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Black Review [XBOX]After the intros you jump straight into action in this high octane, blastathon, movie esque show case. Great opening action with nice looking explosions going off left, right and center to make you really wanna get stuck in and play.
The controls feel quite good, and the guns have a nice re-loading animation giving off suffucient feel of power as the sound effects rattle away with gun case shells spitting out all over. The entire first level (of which there's eight) continues like this from begining to end, no time to stop and breath, its action all the way with the enemy appearing from all sides.
So whats going on! Basically your an elite soldier set out on a misson to kill some rebel leader, to be honost I didn't pay much attention to the story line which is given between each mission in the form of you been interrogated, the levels act as you reminicing of the events just happened. But in a nut shell its: 'there's a bad guy with an army and you have to kill them all'. These cut scenes are filmed with real actors rather than using animation, which in this case I think works better for the game, because it already has that movie look to it, so to use animated characters would ruin that illusion.
So level one is set in a town filled with soldiers trying to kill you, nothing new there in a game right? But while your playing you quickly realise that pretty much everything can be blown up or be shot to pieces, and this is where the fun starts.
Ok the enemy is dumb and will hide behind explosive barrels for cover, or stand on balconies which can have their support shot away or stand next to cars which can blow up if thrown a grenade at, or pelted with enough gunfire. So there you have the scenario, debis blasting everywhere, explosions going off all over, all helped by your platoon creating havoc and the enemies also blasting everything up around you.
The first level is quite short, about 20 minutes or so, which to be fair is long enough with that kind of constant barrage.
The leves vary from towns/churchyards/woods/dockyards/ruined villages/asylums/bridges, pretty much nothing new in sense of locations to other FPS games, but everything has been done so you cant complain there really, and at least it gives you variation within itself, unlike a lot of other FPS games.
After around the 3rd level each level there after lasts about an hour. On the normal setting it wasn't untill the ruined village level where I was fired upon by rocket launchers everywhere when I died for the first time, up untill then I thought I was gonna complete the whole game without dieing. That level took me 3 attempts, the save system is the usual 'check points', so be prepared for the 'start all the wayyy back' scenario, but you dont die much in this game so its not a problem, and there's enough health packs and ammo dotted about to keep you alive.
This progression continues with an hour worth of play or so for each mission, of course the difficulty gets a little harder, but nothing demanding. The final level however took me over 3hrs to complete, it has two check points that are hard to get to, and I kept dieing just before each check, annoying but percerveriance and being carefull paid off. The opening levels you can barge your way through with mindless attacks, as you progress you gotta be a bit more stealthy or cautious, though there are plenty times where being a brute will get you through better than any other method.
Enemy AI : They arn't too bright and they tend to stick to thier areas, running to and from pre set positions, so if there's an awkward one to get at, you can be patient till he runs back into view and settles. Also an explosion could go right off next to one guy and he'll die but his comrade will just stand there if his back is turned and he'll be oblivious to what just happened.
A little work on the AI would of been better. Their rag doll effect isn't too bad, they don't just flop to the floor, no in true hollywood fashion (if say on a balcony or roof top etc) they will throw themselves over 'stuntman' style, even if they wouldn't naturally fall that way when dieing. It's entertaining though so I'm not mocking that, especially when sometimes they swing 'n' hang (lifelessly) a few more shots sees them falling to the ground.
One gripe about the enemy, they sustain too many shots! An average person needs half a magazine emptied into him before he dies, or a full one or more if he is further off, with the exception of rockets and point blank pump actions shots. Though you will encounter ice hockey masked heavy armoured soldiers who need even more ammo to be killed, they all pack a pump action so carefull when close! It can be annoying picking off enemies in the distance and having the need to empty a full clip into them, that would be my main complaint, that and grenade throws are too short!
There's elements of this game that remind me of FEAR, in the sense of when hiding for cover and your being shot at, all the debris and dust kicks off round you, combine this with explsosions going off all around it really does look like a hollywood 'black hawk down' kinda movie. Besides FEAR on PC i've not really seen other games kick up dust and debris everywhere. In FEAR however you could use this smog for cover and use it as a tactic, in Black you can't, it's all just for show.
Graphics : The actual graphics arn't impressive in terms of modelling, but the game uses excellent use ofl light to create that look that it has which also shows in their other Burnout Revenge release (completely different genre but has same rendering glow to it). So combine the lighting and explosion/dust effects/rocket launcher trails, it overall makes the game very appealing to look at.
Sound : Throughout the game is a 'score' being played to continue to add to that movie experience, alongside the gun blasts and explosions it sounds pretty impressive, definately one for the surround sound system I suspect.
Overall : A very enjoyable FPS blast with no dull parts at all. This explains why I completed it in a day, well that and its downfall of it being quite short. Add that factor to the no multi play whatsoever, it doesn't give you much of a return factor, besides maybe doing the game again on Hard and Special Ops levels.
It's not really one to buy though because of its short shelf life, but it is a showpiece for the X-Box so I would still have it in my collection, though I can imagine it'll be good to go back to a bunch of months later, and as it is short you won't mind playing it all again.
Upside! ss it can be played pretty quick, so it does make an ideal blockbuster rental 
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