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BIG BADDABOOM !!! MIGHTY BIG BADDABOOM !!! :-)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 78 / 94
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having been hyped to death in articles and newsgroups online and offline the truth is finally out: Black is coming to your living room, playroom, bathroom or wherever you keep your PS2.
Can Black live up to the hype? The answer is: Mostly yes, but just mostly. It depends on your personal expectations from a game in general and shooters in particular if you'll love it or just like it. It also depends simply on what mood you're in.

Developed by the same dudes, who brought us "Burnout 3 Takedown" and "Burnout Revenge", which were all about action and not so much about depth or complexity this is about what you can expect from Black.

The game does not bother too much with the story. It is some kind of flash back in which you, an imprisoned secret agent slash mercenary slash heavy weapons dude slash run of the mill underground hero, recalls what happened to him before he got there. Apparently you were trying to track down and eliminate some terrorists, which in turn is your goal throughout the couple levels the game throws at you. That's about it. They might as well have been a little more specific about the enemy - why didn't they just pick evil groups such as: Nazis, Anarchists, militant Communists, militant Capitalists, the Beast Buy (TM) corporation, parents who raise their kids to become arrogant self-serving brats and are proud of it, or worse: anarchistic Nazi-Communist-brats from Beast Buy parents! - but hey: they didn't choose any of these but simply picked "some terrorists" as the enemy to keep things generic. That's cool, too: at least we don't need to read the "Evil villains weekly" then to understand where the bad guys come from...

So what are you gonna do in the game? Easy: You have a nice arsenal of weapons, which fortunately look and sound terrific, and you use these to blow up hordes of enemies.
The action is intense. The best thing - and that's what the game has been praised for all along - is the fact that you can blow up scenery pretty much everywhere. Everything that looks only halfway destructible can somehow be destroyed. Often it just takes a couple of bullets to pulverize tomb-stones, blow doors out of their frames, punch holes in walls or make pillars, monuments, roofs, stairs and whatnot explode or crumble to pieces!!!
There are clouds of dust and debris where your bullets hit. Vehicles explode when they take too much damage, barrels of fuel incinerate everything and everyone around them when shot.
And, of course, there are destructive and explosive objects all over the place - especially close to dense clusters of enemies (these guys love to live dangerously and hang out around anything that has an inscription like: flammable, breakable, explosive or toxic... sad, sad, sad... but good for you - just don't brag about it too much, soldier!)

Again: the experience is an incredible adrenaline rush. The graphics are fantastic, the sound is awesome (crank up your subwoofer and Dolby Surround!!!) and the action is fast, furious and brutal - even though no blood flows in this game - which I think is cool, there doesn't need to be blood to make a game stand out: hello Rockstar and your "Warriors" (which I really dig, except for the over-the-top brutality).

The levels look super pretty. Almost all cool PS2 effects are being used such as: fog, smoke and other particle effects, colored lighting, light-tracing (light-beams come through windows, canopy of trees, cracks in walls etc.) motion blur (hello Burnout Takedown!) and a realistic damage-response to every object (wood splinters, bullets leave holes in metal, porcelain shatters etc.). There are nice themes as well such as: an old cemetery, a factory or industrial complex, a military installation and several more.

The action is best comparable to the game "Darkwatch". Black, too, has great action, easy and responsive controls, awesome visuals and sound (the visuals actually surpass Darkwatch by far!).

The problem is that Black does not have much depth. The game remains a pretty generic shooter, far from the complexity of "Project Snowblind". The campaign is relatively short. You should be able to play through it in about 6-8 hours, depending on how much time you take to marvel at the visuals - or not. The mission design is also pretty old-school: get to the end of the stage or area (and there's not exactly a variety of ways to reach the goal) by shooting everyone in sight and - congratufrigginlations - you have made it to the next stage - press rewind and play again.

Very much like Burnout Takedown / Revenge appealed to the casual action-oriented racer, who just wants to pick up the controls, open a can of beer and go go go WITHOUT reading an instruction booklet (with endless paragraphs on how to tweak and modify cars) - Black delivers the same kind of gameplay in the shooting sector: pick up the controller and have a blast - but don't go looking for much depth, mission variety, strategy or other brainwork.
Admittedly, there are moments in the game, where a little strategy is needed and the game forces you to take a careful approach, search cover, outsmart the enemies - but in general the enemy AI and level design feature the RAMBO or COMMANDO approach. But the game hardly forces you to carefully plan your actions (as Killzone did), which in turn makes Black a whole lot faster - which may not be a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

So here's the verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
Pros:
- Presentation: sound, graphics, frame-rate - gets the best out of your PS2!!!
- Intense action - like your favorite action flick made interactive!
- Quick frame-rate for the PS2 (only occasional drops)
- Destruction galore!
- The adrenaline - oh, the adrenaline! Replay value may be found in the sheer action of the game
- Good Dolby Surround and Widescreen support

Cons:
- story is a mild excuse for the action
- enemy AI sometimes so pathetic it makes you want to drop the weapon and give the guys a hug out of sheer compassion for their low IQ!
- Hardly any replay value, unless simply to re-live the action - which however you might just want to do
- Too short! Come, on guys, you could have given us a couple more stages!!!
- Not very deep, straightforward shooting

Get Black for the action, because it's easily better and more fun than Darkwatch. Or get it if you want to show off the PS2's real power to yourself and your X-box-ensnared buddies.
If you like it a little smarter, get Project Snowblind instead. If you like it a little slower, get Killzone! If you like it a little cheaper: get Area 51!

If you want to play it real smart: be patient and wait a couple months until Black is considered a "classic hit" and thrown at you for $20 and lower!!!

Either way: enjoy the game!!!

Your Reverend.

No 2-Player or Online/Multiplayer...BOOOO!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After walking into my local game store a month ago and seeing this game on the PS2 demo screen, I was wowed by the "Blow up everything that is in your way" style of the game, and immediately pre-ordered it. The game looked sharp and sleek on the hi-def demo screen, and I couldn't wait to play it. Even the gentleman at the game store was anxious for Black to come out--he was curious to see if it would have Online Multiplayer features.

....To my dismay, when I finally received the game yesterday, I saw it was only for 1 Player--there are no 2 Player or Online/Multiplayer features at all. The game is difficult even on Easy setting (I am not the best video game player, but I had difficulty staying alive on both Normal and Easy settings). ....I really wish the crosshair was bigger (though I may have to fiddle around more with the settings, I haven't tried making it bigger yet--right now, the crosshair is a tiny white dot). And I also wish the AI were a bit smarter instead of walking into my line of fire.

....On the positive side, the movies are great and the music is really beautiful. I am giving this game 3 stars because it's a lot of fun to make huge explosions after shooting a farm silo with an AK-47, or if one of your stray bullets hits something you didn't know was explosive. (That and because I haven't finished the game yet, and I am sure it gets better as the game progresses--at least I hope!)

BLACK is NOT wack and that's a FACT.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

We all know Black has a lot of bells and whistles and the graphics are pretty excellent; however, is it well worth its price, well worth its time to play and should you buy it? I'm half way in the game and I have no regrets in purchasing this gun blazing venture. Truthfully, I wanted a new shooter without the shiny cartoonish crap that Halo provides (no offense Halo fans), but more of a realistic kind of nature, like Killzone. If you like that realism and you don't mind the single player only option, get the game. Yeah, 7 hours of gameplay may not be long but, the quality of the game will over compensate that shortage of game time. A lot of cursing involved in the game, but hey who's counting. I choose my games wisely especially since time is not luxury for me. Therefore, if you want a game well worth your time to play and experience, this game is not a bad idea. My needs were met, I'm happy. Killzone, Golden eye 007, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty fans, its safe to buy folks.

Very Good FPS!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big fan of the first person shooters all starting with the MOH series, the SOCOM's, Killzone, and now Black. It is by far the most impressive shooter I've seen for the PS2 platform. Don't get me wrong its not perfect, but its pretty damn good and allot of fun. My biggest gripe is that at times it takes a few to many rounds to the head to take the enemy out even when dead on, but not as bad as Killzone. Biggest plus being weapons realism and the ability to pretty much blast anythig in the screen, i.e. RPG to a huge fuel silo that sent up an impressive mushroom cloud. Game moves fluidly and each level has dynamic gun battles. Graphics are as good as there going to get for PS2 and its strictly gun play, no hide and go seek here. I Highly recommend it!

great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Awesome game, very well worth the buy, that's all I have to say about that. Now for the dude that wrote the review for this game that might as well have been a novel, man don't you have a life. That's all for that.

my kind of game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is an awesome shooter. I am a shooter fan, especially first-person ones, and when I first played this, I laughed with glee and sheer destructive pleasure. It is my kind of game because I have always been fascinated by explosions and guns and grenades and on and on, so this fit the bill quite nicely. I haven't beaten it yet, because my Dad and I just bought it yesterday, but so far it is great. If you are seeking a game with a great story, look away, because the story isn't really a plot at all. My only complaint is the completely, melodramatically over-the-top cutscenes. Yeah, they're ok, but like I said, they are very dramatic. But I really love to play an unapologetically destruction-focused FPS. WOOHOO!

too repetive! each level roughly the same

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was going to be "all that" but, it is too short and all u do is shoot people with no strategy at all! Enemies are very stupid, i mean very stupid, and.... each level u do the same thing; get a gun, shoot the crap out of everything, shoot more people(no strategy involved if i already mentioned) and just blow up crap for no reason. This game is amusing, but i would not buy it, i would rent it. u will never play this game again. Really mediocre game.

Freaking Sweet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the game that I have been looking for. Its a sweet FPS. My only complaint is that you have to shoot doors to open them(waste of ammo). Other then that its exellent

This game is amazing.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing. Beautifully detailed graphics (better then some xbox360 games), Great fun gameplay, and a very well built fun game over all. When you blow an entire clip on your enemy..look down.. and you will see every casing from that clip.(they dont dissappear!) and everything is destrucatble which makes it VERY fun!This is the first shooting game i have ever been able to say that i LOVE

only 2 not-so-strong pints are the fact their is no multiplayer whatsoever, and that you cant save checkpoints (only save after each level, if you die you can restart at a checkpoint...but cant save and quit and come back).which the first didnt bug me, the 2nd thing can be irritating but it doesnt kill the great parts of the game.

But i HIGHLY recomend you buy this game if you like shooters or great games in general. If you are a bit skeptical...or dont know if its for you...rent it..im sure it will change your mind.

i would type more detail but you can find the details anywhere:) and i want to go play it some more!!!

UPDATE on march 5th: I would change this to 3 stars overall. Because sadly, i just beat the game and it is horribly short. It would probably take 1 day to beat if you had the time. (it took me 2 and a half).So factor that in when considering buying it...

Big Boom

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you like games that have big guns and big booms then this is the game for you. The graphics are amzing and detailed. I highly recommened that you buy this game.

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