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TVG gets its first look at Treyarch's third outing in the Call of Duty series - the first to step outside of World War II...
Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of those so hotly anticipated games that, by the time it comes out, gamers will already know a vast amount about its levels, features, and gameplay from numerous previews, rumours, and leaks that will have surfaced in the six months of planned publicity between its announcement in late April and release this November. Without further ado then, we're going to get straight to the point: at a preview event earlier this week, Activision and Treyarch gave us the opportunity to see the game for the first time. The Hue City and SR-71 Blackbird levels we saw were the same shown to gaming magazines a few weeks ago and now, for the first time, the online press. With this in mind, we'll go over what's already known about these levels (for those of you who aren't already in the know) and highlight some of the new features that haven't been noticed yet.
Firstly, that SR-71 Blackbird level (just so you know, the SR-71 is a Cold War US spy plane that flies so high, it practically scrapes outer-space): some pundits have likened it to the AC-130 level in the original Modern Warfare although we've got to say that, from what we saw, it's a good deal less dynamic and a lot more short-lived. It operates more as a novel scene-setter to a more significant portion of conventional FPS level design later on. An initial cut-scene sees you walking across the tarmac of a no doubt top secret US Air Force base. Personnel put the finishing touches of what are essentially space suits on you and your wingman just before entering the plane, which is followed by such a detailed view of an SR-71 Blackbird's cockpit that it could easily be mistaken for a flight sim.
The similarities to a flight sim end at the cosmetic though because, as the SR-71 takes off, all you have to do is follow an on-screen prompt to pull back on the left thumbstick to get the plane airborne. Once the SR-71 reaches its cruising altitude (without any interaction from you), the camera pans down to some of the plane's instrumentation - more specifically, a telescopic view of the ground somewhere in an Arctic region of the former Soviet Union. Your job is to direct a squad of black ops soldiers into position in preparation for an incoming convoy of Russian jeeps. This is done by assigning waypoints on the ground (by pressing in the right thumbstick) via the telescopic interface in the Blackbird. It's a fairly straightforward affair lasting a couple of minutes tops and, once the squad is in position, the game's camera leaves the Blackbird and reconvenes as one of the soldiers on the ground. The AC-130 level from Modern Warfare, it is not, although it's a good bit of exposition for sure.
From here, the trademark Call of Duty gameplay gets underway (although markedly more Modern Warfare in its orientation than World at War). Your squad of black operatives let a troop of Russian soldiers pass by without firing a bullet, so as not to blow their cover. It's all part of a stealthy approach into a Russian installation deep within an Arctic mountain range. This constitutes a bit of abseiling down between outposts that are built into the face of the mountainside. An interesting gameplay touch is used here, which requires the gamer to charge their 
rappel jumps by holding down on the left trigger, letting the trigger go to make the jump, and then pulling on the right trigger to brake and bring your soldier back to the mountainside. It certainly appears to be a more engaging rappel dynamic than most.
The final rappel jump is through the window of one of these outposts. Treyarch puts the camera into slow-motion at this crucial moment as you take out the soldiers inside, just like the breach sections in Modern Warfare 2. As you fight through the installation to complete an objective of finding the mains power supply (which, conveniently, ends up being a couple of exposed wires), it's obvious that Treyarch is dialling the action up a notch from what we've been used to in Infinity Ward's previous instalments. Evident in the shotgun cartridges emptying themselves into befuddled Russian soldiers, there seems to be that little bit more blood splatter and abject carnage on show. This is certainly in keeping with the developer that introduced flamethrowers and flame tanks that burnt enemies to a cinder in World at War, not to mention that infamous torture scene. On a more technical level though, Treyarch does seem to be getting an impressive level of detail and scope into the destructible environments it's designing.
Getting back to the Russian installation, as you move out into the Arctic landscape again, the opportunity to use one of CoD: 
Black Ops new toys becomes too tempting to refuse in the face of an elaborately designed set-piece with guards on patrol around a perimeter and a handful of explosive gas storage canisters to exploit. The crossbow, which comes complete with both standard and explosive-tipped arrows, is perfect for stealthily nailing the Russian soldiers on patrol with standard tips before burying a couple of explosive tips in those gas stores to level the area. If executed to perfection, you can take out an entire Russian platoon within a matter of seconds. Shortly after this set-piece, an NPC on your squad uses a bolas weapon (see the image left) to wrap-up and pacify a single Russian soldier. While we don't know whether this bolas will be a playable weapon in the final game, we're certainly hopeful that it will.
Finally, the level comes to its conclusion as an avalanche forces you to evacuate the installation amid a rapidly crumbling structure, onto a hairy run across the mountainside and, naturally, to jumping off a cliff edge with your 
squad mates like lemmings (presumably they all have parachutes or, at least, can squabble between themselves for the only parachute on the way down). The action doesn't relent as we're introduced to the second mission (entitled 'Slaughterhouse') of our first look, which takes place during the battle for Hue City during the Vietnam War. Naturally, you play a US Special Forces operative once again and get choppered into the battle from a Huey. Things don't go quite to plan though, as the chopper is hit while your abseiling down from it and moves into an uncontrollable spin. Like a horse on a carousel, you spin out of control too and, fortunately, end up being flung through the upstairs window of a building.
After being helped up by your squad mate (who, again fortunately, got flung into the same room), you move on through a series of buildings, taking out Viet Cong where necessary and trying to avoid the innocent civilians that pop-up from time to time and are sometimes used as decoys by the Viet Cong. Eventually you liaise with a regular G.I. who's got a rather bulky looking control pad that he's mildly confused by. He passes it over to you like a child who's been bought a Christmas present that they don't entirely understand but, of course, you know precisely what it's for (or at least the on-screen prompts 
will soon tell you). It's for radioing in machine-gun fire from a supporting Huey chopper on Viet Cong that have entrenched themselves in nearby buildings. Once you highlight a relevant building, the Huey drops down into view and peppers it with a flurry of bullets, leaving nothing but bacteria alive.
The mission continues on with this theme (highlighting buildings for the Huey) and concludes as a US tank comes into view. Our demonstrator tucks-in behind the tank and follows its path of destruction through the city, again supplying supporting fire where necessary. This was about it for the first look, although Treyarch did drop a couple of details on the co-op offerings in the game. While 4 players will be able to play co-op online, there will also be split-screen local co-op for 2 players, although the developer isn't revealing any details on 
precisely what the co-op content will be at this stage. It could simply be woven into the same campaign as the single-player, or Treyarch might serve it up as a standalone experience. Expect more details from E3...
With Call of Duty: World at War, Treyarch made a huge stride forward from what it achieved in CoD 3 and now, in a move that appears to break the final shackle of game publishing's World War II obsession, Black Ops thankfully provides a far more engaging fiction and setting than what we're used to of the developer. Not only that, but Treyarch's skill with gameplay and design also appears to have taken a step forward. We'll have to wait until we go hands on to be more certain of this, but the signs at this stage are reassuring.
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Game Information
Available On:
PC, 360, PS3
| Release Date: | Players: |
|---|---|
| Out Now | Online |
| Publisher: | Genre: |
| Activision | FPS |
| Developer: | PEGi Rating: |
| TreyArch | 18 |
Awards won:
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Added:Sun 26th Jun 2011 00:32, Post No: 156
[#@!?] review. [#@!?] reviewer. black ops is 7.5 max
Added:Fri 17th Jun 2011 22:20, Post No: 155
hey u guys need to know moders r a[#@!?]hole
Added:Mon 07th Mar 2011 09:29, Post No: 154
well if you want to take the route of piracy especially on the ps3 with a jailbroken ps3 take note sony is suing everyone who has jailbroken there ps3's and seizing all there computing hardware (dont think this is true geohot has had all his computer hardware taken and everyone who has downloaded the jailbreak from his site and all visitors to his twitter, facebook, youtube and website sony has now aquired access to there ip address information which they can trace everything they have been doing such as downloading games ect from torrent sites, be affraid people if youve downloaded illegal games for the ps3 sony are on to you).
Added:Mon 07th Mar 2011 03:20, Post No: 153
I would never pay for a game then need to pay to play the game. If they are looking for more money from the game then sell the add ons.
Added:Thu 03rd Mar 2011 13:49, Post No: 152
treyarch waste of time and money pull ya finger out ya tossers and give us something we want
Added:Thu 03rd Mar 2011 13:47, Post No: 151
no dlc content ps3 as of yet only a playable demo of black ops wtf
Added:Wed 02nd Mar 2011 17:05, Post No: 150
there are over 500,000 players on blackops every day.every fckin day lol
Added:Wed 02nd Mar 2011 17:03, Post No: 149
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Added:Wed 02nd Mar 2011 17:02, Post No: 148
you know what i hate little biches who have to hack to prestige and to actually get a real kill u all suck u stupid little hacker [#@!?]s
Added:Wed 02nd Mar 2011 17:00, Post No: 147
[#@!?] [#@!?] [#@!?] whore [#@!?][#@!?][#@!?] [#@!?] [#@!?]