“Call of Duty” fans mount up and get ready for a brave new futuristic world for the first person shooter they’ve seen before in “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2”, for the first in the franchise players will be brought into a futuristic world of weaponry an technology as well as branching storylines that give the ability to have multiple endings to the game. The single player campaign features two connected storylines, with one set in the 1970s through 1980s and the other set far off into the future year of 2025. The protagonist of the first “Black Ops” game, Alex Mason returns as the protagonist in the Cold War section of the game in the 1970’s and chronicles the rise to infamy of the game's primary antagonist, Raul Menendez, the leader of the narco-terrorist cell that you face in the game. The 2025 section of the game features Alex Mason's son David as the protagonist during a new Cold War between China and the United States and we’ve taken some big steps with robotics, cyber warfare, unmanned drowns and other technological goodies. Players won’t be completely lost in all the changes however as the basic feel of “Call of Duty” remains present throughout the game.
“Black Ops 2’s” new branching storyline feature brings something however that other games from the franchise didn’t have, player's choice now affect both the current mission and in turn, the overall course of the story. Known as "Strike Force missions", these branching storylines appear during the 2025 storyline and the success or failure of these missions can have ramifications for the wider campaign storyline. By choosing one of the missions the game in turn locks out the others unless the player begins a fresh new campaign in order to see what they missed or just because they felt like it. Strike Force missions allow the player to control a number of different war assets, such as soldiers, jet fighters and robots and by the end of the game, the player may have changed the results of the new Cold War, and the player is shown what could have gone differently depending how they did during the missions.
Perhaps the most anticipated part of “Black Ops 2” is the return of the popular game mode “Zombies” where players can team up with their friends or players from online and face off against a zombie horde. And while the regular campaign of the game has been given some new material so has the zombie game mode, where now up to eight players can play together to face down and blow away some brain munchers. Also new variations of the game mode are in store for players, “Tranzit” is a game mode that is a combination of multiple maps in one game and the way to travel around it is to ride on a bus and the mode “Grief” which is 4 players vs 4 players vs zombies where only one team of players can survive or they all can get eaten.
Multiplayer also makes its triumphant return to the players in “Black Ops 2” with some new twists to not only the class system but also the kill streaks and abilities for players ready to start soaring to prestige. The new “Pick 10” system in the game gives players the ability to defy the loadout rules by making each attachment, weapon, grenade or perk count as one of your ten points and you can swap them out at will to create a huge number of combinations. Also added to the multiplayer are the “Wild Cards”, which allow you to spend additional points to break even more rules, like equipping two primary weapons or up to six perks. Pick 10 allows the creation of the most specifically tuned classes letting players be whatever type of solider they want to be, the sky literally being the limit.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” has gone out of its way to create something completely new for new comers and fans alike, brining new features such as a shapeable campaign story mode separate from the linear story telling of past games. The multiplayer alongside the classic crowd pleasing zombie mode are back and better than ever with completely new game modes for zombies that will put your zombie survival skills to the test and the new multiplayer “Pick 10” feature makes players truly have a solider set apart from their friends making something entirely suited for them. However the campaign brings with it the games faults, the story telling is a little imperfect and sometimes you just will want to skip over the dialogue completely and another issue lies in controlling your teams and robots during missions, between annoying camera angles and incompetent AI, players may find themselves putting a controller through their walls. These issues aside “Black Ops 2” brought everything that fans love with a whole new twist.
Good:
-Branching storylines and a non linear story board
-New multiplayer “Pick 10” system
-ZOMBIESSSSSSS!
Bad:
-Controlling your soldiers and robots can be a pain
-Sometimes slow and unappealing dialogue
(Game Reviewed on Xbox 360)
Scully Rating: 9 out of 10
