Black

THE BAD:
*More weapons would have been welcome
*Grenades cant be chucked amazingly far
*No multiplayer

SUMMARY:
Everyone has heard of Black. Whoever says that they haven't are lying through their back teeth. However, people generally hold a misconception as to the games content - like I did. This is NOT a run and gun shooter, despite what you may think. Try playing the game like that and you'll no doubt fail to get any further that the second level. This is a non-stop spray and pray shooter, but its not just that.

In Black, you will find that cover is absolutely vital in order to survive. Unlike most FPS's where you are either Overt or Covert, Black is a little bit of both. It takes a little getting used to but its satisfying once you do.

Blacks story is based around Internal Affairs, holding the leader of one of the Black Op's team for questioning regarding a terrorist cell they have been hunting down know as Seventh Wave. The levels you play are flashbacks in the protagonist, Keller's, story. Its not an entirely deep story, but it has been done amazingly well - using real actors and moody camerawork.

Black is a hard game. Even though it is only eight levels long, they are tough to get through. Even easy can prove challenging at first. When you start trying the likes of hard and Dark Ops, even the most hardcore gamers will break down in tears.

The actual combat itself is immensley satisfying. Every bullet effects the environment, whether its a bullethole, making dust fly in the air or ripping chunks out of pillars - every bullet counts in the environment. Each terrorist you fight is a hollywodd stuntman as well, reacting very OTT when the yget hit by anything. Its all over the top fun, and it works. The best part of the combat i found was with grenades. Throwing a grenade in a window and watching the bodies flying out never gets tiresome, and the age-old trick of throwing a grenade and shooting it to make sure the badguys dont run away is a satisfying and useful trick.

Of course the game isnt perfect. No game is. A few more weapons would have been nice, even though every weapon that IS in the game are all very fun and very powerful to use. A few more levels would have been nice, although as ive said the levels that are in the game have great deal of replayability due to them being just so darn fun!

The biggest drawback of all has to be the lack of multiplayer. In this day and age when online gaming rules supreme, a singleplayer only game stands out like a sore thumb. Even a co-operative game would have added a load more replayability to the game. However, im sure that Criterion will fix this for Black 360 - at least I hope so!!!!

All in all, a very worthwhile game to pick up. Id advise getting a second hand copy though as a single player only game can never really justify a £37.99 pricetag. What are you waiting for? Go and grab a copy!!!