, even weeks later, features will clog up the internet, detailing the various plot-holes, glitches and inconsistencies that the thing is laden with. It's the same story every damn time and I'm not buying into it this year.

[vhero]

Totally agree even if it was the worst FPS in history it would still get stupidly high scores.

[THunt]

Yep, take off the stupid Call of Duty name and this idiot would be babbling about:

* Mediocre graphics
* Brings nothing new to the genre
* Do we really need another fps?

6/10

[vhero]

Take off COD and call it er.. I dunno Haze? And It would get a REAL score..

[lucifon]

@THunt - not the case though. Just because some find it 'cool' to hate on whichever franchise gets popular doesn't mean thats everyones opinion. These games are huge for a reason, regardless of if you personally don't share that opinion.

[Venatus-Deus]

Ohhhh so CoD4 is now a bad game?

MW2 was a slight step back, but it's still better that 90% of online games. It's just unbalanced.

It's cool to hate on N4G

EDIT:

@lucifon

Exactly!

10m regularly players (and a 2 year development time) means that every glitch is going to be found and exploited.

[Kaneda]

"Concept – Remember Modern Warfare? Yeah, like that but in 1968"

milking it.....

[THunt]

Call of Duty == Kiddie FPS

Massive auto-aim so all the lamers can hit stuff
Arcady gun on a stick weapon controls

If you're 13 and want to feel badass playing with your Junior High School buds, Call of Duty is for you.

For real FPS fans...

[vickers500]

"and want to feel badass"

No no no, you're confusing the reason people play games with YOUR reason to play games. Other people play games like Call of Duty because they have fun playing it. Just because you play games to satisfy your ego and think you are finally actually good at something in your life, does not mean others play games like Call of Duty for that reason.

You see kiddo, later on in life when you're older and finally leave that bubble you've been living in where everybody has the same opinion as you and shares the same interests and beliefs, you will run into people with DIFFERENT opinions.

Now don't get frightened sonny, it's not something to be scared of, because you see, differences are what make our society so great. It wouldn't be a very interesting world if everybody thought the same way, now would it?

I'm glad we had this little talk. Now, go upstairs and finish your homework and then go to bed and wait for your mother to read you a bed time story and tuck you in. Shall I tell her to bring you a glass of warm milk for you, preferably from her breast?

[visualb]

I CAN NOT take reviews for this game seriously (much less than I'd do for any other game)

so...yeah =|

try it for myself and judge, taking reviews for COD now days is like trusting user reviews on Avatar in reference to it being a cinematic work of art (its not)

[oldjadedgamer]

Do high profile games get inflated reviews?

The last sentence of the review: "Overall I feel Black Ops has beaten MW2 in its Campaign and Multiplayer (certainly the meat of the game) - but is let down by slightly inferior graphics and a co-op mode which offers only 3 maps and less variety in my opinion."

So it's a great game but has its let downs. So on to the score.

And it gets a 9.6/10. 9.6/10 is about as close to perfect as you can get. But the review acknowledges problems and let downs... I don't get it.

[PS360fanboy]

Slightly inferior graphics? That chopper scene looks amazing!

[Zezo]

this review was written under the influence of bobby kotick's cheque.. Why am I not surprised?

[lucifon]

Our guys work on the site in their own time with absolutely nothing gained financially. We do it because we enjoy doing it. We buy the games with our own money and play them in our own time.

[Menzeldinho]

The game's are bought out of our own money and reviewed by us because we want to and not to get paid

[coxlin]

@Zezo: back in the corner

[blizzard_cool]

I played MW2, and I watched videos of BO. For Gods sake, II can't tell a bloody difference in gameplay and then they give it a 9.6..

[mrcash]

Name a great sequel that you can tell a great difference in gameplay.

[Menzeldinho]

MW2 got a 9.6 on our site also.

[coxlin]

SEQUEL I know its probs a big word for you but it usually means a continuation to something else which ahs similar themes, gameplay, etc

[blizzard_cool]

I know what a sequel is, it's to make it bigger and better, not copy paste.
It doesn't need to make ground breaking innovation but at least some changes.
Uncharted < Uncharted 2 - some gameplay tweaks, everything else huge overhaul
GoW 2 < GoW3 (ok this one goes from person to person)
Assasin's Creed < Assasin's Creed 2
Burnout 3 < Burnout Paradise

Get the point?

[vhero]

3 maps????? I bet you right now there is about 10 maps on the disc that you will be charged extra to unlock.

[JeffGUNZ]

I doubt it. With an 8-10 campagin, HUGE customizable MP (also with 14 launch maps), Zombie Mode (Plus those maps) and Dead Ops. There really isn't much more room on those disks. I do believe they are working on map packs though.

[lucifon]

To clarify on that Brohuffman, what Michael's trying to say is it's not perfect no but it's a damn good game.

That said though a couple of our guys, including myself, got into a debate over handing out 10's for games, we want it to be those which really do deserve it, but it still won't be because a game is perfect otherwise nothing would ever get a 10 - but instead just as close to perfect as you can get for that genre of game. To date we've handed out one 10/10.

[coxlin]

And half of us did not agree with that 10/10

[oldjadedgamer]

I still think reviews biased towards the "in" game.

The COD games have saturated the market the past 5 years, with IMO the only major improvements/changes coming with MW. I don't think MW2 deserved 9s and 10s, and since BO uses the same engine by a less talented dev team (until they prove me otherwise), I really can't see this game deserving the "almost perfect" scores.

I don't doubt this game is good, maybe great, but it is still more of the same with slightly more content. Maybe I just have a harsher opinion of grading games then most people.

[lucifon]

I think it really depends what kind of gamer you are Brohuffman. I mean me personally i'm totally psyched about the changes in Black Ops, especially all the little balance things which drove me insane in MW2. I think the core gameplay itself is extremely good, and with the constant progression of features that for me should create a great game (obviously yet to play it until tonight).

But if your someone who likes these kind of games to completely evolve with each iteration then it's understandable to not be too keen on it. Bigger titles do indeed create hype which gets people excited but I genuinely feel franchises, like Call of Duty, get great scores because plain and simple they're great games. For the record I've always stressed a point to our boys to never let hype come into play when scoring games.

[oldjadedgamer]

I think maybe its the rate at which they pump out these games. MW2 was a broken, flawed game that I couldn't play without getting frustrated. So BO comes out with a fixed version of pretty much the same multiplier + little odds and ends.

I still have fun playing MW and don't think that their are enough major changes to warrant gamers excepting a new COD game just because it is out. I feel like a new COD that deserves a 10/10 can't just be a pretty version of the same thing with the past errors fixed.

Edit: I feel like it's just re-gifting the same thing with shinier wrapping paper. And maybe some pretty bows.

[Menzeldinho]

Your right mate, was worded wrongly im afraid, cheers.

[JeffGUNZ]

They never said the graphics were a "let down", but some areas not as great as MW2. They actually said the graphics ars spot on for most good games that release thus far.

The pros heavily outweigh the cons.

[oldjadedgamer]

My quoted words were in the review, Michael changed the end of the review to more clarify his opinion.

But that was my opinion of the review when I first read it, not after it was edited.

[soundslike]

lol this a hardly a review

[Menzeldinho]

Submit your "proper review" then...

[JeffGUNZ]

I thought it was an excellent, well written, and insightful review. Oh, I get it, it had a good score, so it must be a BS review.

[KimoNoir]

Black Ops isn't as good as the MW series but, still a good game.

They should have done away with the psychotic/schizophrenic storyline and characters. The Multiplayer is straight up ballsack, the guns are ugly, sound terrible and the maps are the typical Treyarch bs.

Zombies is fun.
Single Player might give some of you a seizure playing it.
Multiplayer is ruined but, better than WAW.

[JeffGUNZ]

Did you play MW2 MP? That has to be the most unbalaned and BS game ever, and I always preferred IW to Treyarch. Not anymore. Treyarch listened to the community and balanced this game. I bet you were one of the quickscope or commando-marathon-lightweight morons running around the map and shooting rocket launchers and noob-tubes.

[KimoNoir]

nope, quit the ad hominem, you'll get beat up in real life for personally talking shit.

And you can testify all that by not even playing the game or playing the game for a few minutes. gtfo

[sak500]

I bet if you dont buy their later Map packs they will include those in regular play list and like in WAW they will boot the player to main menu when the next map is a DLC which the player hasnt bought.

How pathetic was that, a cheap trick to force people to buy DLC i stopped playing it after few days due to constantly getting throuwn to main menu since i dint buy any mappacks.

[KimoNoir]

and you have to buy $15 zombie map packs since it only comes with 2 maps. Did I forget to mention that they decided to bring back the "NAZI" zombies? Why the eff would I want nazi zombies.

[antz1104]

Why the eff WOULDN'T you want Nazi zombies, they're the best kind.

[NickX]

Sad that you pathetic losers can't accept that this is a good game.

[Menzeldinho]

I believe that when the "haters" get this game tomorow, which believe me they will. They will realise what a brilliant job treyarc have done and all the plaudits should be handed to them

[nano88]

Some say this is better than reach and I say no way reach is too much for this

[JeffGUNZ]

eh, it's a matter of preferance. I never liked Halo, I tried, but not my style. Bungie is incredible, but I myself prefer more modern combat style of games.

[lucifon]

They are indeed 2 very different styles of shooters. I personally enjoy both franchises.

[coxlin]

Help if half of you haters actually had decent reasons, you probs havent even played it yet

[TheGuvnor]

guys, a review is a 'reviewer's' own personal review.
Its used as a guideline for people's purchase of the game 99% of the time.
So all you can do really is play it yourself and decide that way. You may hate it, or love it. Thats human nature, like everything tbh.

[madefade]

The lads over at Game-Pad are sound, good review.

[AEtherbane]

Their alright, rather they review a game high than IGN....

[MyNameIsNotRick]

Seriously, all of the cod haters must really suck. Sure there are some issues but it's fun and even with it's flaws its better than the vast majority of console fps shooters. The guys who bitch like little girls are the one's getting their ass kicked. Don't lie. And I honestly don't believe that it's as unbalanced as people make it out to be. Everybody has access to the same loadouts. You can counter anything. How is that unbalanced. It's usually really simple to shut down boosters etc. Also, so what if it's friendly to the masses. FYI my kill/death ratio is 1.41 (decent-not spectacular) and I have never boosted, quick scoped, nube tubed ect, or used any kind of exploit. Admit it, you guys suck and are taking it out on the game. Why else would you go out of your way to comment on a game that you don't like? Cus your mad cus it won't let you win. It's ok, we get it.

[Strite]

I'd just like to chime in here. As founder of Game-Pad i'd like to stress that none of our members recieve any financial reward whatsoever, we pay for the site ourselves and we pay for the games ourselves.

I'm sorry if you feel Michael's review is biased, actually... No, i'm not. Haters will be haters at the end of the day, and of course you 'Naysayers' will consider Michael to be 'Jumping on the bandwagon' so to speak, however that's not the case at all.

At Game-Pad we have the greatest respect to videogame developers, alot of hard work goes into creating a videogame, blood, sweat and tears. A few of our members are taking Computer Science themselves and we have more than one budding game developer within our community, so we appreciate all the effort that goes into a game, and not just games of this calibre either.

At Game-Pad we pride ourselves on giving fair reviews for every game, regardless of whether it's 'cool' to play that game, or whether or not a game is 'mainstream'. We've reviews games from small Indie developers and given them fantastic scores also, personally I couldn't stand MW2 and if I had have been the one reviewing it when it came out I would have undoubtedly given it a lower score than what it actually recieved, as for Black Ops, heck i'm not even getting the game, not yet at least. I'll pick it up cheap in the January sales. Personally some of my favourite games on the 360 have been the more unpopular ones - Shadowrun, Frontlines: Fuel of War and Chromehounds to name a few.

Having said that I respect Michael's opinions and so it should be, we're all individuals and there will always be differences in opinion, that's what makes us individual for crying out loud. If you don't agree with Micahel's views then by all means comment, either on here or on Game-Pad itself, let us know what your own views are, we encourage healthy debate within our community, isn't that part of what makes a thriving community in the first place? So yes, come and share your views, but please don't resort to petty name calling and pathetic mud-slinging simply because you may not agree with somebody elses opinions, because at the end of the day you just end up making yourself look stupid, mouthing off on an internet forum about a videogame, nice one ;)