In Third Person

Ever since my subpar experience with Call of Duty: World at War, I’ve had a chip on my shoulder against Treyarch. To me, they’ve been the B-team that made filler titles while Infinity Ward crafted the games people really wanted to play. Though this perception among the Call of Duty enthusiasts washed away with the release of Black Ops, I coincidentally stopped playing the series just before then. In a Black Ops II world, I only now finished the campaign of the original.

I usually approach these campaigns with the notion that I’m simply going to shoot everything in sight. Story be damned, I’m going to run through these tightly-scripted levels, looking down the iron-sight and rip through thousands of rounds of ammunition. While it does a fine job of just that, I actually got into the game’s story more than I was expecting.

The tale of Black Ops focuses on Alex Mason, a soldier who finds himself held captive by unknown captors. They spend much of the game interrogating him about a mysterious set of numbers. The answer to their meaning is gradually pieced together as you play through a number of flashback sequences. Though it can be confusing to try and piece together, I really appreciate how committed they stayed to the bigger narrative. By the time the game hits you with it’s final plot point, I was genuinely pleased with the outcome. Strictly from a story perspective, I think this one was the strongest I’ve experienced to date.

What I’ve always loved about the series is the feel of the guns. No game gets the joy of shooting dudes quite like Call of Duty does. They did not do much to push this aspect forward, but it still feels great. In particular, I loved the sequence with the Dragon Breath shotgun, as it tore through enemies like nobody’s business. It also helps that most of the combat scenarios are a fun to blast through. While I don’t think the action reaches the highs set by the Modern Warfare series, it was really enjoyable and a huge step up from World at War.

My only real gripe with the campaign comes from when the scripted events don’t flow well with player behaviour. At the beginning, I ran into many situations where I would be asked to follow someone, only for them to fall way behind. I would be up ahead and confused, or simply bored waiting for my squad to do what they’re supposed to do. There were times when I died ‘cheap’ deaths because I strayed a bit too far from the invisible path the game wanted me to follow, such as the part where you have to run to the mine cart, but only at a very specific point in time. In one particular moment, the game required me to do something very specific, but it didn’t do a good job of telling me what that was. Because of this, I died repeatedly at this one point until I referred to a guide.

All in all, Black Ops did a great job of providing a Call of Duty experience with a bit of a twist. Though I’ve had negative views on their efforts in the past, this one was pretty well done. Though I’m in no rush to jump into Modern Warfare 3 or Black Ops 2, this was fun while it lasted. Will definitely check out both of those at some point though.

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