Over the past five years, the Call of Duty series has evolved into one of the most popular and most successful franchises in the video game world. By offering intense action and story plots that rank with the best of action movies, the series has earned its place at the top of console shooters. Continuing with this tradition, Black Ops delivers everything that has made the series great, as well as providing a handful of new features that expand on the already first class game play.

The single player campaign is set during the Cold War and is portrayed through a series of flashbacks that the main character, Alex Mason (voiced by actor Sam Worthington), experiences while he is being interrogated by an unknown source. Each flashback provokes an intense mission that is a key point in the overall truth that the interrogator is trying to find. Being set during the mid to late 1960s, the Black Ops campaign thrusts players into many historically relative environments, such as Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam. The visual presentation of each setting looks amazing, and the missions that take place in them are just as good. As far as the plot goes, the Black Ops campaign might rank at the top of the Call of Duty games, with the only noticeable issue being that the entire campaign takes around six to seven hours to finish, which is quite short compared to its predecessors.

Playing the solo campaign is just a small part of Black Ops compared to the feature that has made Call of Duty what it is today; the online multiplayer.  Black Ops’ multiplayer takes all of the features of its most recent predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, and is somehow able to make them better. All of the fan favorite game modes are back, as well as the class customization features that keep players coming back for more. New to this however, is the addition of CoD Points. CoD Points are a form of in game currency that players earn by doing various things in multiplayer, such as leveling up. These points replace the old Call of Duty standard of leveling up to unlock gun attachments and equipment, as many of these are available as long as you have the point to spend on them. One of the best new additions to the multiplayer is the addition of Wager Matches, where players can gamble their CoD points in unique game modes in order to win big, or lose big. CoD Points may take away at least a part of the fun of leveling up that existed in previous Call of Duty games, but the overall game play still remains at the top of the charts.

Returning in Black Ops is the popular “Nazi Zombies” mode that first appeared in Call of Duty: World at War. This is a cooperative mode that puts players up against endless waves of mindless zombies, forcing them to fight for their survival. Playing this mode is a nice way to relax from the intenseness of the online multiplayer, but it is definitely not the game mode of choice for most players, although there are some modes that can be unlocked that offer some comic relief from the stress of killing zombies.

Call of Duty: Black Ops isn’t perfect, but it’s the closest any game is going to come this year. It has its flaws, but they are quickly made up by the awesome game play. On a scale of one to ten, Black Ops deserves a nine. It is completely capable of doing what all Call of Duty games do, and that is holding gamers’ attention until the next one comes out.