Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

        

 Still Fun to Play After All These Years (and Sequels)

      
        Since all of my classes are canceled tomorrow and I can't leave the house due to the Arctic Armageddon, I guess I might as well sit here and type out a review about a video game. This review is going to be over the ridiculously popular Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is a game that has the lasting power to equal its popularity.
        If you're one of the five people who who hasn't played Black Ops, let me give you a rundown of the story. You play as Alex Mason in 1968 who has been strapped to a chair and being interrogated by an unknown man about the whereabouts of a numbers station. Throughout the campaign mode, your character relives moments through flashbacks which serve as the playable missions. What's different about this game, compared to all the other Call of Duty games, is that it creates a different and more interesting narrative. I found myself wanting to complete a mission so I could unravel the mystery behind the sequence of numbers that are being broadcast. The biggest problem with the single player mode, and probably the biggest problem in the entire game, is actual gameplay. Most of the single player mode is spent just running, taking cover, shooting guys, and repeating that cycle. Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 both had crazy, awesome moments that made playing the game more exciting. The most exciting part in Black Ops was probably blowing up a Russian spacecraft. It's nothing compared to an  EMP going off over the White House or a nuke blowing everything to smithereens.
        As far as the multiplayer goes, it's the standard Call of Duty experience. You gain experience points for getting kills, completing objectives, and other things except this time around, there is an added currency system. Along with gaining experience points, the player can gain CoD points that can be used to buy guns, perks, and other things. This means the player gets to pick and choose what gun or perk they want to unlock instead of just having to wait for what they want. The next multiplayer mode is Zombies, which returns from World at War. I was a huge fan of the Nazi Zombie mode in that game, so I am glad to see that it returns in this game. Zombie mode is a survival mode where players try to stick together by slaughtering an endless stream of the undead army. In order to stay alive, players earn points by killing zombies or repairing barriers so they can earn points to unlock doors and buy and upgrade weapons.
        The Call of Duty series is still able to bring out fresh and high quality gameplay despite the fact that it is on its seventh entry and each one is only given two years of development time. The controls, graphics, and story are all impressive. Despite a somewhat uninteresting campaign mode, Call of Duty: Black Ops still shines as a highly entertaining first-person shooter.

Final Verdict: 9.25/10