Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

Activision continues to release more Call of Duty games. This time, Treyarch, the makers of World at War and Black Ops, are back at the helm. Black Ops 2 is certainly the most ambitious game in the series so far when it comes to the campaign. A branching storyline, custom load-outs, and challenges to complete make the fun campaign worth replaying. Less successful are the zombie and multiplayer modes which are plagued by lag and connection problems. The campaign of Black Ops 2 is by far the game's best feature.

The story takes place in 2025, as well as flashbacks to the cold war era. Raul Menendez is the game's main villain and you get to see his rise to power through his life. The game starts off with you meeting up with an elderly Frank Woods, who tells you about the events that have led up to what is going on in the present. The game goes back in forth between the cold war and future settings.New this time is a branching storyline with choices that you will have to make. These choices, big and small, will affect the characters you meet along the way. The campaign lasts around 6 hours and is filled with a ton of satisfying action. The new branching storyline and custom load outs give you incentive to replay the campaign more than once.

The gameplay in the campaign is standard Call of Duty, which is to say it's great. If you've played any COD before, you'll feel comfortable with the mechanics, which are great. The game is mostly linear, with some points that open out a bit, with some good action set pieces. The length of 6 hours is a good length to prevent the game from feeling drawn out. It's certainly an enjoyable ride, but some people may be getting tired of the formula at this point, just like the multiplayer.

Less successful is the competitive multiplayer. It's the same standard multiplayer you've come to expect from the series. 14 game maps, with several different modes and theater mode and leaderboards. Custom classes return allowing you to customize your loadouts to your liking. There are a couple new additions like League play that puts you in a ladder of other players of the same skill level as you. The killstreak system has changed for the better and re-named scorestreaks. Points from objectives and assists now feed into your streaks. The multiplayer has it's moments, but it has gotten stale at this point. And frankly, I'm starting to hate COD multiplayer. I can't stand the constant dying and cheap tactics used by the community. The game is also broken in it's current state. I have a hard time getting into any games in multiplayer or zombies because of constant connection problems. Even a bigger problem is the lag, which is beyond irritating.

Zombies has returned with some novel ideas, but is ultimately disappointing. TranZit is a new mode in which players hop on a bus and travel between different zones. It's an interesting idea, but really doesn't add much to the formula. The bigger problem is map size. In addition to TranZit, you have the traditional zombies maps, but these maps are way to small. Going over the same area time and time again over such a small space isn't that enjoyable. And just like the multiplayer, lag ruins a lot of matches sadly.

Black Ops 2 doesn't have the greatest sound design and graphics. The game still runs at a smooth 60fps, which is great, but the graphics don't come anywhere near approaching other games in the genre. The audio is better, with some great voice work in the campaign, and decent gun and explosion sounds.
It's time for a new engine.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is a mixed bag, but I admire it for it's ambitions and effort to try new things. While most of the new features in the zombie modes and multiplayer don't work out so well, and the lag and connection issues and a huge annoyance, the campaign's new additions are tremendous and add some surprising replay value. The game won't have the legs for me as other shooters, but I had a heck of a good time playing through the campaign and seeing what kind of different outcomes I could get.

7/10