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A shooter that isn't shy about being just a shooter

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let's face it, some times the best game is the one that doesn't try to bend conventions or invent new styles of gameplay - sometimes it's just better to do exactly what you expect, only incredibly well. Black it seems is that fabled shooter that harkes to the days of the FPS's inception where you know what you get - a bunch of guns, a bunch of bad guys, and a flimsy excuse to use the guns on the bad guys.

Is the gameplay repatitive - certainly. Yet this doesn't detract from the game at all. Like any game, no matter how spectacular, you only have about 30 seconds of fun that get's recycled over and over until the end of the game. The key to Black is the fact that the developers nailed the core gameplay. The controls were crisp and precise, and incredibly intuitive. The enemies are as smart as they should be - in other words, they have the basic tactical AI seen in your average shooter, so while they may surprise you, it won't be anything you can't handle. Even the weapons are fairly balanced - ammunition is really the only thing keeping you from effectivly using any weapon for as long as you feel it's necessary. Level design is likewise perfect - almost reminiscent of games like Perfect Dark or Goldeneye. The level seems to exist in such a way as to APPEAR to be open ended and torn from the real world, yet careful use of obstacles means you'll never really get lost - in fact, if you simply follow the path of greatest resistance, you'll be guarnteed to find your way to the end of the level.

One thing that struck me as odd about Black is the fact that the game seems as though the firearms are in fact the main characters. They are the only part of your character you ever see clearly, even in the cutscenes you never quite make out your guy's face. When reloading, the world goes out of focus, providing a key point of realism (how many people can reload a weapon and never at least glance at it after all) and highlighting their usefulness in the game. It is clear from the start that much of the work of the game was put into weapons and weapon effects. Reload sequences for the most part are spot on with the real world counter parts (even down to the sound of the slide of a pistol moving into place after a reload). Sure there are a few glitches, but nothing anybody who isn't familiar with the weapon will ever likely be able to pick out.

In true shooter tradition, your weapons will solve any problem the game throws at you. Locked doors no longer require a keycard - a shotgun will do nicely. As has been stated before, just about everything can be destroyed in this game, which sadly is my one point of complaint with the game. While bullets generally do exactly as much damage to most objects as you could expect, there is just enough flexibilty between them and reality that you can destroy just about anything with them. I found myself trying to find stuff I couldn't destroy, and every time I did it kind of hurt me. I know that you don't want to let the player destroy EVERYTHING or else the may just try to tunnel their way to China with a rocket launcher like I did in Red Faction. This does not hurt the game at all, it's just a point that stood out with me.

Graphics are actually amazing, with the lighting and particle/smoke effects being by FAR the best ever seen on the XBOX. Bullet impacts mirror those of real life, debris kicked up by the hail of lead obsures your vision, and explosion effects were amazing - finally a game that got a grenade explosion right. Backing up the graphics are the sounds. While certainly quieter than their real life counterparts, the weapons are for all intents and purposes virtual mirrors of reality. It is the firt game I've ever played that really made me want surround sound just because I know there was so much untapped potential that my TV speakers just couldn't put out.

I'd say that this is the best shooter made in quite some time. No themes, no story, just good solid gameplay from start to finish.

Fantastic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am 40 years old and have been a Gamer since PONG came out. I have NEVER enjoyed a game as much as I have this one. The only thing they could do to POSSIBLY make this game any better would be to have it Hand-Delivered by Jessica Alba.
Great Job!
Doc

Black and Noir!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just got through playing this game for the first time and have to say I absolutely loved it. For someone who has played so many FPS type games - being a staunch fan of all the WW2 Shooters - Ghost Recon series - Halo - Medal of Honor - Tom Clancy Splinter Cell etc etc etc; let me tell you, I was in heaven with this game. Maybe it's just the type of shooter I am but this is the first game that has ever given me such a cinematic thrill in gun play terms!

The game has a few quirks such as the lack of a jump button - hey, I like to be able to jump! - but you soon get over the lack thereof. The way things look in this game is just lush and pure noir. For lighting and graphics think Splinter Cell but whereas others may find Splinter Cell superior I found BLACK better for some reason. Perhaps Splinter Cell can look a little too much on the bleeding side of saturated colour that it's a tiny bit Disney for me at times. With BLACK I was in a very gritty, visceral environment at all times and with some really convincing scenery that only enhanced my playing experience.

The guns are superb in this game - you may have played games with similar or even identical weapons before but they never looked and handled like these I promise you. The sound and feel when in use is second to none in gaming for my money and when you hit something it actually does what it should ... shatter, fray, splinter, split, shard, crumble, explode, obliterate, implode, crumple, twist, break, snap ... you get the idea?!!! No game I've played delivers like this one for target response to fire - this is just killer! There are so many things to hit and detonate in this game and it's never been so much fun having at it with weapons.

The AI are pretty darn fun to go at it with - there are some mean mofos out there, look out for the cats with the extra padding and hockey masks! Then later come the same cats but with bullet proof riot sheilds humping shotguns!!! The AI are excellent all round and act fairly consistently but not stupidly - I was all at once challenged and kept in a high state of tension whilst gunning against them. Any game that puts me on the edge of my seat like this game did deserves 5 stars. The music in this game and the overall atmosphere are pure Noir ... perhaps the French version got called what I reckon it ought to be called, Noir!

It may have had some short comings overall - I was a bit annoyed at not being able to adjust the panning ( left/right/up/down ) sensitivity of my weapons - but who cares, there are so many things going for this game that I can't find a thing to complain about. You won't find a better FPS this year.

Non-Stop Action Guns Blazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game by no means is not a splinter cell. If Sam Fisher stuck his head out in this game it would get blown clean off. I just got the game and find it challenging and fun to play. The evironment is destructable all around you and you cant hang out in one place for too long. Let me tell you in level one the RPG is a bad ass gun. I stongley recommend this game if your into FPS.

5+ stars!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am not a big "gamer" I play to kill time here and there, and I pretty much only play FPS's (doom 3, black, chronicles of riddick ...etc.) This game has a tendency to have so much going on that I start having massive adrinaline rushes. I got freakin hooked on this game! the graphics and lighting are amazing in my opinion, and the sound is the best ive ever heard on any game! a lot of people say its to short but it is actually pretty long with seemingly never ending levels, of course you want more!!!
Buy it!! its worth every nickle.

Destruction

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After watching all of the trailers online I couldn't wait for the release. I pre ordered the game and picked it up today. I went home for lunch and had a BLAST. I can't wait to get home this evening and play it some more, but from the first few missions it's as solid as they said it would be.

Revolutionary

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game opening day myself, and it's not dissapointing. Practicly everything is destructable. Action is non-stop, and Like the other guy said "you can't hang out in one place for too long". Try it on the third level near the end and your done for. The game is long too. I've gotton to the 4th level and it says 5% done. Anyway hopefully you can get the silver weapons, and the BigFuc*ingGun (BFG). In the end this blows Halo clean away, and for $40 it's a bargin.

A great first person shooter

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have only had this game for a day now and love it. I can't pull myself away from it. And, at $40 it is a great deal. Not too much strategy invloved, just kill the bad guys. Only two complaints; one, you can't save within a mission, this means I have to play mission all the way through else I have wasted my time and two it is a one person game, I personally prefer playing videogames that allow me to play with a friend.

Guns, Lot's of Guns....Woah

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You cannot complain about a feature that isn't in the game when the game's creators have already said that it wouldn't be in it, and when it is also on the box that you either purchase or rent. No, it isn't a multiplayer game. But that shouldn't detract from it. Look at two recent popular games: Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2 or Battlefield: Modern Combat. Half Life has a great single player mode, but their multiplayer is Counter Strike which was a mod that went commercial. Then there is Battlefield: modern combat whose single player campaign IMO sucks. You only play that game for online gameplay.

BLACK nails the FPS just fine. Criterion just put their spin on it as they did the racing genre. I'm sorry but what made Burnout BURN was the spectacular crashes. Without that it would be just another racer in an oversaturated market with games that far surpass it.

Criterion said in the beginning when they began advertising that this game was all about the guns, and I'm sorry, that's one of the main reasons that I play modern combat games like the Clancy games and Battlefield: the variety and authenticity of the in-game weapons. Most of us will probably never get to actually wield the real-life counter part of any of these weapons (and would you really want to given what using them would entail?). They modeled, skinned and animated the guns with great detail and then the sound. *sigh* wow. Turn the bass up a little and crank the mid's and highs on your 5.1 and be prepared for an ethereal experience.

And I don't know what this talk about the game being too short is all about. Maybe I need to get a little further, but I've played 6 missions and the game says that I'm 25% complete and I'm playing on normal. I've gone back to the first level and played it on hard and passed it then checked my status again, and it was still at 25% complete which leads me to believe that I have way more than just 2 missions ahead of me. And if it's only 2 more missions that take up 75% of the game, then that's groundbreaking in and of itself. The levels are HUGE and YES, it has averaged me about an hour and ten minutes per level because I try to move with stealth as much as possible and I like to get all the secondary objectives. All that's going to do is enhance your experience and extend your gameplay so go all out.

Bottom line is this game is cheaper than other new FPS' and the sound and special effects are awesome. I don't believe any other game has gotten it so close to the Matrix lobby scene, outside of Matrix: Path of Neo, but then that's not an FPS is it?

If you're a gamer then you need to check this out, whether you rent or purchase. I typically purchase any game I like and rent those that I'm unsure of. If you're a FPS gamer then yes this needs to go into your library.

What are you doing still reading? Click add to cart or run out to your local store and pick it up. I'm not kidding. You won't regret it. The bigger your screen and better your sound, the better you experience.

wicked cool

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome! It's extremely realistic, and your team (when you have one) actually makes intelligent chatter. The levels are easy enough so you don't get stuck forever, but hard enough so that it takes a couple of tries. I like how the enemies have almost as much health as you. I also like how you need to use some strategy instead of just running around shooting. Finally, being able to shoot anything and have a affect is really cool. There are only two small drawbacks. 1) The enemy is either deaf and blind, or really stupid. You can kill a person right next to another person, and if you have a silencer they won't even notice. 2) The game is very short and has no multiplayer, so rent it. It's awesome!!!!!!!!!

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