Another Call of Duty game, another few million dollars for Activision.
After Modern Warfare 2 left a sour taste in the mouths of many players, we could only hope that Treyarch, the less admired Call of Duty developer, could surpass everyone's expectations and give the community the multiplayer that Modern Warfare 2 should have been. Not only did MW2 suffer from broken and unbalanced perks like One Many Army, Danger Close, and Commando; guns with very little recoil and dominating air support, the game wasn't supported by Infinity Ward. With Infinity Ward all but disbanded just a few months into the game's release, most players realized the problems with the game were never going to get fixed. And they weren't. After the release of the second map pack, Activision went off to count their money and CoD players were left with the choice of either playing MW2 and dealing with it's many shortcomings or going back to playing World at War or MW2's predecessor, Call of Duty 4.
Personally, I logged over 20 days of play time on MW2. It was what I spent the majority of my time on for a whole year. Sometimes it frustrated me but I continued to come back. I played that game right up until about a week before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops. After the disaster of MW2 I wasn't holding much hope for Black Ops. Afterall, I had expected greatness a year ago in November and what I got was very far from it. I followed everything on Black Ops, watching the videos that were released, reading up on the Perks, guns, attachments, and killstreaks. I wanted to know everything about this game before I bought it. After learning all I could about the game I wanted to tell myself it was going to be good, that everything I'd seen so far indicated Treyarch was on the right track to making a great game.
It turns out that this year I would not be disappointed.
Call of Duty: Black Ops has been exactly what I wanted it to be. It's been extremely fun while still offering a challenge. The guns are good, the perks offer a balance that wasn't there in MW2, and the game no longer relies on air support. You need to be able to use your gun to get those higher kill streaks. There are some minor issues, but compared to the ones that plagued MW2 they are easily manageable.
Gun balancing in Black Ops was a major issue and Treyarch seemed to handle it well. Of course, there are guns that will rise to the top of their classes, but in the game the guns function as they should. There's no UMP 45, a sub machine gun from MW2 that killed in three bullets regardless of the distance, even with a silencer. It was overpowered, to say the least. So far, there's no gun that completely dominates. Some of the community are up in arms about the AK74u being overpowered, as well as the G11 assault rifle, but those are concerns I don't share. Yes, they are good guns, probably the best in their classes, but they're certainly not game breaking. The AK74u has a slower rate of fire and can be destroyed by a MP5k or Spectre user up close. It does good damage over distance, but it won't take down a good player who's firing back with an assault rifle. The Light Machine Guns are devastating when used from a distance, as their damage is consistent across the map. The M60 is the only one capable of a 2 shot kill at close to medium range, but with such limited mobility you won't win a close range battle against a good SMG user. Shotguns, which are once again primary weapons, are extremely dominant in Close Quarters Combat but connection and lag can make them inconsistent. If I die by a shotgun it's usually because the player knows what they're doing. I have very little experience with the sniper rifles, but if you know anything about this game you know Treyarch severely nerfed the sniper rifles to prevent the community from quickscoping and noscoping. To do this they added more sway when scoping up and in order for your bullet to go where your crosshairs are you need to be scoped in for a few seconds. They're difficult to use even in the hands of the best player. You're severely gimping yourself if you're using a sniper rifle.
In my opinion, one of the best things Treyarch has done with Black Ops is remove Stopping Power and Juggernaut. In MW2, Stopping Power was the most predominant second tier perk because if you weren't using it and someone else was, you were automatically at a disadvantage. The guns killed so fast in MW2 that one bullet could make all the difference. With Stopping Power gone it gives players a chance to change up their loadouts and experiment with perk combinations they wouldn't have if Stopping Power had been included. So far the perk balance seems good. I do see many players using Ghost, a first tier perk that hides you from Spy Planes, and whose Pro version will keep you from being targeted by air support. It's extremely useful, but to equip it you need to sacrifice other useful perks like Hardline (getting killstreaks one kill earlier) or Scavenger (resupplying ammo and lethal grenades from dead enemies). Nothing really dominates the other two tiers, offering perks that are useful in varied situations and game types.
Another excellent change Treyarch made was to make sure your killstreaks don't stack, meaning getting two kills with your Napalm Strike won't get you your Attack Helicopter. You need to earn your killstreak rewards by killing the enemy with your gun, equipment, or grenades. Earning those higher killstreaks is now much more difficult, but in my experience it doesn't seem to encourage camping as much. That may be because you can only have one claymore with no way to resupply it, or because the map layouts combat camping,usually offering more than one entrance to a building. To get those higher killstreaks you need to play smart and you need to be good with your gun.
Personally, this game has been a breath of fresh air, one that I and many other members of the CoD community desperately needed. Treyarch has already released one title update for the game and has made several hot fixes that have fixed a few minor issues. Many players are complaining about the spawn system, but I haven't had issues with it. Every once in a while the spawns will flip when it seems they shouldn't, but more often than they're fine. There are issues with connectivity and a host advantage is obvious, but on P2P servers that's unavoidable. Hopefully Treyarch continue to support this game in the months to come, and should any problems arise they will be swiftly taken care of.
To me, Black Ops Multiplayer is what Modern Warfare 2 should have been. I played a lot of MW2, but for the whole year it was out, I didn't get the satisfaction from it that I've gotten from Black Ops in just a few weeks. I really enjoy this game, finding myself forgetting to eat when I sit down for a long gaming session. If you had doubts about Black Ops I would definitely suggest picking it up even if you weren't a fan of Modern Warfare 2. If you were a fan, you might not like this game because it's quite different. In the end, I can only make the recommendation that you give it a shot. Having already logged 3 solid days on the Mulitplayer I feel satisfied with my purchase and believe I'll be playing this game until the next release in the series.
