Black...

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 13 Sep 2006 10:16 pm

Bought this because despite being a PC gamer I love a good console FPS romp. It has massively exceeded my expectations. Firstly my 6 year old PS2 is not entitled to display the visuals witnessed while playing this game. It's frankly outrageous. A widescreen full of volumetric/bloom effects, massive draw-distance, awesome weapon models, shit exploding everywhere, debris, depth of field and all running like silk. Haven't encountered any chugging yet.

Another significant factor is this game controls very well. Yep, an FPS controlling well c/- the DS2. Dunno why it's so hard for everyone else but I, like everyone else, had long accepted PS2 couldn't do a comfortably controlling FPS. It can.

Sound is astounding. Orchestral music (performed by New York Symphony) is brilliantly compelling and perfectly timed to coincide with the action. Weapon sounds are as good as anything I've played if not better. Every weapon sounds meaty as hell. RPGs, shotgun, grenades, automatic rifles and pistols.

Presentation is superb. After the menu screen is idle for a while the game cuts to sweeping shots of amazingly detailed guns reloading, firing, spraying shell casings everywhere. So cool. Plot is presented retrospectively via slick, live action cut scenes.

Gameplay delivers awesome looking, awesome playing action. As you blast away crap is exploding, shattering or falling down everywhere. Smoke and dust constantly impedes your view. Game saves via a checkpoint system which serves to heighten tension and improve the overall experience. Love the urgency as your health and ammo are low and suddenly you're being fired upon by an RPG. Death to quicksaves IMO. Levels are varied and around an hour long.

So yeah. Black turning out to be one of this gen's best romps IMO. If you haven't tried it it's more than worth it at $50. Unfortunately Xbox version not 360-compatible.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » 13 Sep 2006 10:17 pm

Bzzzt. XBox version IS 360 compatible.

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 13 Sep 2006 10:18 pm

Cool. My info is old. Play it!

Pat · Post by **Pat** » 13 Sep 2006 10:19 pm

Yeah it got an update a couple of months ago. The best Ive heard Black described as is Killzone done properly. Would that be fair?

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 13 Sep 2006 10:24 pm

Haven't played Killzone so not able to make that comparison.

ObSoLeTe · Post by **ObSoLeTe** » 13 Sep 2006 11:24 pm

i liked black on the poxbox, went threw all difficulties, its even better when yah have a kick ass sound system to play it on

jizzlobber · Post by **jizzlobber** » 14 Sep 2006 12:45 am

I didn't think much of it, I liked the destructable environments but you could often see the seams.
the gameplay felt solid enough but I didn't find it interesting, wasn't much to the AI.
after the initial wow factor it fely like another shooter to me, with no multiplayer options.

i'd think even less of it if I tried to play it now, call of duty 2 campaign spoils many other shooters for me.

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 14 Sep 2006 08:57 am

Yeah no multi is a drag but the single player campaign is still very worth it. I've had some nice AI moments. It's a duck and cover game and I was camping inside plotting my next attack when I was suddenly flushed by a couple of shot-gun wielding dudes in body armour.

Pretty amazing first FPS effort from Criterion.