Call of Duty: Black Ops
Just some random comments on the game

So I picked up the XBOX360 version of COD:Black Ops for $59.99 at Target. I was going to wait a few days past the launching. Wait and get some feedback, but I could not wait long enough it seems.

So here are some observations and impressions from my first 12 some hours of playing the game.

Of the gameplay modes available, I have played a single match in Zombies, a few Teamdeath Matches, and the majority of the rest of the matches in Hardore Team Deathmatch (my gameplay of choice and the only reason I spent my money).

Overall Comments:
Graphics: They are an improvement over World at War. The look and feel is quite different from Modern Warfare 2, so the fair comparison is to the other Treyarch product.

These graphics are a nice step up, perhaps a 25% increase in depth and quality to my layman eye. There are some cool death looks, from claymores and such that caught my eye.

Maps: The maps are up to Treyarch standards, mostly tight corridors and walk areas, not many sniping spots and plenty of corners to sit in.
Of the ones that shipped, I seemed to rotate through the same 4 or 5 maps, I do not have a listing of all maps as of yet.

There seems to be 14 maps in the Hardcore Team Deathmatch Rotation that I have played on.

• Nuketown
• Summit
• Havana
• Radiation
• Firing Range
• Hanoi
• WMD
• Jungle
• Crisis
• Cracked
• Villa
• Grid
• Launch
• Array

So a little bit about some of the maps.

Nuketown: 50s Kitsch Atomic Bomb test site, uber small map, 2 spawn sites, all SMG and AR work, very easy to get trapped and spawnkilled, annoying map to me. My least favorite map.

WMD: Lots of offices, cool Soviet icons, warheads sitting around, some sniping spots (I like the bottom silos to sit in-between and take out the 3rd story sniping spot)

Hanoi:: A single street (I sat on a railing and got a couple of kills) large prison section, ugly guillotine and 3 noose gallows in the semi open section in the back, where most of the map resides and there are some good sniping / ambush spots.

Havana: The best streets, best for sniping of the maps I played on. I like it about the best so far.
Remember to stick to the edges of the map and snipers can work from the ends of the street with decent effect.

Array: Large antennas, you can get up on the large one on the 'top' of the map, pretty exposed spot, the round control area is hotly contested as well as the right side leading down from the large antenna, easy to get trapped up there.

Jungle: Tight corners, lots of walk areas, some good corner camping spots making it hard to see, lots of places to shoot down on the other side.

Launch: This map to me has a feel similar to Fuel from MW2 (only 2 to 2.5 times larger), with many corners and small rooms. Do not stand under the rocket when it lifts off. One cool element is how the entire map shakes on liftoff.

Gameplay: The way the maps are set up, it is hard to get long distance shots or kills. They really are set up for SMG and AR work I feel. In Harcore a pistol can make a 1 or 2 round kill, which I like. In Core it takes 4 or 5 good hits with most any weapon. It took 2 good hits with the Dragunev Sniper Rifle at near point blank range in example.
Hardcore is locked until level 19. If you have someone on your list above that and you get invited into that lobby, as a level 3 I was able to play Hardcore Team Deathmatch, which is what I prefer.

So that is one way to surmount that limitation in a legitimate fashion. In 12 hours of playtime I have made it to level 24 with an ending KDR of .66(or so).

Good vice is to move in groups, corner camp, and use the RC car as much as you can to start with.

Currency:
I like the buying system so far. You start with 3 classes, by level 6 you have 6 stock classes and level 10 is customize starting for killstreaks, etc.

Some General Comments:
One person dislikes the Skorpion SMG, too slow and no knockdown, he said a LMG is more mobile than that.
The M16 has a nice stopping power, buy the Red Dot or Reflex scope.
Seems to be easier to get headshots than in MW2.
The guns are unlocked by level, and then you can purchase them or not. I bought the Enfield AR (wrong name I think) and with the Reflex Scope it is a nice weapon. Feels like a mainstay like the M4 is in MW2, a weapon you can use almost exclusively.
Party Chat cuts across matches, so in matches we had people on the other side and we could talk back and forth. It was satisfying to hear my Party Member complain about my 4 some kills on them in that one match in the streets of Havana as I kept sniping him.

I saved all the money till about level 7 or 8 before buying a single gun or attachment. At that time I did splurge on Perks.

Scavenger is almost Nerfed (you get ammo and grenades is all, not claymore reloads so it is not as useful) as in MW2 at all. Only reloads gun mags and lethal (Frag and Semtex grenades) are obtainned.

There seems to be no perk to hide from air assets that shoot you, lots of easy kills from that for who ever gets one.

Attack Dogs are a 11 Killstreak selection (I wont buy it due to that)
The Training mode puts names from my friends list on the players in the mode, and it is core, so nice for some easy XP, weird otherwise.

Really cool things: World Map showing concentrations of people playing the game
2.4 Million Players online first night. Second night got up to 3.5 million players. Night 3 down to 1.3 million players, so it seems it has leveled out to those that are really enjoying it over everyone playing all at once.

Customizing my Emblem, each layer is only 100 In Game Currency, so for 200 Currency I have a bullet Riddled with a dark purple Biohazard sign on my Emblem/Title. This has been expanded to a new background, and multiple layers, spent a good 3 K in Currency so far and pretty much set with it.

Bitchin Big Maps that I really like the looks of.

Some more overall things:
Played 21 Hardcore Team Deathmatches. Sometimes it was difficult getting a game started up with widely different levels of players. As time progresses I suspect that will even out as we all exceed level 19.

One concern is, if we Prestige, does the Level 19 Cap come back into play. If so several of us will only Prestige once, unless someone finds out for us sooner.

Players that were already Prestige 18 hours past Launch. We presumed they were employees or beta testers and it felt unfair to some of us I was playing with. (I have about 30 folks, over 40 mostly, from 3 large groups that I game with consistently and we had a good 1/3rd present last night that I could tell).

Core is Core, hurts you KDR and young kid reflexes win the day, especially with the tight maps, so always run with the hardest knockdown SMG or AR you can afford. The Enfield is a great choice until you get either the AK74U or the Galil (Best all round gun for the money add in Red Dot and Suppressor).

The money is a little slow, but it seems about the right value for what you purchase.
Clan Tags and Red Dots. One person put their Clan Tag on their AR. Then they got the Red Dot. For them either one or the other, the Red Dot covers up the clan tag.
So on to the single Zombies game I played. It was a single map, single match, 4 players total vs. the Zombies Horde. I did pick up the rifle, then the shotgun which worked a whole lot better. The map was a multilevel lab like setting, I know it was in the original WAW game, but I didnt play it on that game so it was unfamiliar to me. It was pretty fun, but not my personal cup of tea.
Overall I like a whole lot more than World At War. In that game I just die and die and cannot seem to get any kills going. The maps in this one are awesome, I would like it if they just DLC the older WAW maps into it. I can easily ignore historical aspects to use good guns on those more open maps in general. The gameplay should appeal to the WAW group, and after a few weeks of play I anticipate my XBOX gaming time to be split between working towards more Challenges in MW2, and enjoying the other aspects in BlackOps.

For the Tabletop Gamers out there
Lots of inspiration for maps, combat pacing. It has a more 4E combat feel to it than MW2 does. Definitely even on Hardcore it is not as deadly as MW2 can be. If you like modern games or espionage then you get some great graphic inspiration. The use of grids and sectors in the map you can find during gameplay is awesome, allows for great coordination, so something a game group could embrace. I suspect the Game Guide (Not seen one yet) will have some nice maps and better details on all the guns, giving players more choices from a fluff standpoint to say I have a Galil AR vice a standard Rifle sort of statement. Go watch or play on someone else's machine if you dont have an XBOX yourself. At $59.99 if is no worse than a WOTC Hardcover Corebook, or a Fantasy Games WH40k Inspired book, and the replay value is there for the FPS layman such as myself.

Call of Duty Black Ops website
www.callofduty.com