Summary [8.5 out of 10]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is the second installment in the CoD: Black Ops brand by the fine folks at Treyarch (SPIDER-MAN 2 ANYONE?! Such a great game).

Everything you want in a Call of Duty game is here, the Black Ops branch seems to operate at a bit of a faster pace for multiplayer that makes it easier to pick up and more accessible compared to Modern Warfare 3.

 

What Is It Like?

CoD: Black Ops and CoD: Modern Warfare II

Don’t kid yourself; there is not a lot of variation in CoD gameplay. Black Ops 2 does take an interesting twist with the future warfare elements they exploit some current and some speculated technology.

The Great

Game Play: The gameplay in this is tight and fast, in general the multiplayer levels are easy to navigate, this game especially shines if you play on Hardcode mode (one bullet, one kill). Single player maps are straight forward and marked objectives to keep you on task and focused.

Level Design:  The levels designs are killer, my top 3 would be Cargo, Plaza and Turbine (with honorable mention to Yemen). These maps feel like they drop you right into the action with enough space to maneuver and out think your opponents.

The Good

Story: They fast forward into the future, but do not leave the past behind. There are some call backs to the original Black Ops storyline and characters. It’s tough to top taking on a Soviet invasion on horseback, but the future missions are almost on par with some of the hi-tech infiltrations.

Classes: As always are done right in this franchise and you will spend a fair bit of time tuning and tweaking to make sure you have everything balanced. I cannot help but feel diminished every time I leave the tomahawk out of my kit.

Game types: Pretty classic line up here, honorable mention goes to the implementation of the “Score Streak” for a casual player this gives you a better option to build up to in-game rewards like care packages, airstrikes and the lot.

Combat: As said previous, sometimes things are close quarters combat and they can get intense. Make sure you have your bowels clenched when you are descending into the bowels on the Yacht or Aircraft career.

Weapons: The gun graphics here are detailed well and despite aforementioned futureness the guns function very much so like normal guns, special nod to the S12 shotgun for being a solid n00b tube for me. The MK 48 was also a balanced/solid starting light machine gun. For tactical weapons, I grudgingly acknowledge the awesomeness that is the shock charge. Granted I was on the receiving end most of the time I can recognize when something is super effective.

The Bad

Matchmaking: It seemed like more often than not, unless playing at the right time, the teams would feel a bit unbalanced and leading to a draw out drag down battle with no hope of victory.

Zombies: The inclusion of zombies in this title is not necessary a bad thing, but I felt like the only addition was that you are constantly worrying about combustion while feeling from zombies.

The Randomly Awesome

Throwing that tomahawk in the air (like you don’t care) and scoring a hit. Nothing beats that in these games.

Conclusion [8.5 out of 10]

Black Ops 2 does not revolutionize or change anything in the genre but it is a more respectable entry than its precursor, and a bit better than Modern Warfare 3. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is a fan of the genre or CoD franchise.