Story
It’s the year 2025. Rare earth minerals have become more scarce than they already are, and this sparks a new cold war between the People’s Republic of China and the United States, with China hoarding the rare earth minerals & expanding their influence, and the United States trying to keep China’s influence to within their own country. Unfortunately, there are outside forces that desire conflict between these two countries. Enter Raul Menendez and his group Cordis Die, an organization that tries to appeal to the common man and their troubles. It is Raul’s desire to see other countries in conflict with the United States, due to a tragedy that happened in his past that he blames on the US. Luckily, there are individuals who have the knowhow to stop Raul and his men.
Enter David Mason, son of one of the main characters from Black Ops. Like his father, he entered the military to make something out of himself, and he gets involved with the operations against Menendez & China. Accompanying him on these missions are fellow soldiers Mike Harper & David Salazar, who also have an axe to grind with Menendez and the Chinese. However, even they need a little help, so they turn to what is perhaps one of the most unlikely sources of information...Frank Woods.
It turns out that Woods survived the blast at the end of Black Ops, and knows about Menendez, as well as why he became the madman he is. During your visits with Woods, you get a glimpse of his life during the 1980s, and the missions he, Mason, and Hudson went through to get to Menendez, only to go through some of the toughest hell they’ve ever traversed through, and they suffer some equally hellish tragedy, but I won’t spoil that for you.
I really like this story. Unlike the Modern Warfare series, the story in Black Ops 2 feels far more believable. Granted, there’s still plenty of cheese & comedic moments, but there are plenty of moments where the cheese & comedy are taken away to add more serious elements, and thus create a more believable story. What is most unique is that Treyarch decided to put the story together like in a pick-your-own adventure book. Although out the story (In both the 1980s & 2025), there are moments where you’re required to make a decision to progress the story in some way. Sometimes Menendez’s plan changes, yet other times one of the characters changes in someway, and they might have a different attitude towards you or someone else. All I can say is that Infinity Ward decides to go this route when they make Modern Warfare 4.
Settings
As per the norm for the Call of Duty games (With the possible exception of World of War), Black Ops 2 has the player travel all over the world in their mission to stop the bad guys. What makes the setting in this game interesting is that we’re given two worlds: the flashbacks from the 1980s, and the future in 2025. Within the 1980s, we go to Angola, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Panama. These places make up a 3rd of the game, and they’ll feel familiar to those that knew what went on during the time. It’s during these flashbacks that the player uses the older weapons from Black Ops (Along with a special guest or two from the MW series), adding more to the archaic/nostalgic feelings of the 1980s.
When we’re in the future, we have a larger expanse of the world to fight through. We travel to Los Angeles, Beijing, the Cayman Trench, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Yemen, Myanmar, and the island nation of Haiti. In this potential future, the world feels pristine, clean, and reliant on technology more than ever. The future campaign composes the bulk of the game, taking up two-thirds of what went on. However, when Menendez (The main bad guy) begins his plans, we see that the technology we made comes back to bite us, and the pristine world becomes ruined & dirty, with the sins of the past coming to haunt everyone.
Characters
Much like the first Black Ops, BO2 has a cast of intriguing & interesting characters, some of which you’ll like, and other you’ll like to kill. To start off, we have three returning characters from BO making a comeback. There’s Mason, Woods, and Hudson, and they’re key players in the 1980s flashback players. We see that a lot of things have happened to them, and not necessarily good things. Woods himself has become more hardened & bitter due to him surviving the blast at the end of Black Ops, and getting subsequently tortured by the Russians. Hudson continued to work for the CIA, and seems to have gained a more sinister & manipulative edge since the 60s, and Mason seems to have also become more bitter, and is still reeling from the damage done to him by the brainwashing in Black Ops. Even Reznov, who was supposedly dead in Black Ops, makes a cameo or two in this game.
In the future, we’re also given a good main cast. The character you play, David Mason, is almost like his father. He’s gruff, has a weight on his shoulders, but he’s less bitter than his father. Mike Harper, a soldier that is with you for most of the missions, is a wisecracking gunman that is more likely to shoot than ask questions. Javier Salazar, a Latino soldier who grew up in Nicaragua during the 80, seems to be somewhat mysterious, and always seems like he hiding something from everyone else. To round things off, your lead commander, Admiral Briggs, is very controlling, but he’s prone to sweating & bursts of anger on a semi-frequent basis.
It can’t be a Call of Duty game without a main villain (or villains), and Raul Menendez is perhaps one of the most intimidating villains in the history of the franchise. In a lot of ways, he’s like Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2: he bloodthirsty, full of rage & hate, and has immense power. Unlike Jack, we know more about Menendez’s past. Whereas we’re only given snipbits of Handsome Jack’s past, we know just about everything that happened to him, and what caused him to become the madman that he is in the future (You even play as him in one part of a mission). Also like Handsome Jack, Raul Menendez is likable somehow. You’re not really certain, but there’s something about Menendez that just seems to click. Even when you complete the game, you still haven’t guessed what it is. It also doesn’t help the fact that he teams up with Manuel Noreiga during the 80s flashbacks, and Noreiga is almost as evil as he is.
Gameplay
As far as singleplayer is concerned, the gameplay has remained fundamentally the same. You still go through a rather linear set of levels, killing enemies, and doing things associated with the mission. However, there have also been some radical changes as well. For starters, the pick-your-own adventure aspect of the story also applies to the gameplay. For example (Spoilers!): there’s a mission about one-fourth/halfway through the game, you are escaping from the enemies forces, and you’re going through a burning building in a vehicle. One of your allies is on top of the vehicle, and there’s a wall of flame ahead of you. If you drive through the wrong way, your ally will have his face scorched, and it’ll remain like that for the rest of the game. On the other hand, if you move through the right way, he’ll make it through without a scratch. Some of the choices make a small difference, but other choices can make a massive difference and change the story in some way.
Though it’s more minor (But still big), Black Ops 2 allows the player for the first time to select their loadout (This includes weapon attachments, lethal & tactical grenades, etc) at the start of a singleplayer mission. There are occasions where you might want to keep a certain weapon because of the circumstances, but chances are the choices you make for whatever weapons you pick will work out somehow. On top of that, you can select weapons from the 1980s flashback missions and bring them into the 2025 missions. Granted, enemies won’t be dropping ammo for them, but it’s fun to walk through a futuristic factory with an RPD, and mow down anyone that gets in front of you.
Another new addition to the singleplayer mode is the introduction of the Strike Force missions. These levels (There are 4 of them, I believe) focus on the cold war between the Chinese and the United States’s efforts to halt China’s actions, and they act & feel more like levels from a Real-Time Strategy game than a FPS game. You can assume control of a soldier on the ground & play normally, but you can also command a group of soldiers (Or a solitary soldier) to guard or attack key locations, and you can also take control of any robotics that may be with you (One Strike Force mission has you piloting drones to protect a convoy, and there’s no conventional soldier on the ground), as well as any remote turrets that are setup. If I have one complaint about the Strike Force missions, it’s that when you’re getting beat, it can take some time before reinforcements arrive. To make it worse, when you’re given the option to redo the mission (You can do this up to 3 times before you permanently fail), you have a reduced amount of reserve troops that come in when you’re getting beat.
Multiplayer is much like the Singleplayer: it’s still the same, but there’s been some big changes as well. There’s P2P servers & dedicated servers ala Modern Warfare 3, all the standard & special multiplayer modes have returned, etc. One of the biggest changes comes in the form of the 10 point system & unlock tokens. Each of the guns/attachments, perks, and equipment have a point, and you can mix & match just about everything to your liking, making the multiplay more customizable than before. Helping out the customizing are the Wildcards, which are special bonuses that allow you to customize your class even more so. For example, the Primary Gunfighter wildcard allows you to put 3 attachments onto the gun (In this game, guns can have two attachments right off the bat). Using these wildcards, however, forces you to think about what you want to sacrifice for the sake of additional benefits, as you must give up something for this additional power.
The unlock tokens are perhaps the only change I dislike. In this game, when you level up you gains weapons/perks/equipment normally, but now you must use a unlock token to acquire & use them, mirroring the COD Points system from Black Ops. It’s not quite as irritating, but it’s still a pain. To complicate things, you don’t gain everything when you reach level 55 (BTW, 55 was the highest level you could achieve in the original Modern Warfare), and now you must prestige to the maximum level (There are 10 prestige levels) to get all the weapons/perks/equipment.
The second big change is that all of the perks now only alter the player’s statistics, and any of the old perks have now become attachments for the guns. For example, the Steady Aim perk has become the Laser Sight attachment, the Stalker perk has become the Adjustable Stock attachment, etc. This game, perhaps out of all the Call of Duty games, has the most variety of attachments, some of which came from previous game, and some of which are brand new. The perks themselves also fall under this as well, as some are new, and some are old. Some of the old perks has received partial facelifts, as the Ghost perk requires that you move to receive it’s benefits, and the Scavenger perk requires that you now kill somebody to get the ammo replenishment. It’s these changes that make you think about what to put together, and how to use what you’ve made.
Guns are also a big change in multiplayer. Compared to the rest of the games (With the possible exception of MW3), the arsenal in this game is perhaps the most futuristic that’s ever been assembled. A couple old favorites have returned with some changes (The MP7 SMG & KSG shotgun come to mind), and for the first time there are fictional guns based off of real world weapons (The Type 25 is based off of the Type 95 from MW3, and the PDW-57 is based off of the P90). This selection of guns feels very new & fresh when compared to the other Call of Duty games, and they have some weight to them (Even the pistols feel more meaty than before).
The last change in Black Ops 2 comes in the form of the Zombies mode. There’s still the standard story mode (The level name is Tranzit, and it’s so large, you take a bus to get to the other areas), but there’s also a survival mode where you play a specific part from Tranzit, and the new Grief mode, where two teams fight against the zombies, and try to mess with each other at the same time. As usual, the zombie mode was a hit, and it’s a good challenge to try to go all over the areas of Tranzit.
Graphics & Sounds
Only Modern Warfare 3 can compare to the graphics in BO2, but even then it trails behind, but only just. Despite having some of the older textures look a little dated & grainy at times, everything else looks fresh, vibrant, and incredibly realistic (Even the futuristic aspect feel believable somehow). The individuals characters & enemies look very impressive, and they’re only rivaled by the characters & enemies in Black Ops. They move around realistically, and their faces are just about perfect in terms of look & movement.
As usual, the sounds within the game are top notch. The voice acting is crisp & clean, with every character sounding realistic & flawless (Despite some accents sounding exaggerated & somewhat stereotypical), and the musical score sounds grand & impressive. When there’s a tense moment, were given tense music, and for the large & epic battles, the score becomes large & grandiose, and encompasses everything. Even the stealth sequences have musical scores that feel larger than life.
Overall & Rating
I sincerely believe that this is the Call of Duty game that has revitalized the franchise, and brought back gamers who no longer believed in the series. We’re given a singleplayer with a fascinating story that delves into a possible future, graphics that look fantastic and sounds that sound fantastic, a stable multiplayer with interesting changes, and a host of other changes. I only had a few nitpicks with some of the smaller aspects, but they don’t in anyway ruin the experience for me.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 gets a 8.5 to 9 out of 10.
See you all next week, when we dive into the month of love. Until then, stay Otaku!
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