13.7.2014

BIG NOTE TO A RECENT QUESTION - THIS GAME DOES WORK IN THE XBOX 360. IT DOESN'T, HOWEVER, WORK ON ANY VERSION OF XBOX ONE.I bought this game when it first came out in 2006 - I'm a big fan of FPS, and this looked to be just the ticket.I read one review which said that this would be next-to-impossible on Black Ops level (the hardest - there are three other levels of difficulty - in order: Easy, Normal and Hard), and having played it on all levels from start to finish, I was intrigued to see what was special about Black Ops, and what would make it so difficult. You can start the game at any of the first three difficulty settings: Black Ops isn't available until you've completed the game on HardOK,firstlly, you have to complete all objectives, including the necessary primary and secondary ones in order to get a green light at the end of each mission. Playing on Easy level you have varying availability of ammo and health packs, and these get fewer and fewer as you progress up the difficulty ladder. Until you hit Black Ops and find there are no health packs that you can pick up and save for later - health packs become available when you kill some enemies (not all of them), you just can't save them on Hard: oddly, there is just one in the whole game - in the Naszran Town level that you can pick up and save. Playing on, for me, the most difficult level of Hard, I was expecting Black Ops to be impossible - Hard is extremely difficult in some places, particularly in Tivliz Asylum, on the Graznei Bridge and, lastly, in the Spetriniv Gulag at the end, where there's pretty well nowhere to hide: getting past the last part of the Tiviliz Asylum can be really tough. Dying is a common outcome of lack of caution, as on Hard enemies are tough and seem to be very accurate from long distance and, it seems, can also shoot round corners! For example, as the game knows where you are, enemies walk around a corner shooting at you, which is perhaps somewhat unrealistic - they are always very accurate, which can be bad for your in-game health!It's also important to note that you can't save anywhere in the game. Your level is saved (and replayable) once you've finished it, and on Hard that can take a really long time, with lots and lots of dying, followed by the frustration of having to start the level again! Too, although you get somewhat used to noticing where the game is likely to save (when you jump down a broken stair, for example), this isn't always logical, as there are places where you think you're safe only to find that when you're next killed, you are booted back either to the start of the mission, or at some place where you've taken hours working through the game. After a few plays you know where this happens, but the first time is always a really bad surprise.In single player mode you have a side-kick or even two of them in some missions, and they can't be killed, which is rather amusing, but they're not much help either, as they just make it obvious that there are enemies about and they've spotted you. Followed by loads of rounds coming your way if you poke your head out from cover. These "helpers" stand up, Rambo-style and shoot a lot, but don't seem to be very good at killing anyone.As you play the game on harder and harder levels, you'll get killed more and more easily, which makes the game an adrenaline white-nuckle ride in places.So, Black Ops should be impossible, right? You should die in seconds and get really frustrated and kick the cat? Not a bit of it as it has one really beautiful secret: unlimited ammunition - your ammo pouch shows 999 rounds for any weapon you're holding! Get an RPG or the really excellent sniper rifle and, well, imagine what fun you can have! After the tension and tough experience of this game on Hard, on Black Ops, having the power of several Rambos at your fingertips is nothing short of insane. OK, you can be somewhat careless in the sense that you can sit on a hill and take your time with an RPG and kill off anything that moves, and even the tough grunts with a mask are fun to see coming your way. It's almost as though Black Ops was a prize for getting past the other, easier levels, so, in my view, Hard is the most difficult level to play at. With all this dying and replaying, you'll soon get a pretty good idea what's going to happen, as the story is exactly the same, and the enemy always do the same thing no matter what the difficulty setting is.On Black Ops you also have a super standard; rifle which, I found by accident, has an unlimited supply of grenades hidden under the left trigger. OK, you can shoot as much as you like (make sure you keep an eye on reloads) with ordinary rounds - you have 95 in each magazine, but there's a really sick, sad and wonderfully enjoyable pleasure in blasting anything and everything with rifle grenades or, when you can get it, an RPG: the difference between the RPG and launchable grenades is the RPG is pretty much direct line of sight and you get an aim point/target cursor, whereas with the grenade launcher on the Black Ops rifle you have to learn to calculate direction and trajectory. The rifle's grenade launcher is a somewhat more effective "meelee" type weapon, in that you can shoot it off in more confined spaces, which can be useful in buildings.When you first start playing Black you can choose between three levels of play: in order Easy, Normal and Hard. Black Ops is listed but you can't play at that level until you've completed the game on Hard. One thing on the Black Ops level of play, if you dived in and started on Hard, and completed the game, Black Ops then becomes available, and you get unlimited ammo and a pretty spectacular rifle. Unfortunately (!), once you've got the Black Ops "silver" weaponary, if you then go and play on Easy, you also get the Black Ops silver weapons, which makes the game ridiculously easy from then on - same for Normal and replays on Hard. Mind you, once you've got through the game on Hard, it can be a real pleasure to go back and play again on Hard, but now with the Black Ops silver weapons, and really get some sweet revenge. So having died in the Tivliz Asylum, like a million times, get through to where you can pick up the RPG and slaughter anything that moves with your unlimited ammo. Sure, completely unrealistic - you'd never be able to carry 999 RPG rounds in your pockets - but just being invincible for a while will bring a smile to your chops.There are no saves available in this game, so if you die in a mission, you're set back to the start of that particular chapter or in-game jump off position. You learn to watch for health packs and keep your weapons stocked up.My only real complaint is that this game only has about 8 missions. Too, it's not a game where you can wander about in buildings for the most part, so it's pretty linear. The sound and graphics are very good, especially considering that it was released for the original Xbox. Sound and a couple of other things are customisable, so if the music really starts to annoy you it can be turned off - it is useful, though, at times, because it gives you an audio cue that you've got over a bump and things are about to change - mostly for the good at the end of a sequence in a mission, and it hints that you've done pretty well all you need to do in the place you're at.Completing objectives isn't overly difficult, though, on Hard, for example, keep an eye on your mission objectives, because if you play through to the end of, say the Tivliz Asylum, and walk out the door at the end, but then find you've not collected all the intel, weapon, etc, objectives you'll have to start again in order to get a green light at the end of that mission and be able to move to the next.Once you've completed the whole game on a particular level, you can jump back in and replay any completed mission again, though there are no benefits for doing this, other than becoming really familiar with the game.A singular word of warning: on ocassion, playing Black on XBox 360 in the Naszran Foundry (always once the mission starts), I found that my screen was very, very dark, so dark that the game is unplayable. I have two copies of this game and both, from time to time, give the same visual oddity: this visual switch also happened to me once at the very end of the game - where there's a long credit roll-out, at the end of which you have to acknowledge that you were successful - if you can't read these on-screen prompts, and you do as I did that once, you end up having to replay that mission again, which could be really, really frustrating. At the start of the Naszran Foundry, the best way to get things back to normal is to go back to the start screen and start the mission again: this doesn't always work, although sometimes the screen is a little brighter. My default solution has been to restart the Xbox 360, which most often (but not always) works. A bit of a bore - I also once noticed, when I tried to play through the dark mist, that after about 5 minutes, the light came back on. Go figure! I was able to play because, although the light wasn't correct, I could just about see what was happening. Another possible solution would be to go into the settings for the screen and toggle the output up a bit. This also worked once for me.I'd heartily recommend this game to anyone who likes an FPS (apart from XBoxOne owners, of course), and especially to those amongst us who just like to shoot stuff. Lots and lots of times.Persevere to the Black Ops difficulty level, the rewards are just great, because it's so much easier than Hard and you can relax whilst you work!

22.7.2006

Since selling my gamecube, I have found it very difficult to buy either an original game or a game that does things different; this was my first purchase in a long time and I sure wasn't disappointed!!Firstly let me correct the error on the review below, you don't have to watch the 'Intro' every time, you may have to watch it if you log off of your profile before turning off the console, but why would you do that?? On my game I simply have to push 'A' or 'Start' and the 'Intro' is skipped, as long as you have viewed it already!!Back to the game; the visuals are usually great, occasionally stunning and the developers have put a lot of effort into the destructible scenery, and it shows,whether you are taking cover behind gravestones, lobbing grenades into buildings or shooting the various vehicles, the result is always explosive and highly entertaining, whether it's realistic or not, is another matter, but you wont be thinking of that since you'll be having too much fun!!The gameplay is simple, shoot everything that moves and everything that doesn't, it really is one set-piece after another and this game mechanic doesn't wear thin at all during the games lifespan. The enemy AI ranges from dumb on the easier modes to a medium challenge on the harder modes; on 'Normal' mode you will often see enemies hiding next to obviously signposted explosives, but since this game is all about destruction it rarely matters!!The controls are smooth and precise and are easy to customise and 'Inverted' control rules, you should know this by now!!Now The first of the games two downfalls........The length...This game has only eight levels and each one will take roughly 30-50 mins on 'Normal' mode, except the first level which is exeptionally short; this is unexcusable really, I know it must of taken ages to make just these eight levels destructable but I am sick and tired of games lasting no longer than 10hours max anymore, it really does get on my nerves, thank you casual gamers (It's your fault), but the saving grace is that the game is so much fun, it is inevitable that you will play each level more than once right through to the end and you'll be having bucket loads of fun while you do so!!Second downfall, no multiplayer, a deadly sin for a 'Shoot 'em up' and this game suffers bacause of it, it is just the kick in the testes you didn't need after a short 'Campaign' mode, usually I would put some redeeming feature here, but I can't think of one......sorry.....!!Overall though, it would be sad to finish on a sour note, since this really is the most fun I have had with a game since 'Resident Evil 4' came out in the March of 2005! While things may look disappointing in the long run, the fun and surprise you have at the game mechanics while the game lasts is tremendous and this game is an abosolute blast from start to finish!! I do recommend you rent the game for a weekend though, unless you can find it for under £25, due to the length of the game!!A very worthy purchase (If the price is right) and one I hope you enjoy!!

20.3.2006

Described by the developers as "GUN PORN", Black easily lives up to this analogy and then some. At heart, a standard FPS, they've not attempting to do anything groundbreaking with regards to level design, control system of character abilities, but what they have done is to perfect the art of the FPS.The Guns: Extremely well rendered, you want to exhaust the magazine just to see them gleaming in the ultra slick reload animations. There's a good selection, you start most levels with a new weapon to try out for size. An assortment of hand guns, assault rifles, shotguns and the obligatory RPG give you plenty of options. This game makes me want to join a gun club.The Sound: This game needs to be played on LOUD.

30.4.2006

After playing the first couple of levels of this game I wasn't so sure about it, the graphics were great, guns were great, it seemed to tick all the right boxes, but I just didn't get a feel about what it was trying to be, but I'm glad I kept with it, the game got better and better.Criterion have proved they can do FPS action games just as well as they can arcade racers, and I can see a sequel to this, It's published by EA so I guess it's inevitable.The missions apart from the first intro level, take about an hour to complete, unfortunately with no ability to save, if you die, you restart from the last checkpoint you reached in the level; so thankfully you don't have to go right back to the beginning of a level,

24.2.2006

Ok first things first,after seeing screenshots of this game back in December in Gamesmaster I was blown away but had to think "it looks too good to be true" but after playing the first few levels I have to say BELIEVE THE HYPE. This game IS really that good, the fact that you are facing human enemies is a breath of fresh air instead of fighting aliens/zombies/demons like alot of the other more recent FPS's out there. The other main feature that stands out is the fully destructable environment, granted buildings arent completely flattened but where is the realism in that? If your fed up of generic shooters or squad based tactical FPS then this is definatly the game for you,

27.2.2006

This game is truly amazing and evidence that Xbox 360 has come too early. This game looks so good and run's so smoothly, I simply look in awe every time I play it. There are many gorgeous looking games that you take for granted because your too busy running around shooting stuff. BLACK however is constant eye candy. The environments are detailed and destructible, the environment falls apart with dust and debris fly around all over the place without any slow down. Plus the level design is slick, each section feels new, no endless corridors here.The sound is also truly epic stuff, from the sound of the guns to the terrific score. Plus with the option of custom tracks,

20.11.2007

This game is an absolutely fantastic game: brilliant weapon sounds, realistic movement and awesome graphics. However, there are two things that really did get on my nerves while playing this game. Firstly, it takes a hell of a lot to kill even a normal enemy, meaning that if you want to progress quickly, you end up trying to headshot every single enemy. Then come the tough guys. Me and my cousin now refer to them as "spaz guys" as they come charging at you with a Spaz 12 shotgun. You have to spend either a whole magaziner or two grenades on them. Secondly, although the first couple of missions are very enjoyable, this game's missions can be repetitive and are extremely long.

28.2.2006

This is the first time I have writen a review, and the reason I have decided to start now? It's because since playing Black I feel an incontrolable need to spread the word on how fantastic this game actually is. And this is coming from someone who only has one other FPS in his top 20 all time games, that's goldeneye, and although Black hasn't the multiplayer experience that GE had, it takes you places GE never even knew excisted. I found myself shaking my head in awe many times throughout this game, and although fairly short, is perfectly designed to let you pick it up and play any of the 8 levels (once completed of course) whenever you feel the need for a trigger-happy,

8.3.2006

I'm on the last level of this game, and this game is nowhere near as good as the hype suggestsThe graphics look good in still, however there are some problems with the graphics, wether its popin, choppy animation, and blah ground textures. The game itself is as barebones as an FPS can be, running from point A to B just shooting is extremely monotonous, the only thing other than blowing stuff up is picking up blueprints, maps and blowing up safes.The game itself while short, is a major drag after the first 3 levels when you realize that you are doing the same thing over and over. The "blow everything up" aspect isn't even true. I also like the fact that I can blow up trucks and put holes in buildings,

2.8.2007

This game is one of the most fun I've played in ages and one I keep going back to for a 'quick blast'. The graphics are good, the sound quality (especially the weapon sounds) is exceptional and really adds to the atmosphere. This game strips away all the fluff and lets you just let rip and shoot everything, increasing the fun levels and letting you just switch off and relax.It has some flaws - the levels are very long and there is no save option, so you really have to finish a level before you switch off. There is no 2 player co-operative or deathmatch mode which would elevate this game to one of the best ever (fingers crossed for Black 2!!). A 'Challenge Mode'

16.10.2006

Piece of advice, first play this game, then you get yourself an opinion about it.Like the title said, with an "manual save option" like HL2 has, this game would be great, second only to HL2 IMHO.If you like FPS, this game is definitely for you. The storyline is merely a filler between the episodes of the game, but you'll enjoy a few seconds of rest before you get back to the intense thrilling action of next level.For me, even on easy level, it took me 7-8 hours to complete. If you fail at certain point, you will have to progress from your last autosave point, but you have to finish the level because you can not save these autosave points.Maybe, like other reviewers said,

5.6.2006

This game is great - if you just wanna plug in and let rip its a great game to blow off some steam! The sound is just fantastic, especially if you have it hooked up to a 5.1 system. The explosions rattle the windows and the gun shots burst your ear drums!! Graphics are very good too.I don't find it too short - but I don't have the time to sit there hours on end playing, so this is good and bad for me. Good, in that I don't finish the game too early, bad in that to finish a level you have to invest a couple of hours as there is no save points to come back to after you switch off!! This is the most frustrating aspect of the whole game. If they make a sequel,

21.10.2009

black really is amazing and easily one of my favourite games of all time. the storyline is great and the gameplay is perfect. its the cod4 of the ps2/xbox. the graphics are fantastic for an old xbox game & one of my mates thought it was a 360 game. the sounds of the guns are brilliant and the enemy are a real challenge, especially the guys with the hockey masks! the only downsides are lack of multi player and the lack of save checkpoints. i could go on and on about how much i love this game but to conclude buy it. especially at this low price. its a lost diamond and well worth checking out if you still got the old xbox.

24.2.2006

For fans of first person shooters, this game is a real blast. Forget the story...this ones all about visual spectacle. There is so much destructive action per level, it takes your breath away. The graphics are astonishing, with lots of detail and great use of atmospheric lighting. The soundtrack, too is top notch, the music setting the tone brilliantly. The 360 is all very nice, but it has nothing like this yet. It eats Perfect Dark for breakfast and I think it gives COD2 a run for its money. The only down side-no multi player. But hey, this is probably the last great game on the original Xbox. You owe it to yourself to send the big old black box off in style!

3.5.2006

From the off your thrust into a firearm frenzy. Don't hold back on this one, forget the stealth missions which have overloaded the game market recently, just let rip.Absolutley amazing graphics and sound.Only wish it was a bit longer but left wide open for a sequel.The focusing in on the weapon when re-loading at first is a nice touch but soon becomes a little irritating when under heavy fire. Even though you have to replay the missions there is plenty of hours left in this one. BUY IT!!!!

Black (Xbox) - Reviews

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