In case you were under a rock for the past few years, you’re well aware that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 & 2 are the best selling FPS’s (First Person Shooters) of ALL time. If nothing else, Activision has given us something of an excellent example of gaming, reaching a new level of commercial and artistic success. With an over arcing story ranging from the sleepy suburbs of America to the sun baked back alleys of Afghanistan, Modern Warfare has created a real piece of gaming genius. Yet, like every success, there have been some snags. Along with a controversial viral F.A.G.S. video marketing campaign and abundant multiplayer game glitches, Activision, the publisher of the Call of Duty franchise, has an ongoing  lawsuit with Infinity Ward, the developing genius behind Call of Duty. According to the suit, Activision has paid forty percent of the Modern Warfare bonus money owed to Infinity Ward employees but is withholding the rest, demanding that the studio develops Modern Warfare 3 in time to publish the game next November before handing over the rest of the money. Jason West and Vince Zampella,  who were fired as Infinity Ward studio heads in March for alleged insubordination, are also suing Activision for 36 million dollars. Even amongst all these issues affecting the company Activision and developer Treyarch, the same developer behind Call of Duty: World at War, released the much anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops on November 9, 2010.
Let me just say, that Black Ops was produced by Treyarch, who developed World at War and not Infinity Ward, the group behind Modern Warfare and the differences show.
Campaign: With a voice cast consisting of actors like Sam Worthington, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, and Ice Cube its not hard to see how the single player campaign could be quite a striking experience. At least from a story stand point, the game is excellent in the same vein as all the Call of Duty Franchise. Black Ops does a great job of not making game play monotonous or repetitive. Through location changes, character shifts, and a killer story that keeps you involved enough to continue guessing as to the outcome, the game makes playing through the campaign worth the frustration that it inspires. Despite the fact that Infinity Ward pretty much handed Treyarch the framework of a damn near perfect game, Black Ops is ugly, laggy as hell, and suffers from in game glitches that are purely programming issues. In the middle of game play during the I received this magical Error: ‘c_rus_spetznaz_body2_g_larmoff’ has more then 160 bones (see console for detail). This should never happen when during game play. Not when I just spent $60 on you, you sonofabitch!!
Multiplayer: There are quite a few issues with Black Ops’s Multiplayer. All my experiences have been on Xbox LIVE, so they are limited in scope but they’re still prevalent. First and foremost, the game is graphically unimpressive compared to its Modern Warfare counterpart. On top of being ugly, it lags like a fat chick in a leg race. All the time. Seriously. There is a reason I pay exorbitant amounts of money for Verizon Fios. IT’S SO I CAN LAUGH AT PEOPLE WITH CRAPPY CONNECTIONS! But it seems to lag no matter who your provider is or when you play. Good luck with attempting to play with a party. I have yet to successfully bring a party into Team Deathmatch successfully. Period. Split Screen doesn’t work too much better either. As a matter of fact, I have yet to ever finish an entire match without being booted part ways through when playing Split Screen. Even with the new Cold War era weapons Treyarch has made it a bit of a bother to customize your classes. Using the same customizable Perks, previously used in Modern Warfare’s 1&2, you can change everything to fit your styles of game play. For some odd reason though, they make the menus for the custom classes with so many sub menus that it becomes almost a chore to change them. I can’t tell you how often I’ve tried to change a class of mine and before I’ve even gotten through the many sub menus a match starts. Oh, and fuck the RC/XD’s. For serious.
All in all, I have to say that Call of Duty: Black Ops is not worth the money. If you enjoyed the game play mechanics of World at War, you will feel right at home with Black Ops. But if you’ve experienced the pure unabashed bliss that is Modern Warfare, you will feel the same way I do: Black Ops is the less attractive younger sister of Modern Warfare with half the looks, a slightly similar personality, and none of her sexual skills. None of them. If you want an FPS to tide you over till something new comes out or whenever the hell Activision and Infinity Ward resolve their legal issues for Modern Warfare 3, then by all means pick this title up. But if you’re like my roommate and were under the impression that this game was developed by the same team behind The Modern Warfare, you will be seriously let down.
I would have to give this game a 7.5 of 10.