By Brian D. Brannon ’11
THE ROUNDUP

The “Call of Duty” franchise is and will always be a classic game series of our generation.

The series’ newest member, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” was one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and gives Call of Duty fans their much-needed “fix” to the fast-paced deep storyline saga.

The game’s story line tells the story of Mason, a special operations soldier during the Cold War.

Throughout the story Mason travels  in a series of flashbacks to deniable operations ranging from World War II and Vietnam, to the running of the embargo during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Although a little ridiculous at times “Black Ops’” game play and mystery keeps its player engaged and motivated to finish the mission at hand.

As was true with “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” the gamer who is fortunate enough to finish the campaign is treated to a lesson in Kennedy’s policy, Castro’s humor (If there ever was any), Nixon’s frantic personality and McNamara’s decisive actions in an extra level of a post-apocalyptical nature.

The multiplayer of “Black Ops” offers a game play style for all types of gamers.

The recent addition of a practice mode in the multiplayer menu allows the greenest online warrior to play with computer generated non-player characters that mimic different playing styles from the lowest experience to the most advanced “prestige” players depending on one’s difficulty setting.

In addition to this new mode the developers at “Call of Duty” have included exciting new changes to the multiplayer mode including wager matches and various other competitive modes.

One thing that was given a much more daunting upgrade in “Black Ops’” was the time killing “Zombie mode.”

In “Call of Duty World at War” eliminating hundreds of zombies came easily to those who perfected their skills with friends.

In “Black Ops” however this mode proves to be more challenging and interactive with a set of objectives to complete while battling the undead.

Gamers should be warned that the path of the undead should be taken with a few friends for maximum enjoyment.

Overall “Black Ops” provided good gameplay and great multiplayer experience.

Those looking for the next-greatest hit in gaming however may want to look elsewhere as “Black Ops” borrows heavily from its “World at War” counter-part.