Standard modes including Team Deathmatch, Domination and Headquarters are still there and are great for leveling up and if you do hit Level 50, Prestige Mode is there with some extra challenges to make it worthwhile. The first is a lesson in patience and accuracy and the second gives you a guided tour of 20 of Black Ops' armaments with each kill earning you a new gun. Just know that One in the Chamber and Gun Game are highlights. We've talked at length about the specifics of each Wager Match mode. The new Wager Match modes are designed to highlight the importance of CoD Points and they're fun in their own right, but nothing ever reaches the level of enjoyment I had with the traditional leveling mechanic. This de-emphasizes what made Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer so much fun the leveling itself. In other words, you'd better be damn sure you want that sniper rifle before taking the plunge. The only catch is that once you buy a weapon, perk, or killstreak, there's no going back. It basically allows you to sculpt your style of play however you'd like. When you level up you're handed 1,000 CoD Points that you can spend on whatever you please. The system itself is overwhelming at first, especially if you're totally new to Call of Duty, but once you get your head around the CoD Points mechanic it's actually pretty cool. Earning experience points and leveling up now handles macro stuff like unlocking more custom class slots, Create-A-Class, new modes to play, and the availability of certain weapons and bonuses for "purchase." Everything else (weapons, perks, killstreak bonuses, emblems, different colors for your targeting reticule) is bought with CoD Points. But you will get some of the playlists later added to Modern Warfare 2, including the Killstreak-free Barebones list.īlack Ops makes its most significant departure from Modern Warfare 2 by adding CoD Points. Black Ops is a more focused effort, and there will inevitably be those who miss a few of the omitted modes. Call of Duty: Black Ops largely succeeds, presenting a similar (but not identical) set of modes as Modern Warfare 2. Of course, most gamers are more interested in the multiplayer.
The characters are well-crafted and the plot rarely disappoints. The mission never tells you what to actually do and even misdirects you.ĭespite these issues, I really enjoyed the story that the campaign presents and I think it's the best of the series. No one else in the office ran into that one, but everyone who'd played Black Ops has run into a major design issue at the Battle of Khe Sanh. There are also a few design flaws and annoyances, not least of all was a game-ending bug in the first level that made me restart the entire mission. I once watched a friendly shoot the back of an armored car that he was using for cover for a solid 20 seconds. Both friendly and enemy soldiers behave like fools for most of the campaign. The artificial intelligence of both your friendly soldiers and the enemies you face is pretty poor. I tried to not pull back on the flight stick when the game told me to, just to see if there was any other alternative to taking off, but the Blackbird lifted off on its own.
Just one example is when you "guide" the takeoff of an SR-71 Blackbird. Black Ops is not just a linear game, but sometimes feels like it's on autopilot.