Gun porn.
There, I’ve said it. If I ever hear that phrase again, I’ll be heading to my local ’sports’ store to pick up some ‘adult entertainment’ of my own. With a suppressor. Every review, every preview, every news story and every forum thread you’ll ever see about Black will contain that phrase. The marketing wheels were surely turning when they slipped that into an interview. Still, on we go.
If you like guns, shooting and damage, then Black will be right up your alley. You play generic tough-as-nails army guy number six, who begins the game by getting a right royal telling off for disobeying direct orders. Even though there is no real need for a plot, Criterion have done well here with some very stylish storyline presentation and a nice overall feel. You’re sitting in an interview room, with an investigator going over the facts of what happened in your last few missions. You then get to play through those missions as described. This is the first plus point, although I don’t see what was gained by removing the ability to skip through the live motion video sections. From the time the game loads up, you’re looking at a good ten minutes before you actually get to do anything, simply because the introduction is being rammed down your throat, with no way of bypassing it.
Once you do get your firearms running, those television adverts will start to make sense, as pieces of scenery go flying, bodies get blown up into the air and at times ‘ the entire scene seems to go up in flames. If an opponent is behind flimsy cover, a quick blast of the shotgun will be enough to expose him for the kill, although the enemy has the same abilities’so watch out. Any downed man can be looted for his weapons or ammo, and this leads to some sweet RPG action early on. Firing a rocket at a rooftop rocket-meister is unbelievably satisfying, when you hit the target and the entire top portion of the building comes crashing down. The same can be said for grenade kills. Sneak into position next to a tower with a sniper on it and lob a grenade skywards to hear the cries of ‘GREN-ADA!’ and to see him take a running leap to safety ‘ only to be blown up as he steps off the edge. Superb.
On the subject of grenades, Black represents these very, very well. In other games, you’d throw a grenade and find that if the enemy isn’t standing directly inside the ‘circle’ of destruction, then they’d survive unharmed. Throw one into a building and the same laws would apply. Not in Black. Throw a grenade here, and anyone within a decent range will feel the pain, since frag grenades don’t just explode upwards. Toss a grenade into a small building and the lack of an escape route for the explosion means that the entire room will be cleared. This is how things are meant to happen.
But then, I look at my reviewers pad and see nothing but check marks for Black ‘ aside from the unskippable movies. ‘There has to be something wrong with it!’ I yell, and all of a sudden it hits me. It hits me as I’m crawling through the forest in the middle of a firefight, and one of the AI enemies takes a shot at me, runs behind me and then turns to run right across my line of fire. It happens again as out of nowhere, three panicking opponents all run from behind me, straight past me and into a covered position. They could have shot me in the back and I’d have been none the wiser ‘ it would have been my own fault. But no, they decided that their only option was cover, and they weren’t intelligent enough to see the opportunity they had stumble upon. It happens time and time again, and lets the game down badly. Enemies run right at you, only to be gunned down in droves. They see a grenade and run right towards it, because they’ve decided that the only place to be is on the other side of where the explosion will be. Bang. Dead.
Also, how on earth can a man take NINE bullets from a pistol directly in the chest and not die’ Seemingly, every opponent in Black has these super-powers. Unless you go at them with the shotgun, in which case shooting them once in the foot is generally enough to kill them stone dead. On top of this, I have a question for the designer. Why on earth does the screen ‘blur’ when I reload the weapon I’m holding’ I just reloaded my automatic rifle four times in less than sixty seconds, and every single time the view went out of focus ‘ causing me to lose sight of my enemies. If I’m so damned good with guns, why do I need to focus entirely on the barrel to be able to load one’ Rant ends.
Funnily enough, this AI-based shenanigans doesn’t stop Black from being a very and compelling game. You wouldn’t be miles away if you said that this is just another FPS with lots more damage and loads of explosions, but the game really is more enjoyable than that phrase suggests.
