Black Ops: Declassified (PS Vita) Will Most Likely Fail

From the already provided gameplay and the fact that the title is set to be out in November, it seems unlikely thats things will change. What can easily be seen from the first gameplay trailer of Declassified, is that the game is very similar to Resistance: Burning Skies. Graphics are incredibly washed out, plus they look terrible, nd seem like something a developer with no experience would use…oh wait. Again similar to Burning Skies, every guns shown so far seem to have two recycled sounds, as if to say Nihilistic couldn’t afford to use any more, but wanted to make sure the variety of two was available to the ever important player.

For anyone who has played Black Ops, the game will look quite familiar. Nihilistic boasts “all new maps”, but they look to be maps from Call of Duty: Black Ops. Nothing looks new, nothing looks innovative, everything looks shoddy. It’s as if Treyarch said to Nihilistic “Here, take these; hopefully people will still buy this lazy continuation.” The game takes one step forward, and an unfortunate two steps back as it can’t even keep current with the new additions to the franchise.

Some could argue that there is no place for a shooter on a handheld, but this isn’t necessarily true. What matters in this particular instance is who makes the games. While Unit 13 the Vita’s first shooter had promise, its main selling point was that it was a shooter with two analog sticks. The effort was not put into making a great game, but rather something to market this feature. The consequence being that Zipper who developed Unit 13 were shortly after canned by Sony.

In general, Black Ops Declassified looks like a title that would have released during the Playstation 2 era. Even then it would have probably been bashed for being a lousy game, so what does that say for it releasing in this day and age? Developers have certainly proved how far games can be taken, but still developers like Nihilistic don’t pay any attention and continue to make the games that they do.

While Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified seems like it could have been a solid game, it’s quite clear that it won’t be. The laziness or possibly lack of ability of Nihilistic Software, coupled with what we have already seen paints a picture of failure. Lack of new content, return of previous failed conten, and an overall careless feeling will be Declassified’s demise. It’s a shame that many will still pick up the title thinking that it will be as great as their favorite Call of Duty title, only to be sorely disappointed by the whole experience.