Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2309 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2006-02-24
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2

Manufacturer's Description
Black is a fresh and unique take on the first-person shooter. Moving away from the covert and simulation obsessed games of recent years, Black delivers intense action gun fights by identifying the key components of great Hollywood shoot-outs and recreating them as a game. The peerless fire-and-effect experience will revolutionise video game shooting.

With the odds stacked heavily in the enemy's favour, the player can only succeed by learning a new style of attack&. be bold, be aggressive and use the physical environment as an ally. In Black, it's not just who you shoot, it's what you shoot. Signs, walls, statues, doors, ceilings, and windows can all be destroyed to surprise, stun, wound or kill your enemy with devastating results. Every bullet has an impact, every impact has an effect

Customer Reviews

Good game with simple flaws
When i first played Black the first word which escaped my mouth were wow and oooo look at the pretty explosions. The game is absolutely spectacular in those respects, the explosions are huge and the action and gunplay are brilliant. This is beyond doubt the best action shooter on PS2 at the moment. The graphics are brilliant, the action immersive and truly enjoyable as well as being extremely tense. All of the weapons have a superb solid feel to them and although it may not be realistic it is truly fun to simply stand up and empty a full box magazine for an m249 into a group of enemies. Once you complete the game and play it again on the same difficulty level you get unlimited ammo which adds immensely to the fun and carnage. However this is where i must mention the games most severe flaw; it is incredibly short. There are 8 missions including a shorter prequel type mission and each mission first time round will take between 45 minutes and an hour to complete. I completed the game for the first time in under 8 hours. PS2 games cost £30 upwards and for 8 hours of gameplay this is just not worth it. Even with it being so short i may have given it 4 stars but there are other gripe to be made. For example the voice acting is terrible and your character often seems to be shouting over the radio when he should be stealthy. The gameplay eventually gets slightly repetitive and although there are some interesting twist such as making your way through a minefield, even this is used twice. In addition the explosions - the games selling point - are over used and the enemies are incredibly hard to take out, most taking more than 15 rounds to put down. This forces you to look for stuff to blow up which means that you are rarely being tactical and constantly looking for stuff that blows up which just gets repetitive.
Overall this is an excellent game and has easily the best shooting of any game on PS2. With a little more length and variety it could have been a classic. As it is it is just good. I would suggest renting this not buying it as £30 is just too much money for 8 hours of game. Either that or wait for the price to drop.

Worth owning
As a fan of the timesplitter games, this seems a lot slower paced but more realistic in its aesthetic and layout. There are occasional non-linear paths but on the whole it is A-B-C.

Graphically, it looks superb but yes the AI is pretty lame and the fact you can't save mid level is a little frustrating at times, given there are only 8 and they are quite large.

The single player is all you get (though there are multi difficulty settings if that floats your boat) which for a fan of playing with your mates, it is a tad disapointing. That is why it remains inferior to other FPS games, i'd rather be playing with a mate and kicking his ass than playing against some dumb AI.

Beautiful and worth owning as it is a cut above most other FPS games but not as fun and original as it could have been.

Best FPS since Halo 2
Good:
___________
*Outstanding graphics - atmospheric, detailed and superb particles and explosions.
*Really satisfying weapons - The M3 and Uzi make you squeal with joy!
*Awesome sound - Explosions, bullet hits and gunfire all sound great. The environment noises add a lot too.
*Pretty good AI - They take cover quite a lot and try to sneak up behind you sometimes. They tend to stand next to explosive things, which although is really dumb, it makes it more fun!
*Very well designed levels - especially the sniper alley and bridge levels. Lots of alternative routes.
*Good replay value - Hard level provides a very good challenge and once finished, you get infinite ammo, so youre encouraged to do the 'destruction' objectives - Ie, shoot everything up!
*Superb destructible environments - The amount of stuff you can destroy is incredible! Shoot out walls, pipes, barrels, cars etc. The difference is great when you do a 'before & after' comparison of the environment of a gunfight.

Bad:
______
*Quite short - only about 8 levels
*Plot is a bit pointless - Just seems tacked on & you dont really care about the outcome.
*Cant jump - Backtracking is prevented by strategically placed tiny ledges that you cant pass. You get used to this after a while though.
*No multiplayer - Again, this doesnt really bother you so much because the single player mission is so good.

I really enjoyed black, and although it seemed a little short, I still feel compelled to play it again and again, on harder difficulty levels. Its loads of fun to play, and can be tricky to achieve all of the secondary objectives. Its got nearly everything that Killzone did so well, but without the samey gameplay and bad AI. Its the best, most intense and fun shooter ive played since Halo2 - i highly reccomend it.