After infiltrating a Cuban villa, approaching Fidel Castro and shooting him in the head, a foot soldier is captured and thrown into jail. The soldier must then escape to survive. Yes, it is Call of Duty time again.

Call of Duty: Black Ops instantly throws the player back into the action and never decreases the pace. The sequel to the best-selling game of all time, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops found similar success, setting a record by selling seven million games on launch day.

The Call of Duty franchise debuted in 2003 with the launch of Call of Duty, and put the player in a first-person perspective of an American infantry during WWII. Since then, five other COD games have come out, most recently Black Ops. It has graduated from solely WWII warfare- and now contains scenes from Vietnam and the current warfare in the Middle East.

Inside the game, Black Ops offers three separate branches of gameplay: a single player campaign, multiplayer and a co-op mode.

The single player version of the game is action-packed from the time it starts until the moment it ends. The first level simulates a battle from the Vietnam War, but the scenes vary with the levels. Black Ops also differs from its predecessors in that, on some levels, it takes the players off their feet and onto other vehicles such as driving a motorcycle through the streets to escaping a Cuban prison with nothing more than a prison shank.

Often times during shooting games, the single player can get monotonous because all the levels blend together. The diversity offered in Black Ops keeps the campaign fresh when compared to other games in the same genre.

Another improvement to the game is the return of the co-op Zombie playlist. In this game mode, teams of one to four players join up in a game of survival. They must battle against rounds of zombies that progressively get harder. The game type requires intense communication, and when played with a group of friends, it can be a lot of fun.

However, the staple of the game and its most attractive feature is still the multiplayer mode.

The most noticeable feature in the multiplayer is the graphics. They are impressive but are not quite up to the standard that COD games have come to be known for. They are on par with other shooter games coming out, but fail to stand out.

Black Ops also presents a variety of different game types. There are 14 maps available in the multiplayer, as well as a multitude of different game types, ranging from the classic death match to new, unique game types with special circumstances.

Black Ops also presents a level of customization that no other Call of Duty has to date. While it maintains the custom class system that the other games had used, it allows the player to go more in depth in their character personalization. Everything can be customized, from the camouflage on the gun to the face paint that the solider wears, so that no two characters look the same.

Another new addition to the game is the introduction of the currency system. Instead of earning new guns and perks in a pre-determined order, they can be purchased in whatever order the player wants, which helps to immerse the player with their character.

The online play, however, is far from perfect. There are long wait times when trying to join a game with a group of friends, and members of the party are constantly dropped. This may be due to the popularity of the game, so time will tell if it improves.

Overall, Black Ops is a strong game that should produce many hours of fun playtime and will definitely be worth the money, but when compared to other games in the Call of Duty franchise, it fails to differentiate itself from its predecessors as the next great game.