subject: Game Review - Call Of Duty Black Ops [print this page] Due to hit the streets in November 2010, Black Ops is a sequel to the award-winning World at War title, bringing back the same excitement CoD players have come to enjoy together along with new features all placed within new settings.
Black Ops takes place during the Cold War era, with players taking the roles of black ops soldiers performing missions in locales like South America, Cuba, the Arctic, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union.
In this sequel, however, players will find themselves involved in much more important roles than they may have experienced in previous Call of Duty titles, as black ops characters get involved in more significant duties than the common soldiers of previous CoD titles may have been.
The game, based on an improved IW engine, offers a multitude of new weapons and gear, like a scoped crossbow that can fire various types of ammo, a customisable, early-model Steyr AUG, and Dragon's Breath rounds for combat shotguns. The playable character gets a "first person" voice for the first time ever in a Call of Duty game, thus bringing more of a personal feel to the combat experiences of your character.
It has been confirmed by Activision that players will be able to pilot aircraft like the Hind helicopter and SR-71 Blackbird. It is rumoured the dismemberment feature, in which tanks, grenades, artillery fire, and some larger machine guns could rip limbs off of unfortunate enemies, will be present in this release.
Many gamers also believe that Zombies will return. Several multi-player modes (such as four player online co-op) are also scheduled for development.
Although scheduled for publishing by Activision, Black Ops is actually being developed by Treyarch. Unlike times before, it is the only game they are working on at the moment. They are taking advantage of full-performance capture technology similar to that used in the film Avatar. This technology will allow Treyarch to capture an actor's entire performance, including facial expressions. They have even gone as far as consulting Cold War Special Forces veterans from both the US Army and former Soviet Union to enhance the game's realism.
Black Ops is scheduled for release on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii gaming platforms with a separate version also planned for the Nintendo DS.
