Call of Duty: Black Ops afterthoughts

After I went back re-read my review for “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” I realized I left out a lot of key additions and improvements that Treyarch added to the COD formula. I really don’t know how I could’ve forgotten to mention some of these things, especially since some have big roles in how many play the game.

First and foremost, I wanted to revisit the Zombies mode. I’m still not sold on it, though I do have a firmer grasp on how the game is played. I never played “Call of Duty: World at War” so I wasn’t familiar with the mode from that game and from what I understand, the mode had been updated for Black Ops. You can play with up to three friends over the internet and there are two Zombies maps to choose from – Kino der Toten (Cinema of the Dead) and Five, which is unlocked after beating the campaign. There is also a top-down, arcade style game called “Dead Ops” but I haven’t unlocked it. In Zombies, you fight off endless waves of zombies and other ghouls as you earn points for kills, headshots, fixing barriers, reviving teammates, etc. With your points you can unlock doors to new areas, buy new weapons, perks and other helpful items.

While most of my friends who play Black Ops online are smitten with Zombies, I’m not that into it. Sure it’s a fun diversion but we can’t seem to make it past 8 or 9 waves and when I went online to try and get tips on how to get farther, I saw that people had strategy guides for getting to 50+ waves – which is just nuts. So not only is it frustrating to try different strategies with a full group of people only to be overrun before hitting double digit waves but you don’t earn a thing from playing Zombies. In the campaign you earn achievements and unlock the other Zombie map on disc and in multiplayer you earn XP and COD points (even if you are playing terribly and getting owned). You get nothing for playing (and ultimately getting destroyed in) Zombies. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little – there are a few achievements to be earned in Zombies, but not many. I actually do remember unlocking one, “Sally Likes Blood,” which I got by headshoting three zombies with one bullet. Still though, if I want to play a game with zombies I’ll play “Left 4 Dead 2.” Or “Dead Rising 2.” Or “Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare.”

No, I’ll play Black Ops for the multiplayer, thank you, which as I’ve stated a bunch of times now stands heads-and-shoulders above COD: Modern Warfare 2. When I wrote my review for Halo: Reach, one thing I made sure to note was the Daily Challenges and how this addition to the multiplayer gave gamers a reason to play daily, or at least be online to check the challenges that day. Well somehow I forgot to mention that Black Ops introduced a feature similar to Daily Challenges called Contracts which come in different varieties and must be purchased to be completed. When purchased, you have a set amount of time to complete the contract to collect payment. For example, a contract I completed recently was getting 20 kills while looking down a reflex scope in 40 minutes of in-game time. I spent 20 or 25 COD points buying the contract and got 250 for completing it. So yeah, not a huge windfall of money but there are a large variety Contracts to pick from and you can’t complain about earning some extra money for doing things you’d normally accomplish just by playing.

Black Ops’ multiplayer offers, along with Core, Hardcore and Barebones (a variety of games that feature minimal use of classes and perks) offers new Wager Matches. Using COD points, players can chose to wager three different amounts (10, 1,000 and 10,000) on four new and interesting game types but you’ll need to place in the top three to earn any points. Wager Match game types are One in the Chamber (Everyone starts with a knife and a gun with one bullet. Each kill gets you another bullet but players only have three lives total), Stick and Stones (Everyone starts with a crossbow, tomahawk and ballistics knife. The catch in this mode is being killed by a tomahawk will set your score back to zero), Sharpshooter (All players start with a random gun and changes every 45-seconds. Kills award perks and killstreak rewards) and Gun Game (Everyone starts out with a pistol. Getting a kill will move you up a level to a different gun. The first person to get a kill with all 20 guns win but if you get knifed you move down a level). I picked Sticks and Stones the first time I ever tried Wager Matches and right as the game was about to end, I got gifted into third place by someone getting tomahawked with only seconds left in the match.

I feel like the only other major thing I missed is the updated Playercard, which keeps track of stats, your Kill/Death ratio (that all important KDR that COD players seem to care so much about), your winning ratio, various stats about gun usage, even a model showing you where you usually land hits on enemies. From the Playercard you can also choose from a huge list of banners and create your own emblem for your in-game Playercard (what others scroll through in game lobbies). Honestly, though, I haven’t bothered to mess with either. Backgrounds cost points (which I’d much rather spend on guns, sights and reticules) and you’re able to make an emblem consisting of different layers but that seems like it’d take waaay more time to get looking good than I’d care to spend on it. You can also spend money to put facepaint on your character put if you’re spending time checking out other people’s facepaint while playing Black Ops, you’re doing it wrong.

I think that about does it for Black Ops. I’m still playing the multiplayer (my goal is to Prestige at least once, for the first time in a COD game) but probably spending most of my time playing Zombies, even though it’s awful. I’ve been playing a ton of “RDR: Undead Nightmare” lately so look for a review of that soon.