Retrospective: Black Comments by Will Porter

more of a graphical achievement than killzone 2

The Graveyard level was amazing. That is all.

>Achilles, in this performance, being played by a stool.

:D

/b

Strange timesplitters refernce was thrown in at the end of the article... timesplitters was brilliant.

Speaking of which, Bad Boys II is fantastic.

@lord,

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

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 !

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.

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.

@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.

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....

"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...

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.

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!

Expected to love it but hated it.
Unbelievably boring, gave up at the generic, dull foundry level.

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.

I loved Black.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

That's true, but we all know this already.
I found that comment more boring than Black.

"
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Games with black in the title that deserve a sequel.

BLACK

Fade to Black

Blackthorne?...On the iPhone.

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

Fantastic engine, shame about the game.