Call of Duty: Black Ops Preview

The level shown at E3 featured twitch happy gameplay, which is a bad sign. The first thing to jump out from the demo is the lack of subtitles. While they are not generally turned on for demos, one can never be sure they will have them for ambient sounds.

The level shown starts out calm with Mason, a tunnel rat, creeping ahead, pistol at the ready. An enemy jumps out from a corner and the frantic action begins. The player enters a room full of enemies and the screen fades to darkness moments after downing one enemy.

The screen comes back and Mason is getting ready to seize a Hind. A little line of text pops up in the upper left hand corner of the screen, a little visible, giving the player instructions; “defeat the Hind crew.” If subtitles aren’t present for the prep talk before each engagement, this might be the only instructions people will get.

Next thing Mason switches to his grenade launcher and a slightly visible white crosshair comes up. The target is not in range for it to appear red, so the neutral white is the color of choice. Mason fires, cover is broken, and all hell breaks loose.

Mason flanks the enemy taking them all by surprise, partially because the fast pace of the gameplay. He picks them off before the hostiles have a chance to retaliate.

With the enemies defeated, a yellow arrow appears on screen directing Mason to the Hind. This arrow however blends into the lush and vibrant jungle making it barely visible.

Mason is stuck manning the big guns as the Hind takes off, and once again the crosshair gets lost in the jungle. The fast pace will makes it hard for gamers with cognitive and physical impairments. The Hind run reminds me of the helicopter levels in the original Modern Warfare and in those missions; gamers had one chance to destroy a vehicle before it destroyed them.

Those constant split second kill or be killed moments gave way to constant reloading screens, and I fear it will be the same with Black Ops.

Toward the end of the level, Mason faces off against another chopper, and it becomes apparent the precision is needed. As the Mason’s Hind veers from side to side it takes steady aim to bring down the enemy. After the Hind is destroyed, the demo comes to an end.

While multiplayer has been kept under wraps expect the same as Modern Warfare 2, but remember one thing; this is Treyarch. Treyarch helmed World at War and that game was surprisingly more accessible than Modern Warfare 2 because it included a color blind setting that changed the red/green crosshairs to orange/blue. This greatly increased World at War’s accessibility and the same should be expected for Black Ops. Perhaps Black Ops will even have a setting allowing players to change the objective and text color.

Also, Modern Warfare had the “N0M4D” feature that allowed gamers to aim down the sights by tapping the trigger instead of holding it down, which will hopefully make its way into Black Ops.

If war never changes, Black Ops should be more accessible than Modern Warfare 2. If you’ll recall, Infinity Ward threw disabled gamers under the tank by eliminating the N0M4D and colorblind feature in Modern Warfare 2, but Treyarch has had a good track record.

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