Anytime FPS games are discussed for the PS2, BLACK will always come to mind.

This game does exactly what it wants to do. It's a no nonsense, down to the grit FPS game.

The game runs around a total of 7 hours, and I think the pacing is pretty good. It offers some stealth but generally this is full on action and explosions from the start to the end. The stealth feels half-baked and just not really put in with much development on it.

The levels are mostly unique and have their own feeling, and the design is pretty damn good, it just flows so well. People always talk about the guns of this game but the levels themselves are really well done and amplify this game.

Now, on the guns, yep, it's awesome. Every gun feels and sounds distinct, they sound visceral and impactful. I think almost every gun I used was fun to play around with. gunfights fill the room with smoke and havoc, it feels exciting. The gunfights are just excellent here.

Now the story, as you may expect from a PS2 FPS game, is bad. It is hard to follow and overall very forgettable, it also ends on a cliffhanger for a sequel that doesn't exist sadly. But y'know, the story isn't really important here.

Also a minor complaint, the friendly soldiers you travel with feel pretty useless, they kill an enemy here and there but generally this feels like a one man army game, you vs a million Russians.

If you're into the FPS genre I'd say give it a try.

Black é um pouco mais fácil do que eu lembrava.

O que eu MAIS gostei foi que essa era de jogos de FPS conseguia ser divertida, mesmo um jogo mais realista como esse sabia que era mais importante entreter o jogador do que fazer ele sentir que tava realmente matando alguém. :)

O que eu MENOS gostei foi que tinha um montão de balas na capa da versão do PS2 e o meu pai ficou bravo comigo quando eu quis comprar ele. :(

Let's start with what the game does right:
- The destruction physics are extraordinary, even compared to many shooters of the succeeding generation.
- The levels are unique, varied, and have cool set pieces.
- The shotgun is very satisfying to use. It's powerful and loud.
- ..... That's all I got.

Onto the negatives, there are a lot of them:
- The controls feel terrible. Your movement speed is slow and there is no run button. The aiming sensitivity is also very low with no option to change it.
- The weapon switching, reload and alternate fire mode animations take way too long. They break the flow of fire fights and add another layer of clunkyness on top of my previous issue.
- Enemies are bullet sponges which is the laziest way of adding difficulty to a game. At least head shots are one hit kills.
- The story is pretty bad, even for modern military shooter standards. Knowing the history of the game, you can really tell that it was hastily put together to connect a bunch of levels that have nothing to do with each other.
- While the graphical fidelity is impressive for the time, I wasn't a fan of the art direction. Everything is dark, brown and grey with a bit too much bloom. All things very common in the seventh gen so I guess Black really was ahead of it's time.
- Checkpoints are sparse considering the length of each level.
- Higher difficulties require completing more boring secondary objectives which are essentially just glorified collectibles. I tend to play shooters on the second highest difficulty my first time through but I switched to normal here just to avoid the secondary objectives.
- Game length is on the shorter side.

Black to me is a really good tech demo, just not a good game. I wish it had been released on PC. That would have solved the control issues for me at least and made it more enjoyable to play.

El mayor problema de que esté videojuego es precisamente lo más primordial; su jugabilidad. Es difícil de describir, pero es innecesariamente tosca y con un montón de trabas que no deberían haber y que entorpecen gravemente la jugabilidad, aderezado a sus enemigos que son esponjas de balas, una historia insípida y de un diseño de niveles pauperrimo, vuelve este juego no uno malo, sino uno sencillamente mediocre que de lo único que me alegro de haberlo terminado, es que no tendré que jugarlo de nuevo.

Black is quite the interesting game artistically. Guns designed to be pleasing to the eyes and ears of players rather than be accurate, environments filled with destruction with a harmonizing soundscape, very detailed maps and post processing for the 6th gen, the depth of field effect on every reload... Lots of things that will impress those putting this into a PS2 or an emulator.

Unfortunately, a lot of the levels are very bland looking despite the impressive tech and it kinda falls short on gameplay. Controls are sluggish, the aiming sensitivity is LOW for a bit and then just goes higher by keeping the stick moving for half a second, with no settings for controls whatsoever. If you need to precisely aim, you have to hold down the zoom button which also kills your view speed, but at least it won't wildly turn cause you took that frame too long. Dumb as hell enemy AI, they always take cover in the same couple spots if they don't just run at you and stand or side step on the same line. The plot was added last-minute and they still made the decision to make cutscenes unskippable knowing it wasn't great. Only thing I really liked was that some levels can be fairly big and there's collectibles all around, but it didn't help that much when combat generally has little sauce.

I wish I could see what others do in this game, but outside of those moments where the bullets and debris are going all around, I was mostly bored or annoyed with the controls. For 2006, I expected it to feel less clunky, considering FPS games on consoles had already been evolving a lot in the few years before. I wonder if the game would have turned out better had it not been made under a split team, but what ifs are complicated. A bit disappointed to be honest and was getting burnt out despite the short length.

Fui jogar novamente em um emulador e sem dúvida alguma foi a PIOR EXPÊRIENCIA com FPS que eu já tive.
Na época achava maravilhoso, mas vendo hoje em dia não tem como, a sensibilidade do jogo é horrível e não tem como configurar dentro do jogo, o mapeamento de comandos é completamente estranho e um pouco sem sentido, e, com menos de 15 minutos de gameplay, me ocorreu um bug aonde aparentemente meu personagem quebrou a clavícula e eu não podia olhar mais para nenhum dos lados e tive que ficar me movendo sem saber meus arredores

Simples, porem glorioso.
Uma puta evolução dos FPS na época do ps2.
Os gráficos são o ponto principal, tudo explodindo e vidros quebrando pra todo lado sem ter muitos travamentos no console foi o que definiu esse jogo.
A gameplay é a parte que deixa a desejar (dura pra carai), principalmente jogando hoje em dia, mas querendo ou não, é que deixa o jogo mais difícil e bem mais estratégico.
A dificuldade é um exemplo aqui, poucos checkpoint's e que não salva o seu jogo, forçando o player avançar com cautela e melhorando o jeito de atacar os inimigos.
As fases são muito boas, destaque para a segunda (porque muitos ate hoje não passaram dela). Mesmo sendo apenas 8 fases, elas são longas e bem construídas.
Os inimigos são uma desgraça quando você não esta preparando no meio do confronto, a IA deles não é perfeita, mas é bem pensada.
Já a historia, é interessante ate, mas bem ignorável, literalmente a única coisa da historia que vc vai acabar tendo que saber são as cenas antes de casa fase que são impulaveis se você jogou a fase pela primeira vez.