Back in early July 2026, both Black Ops 1 and 2 were ported to modern PlayStation consoles. The former released in 2010, the latter in 2012. They are some of the more beloved COD titles across the franchise, evidenced not only by the very fact they were ported to begin with, but also in torrential sales numbers that the ports themselves did achieve.

Today, we will take a look at Black Ops 1. A review on BO2 is on the horizon as well. For both games, rather than undergo a ‘what did and didn’t work’ as per usual, today’s review will evaluate each of BO1’s three core game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies.

Let’s begin.

Campaign: A thrilling story with a well designed plot twist

To sum it up, the campaign puts the player into the Cold War era, representing the MAC-V SOG in some capacity. Most of the time, they’ll be playing as Alex Mason, an elite black ops soldier who was taken prisoner early in the campaign and suffered massive psychological fallout as a result. Most of the campaign is a recounting of events that happened previously, told from the perspective of Mason as he is being interrogated. Without offering spoilers, it was a truly chilling way to make use of an unreliable narrator trope, and offered a very surprising plot twist towards the end that had fantastic narrative build up.

Genuinely, this is one of the best stories that Call of Duty has ever featured in a campaign. Gameplay is fantastic too, with a very wide variety of fun weapons to use, vehicles to operate, and seemingly a brand new setting, aesthetically and mechanically, every mission. From Operation 40 all the way down to Redemption and in between, there is not one moment that isn’t action packed and intriguing at its core.

That said, there is one thing worth mentioning that could deter a select group of people from this campaign. As mentioned, this narrative is psychologically thrilling. However, it is also essentially watching Mason frequently experience ‘mental triggers’ that could certainly disturb select groups of people. I believe it would have been appropriate for Treyarch to simply attach a ‘disclaimer’ or, perhaps, a ‘trigger warning’ to alert people who may suffer from things such as PTSD.

Multiplayer: A bit of a mess, albeit a very fun mess

Straight away, turn back if you are the type of gamer who enjoys “variety” in their gameplay. The weapon balance in this game’s multiplayer is pretty laughable. There are a select few guns, such as the Famas, Galil or AK74U that dominate. For every one fantastic gun, there are at least 3-4 ones which are miserably awful. The Olympia, Dragunov, M60, Uzi, some sidearms like the ASP or Makarov, down to launchers like the China Lake, are pitiful. It isn’t like more modern Call of Duty games, where a poor gun can at least be kitted out with a weaponsmith to be respectable. Guns like the Olympia do not have attachments at all. Others like the Uzi can only accept a single attachment barring perks. If you thought the Dragunov’s pathetic damage and horrendous idle sway could be fixed with a slightly different scope or an extended mag, you are mistaken.

While gun balance is all over the place, gameplay is pretty fun. This is a slower title with some moderate to decently sized maps, so actual weight into technical macro gameplay can be found here; you really do need to hit your shots and carefully calculate your engagements. There also aren’t any particularly, super abusable places to camp or play lame, so matches move along at a decent, brisk pace with plenty of action.

Maps are generally pretty good to tons of fun in this game. It is here where the iconic Nuketown made its debut, along with other cult classics such as Jungle, Firing Range, Kowloon, Summit and Grid.

Devastatingly, the port to PlayStation did not include Wager matches, which were very, very popular when this game came out. That does remove a little bit of tension from the mode, but it’s not a cataclysmic loss.

Zombies: A well balanced, acquired taste

If you never played a Call of Duty before Cold War, then came to this Zombies mode, you’d be in for a cultural shock. Zombies in BO1 is actually a fair bit challenging, bringing players back to a two-hit down system where the player could die in the blink of an eye if they’re not careful. It makes the early game of basically any map feel vulnerable and tense, with palpable relief once the iconic Juggernog perk is acquired.

Like Multiplayer, gun balance is definitely this mode’s biggest shortcoming. Most wall weapons are pretty weak, as well as plenty of Mystery Box weapons as well. Notably, “Double Tap 2.0” didn’t exist yet, so even the good weapons are dropping off hard not too long after round 20. An overreliance on Wonder Weapons and, in some cases, traps to get particularly far is BO1 Zombies’ biggest general drawback.

Even still, basically every single map on this game is timeless for what it brings to the table. Kino der Toten is likely the single most iconic map in all of Zombies history. Five lets the player play as real-world politicians with tons of character. Shangri-La, even to this very date, is arguably the purely hardest map to survive on ever made. Then, there’s Moon, featuring the players straight blow up the Earth in beautiful, graphic detail.

This game was also where Treyarch started to expand on adding secret features to their maps, known today as “Easter Eggs” or “Main Quests”. There is an EE on Ascension, Shangri-La, Call of the Dead and Moon. The former three were very basic, but Moon’s EE was the first instance of such a thing becoming truly convoluted, showcasing the added breadth which could be expected moving forward.

Final Grade for Black Ops 1: A-

While balancing is a bit rough and can lead to some frustrating and/or tedious moments, the pure, visceral value experienced in this game is hard to find anywhere else. This is a very memorable game as a general first person shooter and, as a Call of Duty game, it will standout eternally compared to its flashier peers.