Call of Duty: Black Ops Breaks Sales Records, But Is It Any Good? (ATVI)

Most analysts expected Activision Blizzard, Inc.'s ATVI Call of Duty: Black Ops to be huge, but few expected it to break the $310 million day-one sales record set by its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But that's just what happened: Black Ops soared with worldwide sales of $360 million. Having crushed every other game released this year, the obvious question now is: does the game live up to the enormous sales figures, and its even larger expectations? In a brief play-through of the early portion of the game (single-player only), there were intense gunfights, cinematic driving sequences, an impressive hostage situation, cool slow-motion effects, an exciting prison break, and more close calls than a soldier could count. Black Ops is, like so many hoped, a game that appears to live up to the most revered Call of Duty offerings – Modern Warfare 1 and 2. Treyarch's controls are impeccably polished; players will be hard-pressed to find any significant differences between Black Ops and its predecessor. More importantly, the game feels very natural. There aren't any clunky or unwarranted mechanics that will take you out of the experience. Black Ops' graphics are as gorgeous as ever. Character models are richly detailed with intricately designed skin textures and military uniforms, and the animations are very realistic. Of course, it's what the game does with those elements that make them spectacular. With each new Call of Duty, Activision aims to push the series further into the realm of action movie entertainment. If the early stages are any indication, Black Ops is a game that never stops moving. There is rarely a moment to take a breather and reload your weapon without having to think about the next assault. Even better, the game is always introducing new slow-motion, action flick-style scenarios in which the player must react very quickly (ex: shoot a gunman to free the woman he's holding hostage). That's it for our initial impressions, but stay tuned to Benzinga because we will have a more in-depth review of Call of Duty: Black Ops in the coming days.