Wednesday, March 8, 2006
QuickView:
Good: Guns, particles, sound
Bad: Length, variety, no multiplayer
Again: Why is there no multiplayer?
Criterion's Burnout series has made almost all arcade racing fans completely forget about games like Ridge Racer and Outrun. With its finely tuned attention to all the fun little details, it has been a critical and commercial success. So will Black, Criterion's first foray into the shooter genre, make us forget about the Halos and Quakes of the world?
The short answer is definitely a "no," but there are significant qualifications to that. Black does a lot of things well, particularly on the presentation side. A ton of effort has been put into making the environments live with real time destruction and some of the best weapon audio ever. Particles fly, chunks of buildings fall, walkways collapse for kills and everything seems to come down a-crashin'.
Of course, that's if you're shooting the right things.
Make no mistake, Black does not intend to be anything but a full-on blast-a-thon where "the guns are the stars." That's what you get. Some of the missions really don't make sense. Sometimes there is a serious lack of direction. And many times your spontaneous side missions deal specifically with enemies magically respawning back in the five buildings you just cleared without giving them a purpose or showing how they got back in there.
There is no added functionality to the mobility of the character, so really all you're doing is shooting:always. And while this balls-to-the-wall action is really fun to look at, the fun lasts about as long as your typical action movie. That's why action movies aren't really longer than two hours; it would get mind numbing after that. Without additional substance, such is the fate of Black.
The controls are decent, if a little sluggish. It's absolutely baffling that you can't adjust the sensitivity of the analog sticks, but you should be okay. I mean, we all got through Metroid Prime, right? Your small dot reticule will turn different colors depending on what objects you're pointing at. Some give you clues as to what may be destructible and who are your enemies.
The killing animations are fantastic and give a great sense of satisfaction for the kill. Throwing grenades can be a little weird since they don't really travel that far, but they do seem to inflict a severe amount of damage.
The game may take you about five hours to complete anyway, which is short for any genre. There is no multiplayer mode and no real incentive to go back through.
The full-motion video cutscenes didn't detract from the game like I thought they would. They are really well produced and prove to be an interesting diversion between missions. Don't expect an original storyline, though.
The sound is probably the high point of the entire experience outside of the impeccable gun models. We're talking surround to the highest and most invigorating fidelity, here. Much care was taken into the craft and conversion of these effects and even the casual gamer will notice the difference.
Black is like a roller coaster where all the cool hills and loop-de-loops are prematurely placed at the beginning of the ride. After you've experienced it for a couple hours, you start to check your watch, wondering when the ride is over. Still, the impeccable sound and graphic production value may keep many glued to the screen for long enough to finish the game, but it's not worth any more than a once-through at any rate.
Graphics: A-
Sound: A+
First Play: A-
Last Play: C-
Gameplay: C
Overall: 78% C+
