Destroying the Game With Difficulty – A Tale of Black Ops

 

I can’t think of a delicate way to say this so I’ll just come out with it – I FRACKIN’ HATED CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS!!! There, now that I got that off my chest please allow me to elaborate.

You see, while I came away from Call of Duty: Black Ops with nothing but aggravation & disdain, I really have no one to blame for it aside from myself. Despite the punishing difficulty Veteran mode offered, and despite the fact that it sucked every last bit of enjoyment out of the single player campaign I refused to turn it down. Even as I felt the fun errupted into frustration for some stupid stubborn reason I pressed on – ultimately destroying any chance Black Ops had of being a positive experience.

I enjoy a good challenge. I routinely crank the difficulty up on every game I play right out of the box. I find it to be a good way to extend a game’s single player campaign which for me translates to more bang for my buck. Sure, things can get pretty trying at times – but the sense of accomplishment after beating a particularly difficult segment normally outweighs the struggle. Black Ops however was an entirely different story altogether.

This game was infinitely harder than any other Call of Duty game I have played. Add in horrendous AI teammates who constantly get in your way, infinite spawning enemies around every corner, and Black Ops becomes a surefire recipe for rage quitting. Which I ended up doing many, many times.

I inched my way from checkpoint to checkpoint cursing the game out as I played, nearly exploding when a glitch forced me to restart an extremely frustrating level over from the beginning. Yet I endured, all the way until the end when I was granted with not a single shred of satisfaction aside from the realization that I didnt’ have to play this f’ing game anymore.

This isn’t as much a review as it is a rant – as I came away from Black Ops’ campaign without a new found hatred for the series. Like I said at the beginning, I realize I have no one else to blame for myself – which leads me to wonder if I need to get my head examined.

Where do you draw the line between fun & frustrating? And exactly how much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of games? It’s certainly an interesting topic to discuss, one I hope to review once my blood pressure gets back to normal levels.
 

—————finished on veteran (16hrs according to Rapt – 26/50 achivements)[CENTER][IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_wRPMrbh3qpI/TYjgL7nGYTI/AAAAAAAAAtU/7G84MgPQPxY/s640/IMG_9598.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]

[B]Price Paid:[/B] $55.00 @ Amazon (forgot to apply gift card to my order)

[B]Time Played:[/B] 16hrs (according to Raptr.com [URL="http://raptr.com/tengaport"]http://raptr.com/tengaport[/URL])

[B]Finished with:[/B] 26 of 50 achievements

 

I can’t think of a delicate way to say this so I’ll just come out with it – I FRACKIN’ HATED CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS!!! There, now that I got that off my chest please allow me to elaborate.

 

You see, while I came away from Call of Duty: Black Ops with nothing but aggravation & disdain, I really have no one to blame for it aside from myself. Despite the punishing difficulty Veteran mode offered, and despite the fact that it sucked every last bit of enjoyment out of the single player campaign I refused to turn it down. Even as I felt the fun errupted into frustration for some stupid stubborn reason I pressed on – ultimately destroying any chance Black Ops had of being a positive experience.

 

I enjoy a good challenge. I routinely crank the difficulty up on every game I play right out of the box. I find it to be a good way to extend a game’s single player campaign which for me translates to more bang for my buck. Sure, things can get pretty trying at times – but the sense of accomplishment after beating a particularly difficult segment normally outweighs the struggle. Black Ops however was an entirely different story altogether. 

 

This game was infinitely harder than any other Call of Duty game I have played. Add in horrendous AI teammates who constantly get in your way, infinite spawning enemies around every corner, and Black Ops becomes a surefire recipe for rage quitting. Which I ended up doing many, many times.

 

I inched my way from checkpoint to checkpoint cursing the game out as I played, nearly exploding when a glitch forced me to restart an extremely frustrating level over from the beginning. Yet I endured, all the way until the end when I was granted with not a single shred of satisfaction aside from the realization that I didnt’ have to play this f’ing game anymore. 

 

This isn’t as much a review as it is a rant – as I came away from Black Ops’ campaign without a new found hatred for the series. Like I said at the beginning, I realize I have no one else to blame for myself – which leads me to wonder if I need to get my head examined. 

 

Where do you draw the line between fun & frustrating? And exactly how much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of games? It’s certainly an interesting topic to discuss, one I hope to review once my blood pressure gets back to normal levels. 

 

[B]About the photo:[/B]

This is only the second time I've had to bring out angry Sackboy for a photo – but this felt WAAYYYY more deserved than the first. I was so angry after beating this game that I didn't really care about spending much time shooting a photo for it. I wanted to just get something that mimicked the look of the cover art as well as captured my frustration with the game. Mission accomplished as far as I was concerned.[CENTER][IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_wRPMrbh3qpI/TYjgL7nGYTI/AAAAAAAAAtU/7G84MgPQPxY/s640/IMG_9598.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]

[B]Price Paid:[/B] $55.00 @ Amazon (forgot to apply gift card to my order)

[B]Time Played:[/B] 16hrs (according to Raptr.com [URL="http://raptr.com/tengaport"]http://raptr.com/tengaport[/URL])

[B]Finished with:[/B] 26 of 50 achievements

 

I can’t think of a delicate way to say this so I’ll just come out with it – I FRACKIN’ HATED CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS!!! There, now that I got that off my chest please allow me to elaborate.

 

You see, while I came away from Call of Duty: Black Ops with nothing but aggravation & disdain, I really have no one to blame for it aside from myself. Despite the punishing difficulty Veteran mode offered, and despite the fact that it sucked every last bit of enjoyment out of the single player campaign I refused to turn it down. Even as I felt the fun errupted into frustration for some stupid stubborn reason I pressed on – ultimately destroying any chance Black Ops had of being a positive experience.

 

I enjoy a good challenge. I routinely crank the difficulty up on every game I play right out of the box. I find it to be a good way to extend a game’s single player campaign which for me translates to more bang for my buck. Sure, things can get pretty trying at times – but the sense of accomplishment after beating a particularly difficult segment normally outweighs the struggle. Black Ops however was an entirely different story altogether. 

 

This game was infinitely harder than any other Call of Duty game I have played. Add in horrendous AI teammates who constantly get in your way, infinite spawning enemies around every corner, and Black Ops becomes a surefire recipe for rage quitting. Which I ended up doing many, many times.

 

I inched my way from checkpoint to checkpoint cursing the game out as I played, nearly exploding when a glitch forced me to restart an extremely frustrating level over from the beginning. Yet I endured, all the way until the end when I was granted with not a single shred of satisfaction aside from the realization that I didnt’ have to play this f’ing game anymore. 

 

This isn’t as much a review as it is a rant – as I came away from Black Ops’ campaign without a new found hatred for the series. Like I said at the beginning, I realize I have no one else to blame for myself – which leads me to wonder if I need to get my head examined. 

 

Where do you draw the line between fun & frustrating? And exactly how much does difficulty affect your enjoyment of games? It’s certainly an interesting topic to discuss, one I hope to review once my blood pressure gets back to normal levels. 

 

[B]About the photo:[/B]

This is only the second time I've had to bring out angry Sackboy for a photo – but this felt WAAYYYY more deserved than the first. I was so angry after beating this game that I didn't really care about spending much time shooting a photo for it. I wanted to just get something that mimicked the look of the cover art as well as captured my frustration with the game. Mission accomplished as far as I was concerned.