Black Ops: On interactive duty

<i>Call Of Duty: Black Ops</i> is based on a strategic force operational in Vietnam and the Cold War. Photo / Supplied

Tough as old boots, fitter than most and potentially quite deadly, Hank Keirsey is the real deal.

While we of the game geek variety battle our way through endless war scenarios from the comfort of the couch, the reality is most of us wouldn't last five minutes in a real war zone. Especially one in direct sunlight.

But this retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel has been there, done that - the Panama incursion, Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm; awarded a Bronze Star - and now he's the military adviser on tactics and weapons for the extremely popular and very gritty Call of Duty videogame franchise.

After retiring from his 24 years of service - in the infantry, as a paratrooper, and teaching future soldiers at West Point - Keirsey started a company offering military-style training to the corporate environment until litigation was threatened after a "fat guy" had a heart attack.

Next on the agenda was an offer of advising Activision's partners on Call of Duty.

First response? No.

"I'd tortured my kids about video games all their lives," he admits. "You little bastards get outside and wrestle. Do something, anything - go outside and punch each other in the face. Please just leave Mario alone.

"They both entered the army and then came back to see I was cranking away trying to beat Call of Duty 1 on a PC."

But after seeing just how much effort and detail went into making the games, Keirsey was sold.

"I was phenomenally surprised - from playing Pong years ago to running across a field of dead cows at Sainte-Mere-Eglise while attacking a German position. It actually got me thinking as an army guy - where's that MG42 coming from? How can I get around and flank that? I was quite amazed - and as each subsequent game came out, and the level of graphics improved, so did the realism."

The latest Call of Duty game, Black Ops, was released this week, and will undoubtedly be huge - early figures show around seven million copies were sold on the first day alone. It is set around the Cold War - an area that hasn't been explored in the series so far.

"That era of operations you've got the Soviets and the US each with their hand on the trigger, a period of high sensitivity, massive espionage," Keirsey says. "So that you didn't pull the trigger, strategic reconnaissance was vital, and you had to put somebody in.

"We wanted to focus on the predecessors to Delta Force, which is our command and hostage rescue specialist, and found this outfit called the Studies and Observations Group that was formed in Vietnam working originally for the CIA and was later put under military control. It was completely deniable if you were in the outfit - records were sealed afterwards. It's in an actual setting, Vietnam and the Cold War - not actually about Vietnam but background around it, doing the kind of missions this outfit did - POW rescue, downed pilot rescue, strategic reconnaissance very deep behind the lines."

The game deftly moulds a fictional tale around real-world events, slips in genuine footage, real people and, of course, a whole lot of guns.

"I would like to say that I'm completely responsible for all the accuracy in this game. But I'm not, I'm like the final check on the line. I'm pretty familiar with guns, but they've gone and found the most esoteric weapons ever. I'm scratching my head - I remember all the guns I've held in my hands, and there are a lot of them. But there are some weapons here that I've never seen.

The level of violence in games is always a hot topic - especially when it comes to some of the grittier titles finding their way into the hands of kids, despite age classifications. Keirsey doesn't believe violence in games is such a bad thing.

"We're predisposed as human beings to have this instinct for survival - and we take some kind of pleasure in fighting bad guys and seeing them getting whacked. The whole entertainment industry has capitalised on that.

"I'd rather see some guy whacking someone in at least a quasi-historically correct setting.

"My hope is always that by making a game in these settings that may be violent, it's violence that actually occurred and might start someone thinking about the legacy of sacrifice and courage of a generation that went before you."

And the old soldier's least favourite thing about Call of Duty? Being hammered by youthful players in online multiplayer games in the early days of the franchise.

"A 13-year-old was whipping my ass. This was a profession that I had mastered.

"I really wanted to find the guy, crawl down through his basement hatch and beat the living crap out him."

Call of Duty: Black Ops
(Xbox, PS3, Wii, PC)
Rated: R16

*****

+ A highly engaging storyline set around the Cold War, taking in missions across Cuba, Vietnam, Russia and more. Graphics are brilliant, gameplay is up to the high standard expected of a CoD game, and it's significantly more intense than last year's record-breaking Modern Warfare 2. New online modes, and a zombie-killing co-op add-on make for good on-going playability.

- Occasional AI glitches with teammates getting underfoot; respawning post-death sometimes puts you right in harm's way.

Verdict: Developers Treyarch have exceeded expectations and delivered what is undoubtedly the best first person shooter on the shelves in 2010.