Black it the shelves back in 2006 to re-invent the dying FPS market. Criterion stated that they were to "do for shooting what Burnout did for racing - tear it apart". They certainly did.

Lets get started on what is obviously the greatest feature of this game by far. The incredible graphics. Black is often referred to as 'gun-porn'. The detail they put into each piece of weaponry is truly explicit. The way the environment around you blurs during reloading, putting the weapon in the spotlight is truly artistic. It really is that good, winning it IGN's 'Best Graphics Technology on PlayStation 2 in 2006'.

The soundtrack of Black is a key part of the game. The music is produced by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, and it takes quite a special game to pull of a score such as that. The music comes is at the the perfect moments, helping strengthen the mood and overall experience. And whenever you aren't listening to this music you have the whistling of bullets, echoes of explosions and cries of eastern European terrorists to keep you company.

There is plenty of action crammed into each level. There isn't a moment in this game when you aren't aiming that grenade, lining up that headshot or just going mental at shooting at every moving thing. The environment is also pretty dynamic as well, scattered round each level are explosive crates, big vans and a wide variety of others for you to destroy. It never gets old.

The sad thing is that it is all over before it begins. With only 8 levels the play life isn't long, the game can be completed within a day. This is a terrible loss, as by the last few levels you get the strong feeling that it's only just getting started.

The story. It isn't worth your time, although you are forced to sit through one of the painfully slow cut-scenes at the start of every level. Each one of these scenes is staged in an interrogation room, which isn't really the ideal environment for a fast paced shoot 'em up like this one. The basic story is there is a terrorism group loose and it's your job to take care of the problem. There are many failed attempts at a plot twist in this game that just fall flat on their face. And the ending! Well, you'll have to find that out for yourself.

When you crank up the difficulty all the way to Black Ops mode, you will wish you had never been born. It seems that every villain in the world is after you, and they won't stop until they achieve their goal. Health Packs are also missing from this mode, so you really have to be careful and plan each move you make.

Overall, Black is recommended, but you should remember that there is no two player mode and it dies pretty quickly. Maybe it would be best if you got it second-hand?

Black is a full on action game, and you really get your money's worth because it takes so long to do the levels!! The graphics are great and help the general gameplay to live to its billing. The levels are long, enthralling and throw things totally out of the blue.

Although there is nothing wrong with hard games, there are minimal checkpoints, and that can really put the game down as you get so far, then pop up at the beginning again.

It is a great and hard first person game!! Great for people who love their action games!

Does anyone at EA Games know the meaning of the word easy? In this game easy is very hard and hard means beyond mission impossible.Some of the enemy with shotguns have amour like a tiger tank and on easy takes many hits to knock them down.The gun change/reload is a bit slow and this can be very frustrating as even on easy the enemy can spot a fleas eyebrow at 400M and they`ve shot you to shreds before you`ve got time to bring the gun up on aim. No multi-player unlike Black Hawk Down which I found a lot easier to understand and play. The levels drag on far too long.The meaning of easy is:
Capable of being accomplished or acquired with ease; posing no difficulty: an easy victory; an easy problem. Requiring or exhibiting little effort or endeavor; undemanding: took the easy way out of her problems; wasn't satisfied with easy answers.
Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain: My mind was easy, knowing that I had done my best.

Best way of summing up the game is "FRUSTRATING" It gets very hard and it ends up on eBay for a £5.

I'm back to review Black again!
I have had Black for a few months now and I have changed my mind about the game. I've played it a lot more since my last review and it isn't impossible to complete- I've done it on all the difficulty modes- and also I think the scores given in this review reflect much better just how good the game is. However, I still stand by what I said in my last review regarding the length of the levels- personaly I would much rather have twice as many shorter levels than 8 long ones.

I would definitely recommend this game - it can be purchased at a very reasonable £30 from Argos.

Well worth buying Black is a great all round Shooter,THE BEST on PS2 up to date I reckon

Black is a great game- it's got good graphics and there is a lot of detail put into it.
However, there are 2 really annoying points:
The levels can sometimes drag for 50 mins, sometimes longer and the enemies in the game take to many bullets to die.

Aside from all that, though, Black is still a brilliant game to play and is well worth the money.

You either choose to be an aggressive soldier or like spy using suppresors also: enjoy Black as you wish

Black is a very good game and worth buying. It will keep you entertained and there is a fair amount to do.

The quality of Black is at a high level, but the story board is too simple.
But you can use the elements of the scene to help you to kill bad guys

Enjoy it

When I first heard the name of this game Black, I thouht it was gonna be about gangsta's.

How wrong I was.

Its a boring shoot em' up, bordering on gun porn with the amount of details put into the gun animations and sounds.

Aside from that, this game is average, and offers nothing that we haven't seen before.