Black: Hands-On Preview

We bite the bullet and jump into the darker side of Criterion's studio, to find an FPS that could turn out just as great as Burnout.

If, as Bungie boss Jason Jones puts it, Halo 2 is, "Halo on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas" then Black is Halo 2 crunched into a missile and fired straight into the sun, causing it to go supernova and thus wiping out all life on Earth. Or at least that's how EA sees it. We recently got a chance to spend some time with Burnout-creator Criterion's new gun-porn game to see where the hyperbole ends and the game begins.

The first thing you need to know is that we've only glimpsed the true potential of the game. Our preview version consisted of what appears to be just a part of one outdoor mission based on a build that is older than the looming launch date would have you imagine. There are no story bits to get in the way; this is shooting and shooting done loudly.

Much like LucasArts' Mercenaries from 2005, the selling point for Black is the over-the-top carnage you can inflict upon levels. You may have been led to believe that you can destroy just about everything you see, but the reality is far from that. While you can destroy buildings, watchtowers, trucks, oil barrels, barracks, signposts, gates, cars, boxes, doors and, oh yes, people, you're denied the freedom that would truly make the game fantastic.

For instance, the mission we played climaxed in a standoff at a border gate where about 30 guards attack stationed in a dozen or so buildings come at you. There are conveniently placed (and signed) barrels you can shoot to blow away walls - but only certain of them. Even armed with the most powerful shotgun, which can break down these same walls, you can't do likewise only a few feet away on either side. And when you shoot one of the spotlights, you'll be showered by glass even though you don't actually shoot out the light. Illusion of disbelief: shattered.

The enemies aren't too bright either. During one of our many playthroughs, we hightailed it to the second floor of a building and took the camp residents out from above. Not once did a soldier try to come up the stairs to attack us, so we carried on picking off our targets. And when we were scouring the standing buildings before turning them into rubble, we ran into other soldiers stuck in place, seemingly lost and without purpose.

Out in the field, you're given a lot of leeway. Health packs are all over the place, despite your ability to take several hits without dying. Rainbow Six this is not. Play is generally smooth and you can sink into the experience quickly. We were annoyed by an apparent bug that caused our character to move ever more slowly the further we progressed. But these are, as EA would likely point out, issues that will probably be resolved before the game's release at the end of February.

We haven't seen enough of Black to be able to tell if it'll live up to the hyperbole. Does it do for shooters what Burnout did for driving games? Mostly. But we're betting (and hoping) that there's still a lot for us to see. Check back next month when we jump the finished product through our hoops.

Stay tuned for more on Black as its release at the end of the month gets closer...

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo.com