REVIEW - Call of Duty: Black Ops (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)

I put down my control pad, and slowly take off my headphones.  Leaning back in my chair for the first time in what seems like hours, I take a long deep breath.  As I reach for the glass of water to quench the thirst of my dry mouth, I see that the hand I stretch out is quivering involuntarily.  I realize that I have just gone through one of the most intense gaming experiences to date, and that it will take me a while before I am ready to go again - but already I can't wait.  Welcome to Call of Duty: Black Ops.


Call of Duty: Hi-Octane


To say that Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision) is an intense experience is like saying that the Empire State Building is "quite big" or that the Pyramids are "somewhat aged."  Black Ops is the sort of game that grabs hold of your lapels right at the start and doesn't let go.  It is not the type of game that you curl up with on the sofa with a cup of coffee for a couple of hours.  Instead this is an "edge of the seat with a can of cola" game that you play one mission of and then collapse in exhaustion at the sheer, mind thumping intensity of it all.

The guns are meaty, which is fortunate - you will use them a lot!

While this isn't as a surprise in and of itself - the Call of Duty franchise has always been about heart pounding battle action - some may have thought that with the addition of the words Black Ops, that this game was set to have a slightly more Splinter Cell type stealth approach to it.  Wrong!  With the exception of one or two parts of various missions where one must sneak up behind an enemy solider, this game is fast and furious, with explosions and large scale battles aplenty.  Instead the Black Ops part refers to the secretive side to the government's various missions, and the classified nature of the many aims of the secret government operatives that accompany the vast majority of soldiers.

Do You Remember?

It is 1968, and you play Alex Mason (voiced by Sam Worthington), a secret government operative who has been involved in secret missions all over the world, all with the aim of bringing down the Soviet Union and winning the Cold War.  Mason is being interrogated by unknown shadowy figures about a peculiar set of numbers that are haunting Mason, and  Mason is forced into recalling many of his past assignments, into which the player is brought in.  The plot is complex, and focuses on the search for  a deadly WMD by the name of Nova 6.  Ultimately the plot gets a little lost, and is little more than an excuse to transport the player to different environments in different periods throughout the Cold War.  Although the main plot is quite forgettable, some of the characters are very memorable, making the player care a great deal about the fate of Mason's companions.  When a key companion is brutally murdered in the second half of the game, I was surprised at just how saddened I was at his demise.  Call of Duty is no emotionless shooter - the player is made to care about his surroundings and companions, and for this Black Ops deserves credit.

When Victor Reznov speaks, you listen...or else!

The much loved Victor Reznov (voiced by the outstanding Gary Oldman) returns after his appearance in Call of Duty: World at War, and is as entertaining and moving as ever.  Although he is the stereotypical Russian warrior, he also provides some of the games more poignant moments, such as when he regales Alex with the story of his father who played piano music as an act of resistance against the Nazis.  The touching story contributes to the serious tone that Call of Duty has always dipped its titles in, and provides a quiet contrast to the continual stream of loud, noisy action that Black Ops throws your way.

Gameplay, as always for this series, is astounding.  While offering the standard first person shooter type of gameplay, Black Ops does it perfectly and in a way that is entirely immersive and never boring.  Although large scale battles is what Call of Duty is famous for, the best moments come when the game suddenly changes course in the middle of a level.  So while one moment you will be fighting through a typical gun battle, the next moment you will find yourself seamlessly jumping into a helicopter and taking the battle to the skies.  Another level in Vietnam has you abandoning the loud, all guns blazing battlefield for a quiet stealth run in the underground tunnels that the Vietcong have built.  It results in a game that is never repetitive and always interesting.  I don't want to spoil any of the big surprises that Black Ops throws the players way, but it is safe to say that this is not the same old stop-shoot-stop-shoot gameplay that has characterized so many shooters in recent years.

War Never Looked So Good

Black Ops is made a more immersive experience by its presentation.  The graphics are simply stunning.  From the jungles of Vietnam to the towering industrial settings of Soviet Russia, Black Ops is very, very pretty.  Faces are rendered perfectly (using the same motion capture technology used in James Cameron's Avatar) and express the necessary emotion for players to be able to believe in them, colourful environments are legion and rarely fall back on the brown/gray color palate that haunts so many first person shooters, and even when the action is in full flow, the frame rate barely drops.

They aren't hunting rabbits.

This is a good thing, for full flow action is the pillar that holds the game together.  Everything moves quickly in Black Ops, which is made easier by its slick control system, well functioning AI, and an excellent use of the radar system that means you are able to keep up with the combat and know where it is you are supposed to be next.  It all gels superbly, and allows you to just about keep your head together while all around you are losing theirs (sometimes literally!)  It adds up to a frenzied experience that makes the player feels that they have been fighting the Cold War themselves.

That is not to say that Black Ops is not without its problems.  The main problem is the length.  Black Ops is a game that knows that many will buy it for its (impressive) multiplayer functions, and therefore may be accused of scrimping on length when it comes to the single player campaign.  This charge certainly has merit.  While there are a number of extra single player modes, such as a very fun zombie mode (where you can play as a wisecracking JFK or Richard Nixon), the campaign is quite brief, and when one is paying $60 for a game, the ability to complete the single player in a long weekend may put a lot of gamers off, at least until the title comes down in price.

Call of Duty vs Call of God

From a Catholic standpoint Black Ops is not perfect by any means.  One of Call of Duty's strengths from a Catholic perspective is that the series never tries to make war seem like a laugh or a consequence-free riot in the park.  Black Ops is no different.  The spirit of dulce et decorum est is not present in this game at all, with the developers preferring to emphasize the tragedy of war than its supposed glories.  The game rejects the false contrast of "saintly heroes" versus "evil bad guys", instead presenting the message that not only is neither side perfect, but also that men on both sides are victims of war.  Let me put it plainly - this was the first game I have played in a long time that made me feel bad for killing an enemy, and made me feel like a person had been killed, as opposed to just another cardboard cut-out of a solder.  Soldiers on the other side are not maniacal villains, but soldiers who have been caught up in the ongoing tragedy that is war, and the player is made to feel this.

"Excuse me!  Are you dead?"

Part of this message comes in the form of the game being a lot gritter and gorier than previous outings, and it is here where it runs into significant difficulty from a Catholic perspective.  Although gore is infrequent, it is very strong on those occasions that it is present.  One particular scene of a character's friend being gassed to death is particularly disturbing, both due to the graphic nature of his death, and also because it is likely that the player will have grown fond of the character by this point.  The game is filled with genuinely shocking moments, and consequently this means that Black Ops is certainly not for the faint hearted, with two graphic scenes of torture that push the boundaries of good taste.  Yet it cannot be said that the game glamorizes, approves or encourages such violence.  The graphic battlefield violence is done very much in the tone of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, and the message of the futility of violence is the same.

Having said this, it is undeniable that Black Ops is a very fun game to play, and the sombre anti-war message is tainted somewhat by this.  This is a game that is (understandably) designed to be enormous amounts of fun with exaggerated explosions, high speed chases and adrenaline pumping action throughout the game.  It therefore rings slightly hollow when, after an exciting mission, the game turns round to you and tries to remind you how horrible it all is and tries to make you feel guilty for enjoying yourself.  Yet despite this contradiction, Black Ops still manages to convey a sense of the horrors of war so effectively that it provides a powerful reminder as to why war is the ultimate tragedy of humanity.  It is because of this positive that Black Ops just about manages to stop short of being exploitative.

Conclusion


From a technical perspective, Black Ops does little wrong.  The story gets lost in its twists and turns in the middle, and the campaign is certainly on the short side, but with perfect presentation, pulse-pounding gameplay, some unforgettable set pieces, and grade A voice acting, first person shooters don't come better than Call of Duty: Black Ops. 

Despite its technical qualities, Black Ops is still a game that will be difficult for many Catholic gamers, and should not be picked up lightly.  Call of Duty: Black Ops is a war game and means business.  Its graphic and gory scenes of battlefield violence and torture, frequent crude language, and actions of highly questionable moral judgements from main characters, mean that this game is for a limited adult audience only. Yet the positive overarching message and the communication of the depth of the personal human tragedy that war brings, prevents Call of Duty: Black Ops from being morally offensive.


The Technical Rating for this Title is 9/10

The Catholic classification is L -- Limited Adult Audiences.  Contains problematic content that many adults would find troubling.