Welcome to Black Ops
For a long time, Call of Duty games focused exclusively on World War II. Then, they started paying attention to modern weapons and gadgets in completely fictional conflicts. For the 7th and final installation of the series, they decided to go an entirely different route. Black Ops is set during the Cold War, combining real people, places, events, and weaponry with other fictional characters and events. Throughout the course of the campaign, you'll play mainly as two different members of the Studies and Observations Group (SOG), a highly-classified special ops group. You'll have to sneak, shoot, and survive your way through a variety of settings in a heart-pounding campaign that elevates the "typical" Call of Duty campaign. Not only is the campaign longer, it's more varied to keep things interesting. Long story short, this could very easily be the best COD campaign ever.
The real reason you want it
Sure, you'll enjoy the campaign, but if you're like most gamers, the reason you want this game so badly isn't the campaign, it's the multiplayer. After you fight through the campaign a time or two, you'll head to LIVE to test your grit against millions of other players around the world. To that end, Call of Duty: Black Ops is anything but disappointing. Building heavily on the insanely-successful Modern Warfare games, Black Ops offers an engaging multiplayer experience complete with a lot of fun new options. For starters, a currency system has been added to give you greater flexibility for how you level up. There are plenty of options for customizations from weapons to accessories to perks to appearance items like clothes or facepaint. You can even "engrave" things in your gun or adjust your emblem. All-in-all the customization potential of this game give you more freedom than you may be ready to handle. Of course, there are plenty of other updates, like new custom killstreak rewards, a Combat Training mode for honing your battle skills, and Wager Matches that take advantage of the new currency system. At its core, though, this is still the same great Call of Duty multiplayer that's become so popular over the years.
Zombies are back!
One of the most notable and popular features of Treyarch's last Call of Duty game, World at War, was the zombie mode. Sure, the concept isn't exactly new, but how can you not love taking up arms against hordes of the undead? We're proud to report that zombie mode is back in Black Ops. Pair up with a friend on your console plus up to two other friends online and play as JFK, Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro, teaming up to take on wave after wave of brain-craving zombies. This mode has been re-made with no holds barred, so be prepared to be surprised. The new zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops is bound to provide hours upon hours of thrilling fun.
"Did so!"
Let us know if this sounds familiar: You pull off an incredible feat online, only to have your buddy call you a fibber when you tell him about it. Well, those days are done. One easy-to-love improvement is the addition of Theater Mode. With it, you can watch your recent matches, edit the length of clips, and upload them to your file share to make your pal eat his words. The file share is also a great place to put your custom game variants you create. With the many improved customization options, you have more freedom than ever before in setting up local multiplayer games, so you don't have to count on the honor system for your custom gametypes.
Neener. Neener
Anybody with a brother, sister, son, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend, neighbor, grandma, or anyone else who loves to play Call of Duty will be pleased to hear about what could be considered the biggest improvement to the COD franchise: splitscreen online multiplayer. Unlike past games, you and your friend can both play online from the same console. Better still, only on the Xbox 360, you can choose whether the second player will be a guest or an actual account. Guest accounts, which are also available on other systems, progress just as a normal account would, but gets reset every time it gets signed out or the console is shut off. If your pal has an Xbox LIVE Gold membership, however, they can sign in to their account to level their soldier up as they play, something not available on other systems.
One quick note
Call of Duty: Black Ops received a rating of "M" for Mature from the ESRB, the group that gives age ratings to all video games sold in the U.S. The "M" rating on this game means that it can't be purchased and probably shouldn't be played by anyone under the age of 17. It's an awesome game, but graphic depictions of violence, complete with blood can be a little much for younger audiences. If you're not sure whether or not this game is right for your kid, check it out yourself. Also, Black Ops supports online gameplay with voice communication, meaning anyone with a microphone can say anything. In the heat of battle, not everything said is family-friendly, so be especially careful about allowing minors to play online and with voice. Pro tip: Under the settings on an Xbox, parental controls allow you to adjust the ratings someone is able to play, whether or not they can play online or with voice communication, and even how long they can play.
What's in the box?
This game includes the game disc and user manual.
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Comparison Specifications
- Campaign: 1 player; Co-op: Up to 4 players (2 local); Multiplayer: Up to 18 players (2 local)
- Set during the "Cold" War
- All-new campaign featuring Special Ops characters
- Co-op "Zombie Mode" returns
- First-person shooter
- New characters and weapons
- Uses enhanced version of COD: World at War's engine
- Runs at 60 frames per second
- Improved online multiplayer with new credit system
- More customization available in multiplayer
Additional Specifications
- New gameplay video capture feature
- Developed by TreyArch
- Rated "M" for Mature
Activision Call of Duty: Black Ops Warranty Details
90-day limited manufacturer's parts and labor warranty
