Weaponry
You can only carry two weapons at a time, plus up to nine grenades. Each weapon class – handguns, shotguns, SMGs, assault rifles, sniper rifles, high-calibre single-shell guns, heavy machine-guns and RPGs – has a couple of variants. Realistic variants of the Heckler & Koch MP5 and the AK47 are included. You can zoom in all weapons bar the shotgun by clicking the right stick, but then you will move agonisingly slowly.
You can chuck grenades with a satisfying amount of precision, and set them off before their fuses kick in by shooting them – which is particularly crucial against enemies carrying shields. Ammo is plentiful as long as you keep committing wholesale slaughter and picking it up (automatically) from the dead bodies. It’s crucial to nail head-shots – they take out enemies using much less ammo and generally reward you with first-aid kits or boxes of grenades.
Enemies
BLACK has several different classes of enemies, with wildly varying levels of AI. The grunts you come across in the first couple of levels will pretty much let you shoot them as if they were turkeys, although they are fairly intelligent when it comes to shooting you. But before long, you begin to encounter guys sporting hockey masks and armed with shotguns, who will outflank you and take cover. There are also guys with transparent Perspex shields, who are absolute buggers to kill -- they can be taken out with repeated blasts
from a shotgun or about 80 rounds from an M249 machine-gun, but they are best dispatched by chucking a grenade and igniting it before they have time to shelter behind their shields. Enemies with M249s need to be dispatched quickly.
Health and power-ups
You can carry three health packs, which restore about one-third of total health, and are triggered by pressing down on the D-Pad (which is annoyingly sticky, requiring a firm press, on the Xbox). Enemies often yield first-aid kits, restoring about one-quarter of your health, especially when taken out with head-shots. There are various items to find in the levels – evidence of terrorist activities – as well as incriminating stuff to destroy, which is usually found in safes. Occasionally, you chance upon hidden weapons.
SPOnG score: B
BLACK is a very, very fine game – it provides perhaps the most uncomplicated, visceral gameplay experience that we can remember in any FPS, it looks fantastic and it’s satisfyingly hard. But when we first saw it, we thought it would be a true ground-breaker, and it turns out that its one disappointing aspect is that it just doesn’t feel like it’s breaking new ground. It does what it does extremely well, with a few new bells and whistles which will undoubtedly be copied, and offers plenty of solace to those who haven’t been able to get their mitts on an Xbox 360. But, somehow, it just doesn’t quite live up to our –perhaps unrealistically elevated – hopes for it.
You can chuck grenades with a satisfying amount of precision, and set them off before their fuses kick in by shooting them – which is particularly crucial against enemies carrying shields. Ammo is plentiful as long as you keep committing wholesale slaughter and picking it up (automatically) from the dead bodies. It’s crucial to nail head-shots – they take out enemies using much less ammo and generally reward you with first-aid kits or boxes of grenades.
Enemies
BLACK has several different classes of enemies, with wildly varying levels of AI. The grunts you come across in the first couple of levels will pretty much let you shoot them as if they were turkeys, although they are fairly intelligent when it comes to shooting you. But before long, you begin to encounter guys sporting hockey masks and armed with shotguns, who will outflank you and take cover. There are also guys with transparent Perspex shields, who are absolute buggers to kill -- they can be taken out with repeated blasts
Health and power-ups
You can carry three health packs, which restore about one-third of total health, and are triggered by pressing down on the D-Pad (which is annoyingly sticky, requiring a firm press, on the Xbox). Enemies often yield first-aid kits, restoring about one-quarter of your health, especially when taken out with head-shots. There are various items to find in the levels – evidence of terrorist activities – as well as incriminating stuff to destroy, which is usually found in safes. Occasionally, you chance upon hidden weapons.
SPOnG score: B
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Comments
king skins 20 Feb 2006 16:00
1/5
Nice review, where you running out of time at the end though... just seam to be listing stuff...
Also does this work on the xbox360...? Wouldn't mind having a go on this but I gave my xbox away.
Also does this work on the xbox360...? Wouldn't mind having a go on this but I gave my xbox away.
kid_77 20 Feb 2006 19:49
2/5
Yup, the review's about spot-on.
My only query would be in regards to the AI. I'm up to level 5, and so far I certainly wouldn't call it good. The enemies gradually become more aggressive, and they take up good positions from long to mid-distance, but close up they're clueless.
My only query would be in regards to the AI. I'm up to level 5, and so far I certainly wouldn't call it good. The enemies gradually become more aggressive, and they take up good positions from long to mid-distance, but close up they're clueless.
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config 1 Mar 2006 10:08
3/5
kid_77 wrote:
Yup, the review's about spot-on.
My only query would be in regards to the AI. I'm up to level 5, and so far I certainly wouldn't call it good. The enemies gradually become more aggressive, and they take up good positions from long to mid-distance, but close up they're clueless.
My only query would be in regards to the AI. I'm up to level 5, and so far I certainly wouldn't call it good. The enemies gradually become more aggressive, and they take up good positions from long to mid-distance, but close up they're clueless.
Just played to through three levels of BLACK on PS2, and I agree the AI can be a bit s**t. As you say, this is especially evident when the enemy ar at close quarters - they just stand around waiting to be shot or actually run at you when they're getting a belly full of lead.
Visually, it's stunning, but as I've written elsewhere, the key thing that BLACK offers over Killzone is the environmental destruction that can wrought and the very, very big explosions. In both BLACK and Killzone, the narrative is uncompelling, the gameplay linear and repetative and the enemy pretty unvaried. And you can't jump or climb (that that I think this is an issue).
However, I think the score of B is sound.
PreciousRoi 2 Mar 2006 21:19
4/5
lack of jump/clamber ability makes for some truly ludicrous situations...never did figure out the grenade shooty bit for the riot gear squad, just gooned them I guess...
config 3 Mar 2006 11:29
5/5
PreciousRoi wrote:
lack of jump/clamber ability makes for some truly ludicrous situations...never did figure out the grenade shooty bit for the riot gear squad, just gooned them I guess...
I've never really had a problem with the lack of jump. In BLACK, the edge of the game world is often defined by low walls or ridges. You know you can't get past them, but they're not visually otrusive so you get the impression that the area is much more open. With a jump, those delimiters would have to be much more imposing - high walls and cliffs, which leave the area feeling very constricted
The grenade shooting thing - I really don't know how this could be done, as the grenades don't have a timer long enough for me to get a bead on them. Maybe I'm just s**t?
Best way to despatch the shield guys is to lob a grenade over their heads, so they either have to turn and run, so you shoot them in the back, or they get a back full of frag grenade while kepping the shield facing you. Alternatively, if you have the luxury of time, just take cover where they don't try shooting you, ut you can see the top of their shield. They occassionally pop up to look. A few taps to the head, and their helmets fly off. After that, the next head shot does the trick.