LP Beach

Black is a 2006 first-person shooter video game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was a console-only title, released on both Xbox and Playstation 2.

This game is sort of an exercise in distilling a first-person shooter to it's purest form. The base gameplay of an FPS game is shooting guns and in Black, all of the focus is on that experience. The guns are the stars of the show. Compared to the characters and environment the weapon models are incredibly detailed; the developers even referred to the game as "gun-porn". So much effort was put into making satisfying sound effects for gunshots and explosions that the game was nominated for a BAFTA for best audio. The player's interaction with the environment is almost entirely by way of a bullet, environmental destruction and particle effects are not in short supply. However if all this sounds great, there's a downside. For a game with no multiplayer so it can stay entirely focused on it's single player experience, the actual story is an afterthought and there are only 8 missions. For many people, myself included, this makes the game seem more like a tech demo than a triple-A title.

At the end of the day, what this game does, it does well. Join Cletus, Swordfishhh, and I as we put a few thousand rounds down-range and cause some serious destruction. Don't forget hearing protection.

01 - Veblensk City Street
02 - Treneska Border Crossing
03 - Naszran Town
04 - Naszran Foundry
05 - Tivliz Asylum
06 - Vratska Dockyard
07 - Graznei Bridge
08 - Spetriniv Gulag

01 - Veblensk City Street

Let's get this party started.

Being a console shooter I don't think I've ever actually seen this game in action but it's certainly living up to some of what I've heard. It couldn't have the same level of detail but that's pretty close to FEAR levels of dust and debris, to use an example from the time.

That live-action cutscene reminds of Prototype

So the player character is the guy being interviewed and not the mysterious new member?

White Coke wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 23, 2020 5:30 am

So the player character is the guy being interviewed and not the mysterious new member?

Yeah, the PC is the guy handcuffed to the table, and he's basically telling the story about how he got there.

02 - Treneska Border Crossing

In this one we do some sneaky stuff, and also some very not sneaky stuff.

I guess being a modern military game it had to have a stealth (or """"stealth"""") section since those have been mandatory since the first Playstation but really it shouldn't have bothered. That level got far more interesting once random crates and grain silos started exploding.

Also as much as things are obviously going to blow up in this game I did not expect a grain silo to be one of them.

03 - Naszran Town

In this one, I make myself look like a total fool in the commentary.

Not enough games used that German art project/sniper rifle.

Guess I'll keep posting examples of games that do mechanics you guys mentioned, combining magazines. The original old Operation Flashpoint games (now Arma) didn't let you combine partially spent magazines but unless they were empty the game kept them in your inventory. If you reloaded with a bunch of partial magazines it prioritized ones with more bullets left. So if you had 6 magazines, fired 10 rounds from one and 20 rounds from another, then completely emptied your other 4 you would reload with the one you fired 10 rounds from first. I don't know if the newer Arma games let you combine them.

Escape From Tarkov on the other hand goes all the way and does let you empty and refill partial mags. It isn't an instant process but I believe as long as you stay in the inventory screen it keeps going no matter what else you're doing. So I think you can empty/refill multiple magazines at once while also shuffling around your inventory tetris.

04 - Naszran Foundry

Today we're going to make a new friend. And blow a lot of stuff up.

That revolver reload animation is ridiculous, just a longing gaze at your bullets like you're Revolver Ocelot sliding a bullet into a well oiled chamber. The RPG reloads faster!

05 - Tivliz Asylum

We end up in the nuthouse. Where we belong.

I enjoy how enemies with RPGs manage to blow themselves up every time they die. Must be some kind of dead man switch.

That last room was pretty crazy but even with what seemed to be the infinite enemies they're all dropping enough health that I bet it could last forever if you wanted it to (or at least until everything is rubble).

Kibayasu wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 19, 2020 6:14 pm

I enjoy how enemies with RPGs manage to blow themselves up every time they die. Must be some kind of dead man switch.

That last room was pretty crazy but even with what seemed to be the infinite enemies they're all dropping enough health that I bet it could last forever if you wanted it to (or at least until everything is rubble).

In my first practice run it definitely lasted a long time. I sort of forgot there was an objective and just kinda kept running around killing guys, until I realized "this is taking longer than it should."

06 - Vratska Dockyard

Let's take a nice, quiet stroll down by the docks.

Shotgun and sniper rifle, the loadout of champions, someone really liked the reload and cocking animation on that shotgun too. IT is kind of funny that a battlefield full of rubble and fire is meant to make you think "Something is wrong!" rather than "Aw man, someone beat me here!"

07 - Graznei Bridge

We get ever closer to our goal. Which is, uh, to get the bad guy I guess.

I think the key to a good bridge fight is an extensive set of obstacles to fight through and around - call it the "Heat" fantasy - and I don't think this bridge quiiiiite gets there. Plus most things are already exploded, what the hell game

08 - Spetriniv Gulag

Alright, here we go, strong finish, let's get this guy!

Was good to see you guys again. There was a joke about "shitty jackals..." and I actually remember that from the ODST LP! Wish I could remember when my mother's birthday is instead though...

That was it huh? Short and sweet I guess. I always heard about Black here and there so it was nice to see it through. I do know there was a sequel-in-spirit called Bodycount made by many of the same people but it didn't do very well so that was it for this short lived line of games.

Since you mentioned it a game in another genre that has you fight through a bunch of Americana is World in Conflict, a real time strategy game. You actually jump all around the world but the start of the game is premised around a Soviet invasion of Seattle and the fight in the surrounding countryside and towns. One particular level later in the game when you're taking the city back has you fight the Soviets in some no-name small town and by the end you've completely leveled it.

Yeah I've heard of Bodycount, but never played it. They don't appear to even have it on the Xbox store, so I guess I never will.

And for the "back to America" trope, I think I was also thinking of stuff like Jurassic Park 2. Hell, even Halo 2 was marketed as having the fight back on Earth. Really just anything that tries to "bring it home" in order to raise the stakes.