The Bottom Line
- It's been labeled "gun porn" for a reason, lots of guns, lots of shooting
- Sweet environmental destruction
- Lots of shooting
- Yet, more shooting
- Oh yeah, did I mention lots of guns and shooting?
- Despite environmental destruction, fairly linear level design
- Evil cut scenes that cannot be skipped
- In a game that's so over the top, why can I only carry two guns?
- Not able to adjust look sensitivity
- Black is torn between two worlds: realism and wicked gun play
Description
- Graphics: 5 - Absurd blurry reload screen aside, Black is one of the best looking PS2 games period
- Sound: 4 - Mediocre music is balanced out with sweet mood music
- Concept: 3 - Guns and stuff to blow up, a quality, if un-original recipe
- Control: 2.5 - The scheme works fine, but no running, jumping, or look sensitivity control
- Difficulty: 3 - Aside from one wonky level, it's pretty easy and straight forward
- Multiplayer: 0 - None, don't ask me why, as there certainly should be.
- All scores are out of 5. The overall rating is not an average of the above scores.
- Rated: Mature - for strong language and violence, lots and lots of violence.
Guide Review - Black - PS2 Review
Black attempts to be a serious FPS by not allowing you to jump, run, or carry more than two weapons at a time, regardless of size. Side note, ummm if it's supposed to be "realistic" to only be able to carry two guns, why is it two pistols or the combo of an RPG and a SAW carry the same limitations? That gripe aside, Black falls short of serious RPG play by lacking look sensitivity adjustment, pretty silly AI, and providing way too much ammo. Therein lies the problem, I can destroy walls, but that one brick that I can't jump over stops me from going through the hole. I can kill a guy by shooting him in the foot with a Magnum, but an RPG to the chest and he may get back up. Black could have been an over-the-top frag-fest by allowing limitless weapons, or a least one-per category, allowing players to run and jump, instead of lumbering about, and cutting the pretentious, and dull, anti-terrorism story.
I'm sure there will be a Black 2, so how about it EA, let Halo be Halo and let Black be the insane gun-crazy mess we all wanted it to be?
