SunnyFranklin
This review contains spoilers
(This'll be mostly my thoughts on the campaign as I did not experience the multiplayer despite the praise I've heard)
Big step up from the previous game in my opinion. Story was improved on scale and intruige; featuring more memorable moments and missions.
The villain(s) are more memorable due to being introduced as a threat earlier via No Russian. Speaking of, said controversial mission is controversial for a reason but it's shock factor done right in my opinion. It's the catalyst for the entire conflict instead of achieving nothing, and it set's in motion Shepherd's upcoming betrayal and Makarov as a force to be reckoned with.
On the topic of Shepard, he's easily my favourite Call of Duty character alongside Reznov. He removes the whole black and white scenario I felt the first game had (America vs Russia) to make the conflict more interesting. His dialogue, motivations, links to the nuke scene from the first game, it all comes together to make a really well fleshed out character. Furthermore, I like how Makarov is used as a red herring which makes his eventual betrayal all the more unexpected (if you did this blind like I didn't).
I did wish Ghost and Soap had more fleshed out moments as Price seems to be the only character on the "good" side that holds my interest. Both the formers are cool dudes but more to them would have made it better.
Lowering the difficulty from hardened to regular was a good decision after playing hardened on the last game. It still felt like a fresh challenge without getting showered with grenades. It shows that I'm not good enough at FPS to do higher difficultly.
The gameplay does suffer from a lot of over the top action (dramatic boat chases, buildings collapsing, etc) which is one thing COD 4: Modern Warfare has over this campaign. I don't mind it in Black Ops 1 and 2 because it's meant to be more fictionalised on top of being spaced out better. However the missions were still fun to complete in addition to the story holding my interest so I'll give it a pass. Here's to hoping Modern Warfare 3 makes me regret bashing this specific aspect.
Big step up from the previous game in my opinion. Story was improved on scale and intruige; featuring more memorable moments and missions.
The villain(s) are more memorable due to being introduced as a threat earlier via No Russian. Speaking of, said controversial mission is controversial for a reason but it's shock factor done right in my opinion. It's the catalyst for the entire conflict instead of achieving nothing, and it set's in motion Shepherd's upcoming betrayal and Makarov as a force to be reckoned with.
On the topic of Shepard, he's easily my favourite Call of Duty character alongside Reznov. He removes the whole black and white scenario I felt the first game had (America vs Russia) to make the conflict more interesting. His dialogue, motivations, links to the nuke scene from the first game, it all comes together to make a really well fleshed out character. Furthermore, I like how Makarov is used as a red herring which makes his eventual betrayal all the more unexpected (if you did this blind like I didn't).
I did wish Ghost and Soap had more fleshed out moments as Price seems to be the only character on the "good" side that holds my interest. Both the formers are cool dudes but more to them would have made it better.
Lowering the difficulty from hardened to regular was a good decision after playing hardened on the last game. It still felt like a fresh challenge without getting showered with grenades. It shows that I'm not good enough at FPS to do higher difficultly.
The gameplay does suffer from a lot of over the top action (dramatic boat chases, buildings collapsing, etc) which is one thing COD 4: Modern Warfare has over this campaign. I don't mind it in Black Ops 1 and 2 because it's meant to be more fictionalised on top of being spaced out better. However the missions were still fun to complete in addition to the story holding my interest so I'll give it a pass. Here's to hoping Modern Warfare 3 makes me regret bashing this specific aspect.
Campaign:
Although I think some of the dialogue could have used some work, the craziness in action goes a bit too far - which tests my ability to suspend disbelief - and some sections in missions are atrocious, this might be one of the best campaigns in the series.
One of the best parts is how your choices actually affect what happens in the story, no bullshit regarding only one choice at the end. The characters from the first game like Hudson and Woods get fleshed out more. Finally, Raul Menendez is a ten times better villain than Dragovich for having a sympathetic motivation and clever plan. I would say more but don't take my word for it, play it yourself and find out.
Multiplayer:
One of the best in the series alone for it's customisation. Custom games feel at their peak here with there being so many options to tweak and modify including what enemy team have what classes, etc. However I cannot comment much more since it's been forever since I indulged in the multiplayer.
Zombies:
While Town is a great small sandbox to play in, Black Ops 2 Zombies is not worth it if you don't buy the DLC. Tranzit is an awfully designed map that didn't do it's concept justice. I feel like it could have been viable if they made a few small changes:
- Remove those fog gremlins or make them way less frequent. The dense dust fog and the zombie horde are punishment enough for not taking the bus.
- Make the lava pits and flaming zombies way less frequent. Too many times have I been unfairly caught out due to my screen going blurry, it's an uneeded inconvenience.
- Rework the Wonder Weapon so it can actually be usable.
- Allow for the bus to be called to your location (like a bus terminal) so you aren't stuck waiting at the same location for ages. The maps biggest flaw is how if the mystery box disappears or if you need to get another perk, you have to spend ages getting from one place to the other. And I've already established how annoyingly tedious running through the dust cloud is.
- Rework the electric boss. They aren't fun to fight and they are an additional annoyance on a map that's built around inconveniences.
- Make Pack-a-Punch much easier to get. The zombies get stronger every round so the fact that, unless you are really skilled, have to do this long winded method to assess Pack-a-Punch is mind boggling.
Although I think some of the dialogue could have used some work, the craziness in action goes a bit too far - which tests my ability to suspend disbelief - and some sections in missions are atrocious, this might be one of the best campaigns in the series.
One of the best parts is how your choices actually affect what happens in the story, no bullshit regarding only one choice at the end. The characters from the first game like Hudson and Woods get fleshed out more. Finally, Raul Menendez is a ten times better villain than Dragovich for having a sympathetic motivation and clever plan. I would say more but don't take my word for it, play it yourself and find out.
Multiplayer:
One of the best in the series alone for it's customisation. Custom games feel at their peak here with there being so many options to tweak and modify including what enemy team have what classes, etc. However I cannot comment much more since it's been forever since I indulged in the multiplayer.
Zombies:
While Town is a great small sandbox to play in, Black Ops 2 Zombies is not worth it if you don't buy the DLC. Tranzit is an awfully designed map that didn't do it's concept justice. I feel like it could have been viable if they made a few small changes:
- Remove those fog gremlins or make them way less frequent. The dense dust fog and the zombie horde are punishment enough for not taking the bus.
- Make the lava pits and flaming zombies way less frequent. Too many times have I been unfairly caught out due to my screen going blurry, it's an uneeded inconvenience.
- Rework the Wonder Weapon so it can actually be usable.
- Allow for the bus to be called to your location (like a bus terminal) so you aren't stuck waiting at the same location for ages. The maps biggest flaw is how if the mystery box disappears or if you need to get another perk, you have to spend ages getting from one place to the other. And I've already established how annoyingly tedious running through the dust cloud is.
- Rework the electric boss. They aren't fun to fight and they are an additional annoyance on a map that's built around inconveniences.
- Make Pack-a-Punch much easier to get. The zombies get stronger every round so the fact that, unless you are really skilled, have to do this long winded method to assess Pack-a-Punch is mind boggling.
The villain in this is basically Homelander from The Boys except remove everything that makes Homelander great.
2001
Outside of clunky controls, an atrocious final boss and the boos which are tedious to suck up, this has an nice atmosphere that the other two installments don't really have.
I'd love to see Luigi's Mansion 4 take on a darker approach like this game does where the rooms are actually dark, while keeping the gameplay improvements the third game made.
I'd love to see Luigi's Mansion 4 take on a darker approach like this game does where the rooms are actually dark, while keeping the gameplay improvements the third game made.
2016
Prime example of a game that is excellent in it's lore, progression and atmosphere but with a few things that drag it down immensely the more the game goes on:
- The stamina bar feels extremely sluggish here compared to Bloodborne and Elden Ring, even with a stamina regeneration ring. I don't know if it's because I'm using a dual wielding set or if it's just me but most of the time when I'm fighting fast enemies I barley have any time to counter attack because I'm waiting for the mf'ing stamina bar to recharge after dodging all their attacks, only for me to then waste more stamina dodging their next barrage.
- How is it fair when I'm fighting enemies in a hallway and my weapon bounces off walls but the attacks of enemies don't? On one hand I like how it forces me to think about my surroundings but when the game is obsessed with having enemy encounters in corridors then it becomes extremely annoying.
It's especially a joy when the enemy traps you in a corner by continously staggering you while not facing any repercussions about their weapons, because they can just go through walls can't they? But my sharp weapons will bounce off the one tiny tree trunk that just happened to be close by, ruining my combo?
- I thought the boss run backs in Bloodborne and Hollow Knight (and occasionally Elden Ring) were annoying but nothing prepared me for this. I don't know what went through the developers heads thinking that running back to the boss room upon dying repeatedly (which is likely going to happen first time) is a good idea.
The only reason I can think why they did this was to make the run back, along with the enemies along the way, mess with your muscle memory slightly. If that's the case, please don't make it overly long where I have to wait for an elevator / bridge to collapse then make my way up and / or down a tedious pathway every time I die, with big bulky enemies as a cherry on top.
It was this point alone that put me off Dark Souls 1 and 2 because I've seen some of those boss run backs and... sheesh.
- Why in the genuine fuck does this not have the ability to turn off invaders when doing co-op / online? I've seen some people try to defend this as the game's "style" but I don't think you should remove quality of life features for something like that. Due to this, you can't play with a buddy without the worry of some cheap smurf coming along and killing you. This might be the point that baffles me most.
I feel sad that I have to treat this review as more of a rant but I hate things that could easily be one of my favourite games but then they had to make weird design choices like the above that make the game harder to fully praise.
UPDATE: Some of my problems like the stamina bar was me being bad I think, but the other issues still stand after completing the game. Even with all that negativity said, this game still slaps.
- The stamina bar feels extremely sluggish here compared to Bloodborne and Elden Ring, even with a stamina regeneration ring. I don't know if it's because I'm using a dual wielding set or if it's just me but most of the time when I'm fighting fast enemies I barley have any time to counter attack because I'm waiting for the mf'ing stamina bar to recharge after dodging all their attacks, only for me to then waste more stamina dodging their next barrage.
- How is it fair when I'm fighting enemies in a hallway and my weapon bounces off walls but the attacks of enemies don't? On one hand I like how it forces me to think about my surroundings but when the game is obsessed with having enemy encounters in corridors then it becomes extremely annoying.
It's especially a joy when the enemy traps you in a corner by continously staggering you while not facing any repercussions about their weapons, because they can just go through walls can't they? But my sharp weapons will bounce off the one tiny tree trunk that just happened to be close by, ruining my combo?
- I thought the boss run backs in Bloodborne and Hollow Knight (and occasionally Elden Ring) were annoying but nothing prepared me for this. I don't know what went through the developers heads thinking that running back to the boss room upon dying repeatedly (which is likely going to happen first time) is a good idea.
The only reason I can think why they did this was to make the run back, along with the enemies along the way, mess with your muscle memory slightly. If that's the case, please don't make it overly long where I have to wait for an elevator / bridge to collapse then make my way up and / or down a tedious pathway every time I die, with big bulky enemies as a cherry on top.
It was this point alone that put me off Dark Souls 1 and 2 because I've seen some of those boss run backs and... sheesh.
- Why in the genuine fuck does this not have the ability to turn off invaders when doing co-op / online? I've seen some people try to defend this as the game's "style" but I don't think you should remove quality of life features for something like that. Due to this, you can't play with a buddy without the worry of some cheap smurf coming along and killing you. This might be the point that baffles me most.
I feel sad that I have to treat this review as more of a rant but I hate things that could easily be one of my favourite games but then they had to make weird design choices like the above that make the game harder to fully praise.
UPDATE: Some of my problems like the stamina bar was me being bad I think, but the other issues still stand after completing the game. Even with all that negativity said, this game still slaps.