Call of Duty: Black Ops (★★★★★)

Call of Duty: Black Ops
★★★★★

I wrote a long, lengthy review about Modern Warfare 2 (★★☆☆☆) detailing several basic missteps that helped start a sub-par game off on the wrong foot.

Go ahead and click on that review and check out the bolded points, then come back.

All those issues? Non-issues here. Every single one of those issues, with the exception of "Add to squad" (which might exist, I just haven't figure it out yet?) has been fixed. Even the volume issue I mentioned is addressed when starting up the game for the very first time. The stats and leaderboards are improved beyond my expectations, the new voting system is excellent...but what's most important is the gameplay.

The multiplayer plays like a cross between COD4 (Modern Warfare) and COD: World At War, while keeping all of the cool ideas that MW2 tried to implement. Single Player is also a big step up from MW2, both in duration and quality. I thought I would have played more Zombies by now, but every night I play, I end up losing track of time in multiplayer, and playing far more than I should, while loving every minute of it. I am sure I'll get around to zombies (which I loved in WaW) at some point, but based on my experience with the game so far, the game is worth every penny just for multiplayer. (The single player is a great experience as well.)

I've done reviews for the majority of the games I've owned. Check out my August 2010 collection, March 2009 collection, or my April 2008 collection.

You can also see a list of my XBLA games from August 2010 along with ratings for each here, as well as my reviews for Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2.

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I've gone ahead and written a review over at Amazon. I've pasted it below:

I am a huge fan of World at War, finding the zombies, multiplayer and single player to all be excellent game modes. I was also very impressed by Call of Duty 4's single player and multiplayer, but found myself very let down by a short, offensive and unentertaining single player campaign in MW2, coupled with a buggy multiplayer experience that I gave up on within a few months of purchasing the game. (For a long list of my complaints, see the Amazon review I wrote for MW2: www.amazon.com/review/R2ATUPNS1NWWKR/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm )

I was tentatively hopeful that Black Ops would provide a more enjoyable experience. I was blown away by how good this game is. First, if you view my MW2 review, every single one of the key issues/suggestions I had has been fixed/implemented in Black Ops. Beyond that, the single player is longer, more entertaining and more interesting than MW2. The multiplayer feels more like COD4 and COD:WaW than MW2, which is a very good thing in my book. However, the game does borrow many of the ideas, perks and tweaks that MW2 implemented, which results in the best COD multiplayer experience I have seen yet.

Zombies also makes a return in COD:BO, with two full fledged maps, as well as a hidden game (Dead Ops Arcade) and the classic game Zork both being accessible through a PC terminal hidden in the main menu of the game.

All said and done, a fan of the single player will find that the intel, variable difficulties and enjoyable campaign will provide over a dozen hours of entertainment. I know first hand that zombies alone can provide dozens and dozens hours of entertainment, and the multiplayer is the best online FPS experience I have had on the 360 to date. (I consider it superior to the past COD games, as well as Halo, Gears of War and Battlefield games.)

I've spent well over 250 hours on both COD4 and COD:WaW, and I highly expect to find even more enjoyment and reasons to keep playing with Call of Duty: Black Ops. While not all game types will align with everyone's tastes, I fully expect there to enough here for every fan of first person shooters to be able to find enough entertainment to justify a purchase.

Taken in: 日本 / 神奈川県 / 川崎市 (show map)

Taken on: November 11, 2010

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