After playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 online multiplayer for so long many people were very excited and curious about Black Ops and whether or not it was going to be a better game in terms of online play. The short answer shared by many people is "No, it is not a better game than Modern Warfare 2 when it comes to online play." For those of you interested in the details as to why so many people have come to this conclusion we will examine some of the good and bad aspects of the Black Ops online play and hopefully help you come to a better conclusion before you decide to go out and purchase the game for yourself.
One of the best things that Black Ops has to offer is how customizable everything is. You can customize your guns by adding logos and changing the color and shape of the "red dot sights" of your guns. You are able to make each gun your own gun and it can be seen by all other players if they pick up your gun or watching one of your kill-cams. The game uses a currency system by which you earn money for playing matches, completing "contracts," and also completing achievements. You can then use this money to purchase all manner of weapons and equipment.
The game introduces several cool new kill streak rewards, the best of which is the "gunship." This takes you into a first person view of a fighter aircraft and you can fly around above the map blasting with your machine gun and missiles until your time expires or you are shot down. This is just one of the many new kill streak rewards in Black Ops. They have also made it so that care packages have a chance to drop special weapons which are not obtainable by any other means including kill stream rewards.
Some examples of these special weapons include the new "death machine" which is a massive machine gun that you carry around shooting an endless stream of bullets that usually kill with one shot. Another Example is the "Grim Reaper" which is a 4 slotted missile launcher that comes with 16 rockets of total ammunition. The down side to these items is if you die you lose them and they can't be picked up by other players. Also, if you use this item and then switch weapons it will disappear for good. Be sure to use these items to their fullest before discarding them.
There are several major negative aspects to Black Ops multiplayer, however. Kills you earn using kill streak rewards do not count towards your total kill stream amount, and therefore they have reduced the highest kill streak amount to 11 kills. In addition to this many people feel that most of the kill streaks are not overly exciting or impressive. In modern warfare 2 there seems to be more emphasis on kill streaks and rewarding you for going on long kill streaks.
The largest overall downside to Black Ops is the general playability and feel of the game compared to Modern Warfare 2. It seems that almost every aspect of the game is worse than Modern Warfare 2 in terms of feel and control. This includes knives as well as aiming and shooting of weapons. Many also feel that most of the weapons in Black Ops are not very good as well. It is kind of hard to explain all these things in words and it is best if you experience them for yourself.
If you have played Modern Warfare 2 for any length of time then you will know that "quick scoping" is a big deal to many people. Unfortunately, "quick scoping" is nearly impossible in Black Ops and this alone has put off a large number of players. To summarize things it seems as though most people will agree that Black Ops has failed to surpass Modern Warfare 2 in almost every aspect. It must be noted however, that we are speaking of the online multiplayer aspect and what has been said is not referring to campaign play.