So...no one cares about Dead Nation? I know that it is a somewhat obscure game, but I would have thought that at least one person here has played it. Maybe this next entry will get more attention...
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3)
I have mentioned several times in this thread that my favorite Call of Duty title is Black Ops, mainly when people included Modern Warfare 2 in theirs lists. Now, I will finally explain why.
First, a brief history of the franchise. The first three titles are standard WW2 shooters of little note. The fourth game, Modern Warfare, made many improvements to the online experience. It introduced custom loadouts and killstreaks, which have become a staple of online shooters since then. World at War, developed by Treyarch, implemented these changes into the series' traditional setting. I have found all of the non-Treyarch games since then mediocre. Modern Warfare 2, generally considered the high point of the series, suffers from crippling balancing issues and questionable design choices.
Then came Black Ops.
It has one of the most balanced multiplayer experiences in the entire franchise, and more importantly, you die in more than 2 hits. It is no longer a game of "I saw you first, you die", as now the assaulted has an opportunity to react. The killstreaks, which had gone way too far in Modern Warfare 2, have been scaled back significantly in power and no longer stack, thus rewarding good gunplay instead of killstreak farming. I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer modes, and I generally do not even like competitive (as contrasted with cooperative) online games.
Zombies is the best part of the game, and is the reason I included it on my top games list. Yes, I know that the previous entry was also a zombie game, but their back-to-back placement is a coincidence. I swear!
Zombies was introduced in the previously mentioned World at War, and each map adds new features and increases the mode's complexity. The original map was barebones, while the other World at War maps implements features, namely the power, traps, perks, Pack-a-Punch, wonder weapons, and special rounds, that tend to heavily improve the Zombies experience as a whole. Starting with Black Ops, the new features exist mainly to set each map apart from the others, and are rarely reprised on future maps.
(If you do not want to read my rather long explanation of the mode, you can skip to the [resume here] tag further down)
Zombies mode starts on Round 1, and the number, HP, spawn speed, and aggressive behavior of the zombies increases with every passing one. You start out with a pistol, though repairing barriers and damaging and killing zombies earns you points that can be used to buy better weapons, among other things. The initial goal in most maps is to turn on the power, which unlocks perks, traps, Pack a Punch, and map-specific features. In order to do this, you must buy doors with the points I mentioned earlier in this paragraph. At the same time, purchases must be balanced between perks, weapons, doors, upgrades, and so on. Point management is crucial to survival in Zombies, and is one of the most important skills to master.
The other critical skill is moving, and thereby the manipulation of the zombies. They will always take the shortest path to the player, which led to the most common and effective Zombies strategy, training. By constantly moving in circles, players can force the zombies to form a 'train' behind them, allowing for easy elimination. Of course, it is a lot more nuanced than this. Once various train forms, dodging techniques, the location of the train itself, zombie slaying, and numerous other topics are taken into consideration, training actually reveals itself to be a rather complex skill.
Each game of zombies on most maps can be split into three parts: early rounds, transition rounds, and high rounds. The goal of the early rounds (generally the first 10 or so) is to maximize points and unlock as many important areas of the map as possible. Killing zombies in different ways yields differing point quantities, with the riskiest method, the knife, being the most rewarding. I will not go into all the nuances of maximizing points, but it is a lot trickier than it sounds, and is one of the most difficult Zombies skills to master.
The goal of the transition rounds (from round 10ish to whenever setup is complete) is to obtain your endgame setup, which includes both perk and weapon choices. You can only have 4 perks at once without obtaining a certain power-up, and most maps have more than 4 perks available. Weapon choice generally includes a Wonder Weapon (the only weapons that are able to effectively kill during really high rounds) and a point gun (a weak SMG on most maps) or backup weapon, and possibly a secondary grenade. The best weapons are only included in the Mystery Box, which give away a random weapon for a price. Once all of the important perks are obtained, weapons are bought and upgraded, and all important areas and features of the map are unlocked, the high rounds begin.
High round gameplay is a process of repetition and improvisation. The player will generally want to go for a safe strategy, though unexpected spawns and other occurrences may catch one off guard. Quick thinking is critical. As the rounds go by, ammo will become a problem, even with the wonder weapons. The game will continue until the player's death.
[resume here]
So, now that that is out of the way, why did I pick Black Ops? Zombies has appeared in three Treyarch titles: World at War, Black Ops, and Black Ops 2. World at War set up the basics of the mode, and has several classic maps. Black Ops starts adding map-specific features, making each map play really differently from all the others. It also added in optional side quests that expand the Zombies storyline. Black Ops 2 took the complexity to a whole new level. Even though it has my two favorite maps (Mob of the Dead and Origins) and Die Rise, which is also very solid, I do not really care for the other BO2 maps. Every BO and WaW map is at least good, though the engine of WaW (it is almost impossible to execute a knife attack without lunging into the zombies, among other issues) pisses me off to no end. BO, for the most part, fixed these issues, and I therefore consider it to be the pinnacle of Zombies.
I have not even mentioned Co-op yet. This write-up is long enough as it is, so I will simply say that playing this game with other people is one of the most fun multiplayer gaming experiences I have ever had.
Even with my interest in gaming fading, I still pull out this game every month or so. It therefore deserves a spot on my top games list by virtue of play time alone, not to mention the quality of said time.