Call of Duty though, is made whole by its multiplayer – and in this regard Treyarch have made various welcome improvements. Treyarch have made a point, this time around of offering a wealth of player customisations. Through create-a-class 2.0 player models, guns, load-outs and even aiming reticules are subject to customisation. Kill streaks too are editable; you can select which bonuses you’ll be awarded at which intervals. For example, you can select whether a 3-streak kill gives you the traditional Spy Plane or the RC-XD – a remote controlled car equipped with explosives.

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They’ve also removed some of the more annoying aspects of Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer. Secondary weapons are now restricted to traditional side-arms. No longer will you be mowed down by somebody sporting dual-wielded shotguns. The infuriating Martyrdom and Commando perks are thankfully removed – and should help Black Ops be more balanced and fair.

The standard multiplayer modes are all there: Free-For-All, Team Death match and Search & Destroy return, accompanied by their hardcore and barebones variants. Domination, Capture the Flag and other favourites like Headquarters and Sabotage help round out the numerous multiplayer options.

New to the multiplayer is the addition of an in-game currency, COD points. These points are earned through playing multiplayer, and are used to purchase new guns, ammo-types, perks and upgrades. COD points can be used to buy in to contracts – expansions of the traditional challenges – where completing specific objectives yields a pay-out. The COD points are also a vehicle for the game’s best multiplayer addition, wager matches.

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Wager matches introduce gambling to Call of Duty multiplayer – where the top three scorers earn COD points – making it even more addictive. Fail to place and you’ll be out of pocket, losing your ante. While in the long run, the community will gravitate towards the more traditional game types like team death match, I can guarantee that wager matches will be the game-type of choice for the next few months, until everybody has everything unlocked at least.

There are three categories within Wager matches; Ante up for smaller bets, Weekend gambler for those a little more daring, and High roller for those with enough COD points to match their testicular fortitude.

There are four game types available in the free-for-all wager matches.

· One in the Chamber gives each player 3 lives – and a pistol with a single bullet. You’d better be a good shot, because scoring a kill grants you an additional bullet; run out of bullets and you’ll have to rely on your knife skills. Exhaust your 3 lives and its game over. The limited number of lives and the importance of bullets make this an incredibly tense experience.

· Sharpshooter – each player is equipped with the same random weapon – which cycle every 45 seconds. Getting kills will award the player with perks and score multipliers.

· Sticks and Stones – each player receives only a crossbow with explosive bolts, a ballistic knife, and a Tomahawk. Scoring kills earns you COD points, but there’s a catch; get nailed with the tomahawk and you’ll be bankrupted.

· Gun Game – This mode will be familiar to counter-strike players. Each player starts out with a pistol. For each kill they move up a level, getting a bigger, more powerful weapon. The first person to achieve kills with all 20 weapons wins the round. Get knifed, and you’ll go down a tier. I found this mode particularly tricky as I’m notoriously rubbish with sniper rifles; once I’d gotten to that point, I’d stagnate – and whenever I’d progress somebody would inevitably take a knife to me.

Each unique wager match is exceptionally fun, and will no doubt help Black Ops stay at the top of activity charts until the next Call of Duty rolls along. Another addition to Treyarch’s multiplayer repertoire is Combat Training, essentially multiplayer with bots, with or without the addition of extra human players. Curiously, it’s a feature that does require online connectivity. Offline bot matches would go a long way in giving players without internet a taste of Call of duty’s excellent multiplayer. Still for those unfortunates, there’s 4 player split-screen multiplayer. Continuing the split-screen offerings, Treyarch have once again brought split-screen online – allowing for guest or Xbox Live Gold sign in.

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The best non-game mode addition to multiplayer is Theatre, which is quite similar to the theatre mode in Halo 3. Treyarch’s servers will record your last 30 matches, and you can save up to 6 of them permanently. You’ll be able to edit and distribute clips of your online pwnage too. It’s pretty robust – and an addition that’ll be very welcomed by players.

Last Updated: November 9, 2010

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Call of Duty : Black Ops
9.0

34 Comments

  1. Steve Hofmeyr

    November 9, 2010 at 10:06

    Sweet. Getting this tonight.

    Reply

  2. MieLLiePaP

    November 9, 2010 at 10:14

    Cool Review 😎

    Reply

  3. piV787

    November 9, 2010 at 10:26

    Agghh wish kalahari.net would deliver already.

    DAmn :za: but i still :heart: it here.This game is :sick: even the :alien: thought so people are going :w00t: for it.

    Reply

  4. koldFU5iON

    November 9, 2010 at 10:50

    Good review Geoff lovely use of the English language 😉 now get online so I can pwn your bad self!

    Reply

  5. R and L

    November 9, 2010 at 10:53

    cod black ops is a awsme game get it dumass

    Reply

  6. Dark

    November 9, 2010 at 11:10

    Played first mission so far and I like it a lot 🙂

    Reply

  7. Moody

    November 9, 2010 at 13:23

    Awesome review G.

    Reply

  8. eXp

    November 9, 2010 at 13:25

    I’m going to buy 3 copies and not play it, just to sp… wait… wrong page.

    Looks awesome!

    Reply

  9. Adriaan

    November 9, 2010 at 13:31

    So did you get an advanced copy of the game? If not, I don’t think it’s entirely fair putting a “review” out just yet. I’d rather you have played the game more first and put out a proper review, because this seems more like a preview based on pre-release info.

    I understand with a high profile title like this Megarom may not be able to give you the ability to review the game properly prior to its street date, but in the future I’d like to see reviews written based on enough game play by the reviewer.

    Reply

  10. Geoffrey Tim

    November 9, 2010 at 13:34

    You didn’t read the disclosure? I played and finished the game last week, and spent quite some time on the multiplayer.

    Disclosure: The review was conducted over a three-day period at a review event outside of London. The single player review was conducted on an Xbox 360 at my own pace in my hotel room with no intervention from PR or the game’s developers. The game was played to completion on regular, and took in the region of 8 hours. The multiplayer component was played in a specified room with other media representatives. As multiplayer information is verified online, the multiplayer sessions were conducted over Xbox Live, although certain modes were tested using system link.

    Reply

  11. Gavin Mannion

    November 9, 2010 at 13:44

    lol reading fail… Thankfully Megarom gave Geoff the full ability to review this game in it’s entirety.

    as the disclosure explains quite well.

    Reply

  12. TheBeasht

    November 9, 2010 at 13:53

    Haha… troll comment fail. You’re a funny, funny guy! hey lazy! can we keep him? :biggrin:

    Reply

  13. Adriaan

    November 9, 2010 at 13:54

    Good deal. No, I didn’t see any disclosure in the review. Unless you meant the first paragraph, that if I read it again, based on the info from your comment, hints at the exclusive event.

    Reply

  14. Gavin Mannion

    November 9, 2010 at 13:57

    The disclosure is on page 4 just before the conclusion

    “Disclosure: The review was conducted over a three-day period at a review event outside of London. The single player review was conducted on an Xbox 360 at my own pace in my hotel room with no intervention from PR or the game’s developers. The game was played to completion on regular, and took in the region of 8 hours. The multiplayer component was played in a specified room with other media representatives. As multiplayer information is verified online, the multiplayer sessions were conducted over Xbox Live, although certain modes were tested using system link.”

    Reply

  15. Geoffrey Tim

    November 9, 2010 at 14:00

    The disclosure was at the end, before the score.

    Reply

  16. Nick de Bruyne

    November 9, 2010 at 14:03

    Haha!

    Reply

  17. NiteFenix

    November 9, 2010 at 15:51

    Hot Hot Hot! Getting this as soon as I get the money together.

    Thanks for the review Geoff. You are a gentleman and a scholar (albeit a hairy one).

    Reply

  18. Cloud Strife

    November 9, 2010 at 16:29

    @exp im going to buy 15 copies of Forza 3 and donate it the ANC youth league

    Reply

  19. Bobby Kotick for Dummies

    November 9, 2010 at 16:30

    I like Adriaan more than Aussious. Can we get rid of Aussious please? He’s not funny and he tries to hard. 🙁

    As for the topic at hand: Very nice review Geoff, you’ve gotten me excited for a CoD game. Gavin give this man a raise.

    Reply

  20. Cloud Strife

    November 9, 2010 at 16:33

    Im sure each room was filled with complementary champagne and strippers lol!

    @Geoff did you have fun playing the game in those conditions? seems a bit unnatural and restricted, did bobby kotick give you a visit?

    Reply

  21. dylbobjohnjoe

    November 9, 2010 at 16:34

    I think I just wet myself in anticipation :ermm:

    Reply

  22. V@mp

    November 9, 2010 at 19:29

    Good to know. Popping this in right now.
    Goodbye sleep 🙂

    Reply

  23. Nick de Bruyne

    November 9, 2010 at 23:35

    Feeling very left out right now without my own copy of Black Ops, all my friends are playing it online :cwy:

    Reply

  24. Cloud Strife

    November 9, 2010 at 23:48

    @Nick wtf!
    Why don’t you open the prestige edition cod you guys are hording , finish the game, then put it back in the case, i doubt anyone would notice ‘wink’, if i win i wont be mad.

    its all about calculated risk man

    Reply

  25. Nick de Bruyne

    November 9, 2010 at 23:56

    Dude, if I had the Prestige Edition here by me, I would have quit and skipped the country already. Sadly, I am not the one holding onto it. 🙁

    Reply

  26. Cloud Strife

    November 9, 2010 at 23:59

    lol the world is cruel, i bought black ops today and im only playing it on sunday cause of course exams im doing.

    so the world is cruel lol
    well if u moping about you can always look at the intro for gt5 which was leaked, but i won’t link it cause its a massive spoiler-thon.

    Reply

  27. Nick de Bruyne

    November 10, 2010 at 00:00

    I will have your Black Ops back to you by Sunday :whistle:

    Reply

  28. al360

    November 11, 2010 at 12:07

    hmmm will wait for second hand copy rather and rather get gt5 sig. :devil:

    Reply

  29. FSRich

    November 11, 2010 at 15:45

    I’m on a 4mb (8 or 10mb since the upgrade) line and i still battle to connect to lobbies and games are laggy as… is that everyone’s experience? Or am i being noob about something here?

    Reply

  30. Geoffrey Tim

    November 11, 2010 at 15:49

    The lag issue is a tricky one at the moment; With Mweb cutting paid-for peering links, a lot of local traffic now gets routed overseas, increasing latency and adding lag.

    The best bet, to reduce lag, would be to play with people you know who’re South Africans on your friendslist – and provided you’re all peered, it should be lag free. Once Telkom and vodacom peer with Mweb without charging for it, local lag should be significantly reduced.

    If you’re playing internationals, lag will ALWAYS be a factor.

    Reply

  31. FSRich

    November 11, 2010 at 15:54

    Thanks Geoff. *envies pc users and their local servers*

    Reply

  32. Geoffrey Tim

    November 11, 2010 at 15:56

    Don’t be too envious. The Pc version of Black Ops is completely broken. Online is pretty much *fucked* 😛

    Reply

  33. FSRich

    November 11, 2010 at 16:05

    Lolz, feeling better already then!

    Reply

  34. piV787

    December 6, 2010 at 09:29

    I only get 1 bar every time I play (ps3) wonder why mmmm????

    Reply

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