Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty Black Ops
Studio	Treyarch Raven Software Ideaworks (iOS version) n-Space (Nintendo DS version)
Publisher	Activision
composer	Sean Murray
Erstveröffent- lichung	November 9, 2010
platform	PC ( Windows , macOS ), Xbox 360 , Xbox One , PlayStation 3 , Nintendo Wii (limited version) Nintendo DS (separate version) Apple iOS , Android (only zombie mode)
Game engine	IW 3.0
genre	Ego shooter
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Keyboard , mouse , gamepad
system advantages preconditions	Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / AMD Phenom X3 8750 CPU , 2048 MB RAM , 12 GB hard disk , 256 MB graphics card
medium	Blu-ray , DVD-DL , download
Age rating	USK PEGI
information	With the exception of the Nintendo DS version, the German versions have been shortened; Activation of the original PC version with a German IP address is not possible. iOS version rated 17+.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter developedby Treyarch andreleased worldwide by Activision on November 9, 2010for PC ( Windows and macOS ), Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 and Wii . The game represents the seventh part of the Call of Duty series and the third part developed by Treyarch. Black Ops can be played in 3D on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

In the first 24 hours, Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies with a turnover of 360 million US dollars , making the game an unprecedented sales record for the entire entertainment industry. Just six weeks after its release, Call of Duty: Black Ops was one of the most successful video games of all time. With sales of over a billion dollars, it was the best-selling game in 2010 and , according to a market study by the NPD Group , the best-selling video game to date.

In December 2011, the partial porting of Black Ops as Call of Duty: Black Ops: Zombies was published by the developer Ideaworks for iOS. The successor Black Ops II was released on November 13, 2012, also by the Treyarch development studio.

Gameplay

campaign

The protagonist Alex Mason wakes up tied to a chair in a dark room and is interrogated by strangers. He remembers different parts of his life in flashbacks. The action begins in Cuba in 1961 , just before the Bay of Pigs invasion . Together with his comrades Frank Woods and Joseph Bowman, Mason enters Fidel Castro's villa . But instead of killing the head of government, they just kill a doppelganger, and Mason is captured. Castro hands Mason over to the Russian general Nikita Dragovich, who says he has "plans for him".

In the next mission you meet Viktor Reznov in the Soviet labor camp Vorkuta , who already played a role in Call of Duty: World at War . In the course of a large-scale prisoner revolt, Mason manages to escape, while Reznov is apparently caught again. Later, Mason fights during the Vietnam War in Huế and is supposed to meet a Russian defector there, who turns out to be Reznov. Afterwards another character becomes playable for the first time: the CIA agent Jason Hudson. In Kowloon he tries to find a contact from Dragovich, Dr. Daniel Clarke, interrogate. However, he is killed before he can reveal anything. In the next mission, the player returns with Reznov to the year 1945. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, he and Russian troops attack a German position on the Arctic Circle. Dragovich, here as Reznov's superior, meets the defector Friedrich Steiner and examines a nearby ship with a secret weapon on it, the highly toxic Gas Nova 6.Reznov and his comrades are overwhelmed by Dragovich's men, who get him out of the way want to test the Nova 6 at the same time. Suddenly, however, British units attack. Reznov then blows up the ship so as not to let the Nova 6 fall into the wrong hands.

During his interrogation, Mason is repeatedly asked about dubious numbers that he keeps hearing in his head. In his next flashback, he is captured in Laos along with Woods and Bowman . Bowman is killed while Woods and Mason flee and also free Reznov. Then they try to kill Dragovich's henchman Kravchenko, Woods stabs him in the back with a knife, then Kravchenko activates a grenade and jumps out of a window with Woods, the grenade ignites and Woods and Kravchenko apparently die during this action.

Mason and Reznov now travel to the Isle of Rebirth to find Steiner. At the same time, however, Hudson is also on the way there with a command from the CIA . Reznov and Mason fight their way through the complex, find Steiner and Reznov shoots him. Now the mission is shown from Hudson's point of view. He observes what is really happening: Mason kills Steiner and Reznov is not even there. Mason is captured and taken to where he has been since the game started. The voices questioning him there belong to Hudson and Weaver.

Now the game starts in the present. Dragovich has posted sleepers across the U.S. preparing to unleash the Nova 6. With the Soviet government not responding, the US is preparing for the first nuclear strike. Meanwhile, Hudson tells Mason the truth: Reznov has been dead for years; Mason had only imagined it all the way through. Mason was brainwashed by Dragovich in Vorkuta and programmed to kill the American president, the mysterious numbers representing commands to his programming and those of other sleeper agents Dragovich kills. In the final part of the plot, Mason and Hudson now attack Dragovich's secret base, the merchant ship Rusalka off the coast of Cuba. Underneath this is Dragovich's transmission station for the numbers on the seabed. Mason manages to break the signal and kill Dragovich.

The credits show a film in which John F. Kennedy drives through Dallas on November 22, 1963 , the day he was murdered. Now the video is played backwards until the camera at the airport points into the crowd, in which Mason suddenly appears. The question remains whether Mason did not carry out the assassination after all.

Voice actor

Well -known voice actors could again be won for Black Ops . So again Gary Oldman to hear voice, already for Call of Duty: World at War was signed. In addition, the actor Ed Harris and the rapper Ice Cube were hired as speakers. Film star Sam Worthington lent his voice to the protagonist Alex Mason. Also, Oleg Taktarov , Topher Grace , Dimitri Diatchenko and David Conrad involved as a voice actor in the game. In the German version of the game, voice actor Tobias Kluckert lends the protagonist's voice. Kluckert is known as the German standard voice actor for Seth Rogen , Gerard Butler and Tyrese Gibson . The Russian ex-sergeant Viktor Reznov is voiced by Udo Schenk .

Multiplayer

In contrast to its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 , weapons in multiplayer mode are not automatically unlocked when you level up , but have to be purchased at Black Ops with so-called "CoD Points". This virtual money can be received, among other things, when completing orders ("contracts"). In addition, it is possible to improve or decorate the weapons with attachments. When decorating, camouflage patterns, emblems or your own clan tag can be used; these must be paid for individually for each weapon.

You can design your own avatar with camouflage make-up and the given outfits. The appearance of the character also changes when other extras are used: For example, when using the “Ghost” extra, you wear a ghillie suit . In this mode you can compete against each other on a total of 14 maps in team deathmatch or another game variant.

In addition to the familiar game modes from the predecessor, you can now compete against five other players in competitive games ("wager matches"). Everyone pays an entry fee, which is divided among the best three players on a percentage basis (50%, 30% and 20%) at the end.

In addition, there are now 50 and not like the predecessor 70 levels that you have to achieve in order to start a new so-called Prestige . There are a total of 15 prestige levels. When the player completes level 50, they can opt for the prestige and start over at level 1, with the unlocked equipment reset. Each prestige level has a different emblem and offers some cosmetic extras.

Struggle for survival

The survival game mode includes four-player online, two-player split-screen and single-player missions in which you have to fend off ever-growing waves of zombies. After finishing the main game, you can slip into the roles of John F. Kennedy , Richard Nixon , Robert McNamara , and Fidel Castro , who defend the United States Department of Defense against zombie hordes. In each of the expansions there is still a new card for the fight for survival. With the third DLC the map " Shangri-La " was released. The fourth DLC "Rezurrection" contains the revised maps " The Giant ", " Crazy ", " Shi No Numa " and " Night of the Undead " from World at War as well as the new map " Moon ".

Extensions

The first chargeable map pack called First Strike was released on February 1, 2011, initially for the Xbox 360 and on March 3, 2011 for the Playstation 3. This brings four new maps for the multiplayer mode and a new map for the zombie -Mode. The DLC has also been available for the PC since March 25, 2011.

The second expansion, called Escalation , was released on May 3rd exclusively for Xbox 360 and, like its predecessor, contains four maps for multiplayer mode and one map for zombie mode. Almost a month later, on June 2nd, the map pack was also released for PC. For the PlayStation 3 it was released on June 10th.

The third map pack was announced just a week later. It is called Annihilation and again contains four multiplayer and one zombie map. It was released for the Xbox 360 on June 28th. The PC and PS3 versions have been available since July 28th.

On August 4th, a fourth map pack called Rezurrection was announced. Downloadable for the Xbox 360 from August 23rd, this map pack has a special feature compared to its predecessors. It does not contain any multiplayer maps, but consists entirely of maps for the struggle for survival. While a new, the "Saga of the Undead" final map called " Moon " is added, the other four maps are revised versions of the zombie maps from Call of Duty: World at War . The DLC also contains a soundtrack with three new songs and a " Moon theme." The map pack was released for the PC and PS3 on September 22nd.

music

Most of the video game music was composed by Sean Murray and was released on November 16, 2010 with 30 tracks as a download . In addition, the songs Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones , Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Won't Back Down (in the credits) by Eminem with Pink are used. The song Sympathy for the Devil has been removed from the German version of the game. The songs in zombie mode are sung by Elena Siegman .

reception

Meta-ratings publication Rating PS3 Windows Xbox 360 Metacritic 88/100 81/100 87/100

Call of Duty: Black Ops billboard in Los Angeles

Black Ops received mostly positive feedback from the critics. The Metascore for the Xbox 360 version is 87%, the PS3 version 88%, while the PC version received 81%. IGN rated the game with 8.5 out of 10 points and particularly praised the Hollywood-style production. The simple game principle and the need were as criticisms called repeatedly scripting events to have to trigger before the enemy onslaught dies down. Looki gave it a rating of 88 percent: Although the test showed that the single player campaign was again briefly canceled, in addition to its staging, the drama outlined above all was praised. In addition, the magazine emphasizes the very good multiplayer mode, which convinces in all variants.

Sales of the game at launch were above average. In the first 24 hours, with 5.6 million copies sold and a turnover of 360 million US dollars, in addition to the sales record for games, the record for the entire entertainment industry was also set. For comparison: The record in the film industry with James Cameron's avatar is 232 million US dollars. In the US alone, 8.4 million copies were sold in November, 2.4 million more than Modern Warfare 2 . Every fourth game sold this month was Black Ops . With sales of one billion US dollars, Black Ops was the best-selling game of 2010 after just six weeks (faster than any game before) and, according to the developer, the best-selling game for the PlayStation 3 at all. It is also the most pirated game of the year. More than 4.27 million copies have been downloaded for the PC via BitTorrent alone . By 2013, 26.2 million copies had been sold worldwide.

Due to numerous bugs that customers had to struggle with months after the start of sales, the PlayStation 3 in particular, but also the PC version of the shooter, caused a massive uproar. Immediately after the release, the busy servers in particular caused difficulties for the PC version. PS3 players kept having problems with the multiplayer mode over a longer period of time, until the entire PlayStation Network was overloaded and no longer accessible when the first additional content was released.

German versions

There are two German-language versions: All marks of unconstitutional organizations (swastikas, SS runes, etc.) have been removed from the first version . Dialogues and texts have also been changed: In contrast to the original version, the words “Nazi”, “SS” or “Reich” are no longer used; in addition, some descriptions of violence have been removed. Although this version has a PEGI approval from 18 years of age, it is not an age approval by the USK and has meanwhile been indexed in Germany .

Another version of the game was approved by the USK for ages 18 and over. In addition to the anti-constitutional symbols mentioned above, it lacks a torture scene, many splatter effects and the song Sympathy for the Devil in the soundtrack. Dialogs and texts have been changed as in the version described above. The so-called survival mode, which was deleted in the German version of Call of Duty: World at War , is included; However, since it has been relieved of a number of violent effects, which results in a different point allocation, it cannot be played with players who have the original version. The removed Nazi symbolism is irrelevant because it has also been removed from the first version mentioned above, but it can also be played with owners of uncut versions of the game.

The activation required to play the PC versions of the game on Steam is not possible for the original version with a German IP address. In addition, the British subsidiary of Amazon decided not to export the unabridged version to Germany.

Web links

• Comparison of the cut versions of the censored German version and the uncensored British version of Call of Duty: Black Ops at Schnittberichte.com
• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,793573/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-Systembedingungen-iegen-deutlich-ueber-denen-der-Vorgaenger/Action-Spiel/News/
2. ↑ Release date: Call of Duty Black Ops - New part of Call of Duty. (No longer available online.) Ubbu.de, May 1, 2010, archived from the original on October 19, 2010 ; Retrieved November 22, 2010 . 
3. ↑ Hanno Neuhaus: Call of Duty: Black Ops - Comes in 3D. GamePro , October 5, 2010, accessed November 22, 2010 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} $ 360 million! "Call of Duty" breaks all records. (No longer available online.) Image , November 12, 2010, archived from the original on November 15, 2010 ; Retrieved November 22, 2010 . 
5. Jump up ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops - Box office earnings. GameStar , accessed December 23, 2010 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Call of Duty: Black Ops - The Most Pirated Game of 2010. GameStar , accessed January 1, 2011 . 
7. ^ Dan Whitworth: Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best selling game ever. BBC , March 14, 2011, accessed March 17, 2011 . 
8. ↑ PC Games: Black Ops 2, accessed May 1, 2012
9. ↑ Alexander Bohn: Call of Duty: Black Ops: Rapper Ice Cube is represented with a speaking role. Eurogamer.de, October 28, 2010, accessed on November 22, 2010 . 
10. ^ Sam Worthington's Voice Acting Was Rather Impressive. GameSpot , November 12, 2010, accessed November 22, 2010 . 
11. ^ Full cast and crew for Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) (VG). IMDb , accessed November 22, 2010 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Call of Duty: Black Ops - Lots of new things in multiplayer ; Retrieved October 30, 2010
13. ↑ Published for the PC ( Memento from March 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Andreas Link: Call of Duty Black Ops: Second Mappack Escalation is coming. In: PC Games Hardware. April 12, 2011, accessed June 17, 2019 . 
15. ↑ PC Escalation Available Now! ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Escalation for PS3, June 10th  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
17. ↑ Annihilation: Content Pack 3 Announced  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )
18. ↑ Annihilation for PC / PS3, July 28th  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
19. ↑ Recurrection: Content Pack 4 Announced ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
20. ↑ Black Ops: Rezurrection for PC / PS3, September 22nd  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
21. ↑ Soundtrack at Amazon.de
22. ^ Raiz: Call of Duty: Black Ops censorship details revealed . gamepur.com. October 3, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
23. ↑ James C. Burns: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Demo Clip . Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 11, 2010. 
24. ↑ Call Of Duty: Black Ops, sectional reports . Retrieved December 17, 2010.
25. ↑ genius.com ( Memento of December 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved October 5, 2015
26. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops, PlayStation 3. In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed March 8, 2018 . 
27. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops, Xbox 360. In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed March 8, 2018 . 
28. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops, PC. In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed March 8, 2018 . 
29. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops for Xbox 360. Metacritic , accessed November 22, 2010 . 
30. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops for PlayStation 3. Metacritic , accessed November 22, 2010 . 
31. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops for PC. Metacritic , accessed November 22, 2010 . 
32. ↑ Tino Hahn: Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360) / Test. IGN , November 10, 2010, accessed November 22, 2010 . 
33. Jump up ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops Test. Looki , accessed November 22, 2010 . 
34. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops - Impressive US sales. Looki , accessed December 10, 2010 . 
35. ↑ Call of Duty - Black Ops: Activision Shooter the Most Successful PS3 Game? Retrieved March 6, 2011 . 
36. ↑ Call of Duty: A Short History. Retrieved November 10, 2017 . 
37. ↑ Consumer advocates attack Activision because of bugs. GameStar , accessed March 6, 2011 . 
38. ↑ Multiplayer problems. winfuture.de, accessed on March 6, 2011 . 
39. ↑ Sony: Black Ops brings PS3 network to its knees. chip.de, March 4, 2011, archived from the original on March 5, 2011 ; Retrieved March 6, 2011 . 
40. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops. In: Schnittberichte.com . November 28, 2010, accessed July 17, 2011 . 
41. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops. In: Schnittberichte.com . October 21, 2010, accessed July 17, 2011 . 
42. ↑ Call of Duty: Black Ops: Not an uncut version for PC gamers. Schnittberichte.com , October 28, 2010, accessed November 22, 2010 . 
43. ↑ Tobias Ritter: Amazon.co.uk blocks certain 18+ games for Germany. OnlineWelten, November 2, 2010, accessed on November 22, 2010 .