May 20, 2005 - You've read our first report on Black, you've read our second report on Black, but are you ready for our third report? Yeah, we thought you would be. Since we last saw Black (uh, yesterday), we had a chance to go back to the behind-closed-doors screening area and play it a little bit.
Let me start out by saying that I prefer PC shooters to console shooters -- I just think shooters control better with a mouse and keyboard. To me, Halo was one of the first console shooters that came anywhere near the "feel" of what I want in a shooter, and to me, the feel is one of the most important parts of any shooter. It's difficult to quantify just what that "feel" is, but once you play it, you know. It's a combination of aspects such as the pacing, the run speed, how fast the reticle tracks, object physics, how doors open and the like. With that said, after playing Black today, I'm happy to report that, even at this early state, Black seems to have it.
There's not much new info to report since we played the same demo we saw earlier in the day, but getting some play time with the game made us enjoy (and, even better, believe) what we saw even more. It does indeed feel right.
Starting in a small room, I peered out the window only to find a few unpleasant guys shooting up at me. With glass breaking and dust churning up everywhere around me, I returned fire, sending a hail storm of bullets their way. To get a good look at them, I zoomed in a bit using the left trigger and squeezed off a few rounds, knocking them off their feet and leaving them crumpled on the ground. I figured it was a good a time as any to get out of there.
Using the shotgun, I blew the door off the hinges, which plopped down with a thud allowing me access to some stairs down to street level. This is where things started to get really fun. A few unfortunate fools took cover behind a car at the end of the block, so I whipped out the SMG and fired at the engine block, causing the car to explode with a satisfying "kraaa-boom," and sending their bodies flying. A sniper was still left alive on high, so I chucked a grenade up through the second-story window and he came flying out of the opening in a long, satisfying arc. This game definitely has a lot personality when it comes to the physics.
Criterion says they want the guns to be the stars of Black, and after playing it, it's obvious what they meant. Not only do they command the visual attention on the screen as bullets fly and ricochet everywhere, kicking up sparks in the process, but they make an auditory impact as well. I can honestly say that Black was one of the best sounding games at the show, and not only are the loud pops of round after round of ammo leaving your barrel incredibly satisfying, but hearing return fire whizzing by your head is eerily terrifying as well.
Unfortunately we didn't get to play the whole demo because there was a line of folks waiting to get into the room to see the game as well, but so far I'm impressed with what I've seen, especially since the team at Criterion says that what we're seeing is only about 50% of the graphical quality they want to achieve. Luckily, they have plenty of time to work on the details as Black is slated to hit early next year.
