So the king is dead, long live the king.
The throne now departed but kept warm by old Modern Warfare 3 as in rides Black Ops II amid fanfares and falling confetti. Arriving amid the same tired promises of evolution within gaming’s biggest franchise, reading from the same worn, yellowed pages of the Call of Duty script, ‘this one will blow you away’, ‘this is the pinnacle of video warfare’ and so on and so on.
Friends lists that had begun to show some variety are once again dominated by the Call of Duty machine as it rolls along splintering the skulls of any that dare stand against it.
Yep, Black Ops II is here, you probably noticed being as it arrived on a tsunami sized wave of hype and right now as I type this while my better half sits on the couch behind me playing the very game itself, you and a host of your friends are likely doing the same.
But is the annual Call of Duty release becoming a little tired? Did it actually peak a few years ago and has never quite recaptured the glory of days gone by? Can this generation really spew out a Call of Duty that feels fresh, exciting and bold?
For answers to those questions and one or two others, read on my friends.
I’ll begin with confession time.
I wasn’t a fan of the first Black Ops. In fact I stood upon the brink of hating the damned game. But I am a fan of Call of Duty as a whole and will happily devour each new chapter this franchise serves up.
So I entered the world of Black Ops II with an open mind and reasonably high hopes.
And now that I’ve a few weeks of play under my belt I’m left with the feeling that all in all the game has delivered. It hasn’t made my jaw drop, it hasn’t filled me with a desire to play or a ‘need’ to play it like other earlier efforts did, but, I’ve been enjoying my time within the single player and more frequently among the multiplayer battlegrounds.
Duties for Black Ops II where in the hands of Treyarch, a company I’ll always love due to CoD3 but a company with a chequered past in this franchise (that many would say was never more chequered than with CoD3).
With Black Ops II Treyarch have attempted to push the franchise in a new direction, we’re thrown onto the battlefield of the future, the not too distant future mind you, but the future all the same.
In fact the single player campaign, a generally criminally overlooked aspect of these games, fluctuates between the Cold War of the 80’s and a terrorist attack planned on American soil in our future. The single player story is a real treat this time around as well. It feels a far more focused affair in comparison to the sometimes muddled or diluted tales of past games.
Alex Mason and Sgt Frank Wood of original Black Ops fame make a welcome return for the Cold War sections while Mason’s son takes the reigns in good ol’ 2025.
I can’t really emphasise just how much you need to play the story, it’d be a huge mistake to overlook one of the best campaigns in Call of Duty history. The developers have also taken a leaf out of modern day gaming by throwing choice and consequence into the mix, this leaves players with a number of different endings available and removes a little of the occasional ‘on rails’ feel to the action.
Because as we know at times all Call of Duty games feel a bit like you’re a spectator being driven along in the passenger seat while the AI driver has all the real fun. I did get this vibe with Black Ops II, I suppose it’s unavoidable, the opening level for example felt like I was almost invincible against swarms of machine gun toting enemies. The impression that the game wanted to keep me alive for this bit was overwhelming and meant it lost a little of the tension and drama I was hoping for.
But, the odd moment aside, it’s such a good and gripping story that it becomes ridiculously easy to get lost within the macho one liners, gung-ho action and edge-of-the-seat set pieces.
Now to the multiplayer.
We can take it for granted this is the place that will become the video gamers most popular playground for the next 12 months. Some others will take a slice of the online pie but Call of Duty will scoff most of it while the Battlefield’s and Medal of Honor’s are still putting their bibs on.
Once again we’ve been given a wealth of options, modes, maps and customisation options to entertain us.
The gameplay is the same fast paced bullet fest we’ve come to expect. The nods to the future setting come via some of the killstreak gadgets such as the dragonfly and the more colourful settings but by and large the fact we’re now over a decade into the future doesn’t really amount to much at all.
I found some issues present with hit detection (some of the final kill cams were ridiculous, ‘holy shit he just killed a guy by shooting hell out of that skip nearby’) and also that old annoyance of ‘how come I just unloaded a full clip into him and yet I die after he just turned round and knifed me in the ankle’. Another time, a grenade I’d thrown bounced off the opponents head and landed at my feet before blowing me to kingdom come, hilarious but a little annoying….ok embarrassing. But I’ve come to expect and accept that these niggles are part and parcel of a Black Ops game now, it’s a shame but it’s not going to kill the game. In fact the overall play is a real blast. The new range of maps are by and large a good bunch. The futuristic station, the fancy ocean liner, the dirty rubble strewn streets, all bring variety and offer choices on the approach taken within each match.
The perk and class setup have been very nicely overhauled with players now having a designated number of slots to fill with weapons, perks and add-ons. There’s the chance to double up on perks here and there which is great and for an annoying player such as myself I can use two primary weapons, opening the way for much assault rifle/shotgun fun and some beautifully poetic responses bellowed down the mic’s of those I vanquish.
Kill streaks have now become score streaks meaning getting to the next stage isn’t just reliant upon stringing a number of kills together.
Although no other game can turn me into a raving lunatic ready to go Hulk on my console and the walls around me, overall the multiplayer is another solid performer, it does have niggles here and there but these are easily washed away by the rush of adrenaline when suddenly everything goes to plan.
Zombies are back as well. I know the announcement of this was like a flock of angels singing from above to some gamers, but for me I’ve never really embraced the zombies (and not through fear of being bitten). But according to my son the zombie’s this time around are ‘amazing!’ The zombie-fest comes with added modes and some sprawling maps. In Grief two teams of two are pitted against each other and the zombie hordes and in Transit players can actually catch a bus to transport them to different areas of the map, they also have to defend the bus while travelling.
All in all then Treyarch have delivered, in my opinion, a much better game than the first Black Ops title. A few gripes remain both in campaign and multiplayer but they are easily outweighed by the great and explosive action on offer here. I feared that the franchise may be beginning to wind down and although this doesn’t quite reach previous heights it does manage to get pretty bloody close and at the end of the day it still remains as 2012’s most instantly playable and addictive slice of video game warfare.
