14 DAY TRIAL // Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the Gears of War franchise and the man responsible for many titles made by Epic Games, has talked openly about the recent Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and, while praising its smooth framerate, he criticized the story, which can't really offer an open experience.
Bleszinski helped shape Epic Games but, after 20 years with the independent developer, he exited the company in order to pursue his own interests.
[admark=1]Now, in an interview with GamesBeat, the designer has openly talked about other games, starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
According to the designer, Call of Duty games will always impress through their 60fps framerate.
"I’ve always said that shooting your friends in the face at 60 frames per second through iron sights will always be fun, no matter what. One of the things that franchise has always nailed is the smoothness," he said.
Bleszinski also notes, however, that the most recent game stumbled when it came to the story or the multiplayer.
"The single-player [in Call of Duty: Black Ops II] … I started getting into it, and I heard that they made a lot of effort to get rid of the linearity, but I just couldn’t get past it. It still felt like there’s an infinite amount of enemies spawning at me, and I’m just trying to race to a checkpoint as opposed to clearing out the room. It’s not my thing. I can’t do those campaigns, especially when I have a campaign like Far Cry 3′s, where it’s really open and so many crazy emergent things happen."
The multiplayer, while quite impressive and filled with content, is affected by the cramped spaces and the fact that latency will always be a crucial issue.
"The multiplayer in Call of Duty — it’s that great grind of unlocking all the perks and gizmos. I found a lot of multiplayer maps this time around to be extra small in the first batch. Anytime you’re on something that’s on the water, most of the time it’s going to be too confined," he said.
"There are these kids who have an infinite amount of time to play, and if one or two bullets take you out, it comes down to who shoots first. When you introduce latency, a lot of the times it’s a roll of the dice in regards to who wins."
Bleszinski praised Halo 4's multiplayer, saying that it manages to create a back and forth sensation that makes it a superior experience to Call of Duty.