Why I'll take Black Ops 2 over another Modern Warfare

Two is the magic number, Mason

There comes a time in every man, woman or videogame studio's life when you need to shrug on the trousers. A time to lead, to strike your colours. A time to say something along the lines of: "no, Soap, why don't you wait for me to open the goddamn door, you massive, load-pause-disguising control freak, oh and I'll be driving the cars in future, you scowling excuse for on-rails level design." It's all part of growing up, finding yourself, making your mark.

Treyarch has been Call of Duty's "B-team" for years, stalwartly and mostly good-humouredly filling the gaps between Infinity Ward releases, the "real" Call of Duty games. Its labours have met with high scores, high sales and massive derision. All Call of Duties are a due a post-review pasting under unwritten internet law, but as the products of a "copycat" supporting studio, World at War and Black Ops have undergone a nastier grilling than most. It's unfair, and it's also desperately short-sighted, because with Black Ops, Treyarch turned in some of the wilder twists in Call of Duty's long-running tale. And the unconfirmed, hotly rumoured Black Ops 2? If it's true to form, it could be Call of Duty's next Call of Duty 4.

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Turning Call of Duty upside down, arf arf.
Black Ops isn't a perfect game. It commits many - most - of the same sins Modern Warfare 1 and 2 did. The campaign is a drawn-out scream of reloads and respawns. Going online is like clambering into a sack of angry ferrets, thanks to souped-up perks and killstreaks. And the plot is barely clever enough to be nonsense, elaborating its Cold War premise with all the elegance of an amateur dodgeball team. The narrative frame is different - flashbacks from an interrogation chamber as against a VR-tastic "Overlord" global view - but the pacing is just as spasmodic. The game's themes, faces and places degenerate into a queasy purple-yellow smear, as protagonist Mason catapults through history at the behest of Ed Harris and his encouraging electrodes.

But Black Ops has a bit more to it than the Interesting Adventures of Captain Price. The hallucinogen-infused storytelling is a sly commentary on Modern Warfare's general tendency to knock you sideways, Mason's scatter-gun recollections mirroring the disorientation players feel every time they're paradropped into a new scenario. You can make similar claims about Mason's imaginary Russian pal Reznov. An invulnerable, teleporting AI partner who's actually, it transpires, a byproduct of hypnosis? In a game that strains the illusion of control so consistently and dangerously? The irony steams and wriggles like a pile of mating goats.

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If you're going to rip off Left 4 Dead, go to town. Treyarch did.
We shouldn't give Treyarch too much credit here - another take on the above tricks is that they're lifted unscientifically from films like Fight Club - but it's fair to say that Black Ops operates at a remove to some of the things Modern Warfare takes for granted; it's no satire, but it's very self-aware, and that self-awareness makes it easier to swallow the stupider bits. Easier, at least, than those of Modern Warfare 3. Infinity Ward and its co-devs don't necessarily err in resorting to macho, patriotic, jargon-lade, hyperactive twaddle for dramatic purposes, but they do err in expecting you to take everything seriously. Treyarch dodges that particular bullet.

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Comments

9 comments so far...

  1. DemonJ on 12 Jan '12 said:
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    Im with you on this. Ive been a huge fan of the series since its been on the 360 and although COD4 is about as close to perfection as an FPS has been on consoles, Black Ops was easily the best rendition since. Ive plundered literally weeks into the franchise and BO's multiplayer, zombies and batshit crazy storyline was riveting. It felt right, it always felt epic and most of all it was damn fun. Has it taken itself seriously from the out set? Not a chance and i think thats why it was a roaring success. I am a fan of the Modern Warfare's too but as mentioned in your post it expects you to believe this stuff is happening and quite frankly it feels a little stale because of it.

  2. danhalen74 on 12 Jan '12 said:
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    im playing MW3 at the minute but only because of dropzone that IW didnt even come up with, long term ill always load up blops, my favourite COD mp game yet....

  3. Dowgle on 12 Jan '12 said:
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    I dont think Treyarch get the credit they deserve. WaW is perhaps the most overlooked CoD game in the franchise and personally, was the game that got me hooked on Call of Duty. And Black Ops was my favourite yet, Innovative, different and rewarding in more ways than MW3 is.

  4. Alaric14 on 12 Jan '12 said:
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    For some reason Treyarch's Call of Duty just resonates with me. I enjoy the feel of their "think first, act second" mentality. Black Ops wasn't the subtlest thing on the gaming market, but you did need to *think* about how you would approach an objective or a building with enemies crawling around it.

    I'm quietly hoping that the - hopefully - inbound Rage 2 will do something epically clever with its multiplayer. Let ID Software show the FPS noobs how it's really supposed to be done.

  5. AkarshashArk on 12 Jan '12 said:
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    Really gotten tired of Modern Warfare , CoD 4 was a break through , mw2 raised the bar to big heights , mw3 did nothing except having the same stuff as mw2 just polished and updated. Black Ops had old guns . But CoD 4 made me go WTF , after playing WW2 games. WaW was like the updated version of the same old WW2 shooters. Mw2 and CoD 4 FTW !

  6. ASSASSINLG on 14 Jan '12 said:
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    In my eyes
    1) Cod 4
    2) MW3
    3)MW2
    4) Black ops
    5) WAW id rather not include it at all it was a joke after cod 4 being so good but thats treyarch for you. Remove zombies from cod waw and black ops what have you got absolute trash! NO haters i speak the truth

  7. Bezza89 on 14 Jan '12 said:
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    Has everyone forgot about CoD2, the only truly great one? Mw1 was a beast I'll give you that, and Black Ops at least tried to tell a good story at the expense of poor gameplay and level design.

    But CoD2 - multiple paths to objectives, really varied campaign locations that weren't planet hoppingly obvious, and a campaign that lasted over 10 hours and never got boring. And tanks. It had tanks.

  8. golliwoza on 14 Jan '12 said:
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    Has everyone forgot about CoD2, the only truly great one? Mw1 was a beast I'll give you that, and Black Ops at least tried to tell a good story at the expense of poor gameplay and level design.

    But CoD2 - multiple paths to objectives, really varied campaign locations that weren't planet hoppingly obvious, and a campaign that lasted over 10 hours and never got boring. And tanks. It had tanks.

    I played Cod 2 on the original Xbox apparently different to the 360 version as I was a late bloomer to the 360. Was Cod 2 the one where you could play as the different nationality soldiers? because on original xbox it was the Call of Duty 2 big red one or something like that, where it was americans all the time.

  9. Bezza89 on 14 Jan '12 said:
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    Yeah it was Snowy russians, then brits in africa, tanks!, then americans going through d-day landings, france, rhine etc. Brilliant stuff, with perfect set pieces and, comparably to later CoDs, open world missions. Well worth the £5 you can pick it up for.