You are Sergeant First-Class Jack Kellar, seasoned veteran of the US military and a leader of a BLACK ops team. Your squad have been sent into the heart of Eastern Europe on a dangerous mission, drawn in to the midst of a relentless combat zone to bring in a traitor. BLACK doesn't contain stealth sections and it doesn't contain complex squad based commands. It is crammed with beautifully crafted iconic firearms, advanced destructive environments and the most intense firefights every seen in a video game.You are Sergeant First-Class Jack Kellar, seasoned veteran of the US military and a leader of a BLACK ops team. Your squad have been sent into the heart of Eastern Europe on a dangerous mission, drawn in to the midst of a relentless combat zone to bring in a traitor.
BLACK is developed by Criterion Games, the studio that created the groundbreaking Burnout franchise. When Burnout hit the streets it injected a new lease of life and visceral quality into a genre obsessed with realism and simulation. One of the core aims of BLACK is give the FPS genre a similar dose of the Criterion touch.
Many console FPS games are treading a path towards sterility and dilution. The key aspect of these games is supposed to be the shooting right?
FPS? First Person Shooter?
BLACK doesn’t contain stealth sections and it doesn’t contain complex squad based commands. It is crammed with beautifully crafted iconic firearms, advanced destructive environments and the most intense firefights every seen in a video game.
BLACK breaks down the genre to its bare bones and builds it back up again using Hollywood as its inspiration. Action blockbusters of the 80s and 90s provide the benchmark for aesthetics and effects and BLACK sets out to recreate this experience within a video game.
Every bullet fired in BLACK has a destination. When it reaches that destination it has an effect. To create this sense of Hollywood realism these effects must be turned up to 11. Chunks get torn from buildings, plumes of dust emanate from destroyed concrete, pillars deform from constant gunfire and signposts collapse from their bindings. This level of destruction is not just a visual feast, it’s a combat advantage. If an enemy is positioned underneath a signpost, open fire on the structure and the signpost will collapse onto them. If a soldier is standing by a concrete pillar, blast the pillar and kill the enemy with the falling debris.
The opportunities are rife and the level of satisfaction is high.
BLACK is released on PlayStation 2 and Xbox in early 2006
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