2/2

Combat, Gadgets and Customization
Moving on to combat, the gunplay feels superb. Kills are extremely satisfying (especially headshots) and almost every gun I used had something to like about it. On top of gunning people down the game features standard frag grenades along with a few new futuristic tools, the Digi-Grenade and EMP. These two cool new pieces of tech mess with the HRV or 'Hyper Reality Visor' that every player in the match has equipped. This visor helps to explain why things like your health and ammo count would be in your field of vision in a real scenario. Its also a handy tool for scoping out your surroundings. When you activate the visor, you become unable to shoot, but for a brief time, you can see through walls to get an idea of whats around you. You’ll be able to see friendly and unfriendly targets, as well as ammo and health canisters strewn throughout the map. You may think this would break the game, but its actually a fairly balanced tool as you won’t be able to tell exactly how far away these objects are or how many obstacles are between you and your enemy. It just gives you a sense of their general direction. As I mentioned above, you’re also completely helpless in this mode, so if someone gets the jump on you, you’re probably going to be dead very soon. The new grenades I mentioned above also play into this cool visor. The digi-grenade creates a large pixelated bubble wherever it goes off, making it very difficult to see through. If you’re near the EMP when it explodes, your visor will reboot causing you to see the blue screen of death for a few seconds before the HRV resets itself - very cool and well animated.

As you get kills and complete objectives you’ll gain XP which allows you to rank up as well as unlock new weapons. The issue is that once you rank up a few levels, it can start to become difficult to figure out what you’ve unlocked. When you do get something new, a small text window pops up in the bottom left side of the screen. The issue is that the text is really small and the HUD has a grainy effect applied to it that can make it hard to read the text if you’re not sitting close to your TV or monitor. On top of that, when you go to the armory menu to customize your loadouts (yes, you can setup custom loadouts in the vein of Call of Duty), there’s no indicator to tell you whats new or where to find it. The interface is also a little bit confusing and clunky which is disappointing because there are some awesome weapons and add-ons to unlock. One of my favourites are these trinkets you can hang from your gun. They increase stats like running speed or bullet damage and it just adds an extra level of customization for your character. Its such a shame that its all hidden in a poorly designed UI.

Co-op isn’t fun without friends...
If you get tired of killing real people you can always check out Black Ops mode, which pits you against a series of bots and has you trying to accomplish various objectives. Even on the lowest difficulty setting this is very tough on your own. Enemies spawn all over the place and very often they will show up directly behind or beside you, so bringing a friend along is a must. The issue with this mode is that you can only bring along people in your friends list. There’s no way to play with random gamers via matchmaking. Its kind of disappointing considering you may not have any friends who are willing to spend the points on the game to join you. Luckily there aren’t any achievements to unlock anyway, so its completely skippable.

Graphics & Sound
The graphics and sounds definitely stand out here. This game looks gorgeous. Its a little dark and plain at times, with a few bad textures here and there, but for the most part, this looks better than a lot of games asking you to pay full retail. I love the grainy look of the visor and the way the new grenades affect your view. Its really refreshing to play something with a little originality. The sound is also top notch.

You’re getting great value here for only $15. There are definitely a lot of simple tweaks that could have been made to make this a must buy, but you’re still getting your moneys worth, especially if you’re already an FPS addict. Even if you’re not a huge shooter fan, I think you’ll find the futuristic setting and weapons help to provide a unique experience that might re-kindle your love for the genre. I’m really hoping that they’ll patch it soon. Not only to fix the things I’m mentioned, but also an easy hack that I’ve been reading about that can max out your rank and unlock everything. I really hope they shut that down soon because there’s nothing I hate more than cheating.

Final Score: 7.5

Reviewed by Mike Baggley| 07.22.10

		Satisfying combat A good amount of maps for the money Fantastic graphics 7 standard but fun games modes Tons of weapons and rewards for ranking up
		Game is stripped down a little too far Clunky load-out customization - how do I know what’s new? Poor UI design - Black Ops mode isn’t very fun alone, and you can only invite friends - what gives? Grainy look of the “HUD” can make it hard to read text sometimes Some maps encourage spawn camping too much

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