YMMV / Black (2006)

• Complete Monster: William Lennox is the enigmatic leader of Seventh Wave whose specialty is arming other terrorist groups. Originally serving as an assassin for the CIA, he was eventually burned when he began leaving behind too many innocent casualties; in response, Lennox killed everyone they sent after him, caused an explosion that killed 90 people to fake his death, then led the government on a wild goose chase around the world, spreading death everywhere he went. Upon encountering Sgt. Jack Keller, Lennox manipulates him to turn his enemies against each other, and when Keller almost catches him, he kills a dozen of his friends as he retreats, leaving his own forces behind in the process.
• Cult Classic: Many of those who played the Game, often consider it to be among the best shooters for the PS2.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It's basically the equivalent to GoldenEye (1997) in places where Playstation is more popular than Nintendo, such as Southeast Asia.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The developer team of the game (though not bringing down Criterion) left EA after the perceived underperformance of Black in the market, and then joining Codemasters to develop Bodycount (2011). Bodycount then flopped, and Codemasters refocused to developing racing games. In 2021, EA acquired Codemasters, possibly bringing the remaining development team back in EA's hands.
• Hype Backlash: For all the praise it gets from 6th gen console gamers, especially PS2 gamers, Black tends to get a much more negative reception from PC gamers responding to said praise (who often unfavorably compare it to much more advanced PC contemporaries such as F.E.A.R. or Crysis), and/or firearms aficionados who are often deeply annoyed at the game being praised for authentic-feeling depiction of firearms when it actually plays really fast and loose with reality when it comes to the operation of said firearms.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common complaint about the game. Despite the levels being rather long, with the last one taking a full hour to complete if you're very good at the game, playtime doesn't amount to more than seven hours on average.
• Magnificent Bastard: The interrogator who questions Sgt. Jack Keller proves himself to be an incredibly manipulative agent. Beginning the interrogation by threatening that Keller can either cooperate or die in prison, he calls Keller's bluff on the ultimatum to get him to cooperate. Purposefully asking leading questions in order to lure Keller into traps, the interrogator reveals that he had previously gotten statements from two of his colleagues, playing their disparaging comments at precise moments to emotionally wear him down. After successfully getting into Keller's head and getting all the information he needs, he reveals that the interrogation was all a farce; in reality, he intends to fake Keller's death, using his desire for vengeance for his own ends to hunt down William Lennox off the books.
• Most Wonderful Sound: All the gunshots, as per the "Symphony of Gunfire" sound design.
• Narm: The in-mission dialogue is filled with dead serious, curse-laden military talk only barely related to the situation going on. It's so at odds with the over-the-top Hollywood gunplay that it comes off as more hilarious than hardcore, and might cause one to think it's a Stealth Parody because of how nonsensical it can get.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: For a good number of players, the level intro cutscenes are nothing but an un-skippable annoyance at first, and a skippable annoyance in later runs. These cutscenes are the part of the game that contains the thickest part of the plot, the levels contain only barely-relatable "commando chatter" between the characters as the player moves on to mow down mooks by the dozen to Visual Effects of Awesome, and can be ignored to no detriment.
• Rated M for Money: Zig zagged - the violence in the game is as intense as that of any other FPS, there's a considerable amount of swearing, the protagonist is shown committing an act of torture and constantly smoking, but, bizarrely, there's no blood or gore in the game.
• Spiritual Successor: To EA's own Medal of Honor series, which at the time, was still in its historical era.
• That One Level: The last room of the last level. Holy shit. It can feel like enemies never stop respawning, taking upwards of fifteen minutes to clear out entirely, and they steadily increase in difficulty as they keep coming in. To put this in perspective, the last portion requires you to face off against two machine gun nests and multiple mooks with RPGs. Couple this with a room where the best cover comes in the form of blatant Monster Closets, and you're in for a world of pain.