IGN’s Mitch Dyer saw Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified’s multiplayer at Gamescom and called it “disappointing.” Having finally had a chance to try it for myself, it makes me sad to say that those initial impressions mirror my own. It isn’t even bad or unlikable in its current, pre-release state, but a number of technical limitations make it feel far from the Call of Duty console-like experience on a handheld.
When it comes to Call of Duty controls are everything, and at this point Declassified’s feel a bit wanting. Firing and aiming down the iron sights logically uses the shoulder buttons, but because the Vita lacks secondary triggers, you have to rely on the touchscreen for melee strikes and throwing grenades. This becomes an issue within seconds, as using either grenades or melee attacks means you have to take your hands away off one of the sticks. Moreover, the far-right placement of the on-screen grenade buttons means that it isn’t uncommon to accidentally bump them when using the right analog stick. Because you can’t click the analog sticks this also means that sprinting is either turned on automatically by running forward (which takes some getting used to, and makes me feel a bit out of control), or by pressing down on the D-pad (which, again, requires me to take my thumb off the analog stick). The most basic act of shooting and aiming feels better on Vita than it has on any previous portable CoD game I’ve played, but the current control schemes, and the slower, 30 FPS, don’t quite capture the speed and intensity of the franchise in its entirety.
To try to make battles feel every bit as intense as the console games, Declassified shrinks the maps to a size that, in theory, makes sense for eight players. For instance Declassified’s Nuke House map is a take on Nuke Town, the ‘50s-looking replica town used for nuclear experimentation. Nuke Town is already a small map, but Nuke House narrows the playing field down to a single house and the surrounding yard and street. Even 2 vs. 2 matches feel cramped on this map, and spawning directly in front of the barrel of a waiting enemy became a regular occurrence. With so little room to breathe it didn’t feel like normal CoD, where teams have a chance to regroup and recuperate even if they’re getting beat down since they’ll end up spawning far enough away from the action to reassess and respond to the other team’s playstyle. It just feels a bit too chaotic, like no matter how skilled I am I’ll have to deal with people getting the drop on me simply because they spawned in one of the few places they can at the wrong moment.
Even if the controls and feel of Declassified need work, it nails the interface and presentation of Black Ops. While you won’t find the Pick 10 system from Black Ops 2 in Declassified, the Vita CoD retains many of the familiar perks, weapons and attachments, and creating and tweaking a loadout is instantly familiar. You can also level up and Prestige multiple times. Moreover, you can quickly search for a multiplayer match or start a party with your friends, making it so you never have to play with strangers if you don’t want to. The most inventive feature Declassified brings to the table, though, comes from the Vita’s Near functionality. Using Near, you can post a loadout you’ve made and associate it with a geographical area, letting other Declassified players who come to the area download and use it.
That attention to presentation, that desire Nihilistic has to nail the aesthetic and systems of Black Ops, makes me wonder how Nihilistic’s take on the campaign will end up. I only got to see a couple minutes of it in action, and the multiplayer doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence, but the pacing and set pieces looked like Call of Duty. Whether the same control and technical issues will rear their heads remains to be seen, but I dig the idea behind it: every level in Declassified should have a hook, some mechanic specific to the level so that when you think on it that’s the first thing you mention. Just like the way players think back on Modern Warfare and talk about the “sniper level,” or rave about the “AC-130 level,” the goal is to have each smaller campaign stage make a unique impression.
Unlike the other Black Ops games, Declassified doesn’t have a Zombies mode. Instead you get Hostiles, your typical “survive as many waves as you can” affair, and a series of campaign-inspired time trials you try to run through as fast as you can while shooting wooden targets (think the training level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare). Nihilistic thinks both modes serve as great training tools to teach people the ropes of CoD on Vita, though the time trials mode is the most popular internally since it has leaderboards.
Playing Declassified ultimately left me feeling dissatisfied. The multiplayer has its moments, but when I’m fighting the controls or being shot in the back as I spawn it’s hard not to get frustrated. Hopefully Nihilistic pulls together an awesome campaign between now and Declassified’s release on November 13th. If you’ve been looking for a true “Call of Duty experience” on a handheld, this Vita take probably won’t be it, but with some work it could be a decent approximation.
Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.
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