![]() Vietnam is just the tip of the iceberg. You are a US military agent tasked with assassinating top political figures during the Cold War. But when an attempt on Fidel Castro goes wrong, you go off-grid to kill several high-profile Soviet leaders who are attempting to use a deadly chemical weapon. Buckle up readers, this is going to be a bumpy ride.
1. Gameplay
This game is a violent, bloody, gore-filled glorification of the absolute worst elements of war. It is not fun, it is not funny, it is not happy. Every time I played the game I was left feeling like I should not have done some of the things that this game forced me to do. I have no problem shooting enemies that are shooting back at me, but some of the graphic violence my character commits while I watch through his eyes made me want to put this game away and never, ever play it again. The online multiplayer is good, but there are other games with a much better multiplayer system. There’s only so many times I can play a rehashed version of Counter-Strike before I get completely bored. You and a few teammates will fight another team, sometimes in an attempt to complete an objective. Whichever team accomplishes their objective first wins. The types of objectives, the weapon variety, and other details have been tweaked over the years, but the basic formula is over 10 years old, and Black Ops does nothing to improve upon this formula. The marketing campaigns for this game have created some serious fans. There are plenty of young people who believe that this is the best game ever made. Parents, this is one game that I can honestly say your kids will be better off not playing.
If you don’t like playing games online, this definitely is not the game for you.
This was especially frustrating during one battle in Vietnam where you were forced to assault an almost never ending flood of Vietcong forces until you reached a particular relatively unprotected part of a hill. It was boring, repetitive, and difficult, not a good combination. Secondly, the multiplayer matchmaking system has some serious issues. This is discussed in detail in the “online community” section, but it boils down to a serious skill difference amongst players. There are many excellent players and many terrible players. The game goes well if you’re put on a team with good players, but you will always get massacred if you’re put on a team of bad players. 2. Parental Notices
The majority of this game isn’t much more violent than an average shooter. You’re always using a variety of weapons to kill your opponents. Some weapons are more violent than others, such as the flamethrower or the various shotguns. There are some rather violent elements of the regular gameplay, such as dismembered corpses or guys screaming holding what used to be their legs, but most of the regular gameplay is fairly average for a shooter. However, Black Ops attempts to reach a level of realism beyond what the average video game tries to achieve. You will often hear both developers and gamers touting the “realism” of one game or the “realistic graphics” of another game. So let me make this 100% clear: I have yet to play a game as realistically violent as Call of Duty: Black Ops. Forget Grand Theft Auto. Forget Gears of War. Forget Mortal Kombat. Forget Fallout and Dante’s Inferno and any other violent game you may have heard about. Black Ops takes the cake by far. The cutscenes are all interactive and all in the first-person view, which makes things much more personal. You (looking through the eyes of your character) will choke an enemy with a thin rope, stab an enemy with a curved knife through the spinal cord in order to steal his uniform, watch as a man is stabbed through the hand (which is stuck by the knife to a table as he’s subsequently killed), and fight what is essentially the entire Vietcong army single-handedly. This is the glorification of the worst elements of war. There were far too many sections that left me feeling slightly uncomfortable with the style of the killings. These cutscene murders aren’t some absurd use of lasers to blast holes in the armor of fictional storm troopers, these are real, effective ways to kill people. If some impressionable teenager wanted to kill an unsuspecting individual, this game teaches them how to do so easily. Very easily. This game should not be played by anyone under 16. Period.
When sitting in the chair, the player is able to look down at a nearby table that has some syringes with a green substance. This is presumably truth serum or something along that line. Characters frequently smoke in the game. It is supposed to be the 60’s after all.
3. Other Factors
The entire plot centers on secret “black ops” missions that disregard the normal code of conduct in war in order to complete the primary objective, which is usually to kill a particular high-value individual. The premise is the idea of disregarding normal rules of engagement. It’s hard to get more anti-law than that.
This changes if a player has a group of friends playing together with dramatic effects. Parties (see “Definitions”) are far more efficient than individual players and will usually massacre the other team. The underlying problem with the multiplayer has to do with the different tiers of skill. There are a lot of players who play this game more than they should, and as a result are extremely efficient killers. There are also a lot of players who are extremely inefficient killers, and will often weigh a team down. There are very few players of “average skill”. So if you’re not the kind of person that’s extremely good at fast-paced shooters like Call of Duty, you’re going to be disappointed more times than not.
Towards the end of the game, the player is assaulting an enemy base on a snow-covered mountain. An enemy causes an avalanche. The player has to outrun the impending avalanche then jump off a cliff and pull the parachute before he hits the canyon below. These are just a few examples of the kinds of “extreme” physical activities the player will have to undertake in order to complete the game. While extreme sports may not be as prominent of a feature as it is in games like Assassin’s Creed, it definitely plays a large role in this game.
The game starts with the player being interrogated in a dark room by a faceless voice. When the player does not respond to the questions properly, the player is electrocuted. When the player comes close to passing out after remembering what happened in Cuba, the player is electrocuted to keep him awake. One scene involves you interrogating another person. Since you aren’t getting the answers you desire, you decide to push the individual a little harder. You proceed to break a pane of glass next to you, insert a sharp piece of it into the individual’s mouth, and then punch him twice in the jaw. He has to spit the broken shards of glass out of his mouth. Nerve Gas / Chemical Weapons There is one section where the player watches as the player’s friend dies from nerve gas poisoning. The image is extremely graphic. The character begins choking when the gas flows into the room. His skin then turns blackish green. He stumbles, throws up, then throws himself at the window where you are watching before dying. It’s extremely violent. The same chemical weaponry is used again in numerous levels. In one, the player must continue to fight while in a hazmat suit. If the player takes too much damage, the suit will rupture and the player will die from the gas. Language Normally, I wouldn’t bother mentioning something like language, but it became a serious distraction in this game. Almost every line in this game includes some sort of expletive. The exact word varies, but “fuck” (in its various forms) is extremely common. It was entirely unnecessary in some parts too. I get that the developers were trying to emphasize how hardened these guys were, but I didn’t need the language to add to the rest of the game. Execution of Prisoners of War
One level has you as a Soviet soldier fighting against Nazis at the end of World War II. The Nazis try to surrender but the game encourages you to kill them anyway. Later, one soldier is seen executing POW Nazis who are begging for their lives.
3 Comments
11/14/2011 03:23:08 am
I completely agree with your review. This game was so hyped and so marginal! It's just like a hit movie coming out with a terrible, go-through-the-motions sequel because they know it will make money anyway. And Nazi Zombies? What is that? At least by shooting undead genocidal fascists we are relieved of any moral ambiguities associated with shooting live people.
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Battlefield is better than COD
5/16/2016 04:08:03 pm
No
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DiamondRain676
8/4/2015 07:30:36 am
So far,is this the most violent game you've ever played?
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