User:Damac1214/Why MW3 and Blops of a relatively equal quality

Now I know there are a lot of people that absolutely despise and hate Black Ops and want to see its name erased from history forever. I also know there are a lot of people who didn't like Modern Warfare 3 or possibly like Black Ops more. So I decided to just do a little compare and contrast to see which would come out on top in my opinion.

Well, to cut to the chase, MW3 came out on top, but it wasn't that far ahead of Black Ops. Below is where you can read my analysis if you so care.

*This is 100% Opinion*

Setting
Black Ops was advertised as being the first Call of Duty game set during the Cold War, specifically in Vietnam. We knew there would be a couple non-vietnam missions, but for the most part we were anticipating a vietnam war game. When the game was finally released, we only got 4 Vietnam missions across a 13 level campaign. Settings ranged from Cuba, to China, to some fucking Rebirth Island no one has ever heard of, and World War II was even thrown in there, just for kicks. As an understatement, I was fairly disappointed by the lack of consistency in the locations and enemies.

Story
From the start of advertising, we knew Black Ops was going to be focusing A LOT more on story than Treyarchs previous game, World at War did. We knew very little of the story pre-release. You were a soldier named Mason fighting during the Cold War to stop a chemical weapon called Nova 6, and you were somehow connected to Viktor Reznov from the previous game. We also knew that, for whatever reason, Mason was being tortured and most levels were actually going to be flashbacks.

And, to be honest, I didn't hate the story. It was a cheesy, B-Movie type story, but it actually worked. Nova 6's backstory is rushed, but good enough for me to want to stop it. The characters, bar Dragovich and Kravchenko, are handled well. And the twist that Reznov was Dead the whole time was actually shocking and epic when I first reached that point of the game.

It did have it's problems, however. While Steiner was relatively (and I use the term loosely) three dimensional villain, Dragovich and Kravchenko are simply "Bad Guys" and you never really get a drive to kill them. The writing is bad to, and leaves a lot of story element either unexplained or too confusing to comprehend. (The Numbers and Masons Double Brain Washing). My Biggest gripe with the game though, was it was advertised as a sequel to World at War, yet they are barely connected other than Reznov's involvement and the mission Project Nova.

Gameplay
While I applaud Treyarch for trying to change up the campaigns gameplay in Black Ops, I feel they may have gone a little over-board. Every mission starts with a silly 1st person sequence, which is cool the first or second time around, but when you just want to play the level it can be very tedious. Enemies feel like robots who just stand up and fire their guns, a complete surprise when compared to the Japanese Soldiers from World at War. Most of the additions to gameplay just aren't necessary (Dragons Breath Rounds and The Blackbird Sequence).

One aspect of the campaign I really did like however, was the vehicles. Finally being able to control where I was going in a helicopter or a boat was a big improvement from previous Call of Duty games.

Other than those things though, the campaign was pretty standard to a Call of Duty game. It was enjoyable for awhile but the joy wore off. It suffered a lot from the "It was cool in the moment, but looking back it was kind of stupid" syndrome.

Setting
The setting for MW3 was pretty heavily built up and advertised, World War III. We were going to be fighting a modern day World War. Now, this prospect sounded awesome, and when we were promised we would also be fighting in London, Berlin, Paris, and New York, it only got better. But upon release, there was disappointment to be had. We indeed got to fight in World War III, and we indeed got to fight in Berlin, New York, London, and Paris. But we only had two missions in New York and Paris, as well as one mission in London and Berlin. The setting Jumped around to numerous places, including India, Somalia, Russia, England, Germany, France, the United States, and Prague. Most of the game was not what we were promised, and was a huge disappointment if this was supposed to be World War III.

Story
As A sequel to MW2, MW3 took off right where MW3 left off, and the story was quite engaging. That is, the Taskforce 141 story was engaging. Price has always been a great three dimensional character, as well as Makarov. Soaps death actually felt slightly sad, though his lack of true character made it not worth much, and the fact that the main playable character, Yuri, had a backstory, actually made the character much more interesting, and made his final sacrifice to kill Makarov all the more impressive. The Delta force missions were much more throwaway, though sequences where Price and Sandman communicated were pretty interesting.

The writing managed to make everything in the game feel epic, that's really all there is to say. From the second you get out of the vehicle in Black Tuesday, to the moment Price lights a cigar and the screen fades to black in Dust to Dust, everything feels epic.

Gameplay
When it comes to the campaign gameplay however, it feels like a step down from MW2 and only half a step up from Black Ops. Most of the same problems found int he Gameplay of Black Ops still apply, only with improved enemy A.I and less of the First Person sequences, as well as the removal of sully controllable vehicles.

Black Ops
Almost every aspect of Black Ops multiplayer was Treyarch trying to do exactly what players wanted, revolutionize the game. In theory, all their ideas were good ones. Add Wager MAtches to mix up gameplay, add Cod Points to give players more control, add three challenges for pro perks to make players try new strategies, etc. In practice, however, very few of these ideas functioned well. CoD points were more tedious then they were helpful, Three challenges for pro perks were tedious as well. A lot of the balancing decisions were odd to, why can't we use Warlord with any under barrel weapons? Why can't we scavenge rockets or launcher grenades, but we can scavenge explosive bolts and grenades? Why can't lethal killstreaks count toward the killstreak?

That being said, Treyarch got some stuff right. I thought the Wager Matches were a fantastic idea, because instead of being super serious high score games, they were just for fun, with fun changes to the games formula. I liked Customization of Guns and emblems too, and thought they really made you feel like "this is my gun, this is my symbol". Some of the changes to existing perks, such as the effects of Sitrep getting added to hacker so you can turn enemy equipment against them, was another great idea. It was things like that that I felt gave gameplay of multiplayer a new spice we hadn't seen in a long time

Now then, I thought about not addressing it, because it was really a community problem, but I will. The FAMAS and Ghost were Overpowered, it's true. The only reason they broke gameplay however was that they were too popular, and that's not Treyarchs fault, they could never have anticipated that.

Modern Warfare 3
MW3 multiplayer was an equally mixed bag to Black Ops. I had personal gripes with the removal of Wager Match-esque playlists and Gun customization being reduced. The rather high amount of some overpowered guns (PP90M1, FMG-9, and Type-95, i'm looking at you) was also fairly disappointing, but once again not Infinity Wards fault, but actually the communities. The maps are also a source of grip with me. While even Black Ops had some memorable maps, (<3 Stadium and Launch) MW3 has almost no stand out maps, with Dome seemingly being the only one. However, Infinity Ward made great strides in revolutionizing the gameplay of Multiplayer which I just can't complain about. Weapon Levleing was great and fun addition that gave the same "This is my gun" feel. The "Strike Packages" and "Pointstreaks" made players actually play like a team more often than just be lone wolves and seemed to bend to every players skill level and gave all players a fighting chance. New balancing techniques, such as new perks and effects and new equipment like the Trophy System, made the game feel much for fair in terms of gameplay.

Zombies vs. Spec Ops
Now this is a source of a lot of debate among fans, and there are good reasons to like and hate both, so i'll just give you my view.

Spec Ops pits you up with a specific mission, sometimes with a specific time limit, and you (and possibly a buddy) must complete the objective. If thats to short or tactical for you, you can try your hand at survival, where you and one other person are pit up against never ending waves of enemies. The enemies vary in strength and special abilities, and you are able to use every weapon, piece of equipment, and outside support (provided you are the correct level) you can to survive as long as possible. Zombies is just a survival game, there is no mission, save a couple easter eggs, there is no end, you just do everything you can to survive.

Three things sell me on Zombies over Spec Ops, The ability to play with four players is great, and I love playing with friends and just joking around and talking while we kill zombies. The Over-the-topness of zombies is awesome, Wonder Weapons, Enemy types, Characters, Perks (What are you on when you think of PhD flopper?) all more crazy than can be found in survival. Finally, creativity. The maps in zombies, are made for zombies. The Wonder weapons in zombies, are made for zombies, the textures in zombies, are made for zombies. The sounds in zombies, are made for zombies. Everything about zombies is 100% more creative then Infinity Ward.

In Conclusion
In my personal and Amateur opinion, Modern Warfare 3 is the better game. Black Ops however is not far behind it, per my reasons above. If I had to give them rankings out of 100, MW3 would come in at a solid 80, while Blops would be a 76.

Any type of comments
I didn't want to make this a blog, so just post comments here as you wish. agree, disagree, I don't care, it's your opinion not mine.