Criterion isn’t a name most associate with action games, at least not in the conventional sense. They’ve certainly learned to bring action into the racing world, and they know how to really work a system to the last processor cycle. But admittedly, I was hesitant when given the chance to play Black, the tremendously hyped foray into the FPS genre, pushed as “gun porn.” I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve played by Criterion; the worst game I can think of was Trickstyle, which still provided plenty of fun on my Dreamcast.

Black is beautiful - a true feast for the eyes on an old fashioned CRT or a blurry old projection monitor. The colors are crisp, the edges are smooth, and the models move and feel right. The guns as well are beautifully modeled and animated, though essentially they’re just overlays on the screen (what looks physics affecting the weapon turns out to be canned animation, as you’ll likely notice with odd movement patterns). They look amazing however, and the effects they create are beautiful. Firing long bursts with a machine gun will almost blind you as the muzzle flash takes over, and you’ll lose your enemies in smoke as your bullets land all around them. When you zoom in, which will be often, edges blur and so will the gun, really giving that feel that you’re focused. Reloading has a similar effect. Your gun becomes extra clear and everything else blurs. You’ll see the gist of what’s going on around you through, but you won’t see specifics, so you’ll need to be careful with your ammo. There’s plenty of it lying around, just not in your clip. You’ll definitely feel immersed into a war-torn area. Shattered glass, crumbled walls, and doors to be blown-off hinges are everywhere. You’ll blast a few walls yourself, and you’ll see cover crumble, forcing you and your enemies to find new, safer places.

I never noticed a framerate drop or a bad view distance, and all the models and textures are good quality. Nothing looked out of place, and the levels felt pretty large as a result of it all. The environments managed to avoid feeling repetitive, even though you often were in similar settings. They way things were arranged or altered in each level did a good job of keeping it all fresh, but the style felt united. The art team deserves a lot of credit, it’s hard to keep variety in environments but make sure nothing feels robotic. Everything fits together extremely well.

Black’s music is average. It’s rare that it even plays, but when it does it’s fitting. You generally won’t notice it though, I didn’t notice any on my first playthrough. What you get is all orchestral, heavy on the strings. You’ll get slower, more staccato music when you’re sneaking around or trying to infiltrate, with more flowing, fast paced music complimenting battles. The rest of the time it’s gunfire and communications coming out of the speakers. You can use a custom soundtrack if you like, though it tends to feel intrusive. Black is a fairly minimalist game with anything that’s not in the game world. Sparse HUD, little music, nothing else needed. In that way the music is extremely appropriate, even if not something that would convince me to buy the soundtrack.

There’s not much story in the game. You get filmed cutscenes which are visually mediocre before levels. It’s not that they’re blurry or unclear, it’s just that they’re all in the same place - an interrogation room being my best guess - with one lamp, and a lot of camera changes and close-ups. There are only two participants, you and the man who’s essentially blackmailing on the military’s behalf. After the cutscene, you go into the flashback of what was being discussed. All you need to know is told to you right away, you’re hunting down the fourth member of your unit, a mercenary who betrayed you. Everything else is mostly forgettable, but it gives you an excuse to cause plenty of collateral damage.

The control is a definite strong point for Black. I rarely felt like I was over or under-aiming, or having difficulty hitting just the right spot. Even with grenades I felt like I got it where I wanted it, likely due to a bit of autoaiming for them. The controller’s layout is pretty natural, and there are four different configurations available. The default was fine to me, though I would have appreciated a custom configuration option. Despite that, it worked pretty well as it is and it’s easy to pick up. You could possibly play the entire game without pressing a face button, to be honest, but it’s certainly nice to be able to pick up other weapons or reload before you run out of ammo. It’s a simple setup and it works well for the game.

The gameplay is perhaps the only real weakness of the game, and it’s certainly not weak when taken on its own; it just doesn’t do quite as well as everything supporting it. But it is good, and I had a lot of fun playing through the majority of the game. Levels generally felt fresh and there was a lot to discover, several paths through many levels, though it can be easy at times to get lost. As promised, there’s quite a bit to blow up, but environments aren’t quite as destructible as I would have expected. Pillars will seem to crumble, windows shatter, and walls can often be blown out by an explosion. You can take down a lot of designated architecture, but it’s only what’s designated (usually denoted by your reticle turning black), as opposed to whatever you put enough bullets in. However, taking something out is still very satisfying, and you feel like you’re doing a ton of damage thanks to some excellent decals.

My main complaint revolves around the raw amount of lead you have to fill enemies with before they drop. If you shoot an unaware enemy in the head, he’ll die instantly. It also usually works for an enemy who’s taking cover, creeping or running (if you lead the target right, as you have to do at distances). The problem shows up when you’ve damaged an enemy. It seems that when an enemy is in the middle of a pain animation, they don’t take extra damage, so even if you line up that perfect headshot while they’re vulnerable, they’ll take just take it like another shot. It also takes a number of shots to put most enemies down, if you don’t take the headshot, making the game turn into a case of firing until the enemies go to cover, then zooming in and taking the shot when there’s a little head exposure.

There aren’t very many weapons either, and they defy the conventional “bigger is better” logic in gaming. There are several models in each type, but you can break it down into short, medium, long range, and demolitions. The game’s pistols, for example, are actually excellent medium-long range weapons due to the very high accuracy and power. They’re stronger, in fact, than the big guns. I could put someone down with a revolver faster than anything but a shotgun, which may be the most powerful weapon in game. Though they lose effect with range, even at a medium range the shotgun can often kill someone in a single shot. Meanwhile, I can empty a clip into someone with the uzi at close range and barely finish someone off. But it can keep a lot more enemies busy at once spraying out lead than the single show shots you’ll get. Overall, the guns seem to come down to personal style more than anything. If you’re accurate and always moving, the shotguns and pistols in the game are perfect. If you’re the type to hunker down behind cover and fire wherever you see movement and suppress enemies, you’ll want the uzi and m60.

Black a very satisfying game, but far too short. I clocked in at 5 hours, 29 minutes at the end of the game. The end is very anticlimactic (I had no idea I’d even accomplished my goal), and had been done in a previous level. Just when it hits, you feel like there’s one more level coming up, but you don’t get it. One more level definitely would have put the game on my must buy list. For some people a multiplayer game would have been enough to warrant the purchase. For me, I’m not so concerned, I don’t think it would have worked well with the way Black plays. Either way, Criterion didn’t feel the need to include one. As it is, if you enjoy a first person shooter, even if your preference is a mouse and keyboard, Black is worth a rent. It’s got plenty of action, the control is tight, and the levels were fun at worst, and a few points were truly exceptional.

Rating : 3.5 out of 5