The new face of Halo
My senior year of High School, Halo 3 came out. Gamers everywhere cheered and claimed it was the best multiplayer experience ever. Then a month later, Call of Duty 4 came out and redefined what it meant to play Xbox Live.
Three years later, the exact same thing is happening. Halo Reach came out and was declared the best Halo experience of any console generation. It was said that the multiplayer was some of the best to ever come out - and hell, it is. I've played the shit out of Halo. I've loved every minute of it. But, on November 9th, Call of Duty Seven comes out, AKA Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Black Ops is being produced by a design company called Treyarch. This is the first time they've been allowed to use the license to produce a game set in the modern world.
For the last five years, Treyarch handled the WWII-era Call of Duty games
The last game they released, Call of Duty: World at War, was still set in WWII, but had some phenomenal multiplayer via Live and a minigame called Nazi Zombies. The Zombie game basically involved surviving as long as you can with a friend while zombies tried to break into your fort. It sounds stupid, but it was really addictive and fun.
This time, they've upped the ante.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is going to redefine what it means to play an Xbox Live game. The sheer customization available is unheard of. Gone are the standardized ranking systems, gone is the leveling up, and gone is the memory of getting killed by guns you are nowhere near the level to use.
You buy everything now, with money earned from playing the game, getting kills, and completing challenges.
In the last game, you had to be level 70 to use the AK47. Getting level 70 could take weeks, or months, depending on how much you played and how good you were. Now? Getting the AK47 is as simple as earning enough money to buy it, regardless of your level. Gun customization is back, with camo now available from the get go and earned via the money system. Back in the day, it had to come from getting head-shots - up to 250 for some of the rarer camos. Now, all you need is the money.
Different scopes that are unlockable - All about preference.
It may sound like its been dumbed down to prevent people that suck from complaining about not being able to reach level 70, but its actually pretty revolutionary. Everyone, for all intents and purposes is on a level playing field. And, the sheer amount of customization is unbelievable.
For example, there are probably around forty guns in the game ranging from sniper rifles, to machine guns, to shot guns. Every one of those guns can be customized with about eight different attachments and fifteen different camos. The choices are endless.
Shot Gun with "Red Tiger Camo"
When Halo Reach came out, they added a bit of customization to their multiplayer. The starting ability to choose what armor upgrade you wanted allowed for different styles of play. Halo has always been about everyone being on the same playing field. I think they looked at the success of the Call of Duty games recently and decided to add the small, albeit necessary options to switch up the game play.
What's great is that Call of Duty appears to be doing the same thing. They have looked at the success of the Halo games on a professional level (MLG, TWL, etc) and incorporated the idea of a level playing field (relatively speaking). No longer will the level 70 be dominating with guns that the level 10 can not use.
Now, level will show experience, rather than what guns you have and can use.
I'll tell you one thing: when November 9th comes around, I'm going to take advantage of GameStop's trade-in program and return Halo: Reach for a huge discount off Call of Duty. And the sad thing is, I'd be willing to bet everyone else is thinking the exact same thing.
See you guys on November 9th.
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