Call of Duty Black Ops is based in the Cold War era. You take on a character who relives scenes such as the Russian Roulette scene in Deer Hunter.

It's fair to say that if you've watched any war movies, you've seen all the scenes involved here. You get the Dirty Dozen, Deer Hunter, Platoon, and more. The plots tend to be extremely scripted. You have one way to get through a scene and either you perfect it or you're stuck.

The AI definitely doesn't win any awards. Many other games shine in AI, and this isn't it. Don't expect your friends to help out, and don't expect the enemy to think wisely either. You're mostly dealing with fairly simple robots who do what they think they were told to do.

The infinite enemies is always something I get annoyed with. It means, if you're stealthy and careful, that you're penalized for being that way. Surely after the 800th enemy they have run out of backup!

The voice acting is fairly good, and the video is good. If you're a fan of all those old war movies, which I admit I am, then there's a certain amount of fun being immersed in them. But there's one thing to enjoy being "in the scene" with Robert De Niro. It's another to be there and then annoyed by streams of never-ending enemies stalking at you like zombies.

Speaking of which, there's a zombie mini-game in there. I do enjoy mini-games but this one was fairly silly. I suppose it doesn't cause any harm to have it added into the mix. But I wish they'd spent that development time on polishing the main game's gameplay.

I'd recommend renting this game first, to see how much it appeals to you. Certainly there's an audience for every game. It could be that this is just what you're looking for. But you're sure to figure out after a day or two if this is tedious for you, or an exciting trip back in time.

Rating: 7/10.

I purchased this game with my own funds in order to do this review.

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