Call of Duty: Black Ops

We here at Lucid Delusions, we're simply fledgling bloggers. The blog hasn't found it's feet yet but we're trying. It'll be a bit before we get to do actual press coverage, but that doesn't mean that information doesn't reach us at a fairly quick pace. Not in this day and age anyway. Last night, Activision and Black Ops developer, Treyarch, held a press event in which they showed off the all new multiplayer aspects of the new Call of Duty game. After taking in a few previews and all the videos I could find, I figured I'd share my thoughts on how things are shaping up so far.

First off let me state the obvious, I like the Call of Duty franchise. I wouldn't say I'm a fan boy but I do thoroughly enjoy the series. Call of Duty 2 was one of the launch titles for the X-Box 360 that I actually bought and played. I skipped Call of Duty 3 after some very mixed reviews but I took part in the online beta for Modern Warfare 1. Again, I skipped World at War because the common conception was that Treyarch's games weren't as good as Infinity Ward's entries in the series. However World at War was very well received. Of course my love affair with Modern Warfare 2 is no secret and now I have to say Black Ops looks very well rounded. 

So lets get down to business here. If you have played Modern Warfare 2 like I have you know the game is terrible unbalanced. Partial blame can be laid at the feet of Infinity Ward, however with the company in shambles after a exodus of employees and the legal fiasco against Activision you can't really expect much from them in terms of support. However they did happen to release two map packs and fix some very glaring bugs that were plaguing the online play. I can't lay completely blame on Infinity Ward though. Some of it, if not a majority of it falls on the community that plays the game. It's full of people who simply want to exploit the game for their precious kill/death ratio. People who instead of earning achievements and bonuses will cheat and hack their way to the top. They generally make the game difficult and just terrible for the people trying to have fun. 

Black Ops at least looks to be correcting some of these issues. From what I've seen none of the perks seem to be overpowered and Treyarch has gone on record stating that kill streaks will not contribute to other kill streaks. No more will you be able to grief your way to seven kills and then sit back while your Harriers collect the 4 extra kills needed to get your Chopper Gunner or AC-130 so you can collect another Nuke. Speaking of which, there will be no game ending kill streaks. While the Nuke was a great idea, It takes some of the fun out of the game. I get it, you want to reward someone who managed to get 25 kills without dying. I applaud anyone who's able to do that. But the problem is half the time the person that gets that Nuke only really worked for seven of those kills and the rest were collected by kill streaks. 

That's not to say that we won't have great kill streaks for the game. As a matter of fact I've come across a tentative list of the kill streaks we may be getting and they are as follows;

3 – Spy Plane

3 – RC XD

4 – Counter Spy Plane $1600

4 – Sam Turret $1600

5 – Care Package

5 – Napalm Strike

6 – Sentry Gun $3200

6 – Mortar Team

7 – Attack Helicopter

7 – Valkyrie Rockets $4000

8 – BlackBird $4500

8 – Rolling Thunder $4500

9 - Chopper Gunner $5000

11 -  Attack Dogs $6000

11 -  Gunship $6000

You're probably wondering why there are dollar amounts next to each kill streak. Well that's another thing that Treyarch is doing different and I kind of like the idea. See in prior Call of Duty games the player collects experience. You unlock guns and equipment only after specific amounts of experience points were collected. It was a fairly simple idea and it kept people playing to unlock better attachments, better guns, and so on. With Black Ops Treyarch is taking that idea a step further. Instead of experience you will collect money. Your CoD points will then be yours to spend however you want. Say you want a very specific gun well no longer will you have to wait until a specific rank and amount of XP to get it, you'll simply need the right amount of money. No word yet on if rank will be an issue when unlocking these things. But at least now you can pick and choose how you spend those points. Use them to customize your character with things such as face paint and gear which give you an environmental advantage. 

Even better is the new Wager Modes that let you put your money where your mouth is so to speak. It's online gaming; we all know plenty of trash is going to be spewing from the mouths of players. But instead of challenging someone to a 1 vs 1 match up, you can simply go into a Wager Mode match where you CoD Points are up for grabs. There are four distinct modes which make up the Wager games and they are as follows;

One in the Chamber: In the match everyone spawns in with a pistol, one bullet and three lives. If you kill someone you get to take their bullet. If you fire and miss you're left with melee.

Sticks and Stones: You spawn with a crossbow, ballistic knife and a tomahawk. If you hit a player with the tomahawk you instantly bankrupt that player.

Gun Game: You get a series of progressive weapons in this match. With every kill you get a better weapon. The first person to progress through all of the weapons wins. But if you get knifed you get sent back one tier.

Sharp Shooter: In this one all players start with the same randomly selected weapon. You get to use that gun for a fixed amount of time and then everyone gets switched out to the next weapon. With each kill you earn a perk and eventually a scoring multiplier.

Lastly, I have to mention a feature which doesn't really lend itself to gameplay directly but it should provide some really great entertainment. Treyarch introduced an all new Theater Mode. This might not be new to people who have played Halo 3 but it should be new to Call of Duty players. What theater mode will do is capture each online game and allow you to play it back. It's a great tool for analyzing your own game to see what mistakes you make and correct them so that you become a better player. What it will really be useful for is machinima clips and highlight reels. With whole games being saved you'll be able to go back and relive those great kills or those awesome streaks you went on. Nailed someone with a sweet sniper shot? Why not save the clip and upload it so your friends can check out your awesome sniper skills. Expect an influx of amateur vids to hit the net but it'll be vastly useful for people who work for Machinima and other gaming blogs/sites. Or if you're the standard teen player, it'll just be another way to show off your sweet 360 no scope sniper kill. Oh the possibilities...

Call of Duty: Black Ops releases on November 9th for the PS3, X-Box 360 and PC formats.