Retrospective: Black Comments by Will Porter

"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.

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

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!

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

"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

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.

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

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.

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

^____________^

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 :(

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

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

Dr.Mott: A disc copy will do fine.

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.

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!

Like Killzone, I felt this was a game that was overly criticised. Just one of those games that people love to complain about. It was far from perfect, certainly, but it was a huge amount of fun.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even bunnies love Black:

http://comic.matazone.co.uk/2009/05/01/c...

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.)

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.

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.