Let’s get the bad news out of the way; I did not get to play Call Of Duty: Black Ops, no-one did, but I did get to see two levels in action. The first level was set in Soviet Union but to get there your character will jump in to the cockpit of a Blackbird and experience the massive G forces as it takes off. The game then swaps to view to inside your cockpit where a monitor is showing an aerial view of your team and you get to command them where to go – it’s a bit like a mini Command & Conquer section as you have to hide your tram in buildings as enemy vehicles pass by. Stealth from afar, you might say.
This section does not last too long and soon we are back in FPS mode, hidden in small cave on a snow covered mountain. This is a tense moment much like the Ghilly suit section in MW2 as you have to stay perfectly still as the enemy pass within inches.
After they have gone you are up and running with the much rumoured crossbow. Treyarch told me this was inspired by Black Ops teams from Australia who trained with indigenous people in South East Asia who used bows for low tech but efficient stealth kills.
Stealth played a great part in the section as you progress through the snow, quietly taking out the guards. However the chap demonstrating the game decided to blow his cover by firing an explosive bolt into a large gas tank and then all hell breaks loose in true COD style.
This section also featured multiple instances of rappelling off cliffs and buildings and at key moments the game slips in slow motion to give you an epic sense of action. Unfortunately just as you complete this section of the mission and alarm goes off as the worst possible thing has happened on a snowy mountain – an avalanche!
Frantic scrambling across the side of a mountain as an avalanche gathers pace above you head certainly gets the adrenaline running and you end up having to skydive off a cliff precipice. This ended this first level demo.
The second section we were shown was called “Slaughter House” and it’s an apt description. Set in Vietnam your view is from a helicopter which suddenly gets hit by an RPG, just as you are rappelling out. A great action sequence follows as you cling for dear life as the helicopter spins out of control and you end up crashing through a window.
The location is an overrun CIA base and is filled with VC, it really is a slaughterhouse because you are armed with the “Dragons Breath”, a prototype shotgun that fires incendiary shells. The effect these have is jaw dropping – fire at anything and it catches fire, doors, walls, and people. Fire it at close range and your enemy will literally get ripped apart and splatter limbs and blood across the floor.
As the level progresses you can call in a Huey to give you support, and later on a tank. I was sat beside a speaker during the demo and ended up partially deaf, this game is LOUD.
Treyarch are under a lot of pressure to deliver and when I talked to them a bit later is was obvious they want to distance themselves from Infinity Ward and the surrounding fiasco. They were very keen to impress on everyone this is a Treyarch game, it’s their design, their ideas, their game and I don’t think they have anything to worry about.
The game just oozes quality, from the ear busting sound to the rock solid 60fps frame rate. Treyarch have improved the game engine even further with new particle effects and fire as well as improvements to the physics engines. The levels created a great sense of atmosphere, especially the Vietnam level which is bathed in a constant orange glow as the sun sets and fires burn all around. There are many little set pieces, just little touches that may happen in the background that make the game feel ‘real’, such as one moment when a door was kicked down and saw another team member slitting an enemies throat.
I was not particularly fond of MW2 purely because of the ridiculous storyline but watching the fight through Vietnam brought memories of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and classic TV show “Tour Of Duty”. It feels fast, brutal and very real.
I did my very best to try and find out exactly which time periods you would be playing in as all Activision have revealed is the game is set during ‘The Cold War’ and that lasted for thirty years or so. Treyarch did reveal to me they have had to model certain characters at different times in their lives and they also said levels will be set before Vietnam, that means the time will run from the early 1960s to quite possibly the late 1980s.
Treyarch have pulled out all the stops and this could be the best Call Of Duty ever. I was impressed, especially as no one ever said anything about Mike or Oscar.