The road to Call of Duty: Black Ops has been long and somewhat tumultuous. After the dust had settled from Infinity Ward’s falling out with publisher Activision, the future of the series came to rest of the shoulders of developer Treyarch.
Treyarch was used to playing second fiddle to Infinity Ward’s releases and their previous CoD title, World at War was mostly well received, perhaps best rememebered for its hit zombie mode. Now Treyarch is spearheading the next generation of CoD. Do they have what it takes to spearhead the franchise? Treyarch have implemented and expanded upon the levelling and perk formula that has come to be expected in the wake of Modern Warfare 1 and 2 – and the zombie mode is back!
Review embargoes have just lifted, and already there are numerous reviews of the game appearing.
Game Informer – 9.0/10
The Game Informer review was accidentally published yesterday, before being quickly taken down due violating the embargo. Fortunately someone on the Anandtech forum had the foresight to copy/paste the review on their forums:
“It’s tough to hate on something as skillfully executed as Black Ops. Call of Duty remains the smoothest, most approachable first person shooter out there, and I had a blast playing it. On the other hand, it’s disappointing that Treyarch’s much hyped huge budget entry in the franchise feels like Modern Warfare 2.5. Activision hasn’t Tony Hawked Call of Duty yet, though, and I’m happy to get a refined update. This year anyway.”
Game Kult – 7/10
Translated from French and paraphrased:
“By dint of obstinacy, Treyarch delivers probably their best Call of Duty to date with Black Ops, but probably not the best in the series. With a workable script, albeit not very well told, the single player campaign incorporates all the elements of Modern Warfare – sometimes clumsily – but it provides a good half dozen hours filled with diverse scenery and situations. The developer has imported a large part of their know-how from World at War for multiplayer and there is no doubt that fans will once again enjoy this CoD outing.”
Game-Pad – 9.6/10
“With all the standard modes like TDM and Search you’ll feel right at home with the game and its mechanics. You can see the attention and care the team has given to the MP experience to ensure that players will enjoy themselves no matter what their skill level is. This care and attention has also been put into the 14 maps which I can safely say all reflect the era exceptionally well and are well designed and balanced on all game modes. I have yet to witness any glitches or exploits in the game, which is a sign of a fully polished MP experience. Overall I feel Black Ops beats its predecessor in almost every department. It’s not perfect, but it’s a damn good game.”
Wild Gunmen – 9.5
“If you were a big fan of Modern Warfare and World At War disappointed you, you’ll likely face a similar fate with Black Ops in regards to Modern Warfare 2. This isn’t a run and gun multiplayer. It’s a lot more difficult to get kills and the level environments are perfectly suited for “camping”. It’s likely going to elicit some angry bouts of rage from various young teenage boys on YouTube who are outraged and disappointed that they can no longer run around guns-a-blazin’ and win a good amount of matches while doing so. On the other hand, this is also going thoroughly please a huge amount of Call Of Duty players with it’s clever new features, attention to detail, massive depth and overall enjoyment.”
Kotaku – Editor’s Choice award
“Call of Duty: Black Ops is a powerful story. The game’s missions explore a fascinating time in history, take us to places we’ve likely never been and put us in situations unusual and captivating, even for a video game. But what it does best, through both narrative and gameplay, is tell a story.
So far things are looking god for Black Ops. Stay tuned as MyGaming will investigate the average review scores as they start to come in from all publications, and of course hang in there for MyGaming’s own review of Call of Duty: Black Ops.”
Eurogamer – 8/10
“Call of Duty has long since settled into an enormously successful rhythm, and the good news for Activision is that Black Ops does little to disrupt it. The campaign is relentlessly aggressive and spectacular – a Jerry Bruckheimer tribute act stuck in permanent encore – while the multiplayer modes are a mixture of smart tweaks to working formulas, as focused on protecting that guaranteed bottom line as the campaign’s yellow objective cursor is on making sure you never falter.”
IGN – 8.5/10
“Call of Duty: Black Ops is a great overall package that has a ton of content to enjoy. The multiplayer modes are largely based on what was established by Modern Warfare, but the twists that Treyarch throws in work well. My biggest issue with the multiplayer is that the new Wager Matches, while fun in their own right, don’t compare favorably to the high-quality and addictive leveling system and game modes from Modern Warfare 1 and 2. Single-player is as exhaustingly fast-paced as ever with large set pieces that try to take the attention off of the lackluster AI of both friends and enemies. That withstanding, the story is the best I’ve ever seen from a Call of Duty game. Couple both of those substantial offerings with more Zombie content than some full-fledged zombie games and Black Ops is certainly worth your time, even if you aren’t already a fan of the series.”
Videogamer.com – 9/10
“Treyarch isn’t trying to reinvent the formula which made Modern Warfare 2 the most successful video game of all time, but it has laid down solid multiplayer foundations while adding a series of necessary and intelligent tweaks – which should be music to the ears of the game’s many fans. A spectacular but silly single-player campaign rounds off the package, and while it comes without Modern Warfare 2’s ambitious (but unsuccessful) attempt at carving out a political message, Black Ops offers its own thoroughly enjoyable romp through some entertaining set-pieces. I’ve considered myself a Call of Duty fan for many years, and I’ve held a deep-seeded distrust of Treyarch since Call of Duty 3. No longer.”
GiantBomb – 4/5
“Do you want to play more Call of Duty? I’m guessing the answer is yes, and by all means, Black Ops is worth playing. But for all its ambitious steps to set itself apart from the previous games, it flounders in a few too many of those areas to be a total success. But the heart of the series–its competitive multiplayer–lives on quite well, which should be enough to satisfy most fans of the franchise.”
1Up – A-
“Black Ops is Treyarch at its finest — when it’s not just imitating Infinity Ward or maintaining the COD status quo.”
Disccus the Call of Duty: Black Ops review roundup on the MyGaming forum.
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