PS2 | Black

I don’t mind dying.

It’s all part of the game really – you’re not going to be able to play the game without dying on occasion.

The problem was with my rebirth.

I’d been sneaking around the forest for some time, killing the patrolling guards. I’d managed to blast my way, building to building through the enemy compound, and was now through the border. The problem now was the sniper with the RPG, down the end of a straight road, just out of range of my gun. I’d invested over 30 minutes of my night to get to this point in the mission.

And it’s this last 30 minutes that was on my mind as my heartbeat slowed and my vision became blurry and dark. Death wasn’t a problem, having to re-play a whopping 30 minutes of game play just to get to the same point and die again, was.

I did end up completing the mission – a whopping 1 hour and 14 minutes long. And it did come with two checkpoints. One just after the RPG sniper, and one about 20 minutes later.

The problem with checkpoints, as I learnt two missions later was that they were only valid while you were playing. Exit the game because you want to go to bed, and return the next day and you have to start the mission all over again.

With the amount of time Black demands of you for a single mission, it quickly became too much for a part-time gamer like me. I won’t be re-staring my last mission; instead I’ll be returning the game early. I just don’t have the time to play a game that I restart a mission after I’ve already invested far too much time.

Which is a pity, as Black is one of those games you fall in love with. It’s a FPS like no other. It’s a visual and audio feast with environmental destruction like no other. It also makes you wonder if the Next Gen Consoles are coming out a tad too soon – Black proves that the rusty old PS2 still hasn’t been pushed far enough by game developers.

If you have plenty of time up your sleeves to be able to push through to the next mission, and you don’t get violently aggravated by having to relay over and over again, then black will be a treat for you.