Call of Duty: Black Ops was prominently featured at Activision’s E3 preview event and rightly so. This new venture into the Call of Duty universe promises more of everything we love from the series, with a few new twists and turns as well. We had the opportunity to check out two vastly different levels during our time with Activision and we were quite impressed.

The first level was called “WMD” and seemed to take place primarily in a snowy region of Russia or some Eastern European country. You and your team are tasked with locating and destroying a relay station. You’ll begin the mission at an Air Force Base in California and then zoom to this snowy region. There are men on the ground and you must use recon and intel to aid them. It kind of reminded me of the times in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where you would call in an air strike with the Predator, although this time, things are much more involved. You’ll see your men on the ground and have to guide them as they make their way through the area. You’ll be responsible for warning them when they are being surrounded and for causing some chaos from above if they need a little bit of help. Once they are free from impending danger and on their way to the relay station, you’ll take control of one of the men on the squad. A voice from above will be guiding you, just as you guided these men just a bit earlier. Your squad will rappel down a mountain, with the screen (and presumably the controller as well) shaking as you go, just as it would if you were really rappelling down a mountain. Hook points are highlighted in yellow, so it’s quite easy to see where you need to go to be successful. Your team boldly crashes through a window as it rappels, surprising the enemies inside and a massive firefight follows. Alarms are going off all around you. To escape, you’ll blow the hinges off the door and these are, once again, nicely highlighted in yellow. Soon you are in the relay station and must commence destroying it. However, an avalanche complicates matters. Trust in your parachute and jump to your escape… hopefully.

The next level they showed us was called “Payback” and your team has just escaped the clutches of the enemy in some remote area of Laos circa 1968. Your captors had mercilessly tortured you and your team and you are looking for revenge in the form of a giant Hind helicopter that you spot. The first order of business for you is to clear the camp of the enemy threat, at least those surrounding the Hind helicopter, and you handily do so. However, the level isn’t on rails and it is up to you how to do it. Once you approach the giant chopper, you climb inside while your compadre checks the weapons load-out. After that, you take to the sky to wreak all sorts of flaming hell on your enemies, navigating a river canyon and destroying bridges and camps all along the river. You’ll even encounter another chopper come to stop you, but they are no match for you and your harbinger of flying doom. Activision proudly showed some gameplay at their event at the Staples Center the night before E3 began, complete with Eminem’s song from the game, “Won’t Back Down” blaring, plus simulated machine gunfire, explosions and fire going off all around the perimeter of the building. It was awesome to say the least. Being able to hop into a chopper is just one of the new things you can expect when Call of Duty: Black Ops lands on 11/9/10. We’ll continue to keep you posted.