Retrospective: Black

By Will Porter Published 3 May, 2009

None so.

This Sunday's opinionated retro rant is about Black, the Criterion-built shooter that graced the last generation of consoles towards the end of their shelf life. During the following, somewhat feverish discussion of its impact, or tragic lack of impact, at no point shall we mention that a game released in 2006 cannot be considered retro.

Anyway, Black was awesome. I genuinely consider it the best shooter I ever played on Xbox, and yes, Eurogamer friends, better than Halo. For those who missed out, it was the story of... I can't remember actually. You were a bloke, and you were in Eastern Europe crossing the borders of made up foreign countries. And there were bad men, who were foreign since they often called grenades 'grenada!' before they were killed. I have no idea whatsoever why they were deemed bad men, or why they were trying to kill me. What makes this worse is that I only replayed Black this morning. Here, a mere two paragraphs in, we hit upon one of Black's three Achilles heels. (Achilles, in this performance, being played by a stool.)

Not only was Black's story incomprehensible, it was told in achingly dull inter-mission cut-scenes consisting of a cross general, a grumpy hero, a ceiling fan and about fifteen different puffs of cigarette smoke taken from six separate angles. The idea was that the hero was retelling a tale in which he had shot three hundred people in the head and watched them jump over balconies in response.

Because said tale was told in these mammoth and unskippable cut-scenes, it was certainly my reaction, and presumably that of the world at large, to get up to make a cup of tea and eat a biscuit whenever one came on. Sometimes I'd even have time to start and finish an argument with my girlfriend before the game's stockpile of jarring camera angles and waved secret documents had run out and deposited the hero back into EuroCzechoRussistan.

'Retrospective: Black' Screenshot 1

Compounding this problem, Black on anything higher than the normal difficulty rating was an absolute brick wall of bastard-hardness. It's a game that to this day I still feel was impossible to complete. When everyone was complaining about the short eight-hour run-time (itself a slightly comical criticism in these days of Wanted: Weapons of Fate), I simply couldn't understand it. I devoted two hours a night for two weeks trying to complete the last level and yet never ever managed it. The save system had it that there would be perhaps one or two save-points mid-mission, and on the harder difficulty level you couldn't carry healthpacks. My every evening was spent hiding and whimpering.

Thing is, I love hiding and whimpering more than anyone I know. There's nothing on earth that I love more than a shonky save-game system - the feeling of elation I used to get when taking out two or three enemies in Black when I only had a ribbon of health-bar between survival and progress-munching calamity was astonishing. It's the same reason I loved the original Far Cry so dearly - I believe that the quicksave and the checkpoint autosave have effectively robbed the modern shooter of true tension.

Sure, people get frustrated easily these days - but games increasingly get made to service the attention span of the lowest common denominator. True satisfaction only comes through hard graft, and I'd like to imagine that if I had ever completed Black it would have, in the words of Trainspotting, 'beaten any [CENSORED] in the world'. I'm reliably informed by someone who used to work at Criterion that this would not have been the case, and that in actual fact I would have been very angry - but still, the dream has never died.

Black's third Achilles heel was a lack of multiplayer. A fourth heel that I've just thought about would probably be its insistence that you kept on finding stuff like the blueprints of the Pentagon, terrorist plans to infiltrate the CIA and compromising pictures of the Queen doing a handstand in Eastern European stables. But I've now got myself too excited to bang on too much about such matters. Because not only was Black's technology utterly astounding, and still able to look the next-gen behemoths straight in the face without flinching, but the level design was immaculate.

The early levels were a bit duff, but whoever came up with the idea of blending degradable cover with a gigantic graveyard should be awarded so many medals that they can't walk. Hiding behind the headstones under a barrage of sniper fire with chunks of masonry falling around me will forever remain one of my favourite FPS moments. Likewise the Sniper Alley gunfight in the scrapyard, clearing up in the outhouses that surround the farmhouse, or any of the stuff in the asylum and the dockyards. Everywhere felt so real and so hard-edged that I fell in love with it.

Likewise the lack of a map, or a constant flashing 'go here next' marker, meant that levels - some of them designed to feel commendably non-linear - had to rely on the nous of the level designer and the encouragement of exploration to guide you through them. Remember exploration in shooters? That used to be brilliant. (In this glib statement I am ignoring both Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.).

Without wanting to be too brutal about it, Black also inspires (or at least inspired in me) the kind of bloodlust that curls your top lip, disables your profanity filter and has you shouting blue murder even when the living room window is open. Taking out its white-masked shotgun guys, with the statutory two blasts to the chest that the game demands, cannot help but elicit a bellowed victory howl - while any near-miss from a smoke-tailed rocket launcher provokes a yelp just as obscene as any only-just-prevented crash in the Burnout series.

'Retrospective: Black' Screenshot 2

The destruction and the explosions may have been matched and bettered since, but the simple feeling of feathering the right trigger to ensure a consistent rate of fire to an enemy's cranium with such an excellently built range of weaponry honestly hasn't. If you have any Microsoft Points floating around then it's honestly more than worth a purchase from the Xbox Originals service.

Black deserves a sequel, but seeing as things have been so quiet on that front for so long, bar the occasional rumour, it's hard to get your hopes up. Black had its failings, there's no doubt about it. It showed more than a little hubris in its conviction that every bugger gave a toss about two men blowing smoke rings into each other's mouths between every level, and those going into it merely wanting a challenge were instead presented with an act still considered illegal some of the more conservative world nations.

What it also did though, if I can get a little flag-wavey for a moment, was demonstrate that British developers could make Hollywood-style first-person set-pieces that were up there with the very best. Well, one British developer could. With all due respect to the TimeSplitters series, sometimes you need more than monkeys - no matter how great monkeys are.

Black, if you are out there somewhere: come home. We miss you. It's fine about the cut-scenes, you can have as many of them as you want. With two ceiling fans. No - three! Three of them. And an angry general waving secret documents in someone's just-breathed-out smoke in the slowest motion that science can muster. Anything. You can have anything. Just please come home. Ignore the people in the thread below that say you weren't as good as I say you were. All is forgiven. Please come home.

Black is still available for PS2 (probably on eBay) or as an Xbox Original for an amount of money that you clearly don't need, whatever your girlfriend/wife/mother/personal conviction says otherwise.

Picture of Will.

About Will Porter

Will ‘Velvet Owl’ Porter is a roaming freelance writer who occasionally appears at EG’s back door asking for scraps. You can find out how cold/hungry he is by following @Batsphinx on Twitter.

Read more articles from Will by visiting the Will Porter archive page.

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Comments (90) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Xerx3s #1 3 years ago

    "Ignore the people in the thread below that say you weren't as good as I say you were."

    He was just being nice, you were shit anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 03/05/09 @ 11:35

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    Nice read. I never played this TBH (moved on to 360 by then). Still may pick it up as I've heard much praise from gamers and I've seen it for cheap...just not on Live. ;)

    I'd prefer sticking to games a little longer in the tooth on these retrospectives though 2006 is not really retro, or is MS trying to drum up sales for originals...

    / puts on tin foil hat

  • dfunked #3 3 years ago

    Yep, good read... This is one of the main titles from the last gen that I have always felt silly for missing out on, I'm currently scouring ebay for a copy!

  • Rusty_M #4 3 years ago

    It's not a bad game. I had it when I briefly had an xbox. The last level was impossible though, I swear. Never mind cranking the difficulty up, I couldn't complete the final level on normal. Then again I'm hardly the best gamer around.

  • neonemesis #5 3 years ago

    Black was amazing. I'm no hardcore when it comes to FPS games but I loved this one and the graphics (at the time) blew me away. The final room in the final level was indeed a bitch but I recall finishing it on normal and the difficulty below - both times with a sliver of health remaining. This was on the PS2 but I recently got handed down an absolute heap of original Xbox games for free and Black being one of them, I'm really tempted to give it another playthrough.

    Anyone else remember the TV commercial for the game? The one with the opera music and a plush room being shot to pieces in slow motion?

  • mizcicz #6 3 years ago

    i loved this game as well...gameplay- and graphicwise it was so awesome...a great shooter...i mean even the cover of that game with all that bullets on it...haha...so damn slick...i really enjoyed the hell out of it...i still believe there will be a sequel one day with an huuuuuuuuuugeee multiplayer...we need a game like this...i´m tempted now to download it from xbl...it´s funny to read this article today because i was looking at the game (again) on the marketplace yesterday and decided not to purchase it again...i would instantly for 800 points...ah maybe even for1200

  • DarthInsinuate #7 3 years ago

    Exploding windows were the best part of the game. Usually when you fire a rocket through a window it'll just fly past the guy you're aiming at and explode behind them out of range. In Black the whole room will explode and the bugger in the window will come flying through the nearest piece of glass.

    Black was so imaginative, only the creators of Burnout could have come up with this stuff.

  • BANGARANG! #8 3 years ago

    Was thinking of picking this up recently but found out it wasn't on PC. No dice.

  • ProtoformX #9 3 years ago

    Had this for the Xbox and this artivcle has just convinced me to top up my MS Points so I can get it from the Xbox Originals service.

  • Futaba #10 3 years ago

    Fun read. The bit about the pre-level cutscenes made me lol.

  • FogHeart #11 3 years ago

    You know, I don't remember being bothered by the cutscenes at all! I think I was just so relieved to have completed the previous level that I considered it to be a moment to relax and gather my wits. Or maybe I was more patient when I was younger...

    This game, with God of War and Burnout Revenge, made me believe that while we were at the end of the console's life, we'd only just then managed to produce games that wrung every ounce of power from the PS2.

    However, when I was done with the game, I was done with using a gamepad to control an FPS. Having had to manouevre a crosshair onto several hundred enemies with little joysticks, and only the technical excellence of the game spurring me on, I'd had my fill.

  • Wastelander #12 3 years ago

    The graveyard level with degradable cover was done in Red Faction 2 several years before, yes?

  • DUFFKING #13 3 years ago

    Ugh, I hated this game. Admittedly I first played it year after its release but there was so much I didn't like. And about 80% of the games I play are shooters too.

    The majority of the levels bored me, the only 3 I actually had any fun with were the weapons factory, asylum and bridge. The rest were just so entirely generic and unexciting.

    The worst thing for me was the lack of any kind of atmosphere. Particularly the forest, which is an incredibly unexciting trudge all the way through. The game just felt like FPS design by numbers. Pretty graphics? Check. Big guns? Check. Lots of enemies? Check. Lots of explosions? Check. 'Destructible' Scenery? Check. Soul? Nope.

    Enemy AI was entirely nonexistant.They just flood out from the same spawn points until you kill enough to satisfy the level designer. Kind of like CoD 2-5, except they had some kind of atmosphere besides explosions.

    The weapons were mostly terrible. None of them actually felt like they had any power thanks to the ridiculous damage modelling. They may have sounded loud, and I appreciate that the game is trying to encourage headshots, but since when can anyone take 30 shots to the chest and still live? And if you don't get a headshot first time, the way each and every enemy always reacts with the same animation is just stupid. Coupled with the nonexistant AI of 'spawn, run to this point and make no attempts to move after doing so' it's just dull and annoying.

    The rest of the damage modelling was annoying too - often lining up a headshot was genuinely impossible because the weapons have this stupid range cap where the bullet just magically disappears, such as the docks (6th level?) where you start with a pissy little SMG and a sniper on a platform way up above you. Even though he's not that far away, you have to be standing practically beneath him before any shots will register.

    All this game did for me was prove that you can put as many explosions and enemies in a game as you like, but it's still not guaranteed to be much fun.

  • Tomo #14 3 years ago

    I found Black very, very average. 5/10 territory at best.

  • 3william56 #15 3 years ago

    Spot on Will. Was thinking of Black when wading through the single player carnage of Killzone2 - the only game for me since to really bag the awesome feel of Black. Had gone off FPSs since because none had come up with the genuine satisfaction of rounding a corner and unloading a mag straight into some genero-villain's chest at point blank range. KZ2 has it too (with skippable cut scenes, proper AI and no smoke rings!). Classic Criterion - awesome technically, stupid as a bag of hammers, but has more fun in one trigger pull than most achieve in an entire game. Genius.

    Sequel? Please God yes.

  • Xerx3s #16 3 years ago

    "I agree with every single word in this article. Ignore Xerx3s Black, he's just mad because he gets confused between "where" and "were"."

    I've got a hangover, what's your excuse? :D

  • Xerx3s #17 3 years ago

    I think that the platform where you first played it on probably forms the basis of your opinion. If you played it on the xbox, you had a shitload of very good shooters and the game had to impress a shitload more to make an impact. The ps2 on the other hand had far fewer shooters and people expected a lot less in terms of graphics.

  • Gearskin #18 3 years ago

    This game was brilliant at what it did. Gun porn. Every weapon could blow a hole in ozone layer.

  • knightmt #19 3 years ago

    I enjoyed this game, completed it quite quickly.
    As mentioned the AI was suspect, it was quite slim for a game of its time which made it appeal to me.
    I do not think multiplayer is a good idea unless it is a priority, therefore I am glad they did not waste my time.

  • Retroid #20 3 years ago

    I still think it was "Halo in combat pants" seeing as it had the recharging health, two weapons only at a time and seemingly followed the same idea of '30 seconds on chaos and fun'.

    I did like it but hell's bell's, the lack of checkpointing and missions each lasting upwards of 45 minutes made it tough to really like it sometimes.

    /Completed it

    ^____________^

  • Rash' #21 3 years ago

    i thought black was great. whether the scope of destruction has been succeeded is up for debate but it was certainly the games strength then and continues to be today. definitely deserving of a sequel.

  • El-Dev #22 3 years ago

    My favourite part was taken straight form The Rock(the woeful film with Nic Cage and Sean Connery) where you've to fight through a dis-used shower and you are attacked from above. The scrap yard fight runs that one close as well.

    Black is a top quality game, the gun detail is probably some of the best I've seen. I think it was the last shooter I really enjoyed.
    Edited by 1 at 03/05/09 @ 12:27

  • _Price_ #23 3 years ago

    It was an enjoyable enough title, but still crippled by the save system. Sure it adds 'tension', but I'll be damned if a game is going to dictate how long I'm going to play for each session.

    Hear that Black? You can't control me!

  • Ed_209uk #24 3 years ago

    'None so'? I think you mean 'None more'.

  • tjcremese #25 3 years ago

    Ive allready got it, an yeah it was abitch to complete in some parts!

  • Dan_Dare #26 3 years ago

    This game was Kick Ass. The sequel (Lord, make it happen) could be an absolute beast.

  • richardiox #27 3 years ago

    No mention of the totally fucked up checkpointing system = ultra fail. Black was a great game but having to leave your Xbox on overnight just to finish a level means it should never get the accolade of being the greatest Xbox FPS.

  • mkreku #28 3 years ago

    I played Black on my Playstation 2 and I thought it was brilliant too. The only thing that bothered me was that there was a tiny lag between the moment you pressed the shoot button and the shooting actually commencing.

  • bogmonster #29 3 years ago

    this is by far the best shootere EVER. shame they didnt make a sequel though...

  • dsmx #30 3 years ago

    Difficult game but I'm proud to say I finished it on black ops difficulty on the ps2. :p

    Should mention that i put in around 30 hours playing it and according to the game stats I gad fired around 270,000 rounds in that time.
    Edited by 1 at 03/05/09 @ 12:51

  • Hunam #31 3 years ago

    I thought Black was a great game. The cutscenes were horrid though, mostly I just walked off when they started and did something else for 5 minutes, came back and plouged into the next mission.

    Good stuff.

  • beep #32 3 years ago

    I had fun with the game (Xbox version), marvelled at the pretty graphics, and completed it. However, it's one of those games I never really want to play through again. Ever.

  • DFawkes #33 3 years ago

    I could never get ino this because of my lack of skills, but every time I add MS points and browse, I come close to buying it. It certainly impressed me visually at the time.

  • angerisagift #34 3 years ago

    I got a used copy for 6.88 delivered from Amazon marketplace and thought it was well worth the money. Guns, guns, guns!!!

  • dsmx #35 3 years ago

    Don't forget the one thing everyone should do in black. Go to the refinery level pick up the RPG and fire it at those gasometer's for your very own mini mushroom clouds.

  • JHuxley #36 3 years ago

    Ahh! Some long overdue love for Black. Thank you Mr Porter.

    Now I don't feel like such a freak for thinking this was the best console shooter of the time. I remember Halo fans deriding it for whatever reason way back when (and by the looks of this thread, they still are), yet IMO it never quite reached the same levels of sheer fun as Black. Call me shallow, but that's what counts for me.

  • jeebthegreat #37 3 years ago

    I remember picking this game up when it came out on the way home from school, popping the disc into my PS2 and being totally amazed by what I saw. Then I got to the second level and realised how damn HARD this game was, and I loved every bullet soaked minute of it. Stealth, action, everything! Possibly one of the best games I've ever played - and it's true; in this day of quicksaves tension just isn't there in videogames anymore :(

  • El_MUERkO #38 3 years ago

    BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM !!!KRUUUBBBUFFGGHHH!!! BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM "holy shit!" BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM FUUUUUUPH! BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM KRUNK CLICK BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM FUMP! KKCCCCCCCCKKKBBBUMMMMFFF BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM

  • Dr.Mott #39 3 years ago

    Will this play on 360, or do I have to fork out for it on Xbox originals?

  • Royal Fool #40 3 years ago

    Dr.Mott: A disc copy will do fine.

  • Super_Zee #41 3 years ago

    You weren't as good as he says you were.

    Sure, stuff blowing up was nice but the terrible cutscenes, constantly repeated enemy damage animations, stupid checkpointing (that didn't add tension, just frustration) and some duff level design tipped the balance too far.

  • mukki #42 3 years ago

    loved Black...

    and keep on wishing they would make a next gen version.....

    personally I think killzone 2 borrows quite a bit from it

    so BLACK 2.0 plz!! with a better story, the video cut scenes where somewhat lame!

  • swisstony #43 3 years ago

    It got right the one thing so many shooting games never have before or since. When you pull the trigger of a real gun, it's frightening, loud and emotional. Black fully delivered this aim and was unrepentant in it's homage to the classic 80s and early 90s action blockbusters so obviously referenced throughout.

    I was on the team and everyone I worked with on it remains incredibly proud of it We had an amazing time making it.

  • brainbird #44 3 years ago

    Black was great. Yes, the save system was far from perfect and the cutscenes... well, I used to make tea as soon as a cutscene started.
    The only game I remember that encourages you to shoot your bullets, not save them for later.

  • dsmx #45 3 years ago

    Black is overly criticised. It was nice to play a game where the pistols weren't useless, never really understand devs who put pistols in games then make them piss week.

    That last level was a real bastard until I figured out you could beat it without entering the last room for most of it, you picked up the saw and just took shots at people from the tunnel just before the last room. Once you cleared most of the waves out you could move into the final room relatively easily and finish the game.

  • D_arkTrooper #46 3 years ago

    Played and completed this for the first time a few months ago and loved it.Everyone seems to moan about the cutscenes,but they were only unskippable the first time around.

  • Doctor_What #47 3 years ago

    Even bunnies love Black:

    [link url=http:// comic.matazone.co.uk/2009/05/01/comic/
    ]http://co mic.matazone.co.uk/2009/05/01/c...[/link]

    Black is still my favourite FPS of all time. Far more fun than the pretty dull universe of Halo, for my money.

    But... That story. Oh gods that story. It's utter tripe. The creative director of Criterion still rants at anyone who dares insult it, claiming that the critic doesn't understand the geopolitical implications and commentary on terrorism, or some guff like that. Sorry mate, it's still a load of bollocks. Just accept that you're very good at making things crash or go bang, but you're rubbish at telling stories. If you do a sequel then please find someone who can actually structure and write a plot, not just make up some tosh and expect that being a Creative Director means that you're a good writer. (And learn to take criticism better too.)

  • retr0gamer #48 3 years ago

    This game took me less than 4 hours to complete and felt like a by the numbers FPS that was far prettier than it deserved to be. It was crap imo.

  • Gareth_Ety #49 3 years ago

    I'm gutted there's no sequel planned. Bought this on release & loved it. I recall the combat seemed highly realistic and the sound design was excellent. Massive environments and lots of destructible scenery. Just a bit of mindless fun, but the 360 was already out & sadly no-one was interested.

  • Chupakun #50 3 years ago

    The Graveyard level was amazing. That is all.

  • VibratingDonkey #51 3 years ago

    Speaking of which, Bad Boys II is fantastic.

  • El-Dev #52 3 years ago

    @lord,

    A wii owner talking about graphical achievement.....hilarious.

  • Freek #53 3 years ago

    Just be glad you diden't finish the last level. It's not quite as bad as Halo 2's ending, but it's certainly up there.
    Made worse by the bastard hard bunker gunfight you have to blast through in order to even see it.

    And to this day, no game has ever matched it's gun and explosion sound effects.

    Oh, and getting the rocket launcher in the refinery level is F-&-C-K-I-N-G A-W-S-O-M-E !
    Edited by 1 at 03/05/09 @ 21:54

  • Snowball #54 3 years ago

    Nice article.

    Black was probably my all time fav single FPS. I know that this game has defects and problems that many other fps don't have. But it has something that made me love it sooooo much.

    As one guy posted before, it is "gun porn". Best weapons feedback ever.
    Moreover the "you can destroy all stuff"... so amazing.

    I played it on Normal, Hard and Black Ops. The last level was a pain. It tooks me a lot to beat it but it was like drugs. Really.

    I'm waiting for the sequel but I think I'm going to wait forever.
    In the meantime I'm looking for the "new Black" in this gen.

    I played and beated both Killzone 2 (Hard) and Call of Duty 4 (Veteran).
    Both the games are very nice (being honest COD4 is awesome considering the multiplayer.

    What I don't like about these new Fps games and loved about Black?
    The Single Experience Campaing. In Black you were ALONE. I miss this sooo much. While I'm playing I don't want the mess around me including stupid AI mates that are not able to save themselves (Killzone anyone?)... that's a pity.
    In Black you could enter an area alone and decide what to do. Being a Snake or being a Rambo. Soooo aweome.

    The last thing I loved in Black that seems "not fashon anymore" in these days is the "coutable number of enemies".
    Black didn't have that freaking RESPAWN that I hate so much.
    And it was able to be sooo difficult even not even an infinite number of enemies.

    I think that COD6 has the potential to be the new Black, but I want they to fix 2 things:
    1. No Respawn anymore.
    2. When I go up with difficulty level I don't want to play against enemies that are robots that can see me from a mile while I'm under a car. I want skilled enemies (even very skilled) but with a "believable AI".

    And that's my cents.

  • abitrubbish #55 3 years ago

    OK, you win, I'm going to dig this out in the morning and dust off the Xbox to remind myself how good this is.
    I'd do it now, but I remember that the audio was great and it's a bit too late to play it loud.

  • JHuxley #56 3 years ago

    @dsmx

    Ha! For a moment there I was starting to doubt if I'd ever even completed Black because I couldn't remember the last level at all. If it was really as difficult as some people suggest on this thread, wouldn't I have remembered it?

    Reading your post now I remember it clearly, and I used that exact same tactic! It was still tough on normal, but most of the bad guys can be taken out from safe positions.

  • Bagpuss #57 3 years ago

    I smashed 2 controllers against the wall in sheer rage and frustration because of this game.....

    I swore never to go back to it, when i died during that last bunker fight, and thanks to the SHITTY save game points, got bumped back to the beginning....fuck that, lifes too short.


    Oh, and without those long cut scenes, the game wouldnt have been possible, its just a way to disguise the levels being cached onto the XBOX hard drive....


  • BBIAJ #58 3 years ago

    "Oh, and without those long cut scenes, the game wouldnt have been possible, its just a way to disguise the levels being cached onto the XBOX hard drive...."

    Of course it is, Halo manages to cache levels on-the-fly in mere seconds...

  • dsmx #59 3 years ago

    lol at the people who got annoyed at that last level. Just do the tatic I mentioned above and it's a lot easier. Personally I was happy someone finally released a game that was brutally difficult, that punished you for getting shot. Regenerative health is for pussies. In black your forced to take cover you go in like rambo on anything other than easy-normal difficulty your dead. You treat those rare healthpacks like presents from god, regenerative health has made a bunch of gamers crap at shooters.

    Trust me on this if you actually take cover (so long as it lasts) and don't just stand in a middle of a room taking shots you will survive, oh yeah and AIM FOR THE HEAD.

    Also for the record the magnum kicks ass, nothing like going around like dirty harry to make you feel good.

    If your talking frustration go play pro evo 6 and just wait for that cheating scumbag AI to make it so none of your players go on runs, there slowest player in defence is faster than martins, slide tackles from behind that aren't a foul, etc.

  • Rodney #60 3 years ago

    odd, I dont remember this game being particularly hard.

    funny timing, I was home last week and dug a few things out of the loft and found some old xbox games. started playing PGR2 and Black over the weekend. they both still play well, but I do remember the poor AI in Black giving it limted replay value.

    Finding stuff you forgot you had feels like getting new things for free!

  • grandmaster Verified Director, Digital Foundry #61 3 years ago

    Weirdly enough, I was playing this just yesterday on 360 (disc copy). The most jarring things about it are the lack of run and jump buttons and the fact that iron sights isn't 'where it should be'. Frame rate is rock solid at 30fps - more than any 360/PS3 FPS I've played. In places, the graphics still hold up today. It is an incredible technical achievement.

    In terms of destructible scenery, the likes of Killzone 2 etc don't get close. The amount of stuff you can blow up is really what sets this apart from any other game. It's like the last 15 minutes of Commando in video game form. Black 2 is the best shooter that's never been made.Bearing in mind the advances made since then, it would be fascinating to see how Criterion would push the genre.

  • Cloudane #62 3 years ago

    I loved Black.

  • dsmx #63 3 years ago

    The foundry level was generic? Can't think of many games that have a level where you can blow gasometer's up for a mushroom cloud.

  • miiiguel #64 3 years ago

    I stopped reading when I read "better than Halo".

  • zedzee #65 3 years ago

    Black is like EA's "SHOX" - an underground him. Not loved by the masses, but adored by a few.

    Why can't reviews/articles just include a tad of normal language - every one I've read has so many superfluous words in them. Is that the writers way of adding some 'padding' into the word count?!

    Over & Out.

  • VandelayIndustries #66 3 years ago

    grandmaster
    "Weirdly enough, I was playing this just yesterday on 360 (disc copy). The most jarring things about it are the lack of run and jump buttons and the fact that iron sights isn't 'where it should be'. Frame rate is rock solid at 30fps - more than any 360/PS3 FPS I've played. In places, the graphics still hold up today. It is an incredible technical achievement."

    My thoughts too. I can only imagine how good a second BLACK would be in light of what Criterion have achieved with Burnout Paradise, specifically the online aspect.

    Get on it Criterion!

  • gribb #67 3 years ago

    Its okay, nothing special. But we are all different and our opinions often reflect that.

  • cyber_nicco #68 3 years ago

    "
    I'd prefer sticking to games a little longer in the tooth on these retrospectives though 2006 is not really retro, or is MS trying to drum up sales for originals... "

    I retrospective in this sense seems to be a look back at games to see how they look after the glare of time has shone on them. It is not about "retro" gaming, I don't think. So I would say that one to three years is the absolute BEST time for this sort of thing. It is not about just musings, it's about missed opportunities.

    I mean, this is making me get Black, while reminiscing about some SNES game is worth fuck all to me. I mean, it might be an interesting read, but not helpful in any real sense.

  • Windypops #69 3 years ago

    Just bought this on the strength of the article (and the memories of playing it first-time round). Two-gig download! Virgin Media are going to send some of their pipe-hitting caucasians round to do me harm.

  • Dr_Wadd #70 3 years ago

    I`m going to have to disagree that the secret documents you could collect were a weak point, I thought they were great for the little references Criterion threw in there. Astronomy SETEC. Project THOR. Top stuff.

    Edit: This article has now tipped me over in to rebuying it on 360, forgot how good some of the music is as well.
    Edited by 2 at 04/05/09 @ 21:05

  • suckerpunch86 #71 3 years ago

    I still love this game and play it on my original Xbox. I guess Alex Ward may have hinted at a potential way of bringing it to current-gen consoles in a more-bigger-and-badder side like how Hollywood does.

    I love playing the graveyard level as I can shoot out the tombstones, and the weaponry available.

  • Killerbee #72 3 years ago

    Great game. Right up there with TimeSplitters 2 among the best shooters of the last generation consoles.

    Had this on PS2 - and that last level wasn't nearly that hard on "Normal" difficulty - it took me two, maybe three attempts?

    The cut scenes were inexplicable though - very moody and smokey and all, but made no sense whatsoever. Thing is, it didn't matter. The core gunplay, the great visuals (for a "last-gen" title) and some inspired map design and AI programming made this game pretty damn good imho.

    I'd certainly love to see a sequel.

  • swisstony #73 3 years ago

    Music was by Michael Giacchino (Sp?) he of Lost and Cloverfield and numerous other soundtracks.

  • Fiscalizador #74 3 years ago

    BLACK is the best FPS game ever in PS2 .. I wish see a BLACK 2 in PC someday ..

  • dsmx #75 3 years ago

    Black was a better single player experience than any shooter on any console.

  • cam_guin #76 3 years ago

    I was got a bit bummed out by the targeting distance - I can remember constantly spotting some enemy a mile off (after the umpteenth restart), taking a clean head shot and it not registering until I got within what the game deemed a suitable distance. Still, damn superb shooter. Inspired chaos and carefulness in equal doses.
    Edited by 1 at 05/05/09 @ 10:16

  • presh #77 3 years ago

    Nice to see a game I love get a front page article again. The bridge level was just so brilliant - especially being able to get up top with the RPG and sniper rifle...

    BUT WHY ISN'T IT COMPATIBLE WITH THE PS3 EH SONY?

    One of the games I most wanted to play on my B/C PS3, and the bloody game crashes every time you get halfway through the first level. Barstewards.
    Edited by 1 at 05/05/09 @ 10:18

  • Harmonica #78 3 years ago

    Good article.

    BLACK is a better FPS than most, for sure. Up until Call of Duty 2 it was probably the best 'realistic' (cough) shooter, it's now third in line behind that and CoD 4.

    Like most here I never completed the last level, because it was bastardly hard, although I did try at least twenty odd times and spent a whole day at it. Despite memorising the whole sequence by rote, there would always be a single grenade or shotgun wielding hockey-mask guy that would end it all.

    And yes, there's plenty wrong with BLACK, including the storyline, the wavering levels of difficulty, and those unskippable/sometimes skippable FMVs. But the fact that the rest was good enough to overcome all that, and that people talk about it in the same breath as FPS luminaries like Half-Life, means that it's a gem of a game (if only a flawed gem). Just think how good a sequel could be if they fixed all that stuff.
    Edited by 1 at 05/05/09 @ 10:33

  • dsmx #79 3 years ago

    Last level was only hard if you do it the way they want you to, if you actually go into the final room your dead. Get the saw and step in the room just far enough to get the enemies spawning then duck back into the tunnel. Fire at the enemies from in the tunnel until the waves of enemies end then enter the room. If all has gone to plan you should be able to finish the game, this method works all the way up to black ops difficulty. (I should know I used this method to finish it on black ops, that final room is a death trap)

  • gamerbunny #80 3 years ago

    Best shooter of last gen. There. I said it.

  • grandmaster Verified Director, Digital Foundry #81 3 years ago

    I`m going to have to disagree that the secret documents you could collect were a weak point, I thought they were great for the little references Criterion threw in there. Astronomy SETEC. Project THOR. Top stuff.

    Yup, even the 'crime they didn't commit' that got the A-Team banged up is mentioned in one of the Intel collectables! In fact, all that is missing is a homage to Shadow Company from Lethal Weapon.

  • dsmx #82 3 years ago

    Having finished it on black ops I can safely say you can't help but laugh at some of the intel stuff you can find, I liked the burnout rendering secrets intel. Lets face it how the fuck they managed to get games like black and burnout looking that good on the ps2 is nothing short of something you'd expect from some top secret research department.

  • gamerbunny #83 3 years ago

    I swear if Criterion doesn't make a sequel I will either;

    1. Hurt a puppy.
    2. Stop buying all of their DLC for Burnout Paradise.

    Make it happen or else.

    :p

  • dsmx #84 3 years ago

    Of course one could argue that this article was a result of critereon trying to gauge the public's reaction to the first one and see if there's a demand for a sequel.

    Still Black does deserve a sequel. If they do make one they need to realise if they're doing homages to 80's action films and TV shows the plot was something that loosely held together the action sequences and you could SKIP through them and not worry about missing anything. Just make the guns LOUDER, make the environment even more destructible and able to damage enemies with the scenery throw in some multiplayer to shut up the whiners about it and you'd have black 2.

  • gamerbunny #85 3 years ago

    Jeez? Was I the only one who LIKED the story in Black? That cliffhanger hurt alot you know! :,(

  • Harmonica #86 3 years ago

    Games with black in the title that deserve a sequel.

    BLACK

    Fade to Black

  • cam_guin #87 3 years ago

    Blackthorne?...On the iPhone.

  • mfnick #88 3 years ago

    Finaly! Some love for Black! I freaking loved this on Xbox - it was my fave FPS game of last gen too. In fact I still love it now. I still put it on every month just to blow shit up & admire the lovely way dust, brick & wood flies everywhere during a shootout.

    I too am still stuck on the last level on hard! I will do it one day.....

    Heres to you Black. You were & are still, brilliant. Give us a sequel dammit! Unless you're going to fuck it up like you did with Paradise by giving it an open world setting. X l

  • mashk #89 3 years ago

    Fantastic engine, shame about the game.

  • My1stLoveJak #90 2 years ago

    Great article! I, for one, loved this game. I haven't played every shooter to ever come out, but I have played enough of Halo and Call of Duty to recognize a great FPS when it comes along. The explosions alone elevated this game, for me; whenever I saw a Black crosshair, I would ALWAYS pump whatever it was full of bullets until it blew up...preferably when an enemy was hiding behind said explosive, or just running by it.

    I saw someone mention spawnpoints, and I don't know where they got that idea from. Black is not Modern Warfare, with unlimited enemies until crossing an invisible line...oh, no. Enemies are threatening in this game, even with their predictable AI. When you have rockets careening towards you from three different directions, you won't mind that helmets pop up from the same position like gophers, occasionally moving to a new vantage point. Spawn points are rare, but when they do appear, it's usually near the end of a level, where you must destroy a bunker housing all these enemy units. Bring the roof down, and you're on to the next area. Otherwise, enemies are numbered - when you kill them all, they're not coming back (they better not, anyways! Those shotgun guys soak up a few headshots).

    You might mind that it takes a perfectly aimed headshot to take an enemy out in one hit, but that's just another selling point: the difficulty. When you're in the later levels of the game, trained to get a headshot every time, you will feel like a badass, knocking helmets off all over the place. The weapons are brilliant, too, and you're sure to find your favourite in the bunch (with a 2ndary weapon for ridiculous power, of course - be it revolver, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, rocket launcher or a gun that could have been mounted).