I have been on a PS Vita kick, pretty much since Sony announced it was pulling support, and then changed their mind. I haven't played many shooters on the PS Vita and thought Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, might be fun to try, plus I had a CEX voucher burning a hole in my pocket.
I love burgers, even tried to make a few myself but the lazy part of me just buys them from a butcher. I have, since becoming an adult bought some frozen ones, while the pack makes them look good, opening the packaging they become less appealing and by the time they are cooked up into sickly, grey shadows of true burgers, I have lost all interest. Essentially, don't buy frozen burgers. Playing Call Of Duty Black Ops I found myself asking was this a tasty burger or a poor imitation?
Story
Something I enjoyed about the Black Ops games and many of the other Call of Duty games is the story. Sadly there is no cohesive story in Black Ops: Declassified, just random missions all set in the seventies where you play as either Frank Woods or Alex Mason.
Overall a bit disappointing, the campaign is extremely short and could been made more enjoyable by just having some sort of story.
Visuals
The PS Vita, PSP along with the slew of Nintendo Handheld consoles are unable to match the visual spectacle offered by consoles. Naturally, it is important to manage your expectations from a visuals perspective. Those in Black Ops: Declassified are okay but that is it. Some levels don't seem to render correctly, objects sometimes look they are part of a green screen with no depth. While I would expect this quality of game from a smaller studio or if it is was on the PSP. The game was developed by InStigate Games and published by Activision, I am unsure if it was lack of budget or someone fell asleep at the wheel but the game is poorly visually especially for a Call of Duty game.
Overall pretty disappointed with the visuals, it is clear this was less about creating good visuals and more about a cash grab using the Call Of Duty name.
Music
Call Of Duty is generally known for its epic soundtracks, this time around though there is an empty void. There is some music in the game but nothing standout and there seems to be no soundtrack available anywhere online.
Overall a disappointing soundtrack and like many of the other elements of the game fails to live up to its name.
Gameplay
The gameplay is a very mixed bag. There are a number of play modes in Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, including; Campaign, Time Trial, Hostiles and Multiplayer.
The campaign is very short and can be completed in around an hour, most missions are just a few minutes in length which was disappointing. Time trial is pretty much like the tutorials you would be used to from other Call Of Duty games, but this time there are only a few of them, pretty underwhelming. Hostile is wave-based and has you taking on lots of enemies with weapons scattered around the map, this ended up being a lot of fun and enjoyed the fast paced action. Call Of Duty is well known for its multiplayer, and the quality of it, in earnest I had a lot of fun with it and works pretty well. While it lacks the same polish as the full console versions it is still pretty good.
The mechanics themselves are a little weak. Movement can feel a little sluggish, weapons don't feel very accurate and there is definitely a feeling of pray and spray. What I really liked is the use of the touch screen to stab enemies and throw grenades. When using a sniper rifle you can use the back touch panel to have better accuracy when aiming.
Overall the gameplay is up and down, the saving grace for it really was Hostiles mode and the multiplayer.
Final Thoughts
So, after six hours of player how did I feel? Underwhelmed and confused. The game could have and should have been better. There was no story, the visuals were below par, and there was a lack of quality soundtrack. The gameplay had some strong points, and I enjoyed those but had a lot of weak ones. This was really difficult to score but in the end settled on 2 out of 5
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