14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Black Ops is the new first person shooter from developer Treyarch and publisher Activision Blizzard, allowing the player to experience the covert ops conflicts between the United States and Russia during the era of the Cold War.
14:00. One hour is not long enough to get a sense of the game's narrative but I really hope it makes sense and is respectful to actual history.
14:03. The opening movie and the presentation are all very impressive.
14:10. The game managed to lock up on me once already, which is not too encouraging given the other reports of graphical slowdowns and glitches.
14:21. It's a nice touch to see how everything including the mission introductions is based around the idea of top secret operations and redacted documents, with everything but the essential information blacked out after a few seconds of game time.
14:32. That first mission really is impressive, action packed, quick, with clearly high stakes and still managing to find the space needed to teach a newcomer (are there newcomers to Call of Duty?) the basics about the game.
14:35. The only big problem is that it seems the game learned the worst from Medal of Honor, with doors that can only be opened when team mates are in position and a few enemies which seem to pop up out of thin air when the game really needs them to be behind you.
14:48. Why is the main character holding his rifle completely perpendicular on his frame when using iron sights?
14:57. The second mission is quite a surprise and shows that Treyarch have worked hard to create new situations for the series.
The prison break out is very much out of the realm of possibility but manages to offer a bit of different gameplay before falling back into the familiar rhythms of Call of Duty.
So far the experience is engaging and quick and I look forward of playing more Call of Duty: Black Ops.