Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010 Video Game) User Reviews (48)

Great

[emilios1310 · 9/10 · 9 December 2010]

Singleplayer - 9

The Singleplayer of Black Ops is awesome. Treyarch did another great job with the Singleplayer campaign. Voice actors, characters, levels, are all brilliant. The story of the Singleplayer had a fairly good length and good detail for the player to understand what's going on there. Graphics are also perfect, and with the addition of 3D graphics, one could think that he is on the battlefield himself. The things that I didn't like in the game, mostly are the disorienting environments, and the need of the player to be rapid in certain objectives, as some new players may get frustrated at this. Another bad element of the game is the "auto-pilot", in which the game basically prompts you to do something, and even if you don't actually do it, it still does it by itself, leaving you think that you did it yourself.

Multiplayer - 9

The Multiplayer component has a lot of things too, like the other Call of Duty games. Treyarch has taken a lot of measures to prevent a lot of things. Perks that were called "too tough" by other players were taken out, under-barrels have been restricted to be used along with another attachments, "easy" quick-scoping has been completely eliminated, as Sleight Of Hand Pro doesn't affect snipers. The addition of currency was very good, as now people can't start equipping everything they see on their way without some hard work. Wager Matches added a gambling element of the game, as it has a cost to get inside one, it has 4 game modes and only the top 3 players get paid. Gun customization is superior, every detail, from attachments to appearance and color can be customized. Combat Training, which uses a separate leveling system, features bots versus you, but it still needs an online connection to operate.

Zombies - 8,5

Zombies are good once again, also there are again a lot of clues to discover about the back-story. Zombies return creepier and all-new, with the 4 characters from World At War returning, and new levels, with one of them having new characters. An amazing easter egg is also a new way to see the zombies, but of course, I won't spoil it. The PC version lobby finding is a bit of a trouble, and also there are a lot of people doing infinite ammo cheats, glitches, etc. Also, there is a bit of lag, but it's good overall. It's disappointing to see co-op campaign not being here, as it was very fun to play campaign with your friends.

Final Rating: 8,8

One of the most anticipated games, but it has it's flaws. It's very good overall. Multiplayer introduced enhanced gun customization, and single-player and zombies were fairly good. Recommended for Call of Duty fans.

Different,but not necessarily bad

[paulo-nazor · 8/10 · 4 December 2010]

An awesome game.Singleplayer campaign is very fun and interesting,but it's not a COD style and that's probably why so many people don't like it.

In my opinion every Call Of Duty had a good story,especially first MW and it was always a good thing,of course.But this time they overdid it.In FPS,story should be there just so that the game doesn't get boring,but here you spend 50% of the time watching scripted events without actually participating.There are two whole missions where you don't even draw a weapon of any kind.

Don't get me wrong,like I said,the whole campaign is great,but it just doesn't feel like COD.Story has MUCH bigger role than in any of previous games and there are a lot more scripted events.

Multiplayer is well-balanced,one of the best so far,but there are lot of technical issues which will hopefully be corrected by future patches.

And finally,it's one hell of a game that took COD franchise in totally new direction.Good or bad,it's up to you to decide.

P.S. Forgive me if I made grammar mistakes,my English isn't exactly perfect.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Short Game Review)

[Cirene404 · 9/10 · 8 June 2019]

Positives:

• Story
• Tone and atmosphere
• Characters
• Gameplay
• Pacing
• Presentation
• Musical score

Negatives:

• Not much

Best COD ever!

[gabovarela · 10/10 · 28 November 2018]

This is my favorite Call of Duty, have the best zombies mode of all the time and a nice multiplayer and campaign mode.

Call of Duty Black Ops

[auuwws · 10/10 · 19 December 2020]

The best game from Call of Duty games I really enjoyed playing the multiplayer and the zombie developer. It was great. The zombie story started from this game, the story was excellent The heroes, it's the part I most hope remake works for

10/10 or should I say 7-15-1-2-19-7-25-6-13-6-7-15-14-0/10

[YoshikageCheems · 10/10 · 8 February 2021]

I. Love. This. Game. The Cold War was the best possible setting, Vietnam was a perfect battlefield rather than WWII, beaches, villages and the such. This is the greatest COD game ever made, multiplayer is refreshingly endless, zombies is plain fun, and campaign is the best part. I play COD for the campaign, this was amazing, so jump in, find out what the numbers mean, and kill Dragovich, Kravchenko and Steiner. Have fun, good luck.

One of the best Call of duty games ever made

[treymoncrieff-29917 · 10/10 · 7 February 2021]

Wow just wow. That's all I can say about this game

They need to make a game like this again

[treymoncrieff-29917 · 10/10 · 7 February 2021]

This is one of the best COD ever made. The story, gameplay, characters, atmosphere, everything

Great story, fun gameplay, endless multiplayer, and amazing visuals.

[wwe7961 · 10/10 · 20 November 2010]

Treyarch in my opinion shouldn't be put underneath Ininity Ward. I love MW, but Treyarch just keeps on brining brilliance to it's games. This is game makes it their time now. Their time to show everybody that their games aren't just some appetizers to MW. First lets talk about the singleplayer. The controls are the same, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. The story is without a doubt well written. It takes place during the Cold War and Vietnam times. It is a story covered in mystery. You want answers just as much as the characters do. The story takes place in an interrogation room. Your character is being ordered to decode a group of numbers, and find out what they mean. From there it's a trip down memory lane as you go into flashbacks that tell out what led you to this predicament. It's a great story, but what I liked most about the story was the character Reznov. Reznov is a character from World at War that you meet in a prison from there he is pretty much your best friend. You feel for his character, and when the twist about the character was made at the end I was simply shocked. As for the rest of the characters I think they did a great job. Also voice acting is great. Although Gary Oldman as Reznov is my favorite. Now lets talk about presentation. The graphics, sound editing, and music are all simply top notch stuff. One thing I loved about World at War was the violence. The violence in this game shows how MW2 are a little squeamish. Sure they killed an airport of civilians, but did you blow their limbs off in that game. No you did not. The sound editing is just great showing off a lot of talent. The music is also superb. Now that I am done with the singleplayer lets talk zombies. There are three modes. (Kino Der Toten, Five, and Dead Ops Arcade) Kino Der Toten is a fun experience with the same familiar gameplay as Nazi Zombies in World at War that we all know and love. My favorite "Five" takes place in the pentagon where you play as either JFK, Nixon, Castro, or McNamara. It is extremely fun, and it is also hilarious. Hearing JFK saying quotes from his speeches after killing a zombie is priceless. Then there is Dead Ops Arcade. It is an overhead shooter that involves living as long as possible, and getting a lot of points. It is flat out fun, and it feels like something that could be sold on X-box Arcade. For Treyarch though it is just part of the game. Now we get to the real reason why this game sells. The Multiplayer is a ton of fun. It has the same matches from MW2, but a few changes have been made. Leveling up doesn't get you a weapon anymore. You unlock it, but you still have to pay for it with CoD points. This makes leveling up just a status. What really gets you your guns is how good you are. Also a lot of complaints from MW2 have been fixed. No more nukes, quickscoping, and scavenging claymores. Now the campers are forced to fight like actual gamers. These additions in my opinion are welcomed. Also just recently they listened to some complaints about the Black Ops Next, Prev., and Random map choices. Now you can only go to a previous map once. This makes things much less dull and more of a full experience. Also there is Combat Training and Wager Matches. Combat Training involves you fighting against computer player with your friends gamertags. They move slow and act stupid, but it is an excellent way to train. Wager Matches are matches where you gamble with your CoD cash. If your running low, but have the confidence that you can do good you should check it out. Also if you are a guy who feels invincible, and you like to beat down noobs while taking their cash then I also recommend. Is the game perfect? No. A problem that has annoyed me throughout my online experience is when game lobbies are closed. I'm OK if it happens every once in a while, but there are times when I get three closed lobbies in a row. I think that the people running the servers should get their act together, and stop this from happening as often. Overall I highly recommend this game, but really do I need to. Everyone has bought the thing already.

Also if you would like to add me as a friend my gamertag is lbidude97.

an OK game, but a disappointment

[kolli_spiderman · 7/10 · 23 November 2010]

The Call of Duty series are awesome, every single game has been at least good, if not good, then awesome. MW2 and MW1 had a good multiplayer, black ops sadly did not. More campers, very glitchy, lags all the time. anyways im gonna review the game in 3 parts:

Singleplayer: 9,2 Very much fun, the characters are wonderful, the length is decent, i think Black Ops has the best CoD campaign ever, but Sam Worthington's bad voice acting, glitches ( especially the knife ) and lack of checkpoints are what they could have fixed.

Multiplayer: 6,5 The multiplayer in black ops is the worst of any CoD game. from annoying glitches to sh*tload of campers to horrible lag, the multiplayer just isn't very good. Had they worked on it a little more, it might have been better.

Zombies: 9,6 Zombie mode is the best thing about this game, you can play with friends which is tons of fun and it's better than special ops from MW2, spec ops was really fun, but zombies is better.

Overall rating: 7

if you never play online in games, then get this game, single-player and zombie mode is really fun, but the multiplayer is just frustrating and awful.

One Of The Greatest Games Ever

[tjclarke01 · 10/10 · 5 April 2013]

I have just finished playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops on my XBOX 360 and I am simply blown away. With two or three other games this is one of the greats. The Graphics are also simply amazing. Let's start off on the campaign, Great story, Great action and since it's a Call Of Duty game that Treyarch made there's going to be two things: Swearing and Gory Violence. Treyarch's run of Call Of Duty games (Call of Duty World at War, Call of Duty Black Ops and Call of Duty Black Ops 2) all have those things in. There are some shock moments in Black Ops like an ill-fated game of Russian Roulette, an eye gouging, lots of slit throats, a scene showing Nova 6 destroying Russian soldiers, a violent Battle of Kne San, a grenade stuck onto a Viet Cong Soldier and last but not least the guns. There are loads of guns to chose from in Black Ops. Like M16's and Ak-47's and there are even ways to spice up the multi-player after the not so good Modern Warfare 2's Multiplayer, with chopper gunners and gunships. Overall this is the best Call of Duty to date (just beating Call of Duty 4) and has redeemed Call of Duty after the not so good Modern Warfare 2, the God-Awful Modern Warfare 3 and the OK Black Ops 2,this is the golden boy. So if you want entertainment from a gory first person shooter that is fun to play and overall brilliance flowing from it get Call of Duty Black Ops.

It was fun but others were better

[mcelroyjacob · 2 August 2011]

COD Black Ops was and is fun.

The perks are better, the guns are better, and just about everything else is better.

The one major letdown was the graphic quality.

The graphics were horrible compared to MW2.

The zombies mode is OK, along with the multi-player, which could have more content.

If you are looking for a good multi-player and graphics, I highly recommend Halo Reach.

I enjoyed it much more than this game.

Good enough but it surely ain't no Modern Warfare.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 1 March 2011]

Though this game is definitely all good and fun to play, I'm still disappointed with it. It just isn't anything that special or groundbreaking. I see it actually as a step down from the previous Call of Duty series entry; "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2".

This just wasn't a game that I wanted to keep playing constantly and was anxious about seeing what would happen next with the story. You could say that I just wasn't that much into this game, which was also really due to its much praised story.

First of all; there are too many cinematic moments in this game. It's filled with cut scenes that go on for too long and even has a level in it in which you can do nothing, other than going from point A to B, while the occasional flashback hits your character. Also some of the game it's cinematic aspects, when the game-play changes, are just plain silly and pointless. Press this button to help open a door, press this button to drive your car forward, press this button to fire your engine. It's not like anything is going to happen in the game when you're not pressing that particular button, so why even put such a thing into the game. They give you like a false sense of freedom, while the game itself is being pretty linear and straightforward with its game-play. You can't explore certain levels or rooms but have to go from point A to B contently, without goofing around.

But secondly of all, the story is just too confusing and complicated to follow. Perhaps it was because I really wasn't interest or following the story for the first half of the game because I simply wanted to shoot and blow up stuff, in some nice looking environments. But the story just seemed a bit too overwritten to me, with all of its movie characters, that are also being voiced by some big name movie actors (Sam Worthington, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Ice Cube, if that one can count as well). It's a game not a movie! Yet all in this game its story seemed to be written for one. It just didn't worked for me, combining a seriously written and complicated story with some mindless running around and shooting at everything that moves. Besides, the story itself is being quite silly once you start analyzing it too thoroughly.

Throughout the game you are playing multiple characters, during several different time periods and different continents. Some well known events and people pass through in this game. It makes it a very variated game. The one moment you're crawling in the Vietnamese jungle, while the other you're fighting the Nazi's with the Russians, during WW II. It's a nice way to make your game feel original and very variated but quite frankly it didn't mattered that much to me who I was fighting as, at what location and what for. It was all more or less simply being more of the same anyway.

It also really doesn't matter that much which weapons you're using in the game. They all seem to have the same effect and there is no real point at building up a good arsenal anyway, since every level you're starting with different new weapons and even during the levels themselves you'll occasionally loose, or forcedly switch your weapons anyway.

The graphics and maps all look quite good but again; it just isn't anything groundbreaking. Also the way the levels play out are being pretty formulaic, though I have to say that the game gets insanely difficult to play at times. I even had to see the game's difficulties lower at times to pass a certain point in the game. Also a real annoying complaint, next to all its well known bugs and issues, is the fact that sometimes I had no idea what to do. At times the sound effects are being louder than the voices and occasionally there would appear a pop-up on the screen for literally about 2 seconds that say what you HAVE TO do, while I'm still being busy running for cover and just playing the game.

I hope I'm not sounding too bitter about this game, since it's still a good one and also one I enjoyed playing for most part but it just isn't anything too new or original to play. As far as shooters go; this is simply being just one of them. Not the best but also definitely not the worst.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A waste of Money - Not COD worthy

[toronto_bill · 1/10 · 23 November 2010]

This game was step in the wrong direction. A huge mistake.

Feels like Hollywood put out a video game rather than a video game with Hollywood cut scenes.

I spent hours listening to boring over acting, and silly plot twists which are scripted and boring.

Never thought a franchise like this would , could be undermined so detrimentally.

Gameplay was limited...felt like 30% of the time spent at my computer. Consequently, it might serve as a MP platform....but, no COD MW@ sequel.

one of the best shooting games of its time

[eslam4330 · 10/10 · 2 August 2020]

Honestly this is one of the best shooting games of its time. Call of duty Black ops one is a thrilling first person shooter game that has revolutionized the video game community. It provides the best you can ask for in any shooting game. My personal favorite feature of this astounding game is the Multiplayer. it contains a plethora of weapons and in game perks to help the player. There is a variety of different fast paced game modes that keep the player on edge. Alongside are diverse and colorful maps in which the players battle on. The prize possession of this masterpiece is definitely the campaign. In the campaign you are Alex Mason, A special ops marine and C.I.A operative who ventures through events that happened in the cold war in order to stop a Russian terrorist by the name of Nikita Dragovitch who plans on releasing nova 6 a chemical weapon that will havoc among the west. The zombies is amazing. The first map is unforgettably legendary. It keeps you on your toes as you battle your way in expansive maps. This game truly provides the best shooting experience. The only downside is that there is no remaster yet but truly a gaming marvel

Good fun

[tp13fox · 8/10 · 20 November 2010]

Honestly, it's a lot of fun. Being a real nit-picker for military accuracy, there are tons of things that really erk'ed me. The boys at Treyarch did a lousy job with historical accuracy when it comes to weapons. I won't even get into it there were so damn many, it almost stopped me from playing the game. But I Soldiered on... Fortunately the story is very well done and the game play itself was intense. The decision to include zombies warmed my heart as zombie-hunting is now becoming a favorite American past-time. Good surprises were provided by a number of unexpected Hollywood performances. Sam Worthington does the main player justice. Ice Cube does well in Military roles. Gary Oldman can't go wrong. Ed Harris delivers with a vengeance and ironically I couldn't help but make the connection how you and Hudson AKA Ed Harris assault the underwater rig paying a homage to James Cameron's "The Abyss". After watching the lousy director's cut that turned an awesome movie into a horrible hippie-loving alien hugging fest, I was delighted to destroy the underwater set up with Ed Harris providing commentary. It's like your creating a better ending for the movie. Now that I've told you how I really feel about that movie, back to Black Ops. The Vietnam levels were very well done and fighting Soviets never gets old. The fact that flashbacks advance the story line gives us an excuse to jump multiple timelines all the way back to the end of WWII. I think the game designers are on to something. It's best to utilize ALL your timelines. When Call of Duty Modern Warfare III comes out, I hope they continue this and pay visits through all the series timelines. Notes for the gamers: -Seriously know your history, especially weapons. Optics, gadgets and what-have-yous only proliferated in the 1990's. You were lucky to have a scope and definitely no 'rail' systems. -Zombies: Don't stop putting zombies. In fact, put more zombie levels and please give us a mall to run around in. We have faith that you can deliver us a better "Dead Rising" Call of Duty Style. -Actor cameos: Nice treat. Good laughs. Keep em going. -A pre-mission load out would be nice. Gamers have weapon's preferences and should be able to pick up weapons and add on accessories and paint schemes to the default weapon you start each level with. A little 'intel' prior to the mission will allow gamers to choose their load outs prior to the mission. The exception is for a 'escape and evade' scenario where you have to liberate your own weapons. Also, each country has 'standard' weapons. A Russian Infantryman will not be using anything but an AK-series weapon. Definitely NOT a Tavor like in MW2. US Troops will only use M16-series weapons. The Famas is used by the French. Yep that's it. Anyone else carrying something outside their country of origin is Private security or militia.

Overall great gaming experience. Just please, Treyarch, learn from the mistakes but keep doing what works. 8/10 Stars.

nostalgic

[iliatech · 10/10 · 30 October 2021]

Cod black ops is a true nostalgic game most of the gamers today grown up with it . And its awesome zombies mode its fun and entertaining but iconic call of duty black ops has story witch will confuse and amaze you with secrets and operations and missions witch will drive a man mad awesome game.

Good Campaign, Great Multiplayer and Amazing Zombies

[bigbopper-29649 · 10/10 · 1 August 2020]

Call of Duty Black Ops is one of the best Call of Duty games in the franchise. The story was good but to me it got to some parts when it got boring, but besides that most of the mission were fun and the characters were great. Multiplayer was great. There was a lot of great and memorible maps and the variety of guns and perks to choose from were awesome. Last but not least Nazi Zombies returns with new maps, new perks and new weapons. The DLC zombie maps for Call of Duty Black Ops weren't that great but the maps you start off with are brilliant and also the other new zombie mode which is called Dead Ops Arcade was so much fun, it was something different to the original zombies.

Games

[NightmareChaos85 · 10/10 · 26 March 2022]

Greatest ever. I have played this for years and years. Beat it multiple times and never get tired of it. One of the best games I ever played. I hope it gets a remake or something like it.

God's gift to gamers

[charliememam · 10/10 · 8 November 2020]

This game was my childhood and along side it was black ops 2. This game had an amazing story and perfected multiplayer. And it came with amazing twists and turns in the story. It truly gave millions of people happiness and gave us a shooter that you could easily replay. The characters were written perfectly as well.

In conclusion... I'm gonna go play this again

Weak single player but enjoyably solid and well-balanced multiplayer (despite not looking or sounding as sharp as MW2)

[bob the moo · 1 May 2011]

The COD games as a brand are now established and we're going to get one a year now until it appears to hurt the sales (nobody in their right mind is going to tell shareholders in Activision that they are resting the series that makes them billions every 12 months!). Black Ops came on the back of MW2 – a fun game but one that had far too much frustration factors in the multiplayer even if the single player was really a very enjoyable action movie. With the many unresolved problems on launch of these games, I decided to do something else for the first few months of it being out and let all the problems be patched first – which turned out to be the right decision.

Although I played multiplayer first, I did play the solo game and I did find it to be so-so at best. The story is so-so but it is so fragmented that I never really got into it – it doesn't flow because it jumps all over the place in time and I didn't "feel" for the characters like I did in MW2. Both games have big dumb "action movie" plots, but this didn't give me any thrilling moments like the previous game did. It also fails to hide how linear it is – OK most FPS games are, but here it is terrible, to the point that in some levels I genuinely felt like I was on a conveyor belt and just being asked to push buttons in response to stimuli – sometimes it would say "push x" others it would just have enemy in front of me to make me pull the trigger. Only a handful of the levels made me feel like I had options and was required to think, whether that be flanking the enemy or whatever. Compare this to MW2 (for all its faults) where the solo game was engaging, fun and covered up its linear nature by being flexible and quite thrilling. With Black Ops I did feel like I was being pulled along on a rope – and the heavy use of cut-scenes didn't help this either. The voice cast is good, although in terms of graphics, sound design and everything else, the solo game never gets close to the Modern Warfare games.

Fortunately nobody buys these games for the solo game because it is the multiplayer that gives you the time and value for money. Hands down this is an overall improvement on MW2 because Treyarch appear to have taken note of what players hate. This is a backward compliment because when I praise the multiplayer I spend more time talking about what they didn't do rather than what they did. Removing stopping power, removing the nuke, detaching killstreaks from earning you other killstreaks, removing danger close, removing one-man-army, limiting scavenger in terms of restocking explosives, putting shotguns back into primary weapons, reducing the overall power of killstreak rewards, reducing the ridiculous knife lunge etc etc – all has made this game much more balanced and less frustrating to play. In terms of what they actually brought to the game, the maps are mostly well balanced and, while not thrilling, are good to play on. The map voting system is much improved and I love the sheer amount of stats available to view – as an objective game player I particularly love that the stats shown in the score table at the end actually contains info about the game mode (ie captures/defends) as it helps encourage people to play the game – also having game mode challenges and rewards help this too, certainly I have found a much higher standard of game in this one, compared to MW2 where too many objective games had people playing for harriers, chopper and nuke! With the stats I also like the ability to see other people's and also really like the emblem design part, nice little personal touch and it is only a shame that so many players use it as another outlet for their racism or puerile senses of humour. The multiplayer graphics are surprisingly weak compared to MW2, as are the sound effects – still good but just not as sharp or clear as I would have liked. The addition of combat training is good (but really dumb to make it online only), wager modes are quite fun but theatre mode is brilliant – not only to look back as training but also to see lots of little WTF moments that are otherwise missed; the ease of uploading them also makes it fun to share these too. I thought this would be a novelty I would never use but it is very useful, very easy to use and I play with a pen next to me to note down little moments to watch again! The COD dollars are pretty pointless even if the idea is good – it would be better to use XP and therefore slow levelling up as a sacrifice for getting things. The zombie mode is fun, even if I have only done it a few times, but I can see the appeal and I did enjoy it.

Overall Black Ops is a mixed bag. The solo game is surprisingly poor, linear and felt a bit like a chore to do (I doubt I will play it again outside of the Kowloon level) but the multiplayer (while not amazing) is refreshingly solid and mostly free of the many frustrating overpowered aspects of MW2. It is very well balanced and, even if it doesn't look or sound as good as MW2, it does play better and the various additions of theatre, combat training etc make it more interesting – which is important since the online aspects is really what we're all here for.

Could have been better.

[toastdragons · 6/10 · 27 June 2021]

I remembered playing BO1 as a kid and thinking it was amazing. Back then, I played all of the campaigns on recruit. Now I play them all on Veteran. I went back to play this, and it is impossible (specifically Khe Sanh and Rebirth, but I'll get to Rebirth in a moment) to play on Veteran. I tried over and over. The enemies spawn infinitely, they have aim that rivals hack clients, damage is unrealistic for both sides. Two 7.62 x 33mm from an AK-47 bullets will kill me, but it takes 4 shots to the upper torso with an M60 chambered in what looks to be 7.62 x 33mm just to knock them over, not to mention that hitmarkers are non-existent in campaign, and 1 in every 2 shots won't register. The game advertises itself as 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p capable. But on my PS3 it can only muster 480p. The multiplayer is nothing of note, could be better, but not as bad as 2019's MW multiplayer, and certainly not as bad as 2020's Black Ops: Cold War multiplayer. Again, 6/10, could have been better.

One of the good ones.

[Analog_Devotee · 8/10 · 3 August 2021]

This game offered a lot: a killer campaign storyline, a kick-ass four-man zombie mode to play with your friends, and some of the best competitive multiplayer in the genre. I played the living hell out of this game after it was released. I wish they still made 'em like this!

Not for Modern Warfare fans

[The_Wonderful_Paradox · 4/10 · 20 November 2010]

If you enjoyed COD MW and COD MW2 then do not buy this game. I bought this as I damaged my MW2 disc and thought this would be a great replacement - I was wrong. I don't play online, so cannot comment on this element of the game, so here's my summary:

Good points: - Graphics - Voice acting (Sam Worthington does a really good job) - Parts of the story are quite interesting (others are boring)

Bad points: - Zombies (the only co-operative option) is boring and lacks all the intensity of 'normal' play. There is no option to just play a "normal" level with a friend cooperatively.

• You have to waiting a few minutes at the start of each level before you can actually shoot anything - the game forces you to walk around through the predefined sequences

• There are too many scenes where your path is predefined and you just have to follow instructions that give the illusion of control (e.g. Press LT to break glass, press RT to punch - why am I doing this can you just get on with it please?). The "level" when you are a pilot is a joke - what's so difficult about moving the cursor to a point on the map and pressing "A"?

• Poor choice of guns (does everything have to be an AK47?)

• No mini-games. This was a great feature in MW2 and really good fun in both single player and co-operative mode

I'm going to sell it straight away and buy MW2 again!

Best. Video game. Ever.

[Matt-Nguyen · 10/10 · 18 July 2013]

The Call of Duty franchise has done it again with it's new game, Black Ops. Despite whatever anyone says, Black Ops is a great game. From the game play to the graphics and the campaign, Black Ops truly delivers a promising experience to whoever plays it.

Starting with the campaign, Black Ops tells the story of a man who fights for his country, Alex Mason. Throughout most of the game, we get to play previous missions that Mason has been through. These are flashbacks that he is describing to an unknown interrogator who has strapped him down in a chair and surrounded him with monitors playing various video clips. The interrogator wants information that he presumes Mason has locked in his mind somewhere. As the game progresses, we see that Mason fought alongside Frank Woods and Bowman, his best friends in combat alongside many other characters. We see a true brotherly bond between them as they joke around and try to survive. In the end, we find out that Bowman along with Reznov, a Russian that helped Mason escape out of a prison, is dead. Mason tries to cope with his losses as Hudson, whom we find out is one of the interrogators, tries to find out where a certain ship housing a biochemical weapon called Nova 6 is. He believes that the weapon belongs to the Russians, and since Mason has been brainwashed by the Russians, that he would know where it is. In the end, they safely find the ship after Hudson urges Mason to remember the coordinates of the ship. The campaign is phenomenal and moving, proving how video game story lines are much better than most movies. We get to "be in someone else's skin" in video games, especially first person ones, where we are that person. Because we live their lives, we begin to feel how they feel. It is truly a great experience you can only feel within a game.

Secondly is the multi-player option. This allows for you to experience a great game with your friends. I personally have not used this option, but from what I've seen and heard, it is great.

The last playable option is the zombies mode, where you can play on multiple maps destroying creatures from hell. This is very heart-stopping and frightening, especially if you play it at night, but it is also very fun to play. Each round gets harder and harder until you eventually die. You can also play this with multiple people.

In all, this is a great game and a great entertainment option. I highly recommend this to any gamer which hasn't played this, but most have, so I will say to those that don't play games to go to a friend's house or something and give this game a shot. I guarantee you that you won't be disappointed. A well deserved two thumbs up and a ten star rating from me!