Black Review 154
- Title: Black
- Developer: Criterion Games
- Publisher: EA
- System:PS2 (Xbox)
Gameplay itself is the height of simplicity. Level maps allow for occasional stealth moments, but for the most part you'll know there are enemies about because they start shooting at you. Once you've identified the points in space you need to click on, you'll notice the numerous explosive crates and gasoline-filled vehicles nearby. In an effort to show off their work on the game's physics, the designers provided flammable cover for your enemies. After you've exploded the obvious targets, you can move out among the wreckage and take down the remaining stragglers. Aside from an understandable desire to flee a thrown grenade, the enemy AI is only slightly more advanced than that utilized by some witty mailboxes. Their most confusing move is the 'don't fire at the player' maneuver. While they're more than willing to take badly aimed shots at you from afar, if you do enough juking around up close they seem to get tired and give up. Firing a gun can be confusing when you're that dumb. Maybe they're confused by the boring sameness of the weapons. Despite the concentration on what happens once the trigger is pulled, the weapons themselves are all pretty much the same. You've got your AK, your shotgun, your silenced pistol, etc. None of them feel appreciably different, and the result is that you'll be switching weapons as soon as you find a new one just to keep your ammo levels up. Strategy is hard to come by on pretty much every level of this title.
Beyond that, the game's focus does result in some fairly impressive gunfights. Bullets spatter and spark off of every metal surfaces, throw up clods of dirt as you walk a burst into an enemy combatant, and chew convincingly through the scenery. The term 'fully destructible environment' is not just marketing; The AI never seems to fully grasp that hiding behind stuff isn't that helpful. When you can break up a downed tree into lumber with a few well-aimed bursts, it's easy to get to take out cowering bad guys. It's even easier when the terrorists shoot out their own cover, but that's another story. Other physical elements are just as convincing. Explosions bloom outwards with smoke and fire, and leave noticeable marks on the environment. Bodies fly heavenward when prompted by a grenade or vaporizing vehicle. Criterion chose to make virtually every other element of this game a secondary priority, and it shows. Black's physical environs are one of the most impressive in any shooter I've played.
That physical environment could have looked better, though. In the graphics department, the game looks merely adequate. Screenshots of the Xbox version seem quite polished, but I had to play the PS2 version. I sold my Xbox to offset my purchase of a 360, which won't play this game at all. The PS2 version of Black has the jaggies problem that plagues many titles on that console. Though that distracted from the experience, the quality of the textures throughout the title match up with the best the PS2 has to offer. The game also moved with a very crisp speed. Even when explosions were dominating the screen, there was little to no slowdown. My only real peeve was the monochromatic color pallete used in many of the environments. Urban areas all trend towards a grey sameness, and more naturalistic maps are dominated by simple greens and browns. On the PS2 the drab colors and jagged pixels made navigating through areas like dense jungle somewhat disorienting.On the other hand, the aural elements of Black are extremely well developed. The detail found in actually firing a weapon is here, with every weapon managing to sound unique. Their watery action prevents a real differentiation, but you can always tell what your opponents are firing merely by the sound their weapons make. All the sound elements are well-crafted, resulting in very satisfying explosions and gunfights that at least sound exciting. Curiously, the occasional musical stings are nowhere near as polished. Ostensibly used to heighten tension, they come across as mostly annoying. After the first few levels I turned them off, and didn't miss them a bit.
Black is a title that could have captured some of the core of gaming fun. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a stripped down shooter that focuses on the gunplay element of the genre. I reviewed two games that captured that quite well at the end of last year, in fact. What makes me dislike this title over those is the immaturity of the game's language. Whereas Quake IV was a military game, focused on the business of shooting, Black feels more like some cynical kids playing at war. The 'bad guys' do dumb things because they're bad. The good guy always has a ton of ammo at hand, and there are copious explosions. Occasional radio chatter with HQ is so loud I can literally hear the sound of the radio's feedback echoing off of the surrounding terrain. The impression I get from the game is that this secret, stealthy agent is working way through the jungle when suddenly you hear "KSHHHHH AGENT BE AWARE OF POSSIBLE TARGETS INCOMING!!!" The fact that your opponents don't react to this loud and obvious element of their surroundings may indicate that you are listening to your radio through earbuds or headphones. I just think it means their AI wasn't programmed to react to that part of the game. The most interesting and telling element of the game's language, though, is that there is no 'use' button. You want to open a door? You shoot it. You want to destroy information on a laptop? You shoot it. Compared to the nuance of another 'black ops' title such as Splinter Cell, the childlike stupidity of the gameworld is almost embarrassing.
To me, that's what makes Black ultimately unappealing. I could tolerate the sameness of the weapons and the flimsy plot. A lack of sophistication can be appealing sometimes, but even Full Auto is a more grown-up game than this particular title. In focusing on one singular aspect of the game, Black's developers have created a title that falls short of its audience. Criterion's other well known franchise, Burnout, manages to bring the zen experience they were aiming for here to the racing genre. I applaud their effort to distill the FPS down to its most basic elements as well, but the result is an uninteresting mess that I have to work to enjoy. If you're an Xbox owner and just need something to take the edge off of the Halo 3 wait, Black will be a great rental for you. Otherwise, you can feel free to give this one a pass.
That Was A Short Review.... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, it was that bad, eh?
Nothing to see here... (Score:3, Funny)
Be careful, you may be eaten by a grue.
This has possibilities (Score:2)
Ooooh! A chance for a Trial Run [qntm.org]?
Re:This has possibilities (Score:4, Funny)
Feh. You Slashdotters and your shameless self-promotion.
...Wait, that's my site!
Are you playing the same game that I am? (Score:4, Interesting)
Remember, tracers work both ways.
There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to disagree with this review as well as the other reviews on gaming sites. This game is fun. Period.
I don't give a rats ass about how the graphics compare to other shooters, whether or not every region of my brain is being properly stimulated, or if the plot is "weak". It's just a fun game. Why don't reviews talk about that anymore?
This game is fun in much the same way Mercenaries is fun and if you let reviews like this keep you from buying it then you are an even bigger idiot than the reviewers.
Fun != ... uh... anything standard. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fun != ... uh... anything standard. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fun != ... uh... anything standard. (Score:2)
Did you read the review? (Score:1)
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:1, Troll)
Because if we talk about just in terms of "fun" it shows that we're reviewing mere games. Didn't you get the memo? Games aren't supposed to be fun anymore. They're high art now, like cinemahr.
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:4, Insightful)
Much agreed. I have the same issue with movie reviews - i mean, i can enjoy a well crafted, meaningful movie as much as i can enjoy turning my brain off to watch a B-action movie on TV or the latest summer blockbuster. Some reviewers seem to be insulted by the idea that simple entertainment can be, well, entertaining. I have no idea why it is so damn hard to find reviews that can ignore the cheezynees and focus on the fun value. Roger Ebert has been getting better at it though.
Never mind. Commando [imdb.com] will always be sitting next to Citizen Kane and Dr. Strangelove in my DVD collection.
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:3, Informative)
I think this game would have been great if it wasn't for this. The graphics are incredible and it would hav
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:1)
It pisses me off to no end that the folks willing to sp
saves a two-edged sword (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:2)
A more involved review attempts to describe the experience and the reviewer's reaction to it. Good reviews try to do so in a way that let's the reader figure out if they would agree.
I thought this review was pretty good because it outlined what the game was about, some things the reviewer thought were good, some he thought were bad, and even better, he explained why he thought so, so I could decide to some extent whethe
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:2)
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:2)
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:2)
I agree with you. I've seen a number of dumb reviews of this nature, and might well have passed this one up. Fortunately, I had a chance to play the demo, and I ran right out and bought it. This game is definitely a blast to play, as long as you don't confuse it with some kind of military simulation. It is more like a playable action movie, with about the same level of plausibility--think "Dynasty Warr
Re:There needs to be a "Fun" score in every review (Score:2)
What Do You mean? (Score:1, Insightful)
You shoot it (Score:5, Funny)
You want to open a door? You shoot it. You want to destroy information on a laptop? You shoot it.
You want to steal the information on that computer? You shoo... Gah!
Re:You shoot it (Score:1, Insightful)
That's how it is in real life. When a cop needs to open a locked door he blows the handle off with a shotgun.
I've Always hated running up to a locked door in a game and it means, oh no you can't go this way please follow the linear game play. Even in games like gta that are supposed to be open ended, you can not simply open a wooden door because it was locked. I think opening doors this way should be included in
Re:You shoot it (Score:2)
I think you need a refresher course on the meaning of "real life". Real life is not what some actor does in a movie or television show.
Re:You shoot it (Score:2)
Which RE4 did he play? (Score:4, Informative)
Resident Evil 4 was a third person action/horror adventure game, not an FPS...
Re:Which RE4 did he play? (Score:2)
I wonder if RE4 could accurately be described as second-person, since the camera is fixed and all, unlike what you would normally expect a third-person to be.
Re:Which RE4 did he play? (Score:1)
Re:Which RE4 did he play? (Score:1)
Re:Which RE4 did he play? (Score:1)
Re:Which RE4 did he play? (Score:1)
Also known as Duck Hunt with zombies.
Loving that 360? (Score:3, Funny)
I had to play the PS2 version. I sold my Xbox to offset my purchase of a 360, which won't play this game at all.
Must be nice living in the next generation of gaming.
...oh, wait.
Re:Loving that 360? (Score:1, Troll)
For co-op fans out there: drool over GRAW:
4 player split screen co-op
2-16 player co-op online
Re:Loving that 360? (Score:2)
Clearly you haven't played GRAW and most likely don't have a 360. But that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Trying to act like you do is strange, but oh well.
What bogus marketing? Please enlighten me. Online co-op was pretty damn good as was playing 4 player splitscreen co-op. So, what did they lie to me about? Everything in the game seems to be exactly as it was described.
Terrible frame rate? Tearing? Wrong on both accounts.
Re:Loving that 360? (Score:1, Informative)
Oh come on!
Putting aside the overall graphics of the game:
1) The game is running with vsync off - obviously they can't maintain a constant framerate
2) Perhaps it has a good frame rate FOR A 360 GAME, but that isn't saying much
3) There are major texturing problems. Low rez textures all over the place. And there is something wrong with the anisotropic filtering, actually complete lack of, that other 360 games are plauged with. 360 developers must be st
i've played it (Score:5, Interesting)
i have to say i love playing some of the latter stages over and over again because sometimes some games create great classic fun scenarios that you find yourself wanting to play that part over and over again. black definately has those stages.
while black's graphics may be great to look at they truly add to the experience, there's a stage where u hide from a sniper behind gravestones and suddenly the gravestones are shattered by the bullet from the sniper! now you find yourself running and ducking for cover as gravestones shatter around you from sniper fire.
two words: mine field, you'll come across mine fields more than once in the game, and it is abundantly fun.
also have you ever wanted to take a heavy machine gun and just stand up like rambo and unload on an entire building, several cars, dozens of enemeies in front of you and have the whole screen explode and go insane for 15 minutes? well black can give you that.
for those types of scenarios, it's a fantasy well lived.
Re:i've played it (Score:2)
I always get a kick out of levels where you get to man a turret/machine gun and just mow down the opposition.
It's kinda fun.
On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy Serious Sam 1 or 2. The waves of
Re:i've played it (Score:2)
Re:i've played it (Score:2)
Every single day of my life. Now, please excuse me. I've got seventeen thousand letters and postcards to sort before the afternoon is done.
Plot nazis (Score:5, Insightful)
A little personality goes a long way (Score:2, Interesting)
Some games don't need plots. (Score:3, Funny)
If I ever see someone complain that Tetris doesn't have a plot, I don't know when the beating will end.
He cant even afford an xbox-1 (Score:1, Troll)
Surely doing this review he could have at least RENTED an xbox, and if he had any friends
gone to their house.
Re:Plot nazis (Score:1)
Max Payne (Score:2)
Wasn't Max Payne the exact same way? Everything but like the very last level was you being interrogated in a jail cell, and then the final level was you running around the jail shooting things?
Re:Max Payne (Score:1)
Re:Max Payne (Score:2)
Re:Max Payne (Score:1)
Re:Max Payne (Score:2)
Re:Max Payne (Score:1)
Max Payne 2, maybe? (Score:2)
And no, there wasn't a single jail cell in the whole damned game.
Re:Max Payne 2, maybe? (Score:2)
linky goodness [slashdot.org].
Did he play it for more than 5 minutes? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Did he play it for more than 5 minutes? (Score:2)
(1) I've never seen a left hand eject AK, let alone picking one up randomly.
(2) Silencer? What?
(3) I've never seen a 60 round box mag for an AK. 50, 75, and 100, sure, but never 60, and not as an issued thing.
(4) 3 round burst AK's are pretty rare.
Don't get me started on the other guns.
Re:Did he play it for more than 5 minutes? (Score:3, Interesting)
If they wanted to be realistic, they would give you loads where every other bullet was a tracer round.
Israeli defense doctrine is to load a magazine so that tracer rounds alternate with regular rounds. In operation, the personnel aim by walking the tracers onto the target.
Linky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzi_submachine_gun [wikipedia.org]
Re:Did he play it for more than 5 minutes? (Score:2)
I think US doctrine is every third round, but I'm not sure.
Besides, remember - a lot of these are being taken from terrorists, so who knows what their combat doctrine is.
Re:Did he play it for more than 5 minutes? (Score:2)
Steel jacket with copper wash, but yeah, they spark like crazy when you hit concrete or stone.
Gah! (Score:5, Funny)
Same thing used to happen to me playing Space Invaders.
My take (Score:5, Interesting)
The main problems I had with it were:
* Bizarre definition of 'headshots' - sometimes I could hit a guy five or six times in the face with an M-16 from close range, and he'd just shrug it off rather than dying.
* For a game that was touted as being like a Hollywood blockbuster (I was thinking Commando, Rambo, Die Hard, The Rock), there was a distinct lack of gleeful mayhem and carnage - it very rapidly became 'shoot each guy 30 times to make sure they die. Unless they're armoured, in which case shoot them 60 times.'
* Unskippable (and boring, and irrelevant to gameplay) FMV before each level - if for whatever reason you power down before finishing a level, you have to sit through the whole thing again next time you play. And unskippable credits? Which are just white text on a black background? What the fuck is that all about?
* Several levels were tedious attrition rather than all out action. I hated the bridge level. For a start it was almost the same as a level in some WW2 FPS I played last year. And the gameplay was just 'advance slightly. Take cover. Deal with bad guys hiding behind cars. Wait as more bad guys run up to take their places. Advance slightly. Take cover. Deal with bad guys hiding in a bus. Wait as more bad guys run up to take their places. Advance slightly. Take cover. Deal with bad guy with rocket launcher shooting at you from some angle you can't quite figure. Advance slightly...'
I was hoping it would be the Burnout Revenge of FPS games. Unfortunately, it was just the Burnout. Wait until Black 2 or 3, and they'll probably have got the right amount of fun into the game. But all the tedious advance/cover/shoot stuff made it exactly the same as any other 'realistic' console FPS.
If you're going to have a game that's 'gun porn', why not treat it like an OTT action movie and just throw in hundreds of disposable, easily-killed goons coming at you from all angles a la Arnie's Commando? I mean, Jesus, why does it take 12-15 bullets to the chest just to put one generic bad guy down? I want a hilarious blood-spurting ragdoll death spasm if I hit him in the toe!
Re:My take (Score:1)
People don't always die from M16 headshots. Now, use something heavier, like an FN, and there's no question. But it's quite possible if you don't get the target right, that a headshot wouldn't stop them.
Re:My take (Score:2)
Re:My take (Score:2)
Re:My take (Score:2)
I bought it in the UK, where being able to return goods (for an exchange, even if not a refund) is not only good business as it keeps the customers happy, but also the law.
UK chains like Game actually offer a 10-day, no-questions-asked exchange policy on all their games, even used ones. In this case, though, I got it from a supermarket - Asda, which is now owned by Wal-Mart - hence the Seinfeld DVD exchange.
Re:My take (Score:1)
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/painkiller_012904_ 003.jpg [ign.com]
To
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/painkiller_012904_ 005.jpg [ign.com]
In just a few easy shotgun blasts.
Not once since Doom has slaughtering everything that moves been quite so fun.
Re:My take (Score:2)
No kidding....I started watching the credits.....got very frustrated that I couldn't skip them....came on here and made this post...and they're STILL going. What parent didn't mention is that t
Re:My take (Score:2)
Congratulations. You've just reinvented DOOM!!
This isn't so bad... considering DOOM is not only my fave video game, it's also th
NO, NO, NO, NO! (Score:2)
My review:
"Piss poor save point design make this game unplayable".
(1) Bought this game when it came out.
(2) Tried to return 3 hours later.
(3) Went through corporate customer service to finally get the store to take it back.
Problems:
(1) Game marketed for people 17+ (M rating). Not really a problem, but....
(2) Levels are so long that some of them take almost an hour to complete - unless you die.
(3) If you die, you go back to a checkpoint (level 2 has 6 of them, each one taking a
Re:NO, NO, NO, NO! (Score:2)
Black Review ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Black Review ? (Score:2)
I think I'll wait for the U.S. release.
Red Faction (Score:2)
By "fully destructible" do they/you mean in the same manner as Red Faction? Can i blast my way through any wall i choose rather than using the door? Can i did giant holes in the ground with rockets for other players/NPCs to fall in? Can i find secret rooms with cool stuff by tunneling through rock in a similar manner?
I thought Red Faction was great, if Black is similar to that in the gameplay elements i'd pr
Re:Red Faction (Score:2)
Re:Red Faction (Score:2)
In purchasing this game, I was hoping for sort of a F.E.A.R. + Red Faction kind of experience. It is kind of a little brother of that collaboration. Not bad, and it takes some time to get there (level 1 is so short, and level 2 is basically an FPS version of Metal Gear Solid 3), but it picks up on level 3.
Mind that it is only $40 MSRP, so if you have a few bucks to spare and are looking for something just to occupy some time, its a decent buy.
Maybe you make too many stupid assumptions. (Score:2)
While the rest of us understand that a "stealth" agent would be we
Re:Maybe you make too many stupid assumptions. (Score:1)
The game must have damaged the reviewer... (Score:1)
What does that even mean? Frosting with your wheat? Is he talking about some twisted yet seductive frosting sandwich [mnstate.edu], the likes of which can only be safely handled via robot? I can't even tell what kind of value judgement he is trying to levy against (for?) Half-Life 2 and Halo!
No no no... (Score:1)
Re:The game must have damaged the reviewer... (Score:2)
Poor choice of title? (Score:1)
Re:Poor choice of title? (Score:2)
Re:Poor choice of title? (Score:2)
Come on, now. Paint at a paint store, games at a games store. Maybe you're going to someplace like Walmart to get your games, who also sells paint. But you're the idiot if you're asking for games help anywhere besides the electronics dept. .
It must be realy embarasing when you go to the Cristian book store to get your scat videos.
Target for banning (Score:1)
Anyone remember (Score:2)
Pearl Jam Black (Score:1)
I don't like FPS, but this one sounds FUN!
And the worst part is... (Score:2)
Things that go BOOM!!! (Score:1)
i thought it was good (Score:2)
Classic Halo fanboy.. (Score:1)
"Its not Halo, so it must be crap".
Some of his comments are almost hilarious:
"That physical environment could have looked better, though. In the graphics department, the game looks merely adequate. Screenshots of the Xbox version seem quite polished, but I had to play the PS2 version. I sold my Xbox to offset my purchase of a 360, which won
Re:My take on black (Score:2)
Why would anyone take you seriously if you only played it for 10 minutes? Does the hype for the game change the fun of the gameplay?
Re:My take on black (Score:2)
Re:My take on black (Score:2)
Are you talking about Black or just games in general today?
Re:My take on black (Score:1)
Re:My take on black (Score:1)
Re:No Wonder The 360 Is Selling So Poorly (Score:1)
Re:No Wonder The 360 Is Selling So Poorly (Score:2)
Re:No Wonder The 360 Is Selling So Poorly (Score:1)
What? There is no Xbox 360 version of Black, and according to the developers there won't be. It's up to Microsoft to make the game run in backwards compatibility on the 360, if they're going to do that at all. Most
Re:No Wonder The 360 Is Selling So Poorly (Score:2)
if you actually knew a thing or two, nearly EVERY prominent review site says that graphically the two versions [xbox and ps2] are about equal. [reference reviews at ign or gamespot] the ps2 version
Re:As Gun Porn, this sucks (Score:1)
It would be nice to see a game implement stuff like first round pop in a suppressor. But if a game was that realistic, you'd also have to remove the suppressor once it's dry, wet it, and start again.
So this game is not really gun porn if you're a real gun nerd. Yeah it might be gun porn for Counter-Strike players, but what do they know about guns anyway?
Re:Blah, Blah, Blah (Score:1)
And to see OPSM pimping it as "THE LAST GREAT PS2 GAME" just makes me sick. So many people are gonna fall for that, when Black is, at best a mediocre game, and at worse, one of the dullest FPS games ever released.
Re:yeah right. Here's MY review... (Score:1)