Most of you will be aware that Treyarch is very close to releasing its latest HUGE first person shooting game, Call of Duty Black Ops, if you were not aware of this then you probably live in a very dark cave with a piccolo and a lunchbox. Black Ops is set for a promising unveiling on November 9th, and there is a mixture of excitement and unease surrounding the next instalment of gaming’s biggest competitive multiplayer.
If you are still sitting on the fence about whether or not to pick up Black Ops, then let me outline the improvements Treyarch have been tirelessly implementing into the core online experience. In a bold move towards refining the multiplayer, Treyarch have modified the killstreak mechanic by not allowing any kills that players get using an already earned reward, to contribute towards the next killstreak. So this means no more ridiculous chains of pre-set kills, and it also means players can only get killstreaks the old fashioned way by getting their own hands dirty up close, which in my opinion changes everything in a fantastic way.
Another neat little change that Treyarch hopes will balance things out a lot more is that each killstreak reward is now interactive in a significant way. For example, instead if calling for a chopper gunner and then letting them wreck havoc on players while you laugh manically in the corner, you will now man the helicopter’s chain gun yourself. This in theory will force a new element of skill into using the rewards for them to be effective. There will be brand new perks for you to toy with, and curiously the first perk slot influences how your character looks (e.g. flak jacket, helmet) so this makes them distinctly identifiable.
When online you can now also dive to a prone position, the idea being to throw in some evasive manoeuvres to ease up the bloodbath…slightly. The expandable player map is now handily divided up into quadrants, so you can now co-ordinate attacks and experiment with different tactical approaches far more easily now. The shotgun is now categorized as a primary weapon, so if you choose to use one, you actually have to have a play style that compliments it, because it’s going to be your main killing tool when you play.
As if that wasn’t enough, the developers are reintroducing the critically acclaimed Zombie Mode, where you must battle against increasingly large waves of brain eating undead, and better yet there is now a theatre mode that enables you to revisit matches as a spectator to either analyse how the match went or to edit together the greatest ownage video ever. But is this enough? Many fans played Modern Warfare 2 online but got fed up with it after a month, so will Black Ops hold your attention this time around? We all know another CoD is coming next year, so does 12 months sound about right for you…
