Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Weekly Report - 01/11/2013

As I mentioned last week, I started Black Ops 2. I'm already about halfway through the campaign - so far it's just too easy (even more so than the last one). The plot is a sticky, convoluted mess so far. Hopefully it clears up but I'm not holding my breath. It's especially confusing to hop between characters in different eras (1980s - 2025) with the same names every mission (the 2025 character is, apparently, the son of the protagonist from Black Ops.

The presentation of this title is far superior to anything Treyarch has done before. Graphics and animation are excellent and voice acting is improved. However, the audio in general is iffy. The soundtrack is acceptable but sound effects, particularly gunfire, is pathetic. Gunfire is so quiet you can barely hear it compared to footsteps, explosions, and voice chatter. Game designers, take note: guns are loud. Remember the first episode of The Walking Dead when Rick unthinkingly fires his handgun inside the tank on the streets of Atlanta? It concusses him and he is temporarily deafened. Seriously, guns are loud.

In terms of gameplay, I don't care for the futuristic "see-through-walls" scopes, the flying drones, or the track-mounted robot machine guns. It feels gimmicky. I can't speak to how drones play out in multiplayer (I haven't tried it out yet) but I imagine they are quite obnoxious.

And one more thing: Strike Missions. I'm not quite sure how to rate these, yet. I've discussed them before but I'm still not entirely committed to an opinion on the quality of this new game mode.

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