A review of Call of Duty Black Ops as a full-fledged mini-line of projects should interest anyone who respects the genre of shooters. For many people, the Call of Honor series has long been the standard for fast and dynamic fights on narrow maps. A single company has always provided a large number of cinematic scenes with an exciting plot for a dozen hours. This review is an example of what happens to a promising series when it is put on the conveyor.
Expectations from the first game
It’s worth starting a review of Call of Duty Black Ops with the fact that after the magnificent second part of Modern Warfare, the players were expecting another revelation. A variety of locations, a huge number of interesting scenes, constant struggle and lack of censorship - these and many other aspects have created a million-strong army of fans of the series. They eagerly awaited the continuation, but received not quite what they demanded. Developers from the Treyarch studio decided to try their hand at the new setting, from which the Black Ops line was born. The project turned out to be controversial, with its obvious pros and cons.
Plot component
In the Call of Duty Black Ops review, it should be immediately noted that the events that take place carry players during the most diverse military conflicts. In the center of the plot is Alex Mason, who is sitting chained to a chair, and two men are conducting an interrogation. He talks about his life, and during flashbacks, players go on combat missions. From the very beginning, it’s not clear what the story leads to, but a good story looms ahead of the players.
Somewhere in the middle, you can predict the end of the whole story, but here interest is not only supported by this. Players are offered to feel like fighters of different roles. At one point in a snowy area, the player will save the world from launching a rocket, and within an hour will advance through the underground tunnels in Vietnam, destroying the rebels. The story campaign can be reproached for being drawn out, but there are plenty of great scenes here. One mission with an escape from the Gulag is worth a lot. In single player mode, interest remains to the end.
First wake-up call
In the Call of Duty Black Ops review, an integral part is the inspection of the gameplay. A certain suspicion about repeating the past experience of the series creeps in. At first glance, it may seem that the concept looks organic and should be just that. Bright skirmishes in various locations are replaced by cinematic inserts, where the player must perform some action.
The developers created new types of weapons, worked on the environment, even the maximum in terms of graphics was squeezed out of the old physical engine. In general, entertainment is interesting, but over the years it does not change. If you carefully go through each location, then in half the cases you can guess the unexpected turns. The characters do not look so unusual, and the concept of shooting in a single company remained the same. Most fans liked the project and received praise, but the problem of secondaryity was already creeping in small steps to the series.
Network mode and totals
Review of the game Call of Duty Black Ops will be half without mentioning multiplayer battles. The developers made the main emphasis on this aspect, and an excellent result was obtained. A variety of weapons allows you to choose your style of play, and some workarounds on locations even introduce a tactical element. It is worth noting that players will now have to buy all the improvements for their character for the game currency.
New modes have appeared, among which there is even gaming gambling entertainment. Players fold into the general cashier, and the winner receives all the winnings. Old modes remained in place, plus a variety of locations grew. What does it cost only the opportunity to take a radio-controlled machine, call at the enemy’s base and blow it up among the enemies. In general, the first part of this line was provocative, although not all users liked the single player campaign. Excellent multi-user mode makes you quickly forget about all the minuses, even though the alarm bell has already sounded.
The output of the second part
Review Call of Duty Black Ops 2 will not sound as rosy as in the case of the first part. The developers have problems with new ideas, and this is evident from the first shots. Events unfold in 2025, if we talk about the main mission. David Mason followed in his father's footsteps and joined a special US Army counterterrorism unit. The son wants to learn more about the fate of his father, to deal with his own past, and along the way to save the world.
In most missions, the player will control precisely the son of Alex Mason, but they will also try on other roles. In one of the missions it will be possible to take control of the main antagonist. At the first passage, the story may be of interest, but after the second time, any fan of the series will notice one obvious problem. The whole story can be described in a few words - the fight against terrorists of patriotic soldiers from the United States. The concept, except for some story missions, does not shine with absolutely nothing new.
Game process
In the game Call of Duty Black Ops 2, the main emphasis is on the gameplay. For the first time, developers wanted to experience the setting of a futuristic future, which is interesting at first to experience. Players are offered missions using a variety of technological chips. You can take robots under control, use a special sight to detect invisible enemies, even tactical elements appeared in some missions. This applies to the protection of objects from attacks, where the first deployment, and then switching between defense camps.
The futuristic shell in Black Ops 2 looks vigorously moments, although diversity is not enough. The good old concept with a pinch of pathos, the most popular stamps from the militants and an epic scale rescues the state of affairs. Cinematic scenes are replaced by shootings, then missions with transport control, defense of objects and again in a circle. As a separate element, it is worth noting that some moments in a single player game can fail, and this will affect the plot.
Summary
In the Call of Duty Black Ops II review, you can infinitely negate a single player campaign and a hackneyed concept, but you can’t deny the benefits either. Futuristic gadgets are well integrated into the multiplayer mode, and it again attracted hundreds of thousands of users. Fights with zombies in individual matches with real players do not capture tens of hours, but variety is always a plus.
In a single player campaign, it is interesting to observe the fate of the main antagonist, his all-consuming hatred and desire for revenge. Charisma of the protagonist plus narrative non-linearity - these are completely new elements for the entire series, and this applies not only to Black Ops. Among the minuses can be noted the outdated schedule for 2012, problems with the script and the hackneyed general concept. Nevertheless, the advantages outweighed this plan, and therefore, once again, the continuation of “Call of Honor” was sold in a huge circulation. Only here the feeling that the developers squeezed the latest ideas out of themselves, only intensified.
The third part
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 review should start with the fact that this series went even further into the future. Cybernetics owns the world, and among opponents in shootouts there are more robots than people. The storyline campaign begins with the players seeing an explicit stamp from the previous game with the Advanced Warfare prefix. The main character is defeated again at the very beginning of his adventure, and wakes up already as an improved version with a variety of prostheses.
After this, such ups and downs of events begin that it’s even difficult to understand. It seems that the writers have written to the level that they decided to make the story in the sequel with only some hints. At the same time, any incomprehensible moments are written off to the setting of the future. In the same periods when the player is slightly explained what is happening, a bunch of stamps appear on the screen. The fight against terrorists, betrayals, political conspiracies and much more. Fans are not just "somewhere" have already seen it. Similar situations were in the previous parts, but because a single player campaign here is a frank minus.
Have fun in any way
When creating a review of Call of Duty Black Ops 3, you have to focus mainly on the cons. That alarming bell with the repetition that sounded in the first part of this line grew into a real roar. It would seem that the cinematic scenes remained in place, the magnitude of the epic is not inferior to the previous parts, but all this causes a yawn. Not an interesting story with a fictional future makes you run missions at maximum speed, without looking around.
The creators of the game once again tried to bring new elements to the gameplay. Thanks to the augmented body, the user can turn off the electronics and send a swarm of mechanical bugs to the enemies. Here, secondaryity is already felt when looking at BioShock and Deus Ex. Fights can even be fought on walls with a ceiling, thanks to a jetpack. The dynamics are felt in certain moments, and to go through a single-player campaign in a co-op can even be fun. Only this merit is not a game, but communication in the company, which makes even the most seedy project sane.
Weighing the pros and cons
In the review of Call of Duty Black Ops III, as well as any most failed part in the general series “Call of Honor”, ​​it is necessary to mention, though small, but pluses. From year to year, developers continue to fail with a single player campaign since 2011, but in multi-user mode, things are much better. Here again there is an interesting shooting, dynamics, a variety of weapons. This is enough to relax after a hard day's work. Plus, the zombie mode didn’t let us down, and it’s still interesting to cut the walking dead.
If to sum up the third part in this line, it should be said that even the most outcast fans can pass by. This game is a combination of patterns and technical solutions that have long been used in the industry. It is simply impossible to meet here something new, and I want to forget the plot faster than a bad dream. The project deserves attention for a maximum of several hours and only for multiplayer battles. After that, you will want to go to the previous parts, if Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified is excluded. A review of this parody, which came out as entertainment on portable consoles, will be composed of two words - a complete failure.
Final opinion
This is not to say that the Black Ops series is a complete failure. Here the situation was such that all the advantages of the first part were blocked by the third sequel. Between them was Black Ops 2, which first sent players to the future, which looked fresh. In addition to all the above problems and positive aspects, it should be noted separately the crisis among developers. They allow the same problems from time to time with optimization, access to servers and stamps in the script. Perhaps this is not their fault, because the whole series is put on the conveyor, and new parts appear annually. If this continues, then the Call of Duty Black Ops 4 review will earn a rating of 2-3 out of 10.