14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest videogame launches of the fall is Call of Duty: Black Ops, the first person shooter created by Treyarch and published by Activision. No one believes it will be as commercially successful as last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 but the two companies are working hard to deliver an experience that has both a layer of drama and the well-thought gameplay the series is known for.
What Black Ops will apparently not have is a mission, which aims to shake the player by making them do something out of their comfort zone, like shooting civilians.
Talking to the Fidgit blog, Josh Olin, who is the community manager working for Treyarch, said that his team is not aiming to create moments like the infamous “No Russian” mission from Modern Warfare 2. He stated, “Nothing we're doing is gratuitous. Everything will be to further the characters or the plot.”
Black Ops will be parsing the history of the Cold War, the conflict that pitted the United States and their Western Allies against the Soviet Union and its Easter puppet regimes. With at least one missions taking part in Vietnam, a lot of gamers thought ethical issues linked to the killing of civilians might feature in Black Ops.
Infinity Ward, the developer of the two Modern Warfare videogames, managed to generate quite a bit of buzz with a small number of special moments, like the execution experienced from first person, the detonation of a nuclear warhead seen from the point of view of a Marine caught by the blast and a mission, which puts the player in the shoes of a murderous terrorist.
Gamers have become accustomed to being shocked at some point when playing a Call of Duty main title and they might be disappointed if Black Ops fails to deliver such a moment.