Gaming Sundays: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Is this suppose to be Hudson or Mason?

Introduction

Black Ops is the latest installment in the Call of Duty series. Set in the Cold War era, Black Ops follows the story of Captain Alex Mason and the SOG team as they travel through Cuba, Vietnam and Russia. You will also get to play Special Agent Hudson, Captain Viktor Reznov and two SR-71 Blackbird pilots.

Story

Viktor Reznov, one of my favourite characters, might make me play World at War.

Set in the Cold War era, Black Ops begins with an assassination attempt on Cuban Communist leader, Fidel Castro. The main character, Alex Mason, is left behind as he tries to help his friends escape. He is then captured and sent to Vorkuta, a prison, where he meets Viktor Reznov, a character in Call of Duty: World at War. Things start to go downhill there. Long story short, the main purpose of the game is to stop Dragovich, the main antagonist from launching the Nova 6 project, a chemical weapon so deadly, when exposed to it, you are dead before you hit the ground

Anyway, the way to story is told reminds me of Hitman: Contracts. Mason is interrogated by two mysterious people who wants to know more about the Numbers broadcast, which is Dragovich's way of launching the attack. He does this by activating Sleeper Agents in the States. This sleeper agents are brainwashed to understand the code. Back on topic, Mason drifts in and out of delirium as he relives his previous missions, sounds like Contracts, eh? 

Funny thing is that the missions with Frank Woods have Woods in command, when Woods is only a Sergeant, while Mason is Captain. Funny, no? And yes, there are deaths in this game, though no as much as Modern Warfare 2, and none as a playable character. 

Gameplay

Chopper Fever

As mention earlier you get to play 5 different characters, though only one with Reznov, one with the two pilots(which also had Hudson), a few with Hudson (3 maybe? lost count), and the rest with Mason. The game is pretty much like Modern Warfare 2, there are times you get chase, times you have to escape a collapsing cave, times you get to drive a boat. The time when you fly the SR-71 was nice, except that is was short. After that, you'll be manning the recon equipment.

Weapons are no that high tech, since it is the Cold War era, however, I think the designer did nice by making the grenade icon look like Cold War era grenades.

The best missions are definitely those where you get to fly a chopper. Other than that, not much memorable missions at all. Speaking of which, the missions are very, very short, I finished in two play sessions.

Graphics

If you thought Modern Warfare 2 was good, you'll think Black Ops is good, if not better. Setting everything to low still cause lags for me. Only by adjusting the resolution did I finally get to play the game smoothly. So that says a lot. 

Conclusion

A must buy for die hard CoD fans, definitely a better choice than Medal of Honor. A good bargain for FPS players out there, and definitely a good game for multiplayer. Did I mentioned the Zombies? Playing as Kennedy (I think) was really fun and shooting zombies in Pentagon spells cool for me.