From a graphical point of view the game is beautiful whether you are playing it on the Xbox or PlayStation 2. There are few games in either console’s library that look better. Stuff comes apart realistically under the hail of bullets and the rag-doll effect as enemies fall from towers and catwalks is very satisfying. This is not to say there are not some small graphical anomalies. I saw one guy go down stuck halfway through a concrete road barrier: legs on one side, head and torso on the other. Dropped weapons also occasionally hung in mid-air. All small stuff, but it does make you pause in the midst of the chaos, which breaks the player out of the game world.
Audio rivals the visuals with a wide variety of gun sounds that all sound realistic. The explosions are full and reverberate in tight quarters like the inside of a factory. The musical score has eschewed the clichéd driving rock music found in so many games and instead features a soundtrack filled with orchestral music, giving the game a feel more like a movie. Voice acting is okay, but the majority of it is thoroughly disposable whether it is the in-game shouts of enemies or squad mates, or the intrusive cutscenes that fail to really involve you in any kind of meaningful story.
On a compatibility note: Xbox 360 gamers, you have once again been denied. The Xbox version of BLACK does not run on your shiny new system. Go back and play some more Call of Duty 2.
What ultimately hurts BLACK and keeps it from being a great game is the same thing that made the ‘80s action flicks it has been compared to fade away: both are rather one dimensional. Once you’ve played the first few levels of the game, you have really seen all the game has to offer. It keeps the tension high as you gun your way through the game, but the adrenaline begins to taste sour long before the game is finished. And with no multiplayer mode to take up the slack, this game will quickly find itself on the shelf collecting dust. Give it a "B" for a lot of shallow, pretty, noisy, guns-blazing fun.
