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Great FPS for the current gens

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Black is one of the very few new fps' to be released this year. The game places you in the shoes of an assassin who's assigned to kill without mercy or looking back. The game consists of approximately seven stages with multiple side missions & secondary objectives. Alot of that time will be spent destroying enemy documents as well as resources. After having completed a mission, you can choose to replay it on a harder difficulty level to unlock extra weapons. So if you're the type of gamer who likes to blaze through an entire game in one sitting (on numerous occasions), this will fit well for you.

PROS:

Astonishing Graphics- Black truly pushes the current gens to their limit, proving that there's still enough juice to last them for throughout the year. However, there is the notice of dotted lines spotted thoughout stages (noticeably on walls & the ground).

Excellent Physics- The physics rival even that of some next gen titles. Explosions & smoke are nicely crafted/executed. I'm anticipating that the engine used in Black will be used by others in the near future.

Great Musical Score- The score in which the game harnesses makes you feel as if you're in a Hollywood action flick. Truly does manage to convey the feel & emotion of that in battle.

CONS:

Short Campaign Mode- While this can either be a plus or neg for some gamers (given that the game can be replayed through in a sitting), the ending leaves the gamer wanting more. The lack of multiplayer or online play leaves much to be desired.

Lack of a lean mechanic- There are several times in Black in which a "lean" action would have come in handy. Therefor, making it less of a hassle/risk attempting to maneuver when sorrounded by a flood of enemies shooting in your direction.

No jump or sprint mechanics- Being able to run or jump (or even roll) would have helped out greatly in Black. Especially when attempting to evade a grenade or explosive device.

With that said, Black's a great fps that (with a few minor tweaks & features) could have been phenomenal if it wasn't for the lack of multiplayer & online play. Those looking to Black for longterm play may want to simply stick with a rental. However, those who enjoy playing through games over & over on higher difficulties won't be disappointed with Black. I'm anticipating many great aspecs in store for the newly crafted franchise. Definitely worth checking out. In the meantime, lets keep our fingers crossed for Black 2.

Addicting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You remember the old games like Contra for SNES, where all you had to do was push forward and shoot anything that stands in your way? Well, "Black" stands on similiar ground, except with 21 century style.

I will speak first of the levels. There are only 8, but they are BIG interactive levels. What I mean by interactive is, there is not a single object in this game that dose not react to your gunfire or the gunfire of the enemies that shoot at you. If you take cover behind the column of a building, that column will eventually crumble after absorbing so much impact. And if it is holding up a roof, that roof just may bury you. Or, if the third, second and fourth floor of a building is manned by people shooting down at you, and you just so happen to come across a RPG, you can just shoot the building, watch all the windows blow out, fire erupt and listen to people scream inside as they burn. You can pop the tires of trucks, blow up cars, and send whole cities to hell if you have the right equipment. I think creating destruction (if you can make sense of that) was the sincere intent of the game's producers. Gas stations, crates of explosives, and large vehicles all seem to be purposely stationed near buildings or other such objects that could blow up. I understood perfectly just what kind of game this was meant to be when I finally realized that in order to open doors there is no "action" button you need to press. You just simply have to arm yourself with a Spaz shotgun and blow the frigging thing off its hinges.

There is a story to the game and a reason to the chaos. I guess what disappointed people was the lack of attention given to your character and the enemies he chases. You read these taglines on the internet that seem to suggest that you will travel around the world and assassinate individual targets, kind of what you get with Hitman. All this IS misleading, and it comes with no surprise. What little story that dose exist is somewhat hard to follow, and perhaps a bit uninteresting. This game, really...is all about the guns.

Remingtons, Spaz, Uzis, Mac 10s, MP5s, G36s. P90s (my favorite) M249s, AK 47s, and M16s. The one honest tagline I did agree with was that this game is like "Gun Porn." The guns you hold are so detailed and shiny, you can actually see scratches where you eject and load the magazines. They make all those wonderful clicks whenever you pop in a new clip, pull back the charging handles and select your fire mode. Each gun has its own unique rate of fire and sounds, giving them different characters.

Unfortunately, they do not do what they ought to do when you fire at a person. I remember unloading an entire clip on one guy at point blank range and it just made him fall to one knee. I could not believe it. Blood should have covered the wall behind him. Also, when you blow up stuff like gas tanks, the people standing next to them ought to be in pieces. Dose not happen. They just simply keel over and die. I wish they had spent as much attention to the details of shooting a person up, as they did on shooting a city up.

With that said, I believe there is room here for a squeal and perhaps even a more kick ass "Black" in the future.

Frustrating fun!

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

BLACK's graphics are top notch, and the gun play is strikingly realistic with shock and awe sound.

However, as addicted as I am to the gameplay, you cannot save until you reach points that take obscenely long to get to. I've had to replay many segments, many times to get to a save point and this is NOT fun. Also, you cannot skip past the pointless inbetween cinematics which also wastes time.

However, this game looks like a 360 release and I'm willing to slog through the annoyances I mentioned above because BLACK is so damn fun!

Cool first person shooter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I haven't been too much into first person shooters so I decided to pick one up one day. I read some reviews and decieded to give "Black" a try. I liked the game and thought it was great for a first person shooter for someone just to get a hang of dealing with FPSs. I really like the gun visuals and sounds. Good game.

Great FPS!! - Black

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Great game, especially if you are a fan of the FPS game. Graphics are great and story and content are good. Characters are a bit limited in what they can do (jump, run, etc.) but overall fun.

Black for Xbox

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played this through all difficulty levels. Overall a good gaming engine and game play. I was disappointed that nothing new was achieved by finishing the scenerios at successively higher difficulty - like a new scenerio. A good value for the price.

Shoot, shoot, and shoot some more

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you want a game where you just shoot and blow stuff up without really having to keep track of a storyline (there is one, but not strictly following it doesn't really negatively impact the play), then this is it. I usually play late at night when I'm done thinking and just wanna go Rambo on everything I see. The only thing I don't like is that there are not more opportunities to save. I could be playing a mission for like 20 or more minutes and if I don't make it to the end, I have to start ALL the way at the beginning of that mission.

Great raw material

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game has a lot to offer. It has great graphics. The loving detail given to rendering the guns is thrilling. The sound is strong and for a second makes you believe you're actually firing something. There are many things I loved about this game. Having to find or destroy documents as a completion requirement was great. The actors who give the inter-level briefings are great too. There is a lot of atmosphere and there are many reasons to just love this game.

BUT, there are a few things that are aggravating. There are no in-game saves. You MUST complete the whole level before you can stop. What this means is that you must allocate at least 3 hours per level before you play. Sure, it doesn't take that long to go through a level -- BUT you're going to die 3 or 6 or 8 times in the process, before you win.

I love FPS and I like to think I'm pretty damn good. I was schooled in the religion of "Halo" and I've squared off on the most intense multi-player battles you can imagine. That said, this game will kill you. Not with bullets necessarily, but with RPGs (rocket propelled grenades). This game rarely killed me with bullets, but I swear just when you're at your weakest and you're beating them back with a STICK, the game will start throwing RPGs at you. From nowhere. And they will shoot you three or four times before you can even find where they're coming from.

It is very aggravating. There's nothing like having half the screen firing at you to make you want to throw your XBox out the window. The last thing that is a drawback is no online play. "Black" is in serious need of a multi-player feature.

But don't get me wrong. This game rocks. I would even be willing to forgive the no multi-player if I could only have in-game saves!!! Today I waisted almost half the day playing the final level because I could not stop! If I stopped, I would have had to start the whole (huge) level all over again from scratch. If there's something to hate about the game, it's THAT. You cannot casually play Black. If you're going to play, don't plan on doing anything else, for at least the next 3-4 hours.

You have been warned. Oh, and a word to the wise. Always- have a short range weapon on you. Medium-range rifles come and go, but the Shotgun--is forever.

Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Husband and son like this game alot. Wish more than 1 player can play it at a time but they don't mind taking turns.

Sometimes fun, sometimes maddening

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've always like first person shooter games that are set in the real world (vice killing zombies or monsters); so that is a plus with this game. The fact that the enviornment can explode around you is also very fun and adds a realism boost. It was always silly firing rockets at wall board in Duke Nukem only to leave a black smudge. All the different weapons are fun as well.

Some maddening aspect of the game:

They should have consulted someone who's actually used some of these weapons. When the guy is pumping the shotgun so slow, twisting in a way to watch the shell eject as one of the hard-to-kill hockey mask guys is getting back up I wanted to sometimes throw the controller at the screen. Any half-way trained indvidual can shoot a pump shotgun fast enough so it's like firing a semi-auto.

The selector switch feature that lets someone fire an MP5 on semi, burst, full auto is neat, but what BLACK operative would really have to LOOK at the thing to flip the switch? Your avg. national guardsman doesn't have to look at the selector switch. One flips it by feel.

It taking like 15 .223 rounds to drop a bad guy. I swear, unless one gets a head shot it takes a LOT of rounds to kill a bad guy.

The AI "acquires" the player way to easy. In some levels, one has to move from cover in a big "room" with a lot of enemies on the perimeter of the room. In the game, the enemies ALWAYS know where you are and immediately acquire you, even if you are moving around silently.

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