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Black is a first-person shooter notable for it’s cinematic-styled action and nods to films and it’s from the same developer who brought us Burnout. I never heard or read about it when it released so I didn’t jump on it until well after it came out. Developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts, Black was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in February, 2006. For this review, I played the Xbox version on a Series X. Some consider Black to be a hidden gem although I don’t know how “hidden” it really is because a lot of people know about it. So I guess you could say it’s just a gem that came and went.
The game plays out in a series of flashbacks and centers on Sergeant Jack Kellar, a member of a CIA black ops unit that is hunting a terrorist organization in Russia called Seventh Wave who are responsible for a number of terrorist attacks. The live action cut scenes show Kellar being interrogated and if he doesn’t co-operate and tell his story of what happened, his actions will be declassified and he’ll be discharged and imprisoned for life. The cut scenes show the two guys talking and the actors deliver solid performances. Unfortunately, the story does kind of end on a cliffhanger and most of the characters aren’t fleshed out enough to be interesting. There’s no traditional boss battles or significant interactions with antagonists. Most of the important story beat are conveyed in cut scenes but it’s one of those games where the story takes a backseat to the gameplay. You can easily ignore the story and still have a great time.
When you get right down to it, Black is a very simple first-person shooter. You run around Russia shooting terrorists and blowing shit up. There’s no sprinting, jumping, leaning, or melee attacks. There’s no experience or upgrade systems, no customization, and no multiplayer or cooperative game modes. Black is a single player only game. By today’s standards, it can come across as very basic but what really makes is stand out is the presentation and gunplay. The environments are somewhat destructible, a lot of shit can be blown up like it’s a Michael Bay film, and weapons have good feedback. The audiovisual presentation is fantastic. Muzzle flashes and explosions look cool, particles, dirt and debris will fill the air during firefights, and enemy death animations often look dramatic. One of my few gripes with Black is the lack of gore.
Black is not a very long game but does have replay value. This is one of those games I find easy to come back to just because of how much fun it is to play. It may not have a lot of depth but it feels great. Besides that, it does come with multiple difficulty levels, two of which need to be unlocked. Once you beat the game, you unlock Silver Weapons for the difficulty you beat it on which simply means weapons with infinite ammo. The higher the difficulty the more challenging the gameplay. For example, on Hard there are no health packs to be stored and used to replenish health at the press of a button. Instead you need to rely on first-aid kits which are dropped by enemies and automatically replenish some health upon pickup.
The difficulty you select also determines the amount of objectives you need to complete. To complete a mission, you will have to complete all primary and a set amount of secondary objectives. The primary objectives are required to progress so it’s basically impossible to not complete them. The secondary objectives are the ones you need to be mindful of. These are typically intel and recon items, secret armaments, and blackmail that can be destroyed. All of these things could even be seen as the game’s form of collectibles. They do offer incentive to explore the mostly linear environments and many of them are nods to films.
Black features a decent variety of weapons including pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, grenades, RPG, sniper rifle, and light machine gun. Some weapons come with multiple fire modes and you can find suppressors for certain guns in the environments. Shotguns can be used to blast down certain doors, granting you access to areas which often house secondary objectives so I found it wise to always keep one on me on my first run through a mission. Kellar can only carry two firearms at a time and ammo and grenades seem to be in abundance so running out of ammo should never be a problem. Explosive objects can be found everywhere and blowing shit up is often a great way to drop multiple foes quickly. Not only that, it’s not uncommon for one explosion to cause a chain reaction of others. Glass, structures, and parts of buildings can be destroyed often resulting in chunks raining down, smoke filling the air, and bad guys screaming in agony.
As fun and exciting as the action is in Black, it’s not hard to see that there’s not much to it. There’s a handful of enemy types and none of them are very bright. You’ve got your typical soldiers, heavily armored foes, and guys carrying shields that appear from time to time and much of the challenge comes from being outnumbered. While some enemies may feel like bullet sponges, headshots can drop most foes quickly and if that doesn’t work a well lobbed grenade will do the trick. Enemies will run around and shoot at you but they don’t do anything super sophisticated or even throw grenades for that matter. Most of them are easy targets and many times, they’re found near something that can be blown up. None of this is to say the game isn’t challenging, especially on the Hard and Black Ops difficulties but memorizing enemy placements and knowing what to expect can be very helpful.
The environments are linear with some branching paths here and there and it would be impossible to get lost. Enemies can be found around almost every corner, guys with RPGs will fire at you from distant locations, and the only real environmental hazards you need to be aware of are explosive objects and mines. Black puts you on city streets, a bridge, dockyard, and farm, and in a foundry, asylum, and gulag. Exploring typically leads you to rooms and areas off to the sides where you can typically find resources and secondary objectives.
I think for the time this came out and the hardware it was designed for, Black is a pretty good looking game. The weapon models look great and as mentioned before, the visual effects look great and really add some flash to the experience. The presentation does feature a lot of grays and browns, it’s got that washed out look, and if you look hard enough, seams in breakable objects are often visible so you can see how they will break but that’s the only real eyesore I can think of. As for the audio, the music was produced by Michael Giacchino with an original score by Chris Tilton and performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra. Ultimately, I think the soundtrack is good and compliments the style and tone of the story and cinematic action on display nicely. When it comes to the sound effects, weapons fire sounds excellent and from what I understand, sounds for weapons in the game were based on sounds heard in films and shows like Die Hard, True Lies and 24. On the technical side, other than a few frame rate dips here and there, the game ran great and I encountered no major problems. And just as a reminder, I did play this on a Series X.
I see Black as one of those games from the sixth-generation era that should have evolved into something bigger and better. Bodycount is considered the spiritual successor but that’s where it stopped. I put Black up there with games like Darkwatch, Cold Winter, and Area 51. Good shooters from that generation that just kind of came and went, that I feel could have turned into something bigger. Ultimately, I had a great time with Black. It’s a game that has a cool factor and is really fun to play. In the end, though, it is a basic run and gun shooter. But it’s also a flashy run and gun shooter. Inspired by action cinema, weapons feel great to fire, firefights look intense, chaotic and are often exciting, and blowing shit up is a ton of fun. However, Black is a bit on the short side and is a single player only experience. It does include a few incentives to keep the player coming back but in my opinion, the best one is the fact that it’s just fun to play. It’s not because of additional game modes, not because of maxing out skills, not because of end game content. It’s because it’s just really fun to play. The core gameplay feels good.
I would absolutely recommend Black. I think it’s a must play for action and shooter junkies. Personally, I feel it’s one of the best shooters released for the sixth-generation consoles and it’s one of those games I still come back to every so often. Even with all the shooters that have released since, there’s just something special about Black. The way it feels and the way the action is presented. It’s a solid and fun shooter. Definitely check it out.