A game that's filled with hella memories for me ong like growing up this was the game I thought mw2 was in terms of quality n shit like the campaigns in def a top 3 or 5 for cod and multiplayers actually balanced and fun unlike mw2 when replayed and the goat that is zombies is the funniest shit ever like five is my top 5 maps for sure but yeah this game is just goated all around not much else to say overall like 9.5/10 just misses a lil sum i cant explain y'now but yeah
Campaign: 9.5/10 really is just a great movie with a greta plot and amazing characters spread across a video game like I remember being 7 figuring out that reznov wasn't real during that power plant level before it was straight up showed it like I felt like a genius dawg and it was genuinely good twist on level with fight club imo but yeah great campaign def top 3-5

Multiplayer: 7.5/10 just fun and balanced with cool weapons nothing more my child self wanted like nuketown using those dual hs10's made em feel like Terminator ong good times

Objectively the best COD of all time. Yep. It's true. Black Ops 2 will forever be my favorite but Black Ops 1 is the superior game. Solid campaign, fun multiplayer, and the best Zombies mode until Black Ops 3 came around.

Campaign: C'mon, what more needs to be said about this game. They literally chose one of the coolest settings and concepts ever. Black Operations during the Cold War? Secret missions hidden from the public? Using that concept to their advantage to put us in crazy scenarios like the Bay of Pigs invasion and Hue City? Using real historical events as the backbone of this game's lore while taking their own creative liberties with what and how certain things went down? It's all really fucking cool. The mystery behind the numbers and what exactly is going on and its ability to answer (almost) everything is great. However, it's not perfect. I don't understand why they had to do a Dragovich fake-out death that early into the game when we all knew he was still alive. I also think a couple missions in here feel like filler. There's a subplot they introduced about the Russians pinning certain attacks in Vietnam on the U.S. by planting American weapons, yet it's never really brought up again? We also get told what the Russians were doing in Vietnam with Nova 6, but we don't get to actually see the atrocities they commit. "Show don't tell" would've been an effective strategy here, but considering we've already seen how they used Nova 6 inhumanely in an earlier flashback mission, I see why they skipped showing some of these things told to us. Mason going straight to Rebirth Island right after the Payback mission kinda makes him borderline superhuman after everything he's been through, but considering this is Call of Duty we're talking about, I can suspend my disbelief a little bit. And other than his feats and past atrocities to make him hate you, Dragovich is kinda generic as a villain. And come the third act, the plot felt a little overwhelming. However, all of these issues feel minor compared to how engaging the mystery and badassery of this campaign truly is. And what makes it all so effective is the fact that it all comes together, with the few loose threads being things that can either be left ambiguous or ignored entirely due to how insignificant they were to the overall plot. The Reznov twist is still incredible to this day and the discussion around it is what makes it great. Not to mention, this campaign probably has one of the greatest endings to a video game ever. It's like The Last of Us levels good. The game is pretty well-paced with some awesome setpieces and really embraces the dark, twisted atmosphere of the Cold War. Treyarch has always been great at that. Only other complaint I'd say is that the level design in the campaign was a little too simple for most of the game, with the only mission that tried to switch things up being WMD. Regardless, it's still a good time.

Multiplayer: Here's my only big complaint about the multiplayer. The movement is WAY too slow. It feels borderline sluggish at times. I get that this was a way for it to differentiate itself from the fast-paced style of MW2's multiplayer, but it's still really clunky. Other than that, Black Ops 1's multiplayer rules. The COD points system here is a neat way of earning and customizing weapons. Wager Matches were super cool, letting you bet your money in party game modes like Gun Game and One in the Chamber, both of which were introduced here. THIS GAME HAS ITS OWN OFFLINE MODE. This game is the first game to introduce bots in COD multiplayer and the Combat Training mode allows you to play against them with a progression system separate from the online one. You can add bots to custom games as well to simulate multiplayer matches and play it long after the game dies, which is a nice touch. The maps here are great too with some iconic ones like Summit, WMD, Jungle, and fucking Nuketown. The learning curve due to the movement and gunplay takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, it feels very rewarding.

Zombies: HOLY SHIT. We got two maps at launch, Kino Der Toten and Five. Kino was a scrapped World at War DLC 4 map and was put into this game with returning cast Richtofen, Nikolai, Dempsey, and Takeo. And it slaps. Nova 6 crawlers are a cool obstacle added while training zombies. The stage is an awesome spot to round up a horde. The easter egg song kicks serious ass. The teleporter for Pack-A-Punch and the secret film reels you can change are all nice touches. It's just a great fucking map. Five, on the other hand, is much more close quarters and difficult, but still iconic on its own right for being the map that loads up after you beat the campaign. YOU CAN PLAY AS JFK, NIXON, AND FIDEL CASTRO. The pentagon thief was a cool idea but makes this map more tedious to play unfortunately. However, the elevator to the lower floors and the Pack-A-Punch unlock at the Oval Office are all great touches and make this map iconic as fuck. As for the DLC maps, Ascension was a cool large map and the first map to introduce the complex easter egg quests we know today. The Gersh Devices were cool and the black-and-white to color transition after you turn on the power is super sweet. PHD Flopper was also introduced here, which is one of the coolest perks in Zombies ever. Call of the Dead is a cool parody Zombies map with George Romero, Danny Trejo, Robert Eugland, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the one and only Michael fucking Rooker. George Romero is kind of annoying as a constant pursuer but the map itself and the easter egg itself are both great and super underrated. The V-R11 is probably one of the weirdest wonder weapons in the series. Shangri-La was another super cramped map with not a lot of room for training but at least it gives the line-up some variety? I heard the easter egg in this one isn't the best but it's a gorgeous looking map with some highlights like the minecart and stuff. The Baby Gun is another super weird wonder weapon but also really effective. The final DLC for the game gave us remastered versions of all four World at War maps (so basically World at War maps with Black Ops 1 guns) for those who never experienced them and the final map in Black Ops 1, Moon. Moon has a great easter egg and fun features like Area 51, bounce pads, etc. but the zero gravity aspect killing the pacing of the map along with the Astronaut being a constant pursuer was annoying. That being said, the easter egg quest is fun with a batshit crazy ending ramping up the hype for BO2 Zombies. Second chance is a cool feature and having the Astronaut's gamertag be named after your friend's gamertags or a Treyarch employee is pretty cool. I also like how the excavators change up the layout of the map a little. Going back to Area 51 just to Pack-A-Punch sounds like a fun idea on paper, but just ended up making the map more tedious in execution. Overall, the Zombies in this game was absolutely packed with content and a variety of maps. This was the first game to introduce easter egg quests and flesh out some sort of storyline in the series as well. All in all, it's a solid experience even with its flaws and one of the best third modes in COD history. Oh, and before I forget, the Thundergun is absolutely insane. One of the best wonder weapons in the series. This game introduced that too. Absolutely legendary.

Overall, this game's biggest strength was the identity it made for itself. Easter eggs like getting out of the main menu chair, 115 being the code repeatedly entered on the bomb/defuser in Search and Destroy, and using the Thundergun in a campaign mission, it went to show the passion put into this game. Treyarch gave us one of the most iconic campaigns, evolved its Zombies, and gave us a more balanced multiplayer offering than the COD before it on top of making all of it feel connected. This is the golden standard of what every COD should be.