Call of Duty: Black Ops pulls me back in

I thought I was out but they pulled me back in. After Modern Warfare 2, I pretty much wanted nothing to do with Call of Duty. MW2 was embraced by so many, I wanted to like the game – but ultimately I just couldn’t. The single play campaign was fun and Spec Ops was a nice diversion but the main draw, the multiplayer, annoyed and frustrated me to no end. I swore I was done with the series – MW2 killing any joy I once found in COD.

All while COD: Black Ops was being developed, I basically ignored it. Cold War era black op missions? A crossbow that fires explosive bolts? Exploding RC car killstreaks? None of it mattered to me – I was determined to stay away from the series. MW2 had tricked me, promising the same sort of balanced multiplayer that COD 4 offered only to deliver me a glitchy, twitch-fest that required people to play as cheaply as possible to be successful. Or it could’ve been that I was just bad at it. But seeing as how I’m pretty good (well, just good) at Black Ops and good at COD 4, being terrible at MW2 just didn’t sit well with me. I just couldn’t get into being constantly exploded by people using Danger Close grenades/grenade launchers who would just One Man Army and refill their ‘nades without stopping. (Danger Close and One Man Army were perks in MW2 – Danger Close made explosive damage more potent and One Man Army let you change classes without dying, letting you refill your grenades and launchers without dying first)

Well you know what they say about time healing all wounds. Recently, I’ve been playing Halo: Reach less and less and got Dead Rising 2 for Christmas but just didn’t get sucked in by it. After having it suggested to me that I buy Black Ops by a friend I play Reach with and after he told me about a few key changes to the multiplayer, I decided to go out and pick up the latest COD with what little Christmas money I had left. Though I’m still not sold on the Zombies mode (I didn’t care for the one in World at War either [Treyarch’s last COD game]).

There are three main modes in Black Ops – the campaign, multiplayer and zombies. In the campaign, you take on the role of Alex Mason, a soldier who took on numerous Black Op missions during the Vietnam War and Cold War. The missions player embark on are told through a series of flashbacks as Mason is interrogated by unknown captors. The basic plot remains the same (some evil guy[s] get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, you must stop them but not before uncovering a web of secrets) but the subject matter of the game and the manner in which the story is revealed gives this single player adventure an edge over the more-or-less straight forward WW2 or Modern Warfare games. A few missions feature unique moments of stealth or using vehicles but overall the action in single player is the tried-and-true COD formula where enemies will continue to spawn until you’ve fought past specific points on the map. Get ready for some ridiculous and outlandish plot twists as Treyarch makes full use of the “Black Ops” namesake.

I guess I’ll touch briefly on zombies right now before I dive into the multiplayer. I’ve heard tons of praise for the zombie mode in WaW and now Black Ops but honestly, I don’t know why. After playing Left 4 Dead, a mode where you run from boarded up window to boarded up window, replacing boards and shooting slow moving zombies in the face just isn’t that much fun to me. I guess it’s meant to be played with other people, except everyone I’d play that with is just playing the regular multiplayer instead.

So yeah, there’s a zombies mode. But now onto the real reason most people bought the game – the multiplayer, which is so improved and more balanced over MW2, it’s hard to know where to start. Even in the first game I played, I experienced many differences that made me hate MW2 even more for being wary of this game.

To start off, perks, weapons and equipment still unlock at certain levels but now must be purchased with COD points (earned along side XP). This simple, unassuming feature of the multiplayer helps balance the game immensely, assuring that people don’t abuse the same few weapons and perks – something far too prevalent in MW2 (as mentioned earlier). Making the n00b-tube (under-barrel grenade launcher) 3000 COD points was one of the best ideas they had.

There are still three different categories of perks to choose from but a few perks have been taken out. Perks like Commando, Danger Close and One Man Army (what do you know, two of the cheapest perks being taken out) have been removed but others like Last Stand and Deep Impact are still to be found (though under different names). The best perk removal, though, is definitely Stopping Power, which made all your bullets do extra damage. It boiled down basically having to use Stopping Power because if you didn’t you’d get torn up by everyone else who was using Stopping Power. Now in Black Ops, everyone does the same amount of damage and you don’t need to use a perk slot on Stopping Power just to be competitive.

Killstreaks are back but deathstreaks are out – though you do get an in-game reward of XP for coming back from a streak of deaths (I’m not sure how many deaths in a row it is, but I’m pretty awful so I see it all the time). Some of the killstreaks available are old favorites – like the Care Package and Chopper Gunner – and there are plenty new ones as well like the RCXD (Radio Controlled eXplosive Device) and SAM Turret. The Hardline perk is also back so all those of you who struggle getting killstreaks (count me among them – seriously, I’m really bad at COD for as much as I like it). Using Hardline, it’s not at all hard to get an army of RCXD cars, as killstreak rewards carry over after respawning. But the best change to the killstreak system is that kills you earn from your killstreak don’t count toward your next streak. Without the help of streak kills to earn more killstreaks, matches feature far fewer choppers, guided missiles and attack dogs destroying you and your team the entire game.

I’d like to congratulate Treyarch – they definitely made a believer out of me with Black Ops. After COD4 came out, I’d be the first to pan Treyarch and applaud the Infinity Ward side of the series – not so much anymore. After seeing and playing the absolute mess that was MW2, Black Ops is definitely right up there with COD4 for “Best in the Series.”

Not sure when or what my next post is going to be. I got “Dead Rising 2” for Christmas but haven’t finished the story once yet, still just trying to level up but I’m working on a review of that. Not only that, but I also recently downloaded “Red Dead Redemption’s ‘Undead Nightmare’” as well as two “Mass Effect 2” DLCs, “The Lair of the Shadow Broker” and “Overlord.” I plan on doing writeups for these as well but it’s gonna be hard to find time to do anything but play Black Ops multiplayer.