History VideoGame / Black2006

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* BangBangBang: Deliberately used. The guns are all sampled from films such as ''DieHard''.

* UnreliableNarrator: The intensity of the game is a reflection of Keller's recollection of combat under intense psychological pressure - both in the battlefield and in the interrogation room. So the winding levels, seeming endlessly respawning enemies that take a ''lot'' of damage to kill, ambushes, useless/missing squadmates that randomly drop in and out with no mention of where they went, labyrinthine level design, etc. are just how Keller recalls each mission, not how it actually was. This also explains the disjointed, almost non-existent story, as that doesn't matter to Keller as much as the accomplishing the mission does.

* WalkItOff: If your health is very low the screen will flash black and white with a thumping heartbeat sound. The player has to take cover and wait for their health to go back up slightly.

Black received good to lukewarm reviews for its explosive action, detailed guns and impressive technology, even picking up awards for its sound design. However, there was no multiplayer and only a short singleplayer campaign, leaving many people to feel that there was little content to the game.

* CheckPointStarvation: There's always one after a point of no return (normally an InsurmountableWaistHighFence you can jump over to proceed). Problem is, there are between two and five of those for every mission, and starting from the second one, those are ''[[MarathonLevel very]]'' [[[[MarathonLevel large]]. The second-to-last leg of the final level alone is more than twenty minutes of pure gunfighting.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: While the pre-mission cinematics weave a rather complicated, Creator/TomClancy-esque plot rife with character interaction, gameplay is all about tossing bullets left and right and blowing shit up, sometimes with your squadmates watching or helping a little bit. In fact, the game didn't even ''have'' a story for most of development - cutscenes, dialogue etc., were a last-minute addition. This is why, for example, most of the important characters like MacCarver, Solomon, Valencio [[spoiler:and Lennox]] only appear in cutscenes.

* BoomHeadshot: The last gun you unlock, the M16A2, can one-shot ''any'' mook as long as you hit them in the head. Even the ones with masks, which you'd normally have to knock off with two or three shots beforehand.
* BraggingRightsReward: The M16A2, available on the HarderThanHard Black Ops difficulty and unlocked for all others after you beat it. It has an integrated M203 grenade launcher (the only gun in the game to have one), can OneHitKill anything as long as it's a headshot (see BoomHeadshot above), and reloads faster than the M203-less M16 under any circumstances. But you don't really need this gun if you've beaten Hard difficulty already, which is actually harder than Black Ops.

* UnorthodoxReload: Sort of... the way the guns are reloaded is pretty standard, but when you do reload, the screen blurs as an exaggeration of depth of field. This system would also be used by [[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii the GoldenEye remake]]. There's also subtle differences if you reloaded from an empty magazine, or from a partially full one, and the PC will occasionally check his magazine to see if it's full.

* CheckPointStarvation: There's always one after a point of no return (normally an InsurmountableWaistHighFence you can jump over to proceed). Problem is, there are between two and five of those for every mission, and starting from the second one, those are ''[[MarathonLevel very]]'' [[[[MarathonLevel large]]. The second-to-last leg of the final level
* ColdBloodedTorture: Kellar himself tortures a Seventh Wave member in a cutscene in order to garner information about Lennox.

* NoNameGiven: The man interrogating Kellar.

* PistolWhipping: Kellar can strike enemies with the butt of any gun. Striking them from behind is a OneHitKill.

* UnreliableNarrator: The intensity of the game is a reflection of Kellar's recollection of combat under intense psychological pressure - both in the battlefield and in the interrogation room. So the winding levels, seeming endlessly respawning enemies that take a ''lot'' of damage to kill, ambushes, useless/missing squadmates that randomly drop in and out with no mention of where they went, labyrinthine level design, etc. are just how Kellar recalls each mission, not how it actually was. This also explains the disjointed, almost non-existent story, as that doesn't matter to Kellar as much as the accomplishing the mission does.

* CheckPointStarvation: On normal difficulty, there'll only be two or three per mission, and the missions are ''very'' large.

* ExcusePlot: The game didn't even ''have'' a story for most of development - cutscenes, dialogue etc., were a last-minute addition. This is why, for example, most of the important characters only appear in cutscenes.

* FakingTheDead: The main villain Lenox does this, to throw off suspicion, enough for him to take command of the Seventh Wave.
** [[spoiler:Jack gets this at the very end also, to aid his continued pursuit of Lennox.]]

* TheGhost: [[spoiler: Lennox. The guy Kellar thought was Lennox was an impostor.]]
* GottaCatchThemAll: The secondary objectives.
* GunPorn: This was the game's tagline in ads, by the by. The gun models are all incredibly detailed, and the loading screens show guns firing and empty shells ejecting in slow motion. Many of the sounds of taken from or inspired by action films, and used a system dubbed 'chorus of gunfire' in which each gun is given a different pitch. So a group of enemies firing would create a harmony of different gunfire sounds.
* HowWeGotHere: The levels are flashbacks, set four days before the interrogation cutscenes.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: A mild example, in that somehow every weapon you pick up is configured for a left-handed shooter, despite Keller being right handed.
** Justified via RuleOfCool, so that the player can watch the reloading process from start to finish.

* StopHelpingMe: The support squad are prone to providing the player character with useless, unwanted instruction, and are completely useless in a firefight.
* StuffBlowingUp: ''Yes.''

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: A mild example, in that somehow every weapon you pick up is configured for a left-handed shooter, despite Lennox being right handed.

* StopHelpingMe: The support squad are prone to providing the player character with useless, unwanted instruction.

* UnorthodoxReload: Sort of... the way the guns are reloaded is pretty standard, but when you do reload, the screen blurs as an exaggeration of depth of field. This system would also be used by [[GoldenEyeWii the Goldeneye remake]]. There's also subtle differences if you reloaded from an empty magazine, or from a partially full one, and the PC will occasionally check his magazine to see if it's full.

* MoreDakka: Many of the guns have had their rates of fire and ammo capacity bumped up from their real-life versions.

* StandardFPSGuns: Several pistols, a couple of shotguns, a variety of sub-machine guns, a few automatic weapons, sniper rifles, a grenade launcher, [=RPGs=] - nothing you wouldn't expect from a typical FPS.

* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted, surprisingly for a game as over-the-top as this. Instead it uses a two weapon limit.

* UnorthodoxReload: Sort of... the way the guns are reloaded is pretty standard, but when you do reload the screen blurs as an exaggeration of depth of field. This system would also be used by [[GoldenEyeWii the Goldeneye remake]]. There's also subtle differences if you reloaded from an empty magazine, or from a partially full one, and the PC will occasionally check his magazine to see if it's full.
* UnreliableNarrator: The intensity of the game is a reflection of Kellar's recollection of combat under intense psychological pressure. So the winding levels, seeming endlessly respawning enemies that take a ''lot'' of damage to kill, ambushes, useless/missing squadmates, labyrinthine level design, etc. are just how Kellar recalls each mission, not how it actually was. This also explains the disjointed, almost non-existent story, as that doesn't matter to Kellar as much as the accomplishing the mission does.

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: The game's setting, though it doesn't figure much in the plot and Seventh Wave tends to fund and sell arms to terrorists than engage in them... or so we're told.

* TerroristsWithoutACause: Very little information is provided about Seventh Wave besides the fact that they are terrorists, wanted by the Chinese and Israelis, and are mostly arms dealers.

''Black'' is a FirstPersonShooter released on the Playstation 2 and Xbox in 2006. It was made by Criterion Games, who also developed the ''{{Burnout}}'' series. Black follows the story of Sergeant First Class Jack Keller, an black ops soldier being interrogated about a terrorist organization known as 'Seventh Wave'. The in-game missions begin four days before the interrogation and soon revolve around Jack searching for William Lenox, the new leader of the Seventh Wave, across a variety of locations in Chechnya.

* UnorthodoxReload: Sort of... the way the guns are reloaded is pretty standard, but when you do reload the screen blurs as an exaggeration of depth of field. This system would also be used by [[GoldenEyeWii the Goldeneye remake]]. There's also subtle differences if you reloaded from an empty magazine or from a partially full one.

* FullMotionVideo: All the cutscenes are done this way, although the visuals are so heavily stylized that there isn't a huge disparity between them and the gameplay.

* RatedMForMoney: Played with: the violence in the game is as intense as that of any other FPS, there's a not-inconsiderable amount of swearing, the protagonist is shown constantly smoking and commits an act of torture - but, bizarrely, there's no blood or gore in the game, presumably out of a desire to secure a T rating. Nevertheless, the game is rated M.

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: The game's setting, though it doesn't figure much in the plot.

* RatedMForMoney: Played with - the violence in the game is as intense as that of any other FPS, there's a not-inconsiderable amount of swearing, the protagonist is shown constantly smoking and commits an act of torture - but, bizarrely, there's no blood or gore in the game, presumably out of a desire to secure a T rating. Nevertheless, the game is rated M.

* AKA47: Largely averted, although some weapons are simply given generic names instead (the RPG is simply called "RPG").