Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will not be one who says "Come on, that doesn't sound like a real M16!!" I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible. I will not rate anything on gameplay. I am just rating sound.
Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!
Ok, let's review the sound for the Single Player of Call of Duty: Black Ops
This trailer does kick butt though..
Music: Treyarch stuck with what they knew for a lot of things in the making of this game. That was the same for the music as well. Sean Murray has produced great scores over the past number of years. His work can be heard in the “True Crime” video game series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (hmm small world with SMG) and of course, Call of Duty: World at War. He did a great job composing the pieces for the SP portion of this game. His music keeps you engaged and does a good job evoking the proper feeling during the missions. I am sure it was difficult based on the period this game spans across. Music for this game (SP) gets an 8.5!!!
Get the soundtrack from iTunes – Call of Duty: Black Ops on iTunes or from Amazon – Call of Duty: Black Ops Soundtrack on Amazon
Ambient: Treyarch did a decent job with the ambient in the SP part of the game. Sparks, snowy terrains, sirens, ambient gun fire, burning fire, glass breaking and jets flying over all sounded good and pretty close-to-real. I still have an issue with the walking/running/jumping though. See my MP review on that one so I don’ t repeat myself. They also did a good job with the interview room sounding like a hospital room. My favorite ambient sound had to be the Cuban bar music. Don’t know why, but it stuck with me. Ambient gets an 7.5 for SP.
Dialog: Why oh why Ice Cube did you have to go overboard with your dialog in this game?? It sounded almost comical. Anyway, dialog was a little rough in the SP portion of the game as the main character started off pretty normal in the beginning when he was getting interrogated then when he was about to bust in on Castro, there was a hint of an accent I couldn’t make out. It sounded goofy. Woods, well I can’t help but keep thinking “Tropic Thunder” when I see him and hear him. Don’t know why, I just do. His character was a little out there but for a Black Ops operator, but you kind of have to be. All in all, the dialog was a bit rough around the edges but it did sell a good story of the SP portion of the game. Since I am commenting on the sound design of the game and not the story line, I will leave it at that. My biggest complaint on the dialog is the characters voices seem to be right next to you speaking when they are clearly a good distance away? In other words, no distance to the voice, no noticeable echo no depth. Treyarch could have done better on this one. Don’t believe me? The best voice dialog in this game was certainly Ed Harris and Gary Oldman did a great job as well and Reznov. Good choice with them guys! Check my other reviews on other games. Giving dialog an 6 rating.
Vehicles: The vehicles in the SP had great sound levels and was close-to-real as possible. Planes, cars, trucks and other vehicles fit in perfect with other elements of the game. They weren’t too overpowering and by far, probably had the best sound in the game. Vehicles gets an 8 as well.
Weapons: I have shot many weapons in my life and I will tell you right now that real life weapons and video game weapons WILL ALWAYS SOUND DIFFERENT!!! Video game weapons need to "sound" realistic and keep the player engaged with that strong, cool CHUGGA CHUGGA sound that a game weapon will make when shooting. So I will give my sound review on a close-to-real sound that I can. Weapons falls in the same rating as with the MP review I did. Weapons gets a 7.
Overall Sound: I hope Treyarch starts making the sound design a higher level priority than what it seemed to be in this game. I was a little disappointed in that it could have been done better. Sound really helps sell a story no matter what. You never go into a Summer Blockbuster hit and expect to hear “okay” sound. You expect to feel and hear the sound to where you feel like you are part of the movie. I just didn’t feel that way with this game. I expect the virtual beating for this but as always this is my opinion and they could take some notes from some other studios on how they design and engineer their sound. Overall Sound rating gets a 7.5
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS SP overall review: 7.5
That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.
No comments:
Post a Comment