Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

Well 2012 has come and gone, and another title of the Call of Duty franchise hit store shelves. Another £40 it cost me, and I went along with the hype, and waited in a queue in the evening before the day of its release. The moment I turned on the game, on my Xbox 360 I was hit by the feeling of repetition. The game play had not changed since last year's Modern Warfare 3, and I felt once again cheated on what Treyarch had promised us, they should simply have been honest with us, and told us nothing had changed.

The game play was far from exceptional, and felt once again like playing a minimalistic movie experience, that most Call of Duty games have given us. No real depth, or graphical extravagance. I gave the game a full tryout of all of it's features, the only good points of the game were it's Campaign mode due to his plot, and story and the Zombie mode.

The most disappointing feature was the multiplayer aspect, nothing had changed or been added or improved on. It felt just like the first Black Ops, and even Modern Warfare's multiplayer feature. It even felt in some places let-down in regards to promises made regarding dealing with players who manipulated maps, and used enhancers that could be purchased from stores. Black Ops 2 in regards to multiplayer, felt just like it had in every other former installment, and luckily I hadn't bought it for that feature alone.

The Campaign saved the game for me, however only for the first few hours of the release day. Once I got half-way through the Campaign, I simply put it down and forgot about it in favor of other games I had. In this new year of 2013, I picked up Black Ops 2 from my shelf and began playing it again and quickly finished the Campaign. However the feeling of being cheated, and ripped off financially by the price of the game hadn't left me.

The Good:

- Easy to just pick up and jump into the game, in regards to game play.
- A good modern, thriller storyline built on deception, and conspiracy theories.
- Zombie mode was a good addition to bring back.

The Bad:

- All repeated, from every past Call of Duty installment, everything seemed and felt recycled.
- Nothing improved, or enhanced on the graphics of the game.
- Zombie mode is only partially improved on with more game modes, however feels just like World At War and Black Ops Zombie mode.
- Multiplayer is a disgrace, and was lied about by the creators, and studio prior to it's release.
- Multiplayer is not improved, or enhanced upon and feels simply recycled in quality.

Black Ops 2 is for the fan-boys of the series really, and anyone trying to get into the series should really start with the original titles. I felt cheated, and lied to by Treyarch.