Despite its predecessors' flaws, Black Ops II manages to be a much more refreshing outing.
Black Ops II's single-player isn't very different in terms of presentation. A big globe-trotting campaign filled with explosions and scripted sequences awaits you as always. To make things better, a new choice system and custom loadouts have been implmented to freshen up the experience. Both modes work exceptionally well and add on to the experience. The story also takes a few new turns, with a new villain who is very different from the past few. Raul Menendez, the new villain, has a motive that actually makes his character believable and compelling. Sadly, the campaign is not very long and almost felt shorter than past games. The other characters in the game weren't very well done and we didn't feel very turned down when one of them died. Also, the overall campaign felt like a "big been, there done that" and it ended up not being to compelling. The choice system does add some new life into the game, but it's very shallow and we hope they add onto it in later games. The menus and options are all very customizable and we really liked the feel to the games' menus.
The graphics in Black Ops II are very detailed and vibrant with new lighting and facial movement. Light gleams on surfaces and there are a lot of times where multiple lights flashing around and illuminating the environments. Also, the facial movements are very detailed and help bring characters to life. Sadly, there are also some setbacks. There is a lot of texture pop-up throughout the game and especially in multiplayer. Sometimes models' textures would be blurred for extensive periods of time until the textures slowly faded into detail. Also, most of the textures and decals are much lower in quality and things like blood and bullet-holes are very pixelated up close.
The sound is decent and we did not feel like there were very many flaws with it. Sound detection is good and you can hear sound coming from specific directions. The gun sound effects are good, but some of them feel like they are just sped-up versions of other guns. The music is good and the dubstep in the menus is very catchy and enjoyable. Finally, the voice acting is good, even if it's not substantial. Many characters make a comeback with their respective voice actors and the new voice actors fare just fine.
As you'd expect, Black Ops II excels in the gameplay department. Lots of new guns to play with and the same smooth controls that you've come to use. In terms of single-player, the scripted sequences and big gunfights are still present. There are new melee enemies who run at you with baseball bats and machetes and they are an interesting addition to the campaign. The choice system is basically two-sided and they end up affecting the endgame. Sadly, the choice system is a bit non-sensical at times and we felt that some choices led to strange outcomes that didn't really fit with the choice you made. The new custom loadouts in the single-player also allow for perks that can change up your game. Perks like the Access Kit, which lets you access secret areas if you have it activated, really spice up the game and make the game fun to replay. When it comes to multiplayer, Call of Duty is usually very interesting and deep. Black Ops II is just this and we enjoyed every second of it. The maps are much larger compared to the last entry (Modern Warfare 3) and the guns all feel different and enjoyable. The guns all served their purpose and none of them were really "over-powered". The new Pick 10 system also allows you to customize your class differently and lets you play your way without causing balancing issues. Theater and Elite also return and they work as well as they did in the past two installments. Finally, there's the zombies mode. Zombies is good this time around. While the Tranzit mode is cool and makes Zombies feel larger, the overall gameplay feels mostly the same. In Tranzit, you ride around on a bus and travel from locale to locale, blowing apart zombies as you go. You can also store money in a bank and put your current weapon in a refrigerator. When you do this, the next time you play zombies, your money and gun will be waiting to be used. There are a lot of places to drive to and they all serve their purpose, but they all felt dull and uninspired. The colors are mostly black, green and brown and while it did reinforce the atmosphere, the environments felt dull. Also, they seem to have the locales on fire and there is legitmately fire everywhere. Stepping on the fire causes your character to get hurt and your screen sets fire. Since there is so much fire and not all of it is avoidable, it ends up being extremely annoying instead of being a cool cosmetic feature to the environments. The new characters are likable, even if we all found Marlton a tad annoying. Hardcore zombies fans will also be pleased to hear that the lore is continued and the story is very likable.
Black Ops II is a great game, even if it does have flaws. Call of Duty fans will most certainly enjoy it and players who are new to the series will find all of the great aspects of the series intact. The campaign's choice system and custom loadouts encourage multiple playthroughs, along with the stellar multiplayer and fairly good zombies mode. Hopefully Treyarch will improve on things like the choice system for the next game and add on to the Pick 10 system.