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Black (video game)
Encyclopedia
Black is a first-person shooter
video game, developed by Criterion Games
and published by EA
. It was released on February 24, 2006 for the Xbox
and PlayStation 2
video game consoles. The game is notable for its heavily stylized cinema
-inspired action as well as its award winning sound quality and focus on destructive effects during gameplay.
(Southern Russia). The protagonist is a black op
s soldier named Sergeant First Class
Jack Kellar (portrayed by Marty Papazian
). Kellar tells most of the story in first-person
at an interrogation four days after the events in the story begin.
Kellar is an inadequately disciplined member of a CIA black ops group and a veteran of several conflicts including Guatemala
, Colombia
, Iran
and Croatia
. The unknown interrogator (portrayed by Paul Pape
) questions Kellar about an arms smuggling and terrorist
operation called the Seventh Wave. Seventh Wave have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks. Kellar is told that, unless he co-operates, he and his actions will be declassified, he will be dishonorably discharged and imprisoned for life. Though initially resistant, Kellar at last agrees to tell his story.
Four days earlier, Kellar and his group were assaulting a Seventh Wave strong-hold in the city of Veblensk. Kellar kills three high-ranking members of the cell but then disobeys orders by rushing inside a terrorist controlled building, where a terrorist ambushes him. However, the man did not kill Kellar, who learns that his captor is an American, a former CIA wetworks operative, William Lennox. After faking his own death in Cairo
, Lennox has apparently become the leader of Seventh Wave.
Kellar's next mission is to cross the border into Treneska and traverse the Vlodnik Canal, destroy a base and weapons cache, then meet a female black ops soldier named MacCarver (voiced by Cree Summer
), the leader of black ops Team Bravo, at a farmhouse. Things did not go as planned; however, Kellar defends and clears the farmhouse and later meets MacCarver.
Kellar and MacCarver begin a mission to destroy an arms factory in the city of Naszran. To safely complete the mission they must navigate an old graveyard and town, both heavily defended. After doing so, they assault the town's iron foundry, destroying its productive capacity. The two black operatives then meet a third member of the team, Solomon.
Based on information gathered from the mission, Team Bravo has proceeded to a well-defended dockyard, cleared the area and linked up with Alpha Team. Alpha Team, however, is destroyed in an ambush while Lennox escapes seconds beforehand. In light of the disastrous result, the operation is cancelled as well. Despite these events, Kellar leads a retalitory assault against the Graznei Bridge before leaving his team at the gates of Lennox's compound to successfully penetrate the defenses both around and inside the Spetriniv Gulag and kill Lennox in an explosion resulting from the destruction of two concrete barricades and the subsequent explosions afterward in the final room of the underground bunker.
The interrogator then reveals to Kellar that authorities had, in fact, always known of Lennox's involvement in Seventh Wave. Kellar had acted predictably, doing what his profile said he would, and his pursuit of Lennox was both expected and welcome - and that Lennox is not yet dead. Kellar is told that a false "death" has been arranged for him, providing cover so he can continue his pursuit. The game ends with Kellar being told to get ready for his next assignment.
The game is mission-based, with each mission separated by a cut scene video. On harder difficulties, there are more objectives that must be completed before the player can progress. These extra objectives involved collecting various intelligence documents, blueprints, or destroying parts of the environment. These are all indicated by the HUD cross-hair changing color when the player points at the relevant object.
Successful completion of the objectives over all missions in all difficulties above 'Easy' results in the awarding of Silver Weapons (infinite bullets) and unlocking the M16-A2 (40mm underslung grenade launcher attachment) as the starting default weapon with infinite 40mm grenades. When unlocked, these features are permanent and cannot be removed without starting a fresh storyline.
did for racing - tear it apart", with dual emphasis on destructible environments and the handling and behavior of real-world firearms. Bullet
s that hit buildings, terrain and objects leave visible damage; moreover, the guns are rendered with great detail and accuracy, though some weapons' features are stylized or exaggerated. The emphasis on the appearance, function, and sounds of the weapons led the developer to label the game as "Gun-Porn." Another notable and original feature is the use of real-time blur
while reloading, giving a depth of field
and more perspective
to the game. Similarly, when the player drops below two bars of health, the screen turns black and white, the sound of the character's heartbeat become the dominant noise and the game goes into slow motion
, and the large and small motors in the control pads match the sound of systolic
and diastolic
part of the heartbeat.
The game was not developed with an overarching plot structure in mind and this was implemented as something of an afterthought towards the end of development. The initial idea for relating the plot in-game came from Black's director, Alex Ward, who wanted to have a radio-play-style voiceover spoken over a 'black' screen.
' Heckler & Koch MP5
in Die Hard
, Jack Bauer
's pistol in 24
and Arnold Schwarzenegger
's Uzi in True Lies
.
Realising in the chaos of a heavy gun battle the heavy mix of sound and music would produce a cacophony of noise
, the sound designers developed the "choir
of guns" concept. Whereas, traditionally in a shooter game, each weapon model would be assigned a different sound, Black assigns each enemy their own "voice", similar to the way in which each member of a choir would have their own distinct voice. For example, there are three enemies firing, one would be assigned a low voice, another a medium voice, and the third a high voice. This allows all the weapons being fired in any particular scene to harmonise and deliver a distinct sound for the game.
Blacks sound was nominated for Best Audio at 2006 BAFTA Video Games Awards, and won Best Art & Sound jointly with Burnout Revenge
at the 2006 Develop
Industry Excellence Awards.
The music for Black was composed by Chris Tilton
, using a theme co-authored with Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino
. It was recorded at the Newman Scoring Stage. A soundtrack album was released on iTunes by Nettwerk Records.
gave the game a 79 out of 100 on the PS2 and a 77 out of 100 on the Xbox. The same held true for its GameRankings review.
It had its best review (8.7 out of 10) from IGN
and its worst (7.4 out of 10) from GameSpot
.
. Stuart Black and many of the developers of Black worked on the now released "Bodycount
", a "spiritual successor" to the game which, developed by Codemasters
, was released on the Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3
during Q3 2011.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game, developed by Criterion Games
Criterion Games
Criterion Games is a Guildford, England based British video game developer. It is best known for its work on the award-winning, multi-platform Burnout series, the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox first-person shooter Black.Criterion Software Ltd was created in 1993 to commercialise 3D...
and published by EA
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. It was released on February 24, 2006 for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
video game consoles. The game is notable for its heavily stylized cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
-inspired action as well as its award winning sound quality and focus on destructive effects during gameplay.
Story
Black takes place in ChechnyaChechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
(Southern Russia). The protagonist is a black op
Black op
A black operation or black op is a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly clandestine and often outside of standard military protocol or even against the law.-Origins:...
s soldier named Sergeant First Class
Sergeant First Class
Sergeant First Class is the seventh enlisted rank in the U.S. Army, above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant and First Sergeant, and is the first senior non-commissioned officer rank...
Jack Kellar (portrayed by Marty Papazian
Marty Papazian
Marty Papazian sometimes credited as Martin A. Papazian, is a television and film actor. He played CTU Interrogator Rick Burke in the television series 24. His last name was the inspiration for the name of the 24 character Miles Papazian.-External links:...
). Kellar tells most of the story in first-person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
at an interrogation four days after the events in the story begin.
Kellar is an inadequately disciplined member of a CIA black ops group and a veteran of several conflicts including Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. The unknown interrogator (portrayed by Paul Pape
Paul Pape
Paul Pape is an American actor and voice actor. He has appeared in over 20 films since 1977, most notably as the role of Double J in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. He also stars in the Need for Speed video game franchise Need for Speed: Undercover as Lt. Jack M. Keller police Lt...
) questions Kellar about an arms smuggling and terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
operation called the Seventh Wave. Seventh Wave have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks. Kellar is told that, unless he co-operates, he and his actions will be declassified, he will be dishonorably discharged and imprisoned for life. Though initially resistant, Kellar at last agrees to tell his story.
Four days earlier, Kellar and his group were assaulting a Seventh Wave strong-hold in the city of Veblensk. Kellar kills three high-ranking members of the cell but then disobeys orders by rushing inside a terrorist controlled building, where a terrorist ambushes him. However, the man did not kill Kellar, who learns that his captor is an American, a former CIA wetworks operative, William Lennox. After faking his own death in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Lennox has apparently become the leader of Seventh Wave.
Kellar's next mission is to cross the border into Treneska and traverse the Vlodnik Canal, destroy a base and weapons cache, then meet a female black ops soldier named MacCarver (voiced by Cree Summer
Cree Summer
Cree Summer Francks , best known as Cree Summer, is a Canadian actress, musician and voice actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as college student Winifred "Freddie" Brooks on the NBC sitcom A Different World...
), the leader of black ops Team Bravo, at a farmhouse. Things did not go as planned; however, Kellar defends and clears the farmhouse and later meets MacCarver.
Kellar and MacCarver begin a mission to destroy an arms factory in the city of Naszran. To safely complete the mission they must navigate an old graveyard and town, both heavily defended. After doing so, they assault the town's iron foundry, destroying its productive capacity. The two black operatives then meet a third member of the team, Solomon.
Based on information gathered from the mission, Team Bravo has proceeded to a well-defended dockyard, cleared the area and linked up with Alpha Team. Alpha Team, however, is destroyed in an ambush while Lennox escapes seconds beforehand. In light of the disastrous result, the operation is cancelled as well. Despite these events, Kellar leads a retalitory assault against the Graznei Bridge before leaving his team at the gates of Lennox's compound to successfully penetrate the defenses both around and inside the Spetriniv Gulag and kill Lennox in an explosion resulting from the destruction of two concrete barricades and the subsequent explosions afterward in the final room of the underground bunker.
The interrogator then reveals to Kellar that authorities had, in fact, always known of Lennox's involvement in Seventh Wave. Kellar had acted predictably, doing what his profile said he would, and his pursuit of Lennox was both expected and welcome - and that Lennox is not yet dead. Kellar is told that a false "death" has been arranged for him, providing cover so he can continue his pursuit. The game ends with Kellar being told to get ready for his next assignment.
Gameplay
The gameplay is essentially a straight forward first person shooter. Players can only carry two weapons at a time; therefore, strategy is needed when choosing weaponry, with weapons differing in characteristics. The player can also carry grenades, which can be thrown without switching weapons. Land mines and grenades can be detonated prematurely by shooting them.The game is mission-based, with each mission separated by a cut scene video. On harder difficulties, there are more objectives that must be completed before the player can progress. These extra objectives involved collecting various intelligence documents, blueprints, or destroying parts of the environment. These are all indicated by the HUD cross-hair changing color when the player points at the relevant object.
Successful completion of the objectives over all missions in all difficulties above 'Easy' results in the awarding of Silver Weapons (infinite bullets) and unlocking the M16-A2 (40mm underslung grenade launcher attachment) as the starting default weapon with infinite 40mm grenades. When unlocked, these features are permanent and cannot be removed without starting a fresh storyline.
Development
Criterion intended to "do for shooting what BurnoutBurnout (series)
Burnout is a series of high-speed racing games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo GameCube game consoles. Also, for the very first time, a PC version of the latest installment in the series, Burnout Paradise, has been released...
did for racing - tear it apart", with dual emphasis on destructible environments and the handling and behavior of real-world firearms. Bullet
Bullet
A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...
s that hit buildings, terrain and objects leave visible damage; moreover, the guns are rendered with great detail and accuracy, though some weapons' features are stylized or exaggerated. The emphasis on the appearance, function, and sounds of the weapons led the developer to label the game as "Gun-Porn." Another notable and original feature is the use of real-time blur
Focus (optics)
In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by...
while reloading, giving a depth of field
Depth of field
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
and more perspective
Perspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
to the game. Similarly, when the player drops below two bars of health, the screen turns black and white, the sound of the character's heartbeat become the dominant noise and the game goes into slow motion
Slow motion
Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger....
, and the large and small motors in the control pads match the sound of systolic
Systole (medicine)
Systole is the contraction of the heart. Used alone, it usually means the contraction of the left ventricle.In all mammals, the heart has 4 chambers. The left and right ventricles pump together. The atria and ventricles pump in sequence...
and diastolic
Diastole
Diastole is the period of time when the heart fills with blood after systole . Ventricular diastole is the period during which the ventricles are relaxing, while atrial diastole is the period during which the atria are relaxing...
part of the heartbeat.
The game was not developed with an overarching plot structure in mind and this was implemented as something of an afterthought towards the end of development. The initial idea for relating the plot in-game came from Black's director, Alex Ward, who wanted to have a radio-play-style voiceover spoken over a 'black' screen.
Sound
Emphasising the game's action film heritage, sound effects for the weapons in the game were based on various sounds from movies. For example Bruce WillisBruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
' Heckler & Koch MP5
Heckler & Koch MP5
The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....
in Die Hard
Die Hard
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
, Jack Bauer
Jack Bauer
Jack Bauer is the main protagonist of the American television series 24. His character has worked in various capacities on the show, often as a member of the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit based in Los Angeles, and working with the FBI in Washington, D.C...
's pistol in 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
's Uzi in True Lies
True Lies
True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...
.
Realising in the chaos of a heavy gun battle the heavy mix of sound and music would produce a cacophony of noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
, the sound designers developed the "choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
of guns" concept. Whereas, traditionally in a shooter game, each weapon model would be assigned a different sound, Black assigns each enemy their own "voice", similar to the way in which each member of a choir would have their own distinct voice. For example, there are three enemies firing, one would be assigned a low voice, another a medium voice, and the third a high voice. This allows all the weapons being fired in any particular scene to harmonise and deliver a distinct sound for the game.
Blacks sound was nominated for Best Audio at 2006 BAFTA Video Games Awards, and won Best Art & Sound jointly with Burnout Revenge
Burnout Revenge
Burnout Revenge is the fourth video game in the Burnout series of racing games, released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on September 13, 2005 and Xbox 360 on March 7, 2006, alongside the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS title Burnout Legends....
at the 2006 Develop
Develop (magazine)
Develop is a monthly trade magazine for the video games industry. Based in Hertford, Hertfordshire, the magazine allows participation by anyone working in the video game industry. Develop is the only European-based website and print magazine aimed exclusively at the development community...
Industry Excellence Awards.
The music for Black was composed by Chris Tilton
Chris Tilton
Chris Tilton, born 9 June 1979 in New Orleans, U.S. is an American soundtrack composer and has helped compose several television, film and video game scores. He collaborates with Michael Giacchino and J.J. Abrams on several of his projects. His projects include the video games Mercenaries:...
, using a theme co-authored with Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games. Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as...
. It was recorded at the Newman Scoring Stage. A soundtrack album was released on iTunes by Nettwerk Records.
Reception
The game received good reviews from most video game review publications, but scored slightly better on PlayStation 2 than on Xbox. The aggregate review site MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the game a 79 out of 100 on the PS2 and a 77 out of 100 on the Xbox. The same held true for its GameRankings review.
It had its best review (8.7 out of 10) from IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
and its worst (7.4 out of 10) from GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
.
Future
In a recent interview, co-creator and designer Stuart Black revealed that plans for "Black 2" were underway, but are now scrapped due to differences with Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. Stuart Black and many of the developers of Black worked on the now released "Bodycount
Bodycount (video game)
Bodycount received generally mixed reviews, with a score of 53 and 51 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively, on Metacritic. GameSpot gave Bodycount a 5.5 out of 10 rating. They praised the fun of skillshots, a few fun guns and appealing environments but criticized the flat gameplay, a...
", a "spiritual successor" to the game which, developed by Codemasters
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
, was released on the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
during Q3 2011.