I'll go into detail on the new level Activision showed off at a recent press event, but I thought it might be a good idea to skip to the most surprising aspect first: "Call of Duty: Black Ops" has a shotgun that shoots fire. Seriously. It's a normal shotgun loaded with Dragon's Breath slugs, and yes, they exist in real life!
Ok, with that out of the way, we can get down to business. Activision showed off two levels of "Call of Duty: Black Ops" at a recent press event. The first mission was called "WMD." It was the same mission that we discussed a little while ago with SR71 recon segment and the exploding crossbow.
The second mission, however, was brand new. Set in the city of Hue, a capital city in Vietnam, the action kicked off during the infamous Tet Offensive, when much of the city was in flames. As a member of the Special Activities Division of the CIA, you're sent in to help push back the communist tide. In true "Call of Duty" fashion, the mission started in chaos. While attempting to repel out of your Huey helicopter, enemy fire causes the chopper to spin out of control, sending you through a nearby window. There's fire everywhere and the feeling of chaos is palpable.
From there, the mission turns into a frantic building-to-building fight for survival. Good thing you're equipped with that fire shotgun we spoke of earlier! Like the exploding crossbow bolts, you can pick which ammo type you load into your current weapon, and in this case you can choose between normal shotgun shells and ones that set guys on fire.
Visually the level was on par with anything we've seen in the "Call of Duty" franchise before. Fire effects, tons of smoke and the crackle of gunfire made the scene feel like a real war zone. This was only enhanced when the player was handed a radio, which allowed him to call in a Huey machine gun strike on a nearby building.
Truth be told, the level didn't feel dramatically new for the "Call of Duty" franchise and, ignoring the setting, could've appeared in any of the previous entries. The gameplay is still pretty traditional, cover-based FPS action, but if there's any innovation to be had, we're likely to see it in the currently-mysterious multiplayer modes. Hopefully we'll get a closer look at those during E3.