Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

IS BLACK OPS 2 THE COD WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR?

For the longest time, I've been a huge fan of Call of Duty. I would go hours upon hours every day playing multiplayer ever since Call of Duty 2 came out on the Xbox. That being said, I know what I'm talking about.
Personally, I really didn't care for Black Ops, pretty much since I was still having a blast on Modern Warfare 2. Modern Warfare 3 came out in November of 2011. It was in November of 2011 when I traded in my copy MW3. My love for the franchise was wearing thin. So does Black Ops 2 thicken my love for the game? I've provided a Pros and Cons list to simplify my review.


Pros:
1. The Pick 10 System is a nice change to the pace of the multiplayer, and adds much more variety to the tried and true formula of COD.
2. League Play is a nice addition to the competitive scene in multiplayer.
3. While Black Ops 2 does run on a dated engine, it does provide amazingly colorful graphics with improved texturing over past iterations.
4. Scorestreaks encourage more objective gameplay.
5. Choices in the campaign affect the outcome, which is a nice addition to the linear gameplay.
6. Story telling in the campaign is the best in the series, going deep into the emotions of characters and showing their motives more clearly to us.
7. David S. Goyer, the script writer for the Dark Knight, writes the narrative for the campaign, which is really all you need to know.
8. Raul Menendez is an awesome villain that you both hate and sympathize for at the same time.
9. Michael Rooker, the guy who plays as Merle Dixon from the Walking Dead, voice acts Harper. 'Nuff said.


Cons:
1. Although riding ponies in the desert, taking control of drones, and driving vehicles do change up the pace of the campaign's gameplay, it's still the same SHOOT DAT GUY mechanics. With most of the missions being drawn out firefights, the campaign can sometimes be a chore to play.
2. The U.S.S. Obama….. REALLY TREYARCH?!! You're going to name a ship in the story after one of the most hated presidents in U.S. history?!!!
3. Glitches are apparent in the campaign. I've come across multiple game breaking glitches throughout the game, forcing me to have to restart the mission I was playing.
4. The game has an awesome soundtrack composed by Trent Reznor and Jack Wall. It's a shame you can barely hear it in both single player and multiplayer.
5. Nuketown 2025…. Really? What a stupid gimmick. Why should I pre-order the game to get a map that was already in the first Black Ops?
6. Tranzit Mode in zombies. It's extremely confusing and really boring. Not only that, but where's the original characters? Richtofen? Taiki? Dimpsey? Nikolia? Instead, we get a few random, generic characters: a computer nerd, a redneck slut, a grandpa, and one other I can't remember.
7. Lag, lag, lag, lag, and more lag. If I have a 4 bar connection, then why does my screen keep jittering around randomly. Why am I getting lag compensated when I have a near perfect connection?
8. Quickscoping. I don't mind hardscopers. In fact, I encourage hard scoping, because that's how you're supposed to use the weapon. I don't rage when I get sniped from across the map in maps like Turbine or Drone. What I do hate is when I get quickscoped on a map like Hijacked or Raid over and over and over again.
9. The lava and fire in the zombie maps. Why was this necessary? It doesn't add anything to the zombie killing mania. It just gets irritating having to bunny hop my way across the **** map.
10. The post credits cutscene. It's both appalling and disturbing. Seeing Woods, Raul Menendez, and Avenged Sevenfold jam out just doesn't seem right.

Final ratings on a scale of 1 to 100:
Campaign: 92/100
Zombies: 72/100
Multiplayer: 86/100
Final Verdict: 83
Although the gameplay is familiar, Treyarch changed enough to the gameplay to make it feel different. Sure, the game both online and offline can become tedious and frustrating, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun. They really need to deal with this lag issue though. It's starting to tick me off to a never ending rage. Overall, it's a great game and it's a must buy for any COD fan.