After a couple nights of gaming as a clan, it seems appropriate that we give a healthy COD: Black Ops Review. I invite everyone who plays to share with us your opinions and information as well if you have any insight to provide.



THE GOOD:

Great campaign (6hrs long), the game flows well as an arcade shooter. One can easily blow several hours in this game. Indeed, I've racked up 16 hours of full time duty since release.

Good selection of weapons, equipment and perks to round out character development featuring custom "Player Cards" you can personalize to display your stats.

As Colonel Dredboss underscores: the game is client side, therefore hits you register on screen apply in game. And the guns do deliver on mark, at least those I've been able to unlock and purchase with COD points (aka COD cash). You'll make a 'killing' in Black Ops online through dealing death to the enemy in a familiar variety of game modes.

Zombie Surivival! Need I say more? Get trapped with the Guantanamo Gang in a Zombie apocalypse to end all zombie apocalypses. Kennedy, Castro, Nixon and MacNamara make an ensemble resistance force. If the constant groaning of the undead unnerves you, delight in witty discourse that rolls with the action. Had I known the game came with a fun Zombie Co-Op I'd have likely pre-ordered!

Mobility. You can transit from different stances in COD Black Ops while moving. A favorite is leaping prone while sprinting, and movement is articulate enough to allow 'peering' around corners without revealing your full silhouette.

THE BAD:

Kill Streaks - not a huge fan of having to 'buy' kill streaks, although I can see some value in making players more slowly unlock them. Ultimately, the road blocks in place mean that gamers who have already fallen behind in buying the game will be woefully behind early adopters.
Effectiveness of Kill streaks. Given the time period, I cannot rightly expect air support to be any better than modern times. That being said, I have little fear whatsoever when aircraft are in the way. I've been killed but not so much that I feel I need to carry around the free LAW available to me to equip.
No Cooperative Campaign Mode?! They include zombie coop but no campaign coop. This irks me greatly, given the great back drop of the Vietnam era. I'd expected to have "black ops" missions available to tackle with a fellow operator. Alas, the only way to enjoy such an experience is at the frenetic pace of online play, devoid of any immersive elements found in the Campaign. The multi-player takes you no closer to the setting.

THE UGLY:

Server Browser FAIL. When the team walked out on Activision they must have taken the only guy who knew how to code a network browser. Finding our own clan server is an effort in futility. There seems to be no guarantee your server will be listed, even if it's ranked and hosted in a legit datacenter. Adding a server to favorites doesn't seem to always work.
Direct Connect (\connect IP) does not work either. FAIL! Shame on you guys.
Steam Integration we enjoyed in Modern Warfare 2 is totaly absent. Good luck finding your friends in game easily. The paltry buddy list they provide is an amalgamation of all your steam friends, not just the ones who actually own, or have even played the game. And once you find your buddies, you can't join their server without an invite. It's complicated beyond reasonable expectations. There is no setting up lobbies for MP either, but they did see to it the zombie mode got the feature.
LAG. No it's not just you, or your settings. The game regularly skips, freezes and lags like watching pr0n on dial up. It sucks and I sincerely hope it's addressed in the next patch.



On a scale of thumbs, being that I have 2 thumbs I'd give it 1 THUMB. Well worth the price of admission give you'll get more entertainment value from it than that $20 DVD you bought that no one really wants to watch anymore.

Sleight of Hand Pro is still in. And if you can't listen for footsteps why do they still have Ninja?