Game Review 14:Black

Arriving from the same developer as Burnout Revenge, you can expect to do lots of destruction in Black. You will find that you can destroy almost everything in the world of Black, from barrels to buildings to crates, so the next time you see a dead end, just lob a grenade over or blast it down with a rocket to proceed with the game. Along with the ability to destruct, comes the ever beautiful environments, where you will be waging war on the terrorists. The developer, Criterion, has also provided you with a huge arsenal of approximately 17 weapons to choose from, but you can only equip yourself with 2 at a time. However, for all the good points, Black does have some flaws here and there afterall. For example, there is no proper game saving system in this game. Sure, there are checkpoints that are very far away from each other, but if you switch off your console before completing a mission, the checkpoint progress will be erased too, forcing you to redo the entire same mission the next time you play Black. This can be quite fustrating if you die midway before reaching a checkpoint or accidentally switch off your console. The shooting system is marred by some glitches too, if you notice. When you see a terrorist, who may be far away from where you are, and if you are holding a rifle, do not even think of causing any injury to him. Yes, you are able to shoot the person, but he will not even twitch and there is absolutely no injury caused. The bullets will just vanish and you know you have just wasted precious ammo. The single-player content is also very lacking at only about 7 hours, which means that you can complete this game in a day! For gamers looking to extend gameplay through multiplayer, forget it because there is none. Just a kind reminder: Anger management is a must before you play Black. Black is slightly more difficult than most FPS games and the terrorists spawn into gameplay in waves, so the next time you see a clear area, do not just rush ahead. The terrorists will pop out all of a sudden. Otherwise, Black is just your standard FPS. Do not hesitate to get Black if you feel like doing some headshots or to kill time while waiting for some big titles.

Overall score: 8.4/10
Platform available: Xbox, PS2