Call of Duty Black Ops

Description
The biggest first-person action series of all time and the follow-up to last year's blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 returns with Call of Duty: Black Ops. Call of Duty: Black Ops will take you behind enemy lines as a member of an elite special forces unit engaging in covert warfare, classified operations, and explosive conflicts across the globe. With access to exclusive weaponry and equipment, your actions will tip the balance during the most dangerous time period mankind has ever known.

Overview
Black Ops is a first-person shooter. The player assumes the role of a foot soldier and thus has access to various firearms, of which two at a time can be carried, as well as explosives such as grenades and other equipment to fight enemies. When players are close enough to an enemy, they can perform a melee attack which ensures a one-hit-kill.
A character can be positioned in one of the three stances: standing, crouching, or prone; each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. The player can directly dive prone from a standing position. The player can momentarily run faster before getting tired. When the character has taken damage, the screen glows red. Health regenerates by avoiding damage. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player to either flee or throw it back.
The game features a variety weapons such as crossbows (with alternative explosive ammunition), Dragon's Breath rounds and ballistic knives.
Plot
On February 25, 1968, Studies and Observations Group (SOG) operative Alex Mason is strapped to a chair in an interrogation room. Unaware of his whereabouts, he is repeatedly bombarded with questions by his unseen captors. The majority of the game takes place between 1961 and 1968.
The game begins with Mason and his squad, composed of Frank Woods and Bowman, carrying out an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as a part of Operation 40, on April 17, 1961. Mason seemingly succeeds in carrying out the assassination, but exfiltration from the country goes awry, with Mason volunteering himself to hold off the Cuban army to prevent the extraction plane from being shot down. Mason is captured and it is revealed that he actually killed a body double of Castro. Having formed an alliance with the Soviet Union, the genuine Castro hands Mason over to a General Nikita Dragovich. Mason is then held captive in a Gulag in Vorkuta for two years.
During his imprisonment, Mason befriends Viktor Reznov, a prisoner who was formerly in the Red Army. Reznov tells Mason the identities of the people involved with Mason’s torture: Nikita Dragovich, Lev Kratvechenko, and an ex-Nazi scientist, Friedrich Steiner. All three have a connection to Reznov: in October 1945 Reznov - along with Dragovich, Kratvechenko and Dimiti Petrenko - was a part of a unit sent to locate Steiner, then a German chemist who expressed a willingness to defect to the Soviet Union. During the course of the operation, Reznov is betrayed by Dragovich, who uses Steiner's creation, a nerve agent known as "Project Nova" on Petrenko to test its effectiveness. Shortly afterwards, Reznov was imprisoned in Vorkuta. Mason and Reznov rally the prisoners and lead an uprising to escape the Gulag, but only Mason successfully gets away; Reznov states that the plan was only for Mason to escape.
One month later, President John F. Kennedy authorizes the assassination of Nikita Dragovich. In November 1963, Mason, Jason Hudson, Frank Woods and Bowman are dispatched to Baikonour Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR to disrupt the Soviet space program, rescue Russian-born CIA agent Grigori Weaver and eliminate members of the Soviet Ascension program. Intelligence suggests that Dragovich will be on site, but the KGB agent eludes death, prompting Mason to scour the globe for him over the next five years.
In January 1968 - four years after the mission to Baikonour - the Studies and Observations Group is sent to Vietnam to investigate the Soviets' presence in the communist state. After protecting Khe Sahn from an assault by the North Vietnamese Army, the SOG is deployed to Hue City during the Tet Offensive. Their objective is to recover a dossier on Dragovich’s defector. The team recovers the dossier, while Mason encounters Reznov. During the course of the Vietnam campaign, lines of dialogue hint that Mason is mentally unstable, and that Reznov may not actually exist. The SOG team penetrates Laos, attempting to recover a shipment from a downed Soviet cargo plane, revealed to be Nova-6. The mission goes badly, with Mason, Woods, Bowman, and Reznov being captured. The four break out of prison, and manages to kill Lev Kravchenko, but Bowman and Woods perish during the escape.
One week after the Laos mission, Jason Hudson and Weaver interrogate Clarke, a British chemical engineer who stablished Nova-6 in Kowloon after the Russians were unable to perfect it. Clarke co-operates, identifying Freidrich Steiner as part of the conspiracy, and a production facility in the Ural Mountains. The party is attacked and Clarke killed by Spetznaz operatives. Hudson and Weaver then head to the Ural Mountains to destroy the manufacturing facility and apprehend Steiner. While destroying the facility, Hudson receives a transmission from Steiner on the base to meet him at Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea to learn how to halt a numbers broadcast, a coded broadcast to Soviet agents in America with instructions to release Nova-6 gas in population centers. Mason and Reznov reunite, heading to Rebirth Island themselves to assassinate Steiner as Reznov believes the CIA want Steiner and the Nova-6 gas for themselves. Reznov executes Steiner, but Hudson witnesses Mason carrying out the deed; Reznov is a figure of his imagination.
It is at this point that the story catches up with the opening scene, and Hudson and Weaver are revealed as Mason's interrogators. Hudson realizes that Dragovich brainwashed Mason to understand the numbers broadcasts, effectively becoming an unwilling Soviet sleeper agent. Mason's interrogation is intended to break down the barriers put in place by Dragovich, but when this proves unsuccessful, Hudson deliberately sets Mason free in order to follow him. It is revealed that Viktor Reznov actually died during the Vorkuta break-out, and Mason’s visions of Reznov were a result of a dissociative personality disorder, a byproduct of Reznov having sabotaged Mason’s brainwashing program. Mason deciphers the numbers, revealing the location of a Russian cargo ship called the Rusalka off of the coast of Cuba.
At the crack of dawn, Hudson, Mason, and Weaver spearhead an assault on the Rusalka, with Mason and Hudson infiltrating an underwater broadcast station protected by the ship. Confirming that the Rusalka is the numbers station, Jason Hudson calls in the US Navy to destroy the ship and its underwater base, a Soviet submarine station that Dragovich intends to use as a staging point for an invasion of the United States after his planned Nova-6 attack. Mason insists on going after Dragovich to make sure he is dead, and Hudson agrees. The two men penetrate the station's defenses as it collapses around them and floods with water. Mason succeeds in killing Dragovich, half-choking and half-drowning him in the flooding station. With the battle over, Hudson and Mason swim for the surface, as the wreckage of the Rusalka - destroyed by the Navy - sinks around them. Weaver declares that it’s finally over and that they have won, but a numbers transmission is given, implying that the permanent broadcast station had already been installed some time before the Rusalka’s destruction. The story then cuts to archive footage of President Kennedy prior to his assassination, with the broadcaster and Mason narrating random numbers. After a second play-through of the archive footage, the camera zooms in on an individual’s face, with Mason’s final words being “6.5 millimeter” and “Ascension,” implying that Mason assassinated Kennedy.

Campaign

The player assumes the role of various characters during the single-player campaign, changing perspectives throughout the story. The playable characters are special forces operatives conducting black operations behind enemy lines. In this way, the player's characters will have their own traits such as voices and shadows

Each mission features a series of objectives that are displayed on the heads-up display, which marks the direction and distance towards and from such objectives. The player is accompanied by friendly troops who cannot be issued orders.

Although primarily a first-person shooter, the player will get to pilot a Hind helicopter and guide friendly troops from an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.

The campaign is filled with scripted cinematic moments. One of them is a bullet time effect during the "Victor Charlie" level, activated when the player fires toward the last enemy of a Viet Cong squad

Multiplayer 

The online multiplayer mode of Black Ops retains the experience points and unlockable reward system that has been kept since Call of Duty 4. The game's multiplayer focuses on socialization and customization."Create-a-Class 2.0" will allow enhanced personalization with appearance items as well as upgradable perks: weapons will be extensively customizable with clan tag writing, emblems, attachments and camouflage painting. Even reticles can be modified. There will be more than one style for an attachment, which allows for a lot more personalized weaponry; for example, the player can choose between a Red Dot Sight or a Reflex Sight, both of which share the same traits only visually look different. Character models will depend on the first tier perk instead of the weapon's type. Furthermore, face paints can be unlocked.

A currency system has been implemented allowing players to buy weapons, accessories and clothes. Players can gamble with their "COD Points" in a free-for-all based playlist called "Wager Match", which is composed of four game modes. Time limited objectives known as "Contracts" can be purchased to gain more currency and experience points^. New custom killstreak rewards include RC explosive cars, guided missiles and controllable attack helicopters. For the first time in the series, clips from online gameplay can be recorded. Players will be able to play alone or with friends against AI opponents in "Combat Training" with a separate progression system

Online split screen (which was featured in Call of Duty 3) is re-introduced on Xbox 360 and PS3. The guest account can rank up but will be reset after each sign out. Only on Xbox 360, a second Gold Xbox Live account can be brought to keep the second player's progression.

Some PC specific features that were taken away from Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 will return, such as lean, mod tools, the developer console and dedicated servers Dedicated servers will be exclusively provided by Game Servers. Steam will be the exclusive platform for Black Ops on PC, so the game will be protected by Valve Anti-Cheat.

The zombie mode of World at War will return as a four-player online and two-player split screen co-op mode in which players take the roles of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro as they fight zombies at the Pentagon. Limited editions of the game will offer four zombies maps from World at War.

The Wii version of the game will include in-game voice chat. This is the first Call of Duty title to include the voice chat feature for the Wii. Nintendo and PDP have partnered to release the first headset to be used with the Wii known as PDP's Headbanger Headset.

System Requirements

	Requirements
Microsoft Windows[32]
Operating system	Windows® Vista / XP / 7
CPU	Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 or better
Memory	2GB
Graphics hardware	Shader 3.0 or better 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT / ATI Radeon® X1950Pro or better
Sound hardware	DirectX 9.0c-compatible