Black Ops 2 is the latest title from the world renowned Call of Duty franchise. Developed by Treyarch (the studio that brought us Call of Duty: World At War and the first Black Ops title) Black Ops 2 is the first game of the series to be partially set in the future in the year 2025. The game follows lead character David Mason as he fights in various parts of the world to stop the biggest threat yet. However are the claims that Call of Duty has run its course true or does the game once again offer gamers hours of entertainment?
Let’s find out and kick-off the HOTs and NOTs
HOT
Hollywood Blockbuster Storyline
Call of Duty fans have come to love the blockbuster film style campaigns of the franchise and believe me when I say Treyarch has created an action packed storyline that will leave you asking ‘how did I survive ALL of that?’ While the actual story isn’t near the heights of the original Black Ops, it does have an ample supply of amazing moments, large scale explosions and some interesting futuristic military tech on show. They have done a phenomenal job cramming in so much action into the storyline: this results in players not wanting to put the controller down until they have finished the game. The gunplay is broken up with plenty of different styleof missions including manning turrets, causing havoc on horseback and the Strike Force side missions.
In the Strike Force missions, players take control of multiple units ranging from grounds troops to drones; whilst carrying out objectives which range from taking out strategic points to the complete opposite and defending them for a given time. When you start, after the objectives are explained, players can switch between controlling any of the troops and a tactical overview of the situation and must then attempt to tackle the objective. It’s a unique and fresh game mode that is rather entertaining: however, how many times it will be played solely comes down to how much time the player wants to spare from the main storyline or Zombies and multiplayer.
Very Intense
The Call of Duty series has always prided itself on the fun, fast and intense gameplay and Black Ops 2 has once again hits the nail on the head. From the hectic singleplayer, panic inducing zombies to the fast-paced multiplayer, the entire game is extremely fun and intense. Similar to past Call of Duty games, Black Ops 2 offers several different difficulty settings from normal to veteran for the campaign but now also offers a different difficulty level for Zombies as well.
Presentation
Despite no major improvements from Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 2 is a visually pleasing title. Treyarch has also managed to make the game’s audio and in-game noises amazingly realistic, so that explosions make the player duck and gunshots echo down corridors. Along with the realistic visuals, the audio help constructs an immersive game world that helps boost the intensity of almost any situation.
Scorestreaks
While Black Ops 2 has not yet been played to excess like previous Call of Duty titles, so far the new scorestreaks system seems to be balanced; as well as making player play the objectives more. The scorestreaks are currently on the powerful side, especially when it comes to the Hunter Killer, however rewarding players for playing the objective as well as kills has seemingly improved objective based gamemodes.
