A game's story can make or break it. Shooters are so common that it usually takes an above-average story to elevate one into the upper echelon of the genre. For me, that was the main factor that distinguished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Infinity Ward developed both games, but the plot in the latter game was disjointed and incredulous enough to make me wish I were playing the first game's campaign again instead.
Treyarch is billing Call of Duty: Black Ops as having an "incredible narrative"; when I spoke with community manager Josh Olin at a press event earlier this month, he told me that the studio had put "a huge, enormous focus on telling a great story with this game." So I brought up Modern Warfare 2, noting that I didn't enjoy its campaign nearly as much as the single-player of Call of Duty 4 -- and Olin knew exactly where I was going, even interrupting me when I was searching for a word to describe MW2's campaign to suggest the term "disconnected." He felt the same way I did, and he had a guess as to why the game turned out like that:
I'm on the development side of things, so [...] my opinion of it is that it seems like they cut a little too much. You know, maybe they had some levels that just weren't quite finished, so they had to cut them, or something. Maybe their cutscenes didn't have enough explanation or setup.
He went on to draw a contrast between MW2 and Black Ops, explaining that while the story is certainly complicated, "we walk that fine line between 'complex' and 'confusing'. And I'm pretty sure we stay back on that 'complex' side of the line; we never get to the 'confusing' side." Olin also mentioned that he found some plot holes in MW2, and told me that at the worst, gamers who find that they don't know what's going on in Black Ops will be able to figure it out by the end of the game.
"I can't describe enough how much effort we put behind our story, and our character development, and our plot. It's really, really good. I'm stoked," he said with a grin. Decide for yourself if he's right when Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on November 9, 2010, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii.
Contest:
8:30 PM on 08.20.2010 | 
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/2010/07/201072302826665260.html
That actually made me laugh a little. Sick but hilarious...
You could make that stupid case for like every game based on a real war ever.
How is Treyarch making money off of people suffering but WW2 shooters, modern day shooters, etc aren't? What a stupid thing to say. And to boot you're going to use your grandfather to gain pity so we see your point? You probably should be ashamed of that, but I'm sure you won't be.
At any rate, that's not going to work for me, sorry. What you're saying is more disjointed then Modern Warfare 2's storyline.
Granted, it COULD. It just doesn't seem like it to me.
@ndschroede23
"if he REALLY cares about it that much and he REALLY thinks everyone's going to like it, how could it suck?"
Because those two ideas aren't directly related; He could value his work above the lives of his own children, but it could still suck. Caring about it certainly means that he's more likely to spend more time making sure everything's good, but if the creator only thinks he knows what's good, you'll just have a piece of crap that took a while to make.
It's like a parent who has a noisy, ill-behaved child. All the parent sees is the wondrous miracle that they created, while the rest of us see a brat that won't shut up.
I mean it's not like the prior games stories were much to stand up for (B-Grade Tom Clancy-ish) but Modern Warfare 2's story was B-Grade Michael Bay.
Isn't your avatar a photoshoped picture making light of Abraham Lincoln? You know that guy that died cause of the Civil War?
(I am so proud of the fact that I recognized his suit.)
I have to agree with you there. There's such a large disconnect between the gameplay style and narrative that it seldom makes sense. The airport scene in MW2 being the prime example where it says "war is serious" and then the next level is some hyper kinetic Michael Bay explosion driven level.
It's a war game. You have a bad guy, you search for him, kill people along the way, and meet some friends. What more can you really add?
People critic the story as if it's the reason ANYONE plays the game?
But when you set your setting seriously focuses on the Cold War, you kind have no other choice but to make it complicated.
MW1: STORY
World At War: SHI NO NUMA
MW2: AWESOME GRAPHICS
Black Ops: ONLINE (NUKETOWN :D)