I'm a historic member of ciao with a few reviews to my name and I haven't left yet, like many of the...
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Black was one of the more eagerly anticipated titles for the Xbox. It was made by the developers of the Burnout series - Criterion Games. This should give any reader a very good idea what to expect IE a high quality game which is a lot of fun, with lots of over the top action.
Regardless, lets go back to the game. It's an FPS with at times clear nods to real world events, though this plays no real part in the action. The main selling point by Criterion has been the gun models, physics, and interactive environments.
Unlike the early reports, this is not an insane, take 1000 hits and run, almost unlimited ammo game. Nope, this is however an extremely fun Hollywood action movie turned in to a game - whereby cover is neccessary at times, and at others it's definitely fine to charge in all guns blazing.
Black has a number of big action points... Wait that's not true, the whole game is essentially a big action point, with 'Black Ops' (ie cursor goes black) you can trigger by shooting them. I'd love to say this is tactical - don't get me wrong it can be - but there's nothing like the thrill of shooting something all to hell and hearing the whoomp!
Each mission has a good number of set pieces and a range of weapons featured, driving you on to the relatively free approach to the main event. You can scout places out, use a stealthy approach, or find you are in a scripted scene and have to use a particular weapon, most notably the sniper rifle. Regardless, it's all well done and offers much to the player, as well as keeping a great sense of pace.
The weapons themselves have clearly had a lot of time spent on them (as has the sound, graphics and general polish) with a loud report and visible environment damage. Hit a door with a shotgun and watch it fall. Blow a sign off a wall and watch it tumble to the ground. All very impressive.
However, that's not to say that the game is without flaws. At times (though very rarely) there is a little slowdown, but more importantly you can find yourself gritting your teeth trying to shoot one guy, and finding it impossible as he launches RPG's at you and you can't hit him for using an AK. The game can feel frustrating for want of a gun with some form of scope.
The only other real flaw is the lack of save points. Missions most definitely get more and more difficult, which is fine, but the checkpoint save system is definitely not fine. Rather than being able to save in game, there's a system of checkpoints used, and when you pass one it tells you. That's all good, but when you switch off, your progress is not saved, meaning you have to complete a mission in essentially one sitting. This can make the game even shorter, and when it is possible to complete it in under ten hours relatively easily that's not a good thing.
Overall: A very good, very fun FPS which could have been made slightly stronger with more scoped weapon use/a better save system. It'll seem short for some gamers too. Nonetheless, the difficulty is about right, and the game offers a high quality, highly polished experience akin to the best shooters, of which it can now rank itself.
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