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Call of Duty: Black Ops is the 7th installment in the Call of Duty series, but is it to be deemed the best Call of Duty experience yet? CoD has now·obviously become the powerhouse of the FPS genre and Black Ops is no different. Developers Treyarch have entered into the world of modern warfare, previously Infinity Ward's area, for the first time in the series as they focus on the Cold War period, which gives them an extremely good variety of options to play with.

The single player campaign follows the story of Alex Mason, a captain in the US Army who is deemed "the best they have" and is sent on several missions that standard soldiers wouldn't be able to cope with. Mason is having flashbacks to the past while being interrogated by an unknown abductor, with the resulting suspense leaving the player interested to find out what's going on.

Graphically the game is absolutely spot on. Even though in some areas it may not look as good as its predecessor Modern Warfare 2, the visuals are still extremely good in comparison to many other games we see released at this current time. The environments look realistic and well designed, which is best appreciated when in the air flying a helicopter as you get to see the full scale of detail which has gone into the game.

The design of the levels is well thought out and makes for some gripping fire fights as well as touching cut scenes. Never before in a Call of Duty game have I become so attached to the character I was playing and also the squad I was in. This works well as you'll play the majority of the game as Mason, with only a few spin offs which are still in some way related to him. Usually in the Call of Duty titles you'll play as 2 or 3 members of the army, often preventing any kind of real attachment to the characters.

Like with most shooters the levels are fairly linear which restricts the use of tactics and flanking abilities. It's not so much of an issue in most of the levels but at times can become frustrating, such as in the interior building/ship levels. The difficulty of the game varies in different positions, the "one man army" feel like in other shooter games is absent here as you can and will rely on your team a fair bit. Also the stealth missions seem to be rather hard due to some fairly smart AI, resulting in even the slightest movement causing you to be shot down which can be frustrating at times. However what is not frustrating is the length of the campaign. A common criticism of CoD is that the campaigns are relatively short, but not Black Ops, with a campaign which took around 8-9 hours on regular difficulty. You can add an extra few for Veteran difficulty resulting in a solid campaign for your money. Add to that the multiplayer and zombie modes and you'll struggle to find a game with better value for your money this year.

The zombie mode in WaW was highly praised for being a lot of fun and something just a little bit different, so Treyarch have brought it back in Black Ops. There hasn't really been much change as you'll still buy weapons off the walls, unlock doors and build barriers to stop the zombies coming in. It just feels like an updated version with new guns from the cold war era, which isn't a bad thing! The zombies are still Nazis which seems a bit odd at first but "if it aint' broke, don't fix it." Zombie mode will give friends hours of fun to play cooperatively, but thanks to matchmaking you'll never have an excuse not to experience this mode.

Zombie mode may not have changed, but the multiplayer has a heck of a lot. The standard things you'd expect to find in a Call of Duty game are still there: ranks, game modes, prestige, create a class, killstreaks etc. Theatre mode is one of the new additions where you can watch clips from your previous matches and put them into your file share. This is almost identical to that seen in Halo: Reach and works extremely well for CoD. Another addition is that of 'CoD Points'. Even though you still level up and unlock certain weapons as you rank up, you now have to buy them with the CoD Points, so if you do not wish to buy a sniper rifle after unlocking it you don't have to! Instead you can save your CoD Points to buy that Assault Rifle you've been wanting in the next few levels. This gives the player flexible choice over what they want to unlock and when they want to unlock it.

Relating to the new CoD Points system comes in Wager Matches - separate FFA game modes which cannot be found anywhere else except in the Wager Match lobbies; One in The Chamber, Sticks and Stones, Gun Game & Sharpshooter. All of these modes ensure everyone is on a level playing field, so putting your currency on the line doesn't feel unfair in any way. The modes are very fun to play and are somewhat of a relief from the core MP at times, as they're just good fun and a laugh to play. If you lose CoD Points it is also not the end of the world as you can head into plain old team deathmatch and win them back! Another way to earn more currency is through contracts, giving you a certain objective to complete in a certain time to get paid. So you buy a contract to get 25 kills with the Enfield assault rifle and have 40 minutes of game time to do it. You pay 50 CoD points for the contract and if you complete the objective, you receive 250 back. There are many contracts, some less risky than others, but all of them will pay out a profit which makes these contracts accessible to all skill level players.

Expanded customisation is a highly anticipated addition to the series and Black Ops delivers. You are able to select from a wide range of camos, along with the ability to design and place·your own·emblem and clan tag on your guns. The Emblem editor offers up to 12 layers, each of which has to be bought with CoD Points. After buying a layer you can select from a wide variety of numbers, symbols and objects, along with the option to alter colour, size and position allowing you to create an emblem which truly reflects you, or maybe you just want to go a little bit crazy. Either way you can do pretty much whatever you want with the editor, which ensures that everyone has a different emblem in the game.

Overall with these changes, and what seems to be the most balanced multiplayer experience since CoD4, Black Ops has achieved what MW2 wanted to achieve and that is near perfection in the franchise. With all the standard modes like TDM and Search you'll feel right at home with the game and its mechanics. You can see the attention and care the team has given to the MP experience to ensure that players will enjoy themselves no matter what their skill level is. This care and attention has also been put into the 14 maps which I can safely say all reflect the era exceptionally well and are well designed and balanced on all game modes. I have yet to witness any glitches or exploits in the game, which is a sign of a fully polished MP experience.

Black Ops hasn't been hyped as much as MW2 was, but how do they compare? Graphically MW2 is a superior game but the campaign of Black Ops is more intense and well told. Also the MP on Black Ops feels much more balanced and glitch-free at this current time. All the new additions to the MP also give Black Ops the edge. I feel that MW2's Co-Op mode Spec Ops is superior to the zombie mode simply because there was more variety and more content there, however other opinions may differ. Overall I feel Black Ops beats its predecessor in almost every department. It's not perfect, but it's a damn good game.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Gets An Official Game-Pad: 9.6/10