Hit List

BLACK™ isn't your typical first-person shooter—far from it.

Featuring unparalleled physics modeling, sumptuous sound and graphics, and the most finely detailed firefights ever witnessed in an Xbox® game, it easily hits the mark.

As Jack Kellar, member of a covert military agency (which doesn't exist, natch) devoted to protecting America from impending terrorist threats, it's your job to traipse through hostile Eastern European environments, guns blazing. Your only hope of survival: Punch enough holes in a legion of foot soldiers and armored vehicles that enemies finally get the message … this means war!

Anything goes kaboom. Use grenades,
shotguns, and AK-47s to get the job done.

Almost any in-game object can be destroyed. Bear this in mind and change strategies and tactics on the fly, as you discover newer and increasingly more eye-opening ways to dispose of opponents. Popping slugs in the scenery is almost as fun as aiming for living, breathing bogies as a result.

I've taken the liberty of cataloguing just a few targets worth taking the time to gun for while cruising through each stage (forests, asylums, and military HQs) with your finger on the trigger.

Windows
Here, it pays to play peeping Tom. Should you spot a guard or two inhabiting a barracks or operations center through a nearby pane or spotlight, don't be afraid to blast away. As in the real world, glass shatters when struck with sufficient force.

Glass shatters on contact.

Hose entire rooms down with hot lead just by peeking through the window and pressing the fire button. Safely snipe at exposed enemies while hiding behind cover from a distance by clicking the right thumbstick to sharpen your aim.

Adversaries aren't stupid, however … the second you start firing, they sound the alarm and rush for cover. Make your initial assault count.

Walls
Holy mackerel … who knew current-generation games could sport this kind of graphical panache? Bullets don't just leave smoking marks on structures in Electronic Arts' latest masterpiece—they can actually penetrate walls.

Following pitched battles, shafts of light begin to stream into darkened cabins or houses from the holes blown in the building. It's possible to execute assailants by shooting up through the rafters or down into the floorboards.

Stop and take a second to look around after disposing of troublemakers following an especially brutal standoff. Wires poke out from crushed plaster, pillars lie shattered, dust hangs in heavy clouds, and once-sturdy supports look like slices of Swiss cheese.

How's that for a tune-up?

Vehicles
It's not hard to figure out that supply trucks bearing goods with warning stickers on them denoting flammable contents aren't just included for show. BLACK boasts some of the most amazing pyrotechnics in the business; bust a few shots at these vehicles to get a glimpse at the awesome flame, smoke, and particle effects.

Almost anything goes kaboom. Use grenades, shotguns, and AK-47s to get the job done, then sit back and watch the effect such explosive features have on the in-game world. Foes are flung into the air, walls collapse, and a smoldering haze billows forth from the wreckage.

All the same ultra-violent special effects featured in developer Criterion's last effort, Burnout Revenge™, make an appearance, although they've been given massive cosmetic upgrades. A few neat surprises (play it yourself to see just what I'm getting at) have also been added for impact.

Enemies
The bad guys in BLACK don't subscribe to typical videogame conventions. Yes, a single silenced head shot will prove fatal. Certainly, plugging someone in the arm, leg, or chest will cause them to reel and stagger appropriately.

A vulgar, but irresistible display of force.

These guys respond realistically to the threat of violence. They might gang up on you, flank your position, or duck behind pieces of debris rather than charge out into the open where they can easily be picked off. It's especially fulfilling when you do dispose of one in a satisfying display of brute force and shower of broken body armor.

All die in over-the-top, Hollywood action movie-style fashion. Down an enemy, and they fall to their knees shooting towards the sky, scream and twitch, or spin end-over-end to land in a heap. Replay value increases tremendously for the effort—executing these chumps never gets old.

Explosives
Do I really need to connect the dots for you? If an object looks capable of immolating, a few carefully aimed bursts of gunfire will quickly cause a conflagration the likes of which could literally fry the armor right off a tank.

Better still, these items are often placed near other, more vulnerable targets. Light things up and blow gates from their hinges, create openings in previously solid structures, or cause entire buildings to collapse.

Nothing beats the feeling of taking out a distant sniper by making a closely located fuel tank go up in flames, which in turn utterly destroys the meager hovel he's hiding in.

Mean and vicious? Maybe. BLACK doesn't pull any punches. It's all gritty gunplay and edge-of-your-seat action. My advice to wannabe commandos: Hang on tight—the ride only gets more intense from here on out.

Article by Chris Zimmerman