E3 2010: Call of Duty: Black Ops Preview

by Nate Ahearn - IGN.com | 28 May 2010 12:00
 
Welcome to a world where everything you know is wrong.
 
Thank ABC's Lost for the recent craze of time travel-based storylines seeping into pop culture. With Call of Duty Black: Ops, we could have yet another time traveling adventure. Activision is being very cagey about confirming the exact dates that Black Ops takes place, thus adding fuel to our time traveling fire. The latest battles to be depicted by the hallowed series are centered on the Cold War and Vietnam eras. At least, we think they are. The fact of the matter is that we really have no idea the exact years that Call of Duty: Black Ops spans, and that's one of the many reasons why this latest edition has our complete attention.
 
In talking to Mark Lamia, president of Treyarch (the developers of this latest COD), I was told that they were intentionally not revealing the specific years or time span of the game because it's an important plot point. Again: time travel, anyone? Regardless of what the plot twist finally turns out to be, rest assured that it will be surrounded by the same classic Call of Duty gameplay. I saw two levels of Black Ops at a recent Activision press event in Los Angeles and can confirm that both guns and blood are still firmly intact and will be seen often.
 

Click here to watch our latest IGN Rewind Theater for Black Ops

Thankfully, it looks like there's going to be a bunch of other, newer elements as well. At least as far as single-player is concerned (Treyarch is mum about multiplayer details). The first piece of gameplay we were shown displayed the SR-71 Blackbird that we all gazed upon with awe in the first trailer. Yes, you're going to fly it. Not only that, but you're also going to be responsible for getting that sucker off of an aircraft carrier and into the sky. Don't worry, the process only requires a few button presses. From there, you're off to relay reconnaissance to the rest of your troops from high above.
 
The mechanic looked cool -- not all that dissimilar from the AC-130 mission that we all remember from Modern Warfare but without all the killing. Basically you're looking at a thermal view of the ground from the sky, but the twist to Black Ops is that you can command your squad around the battlefield in order to avoid enemy detection. The sequence seemed very guided, with the demoer positioning her squad in between a snow-covered building and the enemy with few other obvious options for cover. Once the troops were clear, the player's viewpoint dropped out of the plane and assumed the identity of some badass with a crossbow on the ground.
 

Click here for more Call of Duty: Black Ops Videos

At this point in the demo, I thought to myself, "Who in the hell carries a crossbow into battle when a machine gun seems more efficient?" Well, as the president of Treyarch told me, it turns out that at least one guy certainly did. Apparently the military advisor for COD: Black Ops had a friend who refused to go into battle with anything but his scoped crossbow, so that's what players will see here. Not only can the crossbow kill people from afar, but you can also launch explosives and stick them to the environment for enemies to find. After this quick firefight in the snow, we were shown a repelling sequence that called for the player to use both triggers to make their way down the icy mountainside (on a funny note, the person playing from Treyarch fell and died at this point). That portion was followed by a breach and clear moment where the player had to swing through a glass window and decimate a group of armed guards. All in slow motion, of course. From there on out, the level called WMD was all fighting. The player from Treyarch showed off the crossbow's ability to stick mines to objects – a moment that brought plenty of casualties as the mine caused a series of massive explosions. It was easily the most impressive segment of the pure COD gameplay. Other hallmark moments included a gruesome execution with a knife and lots of blood erupting from bullet penetrations. I'm hoping they can change the damage to be a little more dynamic. From this early demo, every blood-squirting animation seemed to be the same. WMD concluded with soldiers leaping from a cliff and a quick fade to black. I'm guessing that the next portion featured user-controlled skydiving, but we were quickly sent to the next stage, known as Slaughterhouse.
 
This final bit of our demo with Call of Duty: Black Ops featured plenty of that bearded hero that we saw so much of in the first two trailers. The level took place in Huế, Vietnam and could have been depicting the Battle of Huế, which was a part of the infamous Tết Offensive. Regardless, we saw a lot of that tatted-up bearded guy as he and the player laid waste to just about every baddy within range. All of that took place after the oh-so-iconic shot of him using a rope to repel from a copter and at one point we even saw the presumably American character wrestle a weapon away from an enemy, only to turn around and shoot the guy and an evil friend with that very same gun. The level had plenty of ancillary action just like this. Helicopters flew in and unloaded missiles on buildings and fireballs rose in the background. All of this was totally separate from the player's goals and actions.
 

He's one bad mother.

Speaking of goals, a good chunk of Splatterhouse was spent with the player working her way through a hollowed out building with the help of a SPAS-12 shotgun and some seriously fiery incendiary rounds known as "dragon's breath." Once that was done and enough bodies had been burnt to a crisp, our hero character was sent outside to clear out enemy-occupied buildings. How to do this? Radio guidance and a few missiles from hovering copters, that's how. Buildings crumbled adequately, but only in a pre-packaged canned animation. The destruction didn't seem to be dynamic, which was disappointing.
 
And just like that, the level was over and our demo was done. The only multiplayer hints we were given were that there would be four-player co-op in a mode that featured "unique gameplay." This could be played with two-player split-screen as well as online with two other buddies. Treyarch wrapped things by explaining that the aim of Black Ops is to rewrite history, saying, "Everything you know is wrong." This sort of lends itself to our belief that the game is going to make use of the popularity Lost has generated for the mechanic of time travel. Perhaps players will be sent back in time from present day to change the events of the Vietnam War? Only time will tell (Get it?), but rest assured, we'll be there to let you know as soon we can.
 

Owned.

Seeing Black Ops for the first time was exhilarating; there's no question about that. The visuals looked sharp, the action was fast and furious, and the two hand-picked levels did a nice job of showing different types of warfare. WMD was more of a stealth level with some recon and heavy action mixed in. Slaughterhouse was more of an all-out war with lots of explosions and a setting that was crafted to closely resemble a war torn village in Vietnam. Here's hoping that the rest of the stages in Black Ops offer a similar breadth of visual styles.
 
For more on Call of Duty: Black Ops stay tuned to IGN.com. Also, for more of our wonky theories, be sure to check out our a pair of IGN Rewind Theaters. Call of Duty: Black Ops is scheduled to launch on November 9, 2010 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (with dedicated server support) and Wii.
 
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